Late Summer on Bear Lake Prairie

I finally made it to an Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society - North Chapter field trip on 8 September 2012. As the Treasurer and one of the founding members of this new chapter of an established statewide environmental organization, I had hoped to make it to more of the field trips during our inaugural year, but my schedule simply didn't allow.  However, I made it a priority to be at this field trip due to the quality of the site.  On this late summer day, Bill Minter, the land manager at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, led our group on a hike through Bear Lake Prairie, discussing management activities and challenges at the property.  I'd visited Bear Lake Prairie a couple of times in the past, but it's always great to get back to such a unique natural area.

 

Bill Minter leads the INPAWS group through Bear Lake Prairie.

Bear Lake Prairie is a result of historic artificial drainage that left the marl bottom of Bear Lake exposed for colonization by native prairie species.  The result is a calcareous marl beach wet prairie full of conservative species that you could find in both tallgrass prairie and calcareous fen communities.

Gentiana andrewsii, always a crowd pleaser.

Closed Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) is one of the calciphiles that calls Bear Lake Prairie home.  It is known from the northeastern quarter of the United States and north into much of the eastern half of Canada; it also has been recorded from a couple of counties in Colorado.  Bottle Gentian habitat includes mesic prairies, thickets, openings in wooded areas, fens, and swampy areas.  Looking at the photograph above, you can see why not many insects are able to feed on nectar from Closed Bottle Gentian.  Bumblebees, however, possess the strength to force their way into the "closed" flowers to drink nectar and in the process pollinate the flowers.


Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii lights up the prairie.

One of the most stunning blazing stars, in my opinion, and also one of the least abundant in the Midwest, is Nieuwland's Blazing Star (Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii).  This variety of Liatris scariosa was named in honor of chemist and botanist Father Julius Aloysius (Arthur) Nieuwland, who attended the University of Notre Dame as an undergrad and returned there to serve as a professor from 1904 to 1936. Savanna Blazing Star, as this species is also aptly known, can be found in prairies, glades, savannas, and open woodlands.  Its distribution includes scattered clusters of counties in the Great Lakes states, Missouri, and Arkansas, but it achieves its greatest distribution in northwest Indiana and Michigan.

Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda is characteristic of saturated calcareous open areas.

Even if you aren't a botanist, it's possible that you may recognize the bright yellow flowers on the shrub above from your average parking lot, as cultivars of this species are common in the landscaping trade.  In nature, Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda) grows in wet calcareous areas including fens, pannes, and other wet areas near the Great Lakes, and also in dry calcareous habitats including hill prairies, alvars, and limestone barrens. It appears to be distributed in three distinct geographical zones (the western United States, the Great Lakes states, and the New England states) with separation between these areas.  It is also known from much of Canada and Alaska, and from a single county in North Carolina.  Subspecies floribunda is the new world taxa, whereas subspecies fruticosa is of Eurasian origin.  You may know this plant by the Latin name Potentilla fruticosa.

An interesting diverse tapestry makes up the flora of Bear Lake Prairie.

Thanks to Bill Minter for leading an excellent field trip and for managing Bear Lake Prairie to preserve some outstanding biodiversity.

A Fen-tastic Saturday Morning, Part II

As promised in my previous post, this entry will focus on some of the plants that Nate Simons and I saw while touring some of the fen preserves in northeastern Indiana last weekend.


One of the characteristic (and often dominant) plant species found in northeastern Indiana fens is Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda, previously known as Potentilla fruticosa), pictured above. This low-growing shrub in the Rose Family (Rosaceae) has a North American range that includes much of the northern and western half of the continent. Nate referred to this plant as the "McDonald's Plant," as it is often found in the landscaping of fast food chains. A calciphile, Shrubby Cinquefoil is often used in wetland rapid assessments as an indicator of a fen community.


Another species found in nearly every Indiana fen in which I've ever set foot is the inconspicuous but intricate Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia glauca), shown above. With a distribution restricted to northeastern North America, this unique member of the Saxifrage Family (Saxifragaceae) or Parnassia Family (Parnassiaceae) has flowering stalks up to two feet tall topped by a single flowers; foliage consists of a single egg-shaped leaf clasping the lower stem, as well as a basal rosette of small, stalked, egg-shaped leaves.


I am not normally one to get overexcited about our charismatic macroflora, but the plant pictured above definitely gets a free pass in my book. This is Lesser Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis procera, which is now apparently treated by some as Gentianopsis virgata ssp. virgata). Lesser Fringed Gentian or the similar Greater Fringed Gentian (G. crinita) are found in nearly all northern Indiana fens, but the two members of the Gentian Family (Gentianaceae) are very rarely found growing on the same site. Few plants can match the beauty of Lesser Fringed Gentian.


Quite showy in its own right but often ignored because of its similarity to sister species, Crowned Beggarticks (Bidens coronata, also known as B. trichosperma, shown above) is a plant of wet areas including marshes and fens of eastern North America. This member of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae) can look most similar to Tickseed Sunflower (B. polylepis) and Bearded Beggarticks (B. aristosa), as all of these have leaves with 3-7 (or more) linear to lanceolate lobes and large, showy, yellow ray flowers. Crowned Beggarticks often has leaf lobes that are more linear with fewer teeth, and its fruit are narrower and longer in relation to their width than those of Tickseed Sunflower and Bearded Beggarticks.


Kalm's Lobelia (Lobelia kalmii, above) is a common and often abundant plant of Indiana fens, but with flowers that measure up to only 1/2 inch long, it often goes unnoticed (especially when not in flower). Found throughout the northern half of North America, this member of the Bellflower Family (Campanulaceae) or Lobelia Family (Lobeliaceae) grows in bogs, wet meadows, and along streams in addition to in fens and other calcareous situations.


If you are ever in a fen or a bog and you see the shrub pictured above, your best bet is to keep your distance. This is Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), a species found regularly in northern Indiana fens and bogs. The common name and genus (meaning "poison tree") both refer to the rash that results from making contact with the urushiol present in all parts of the plant. Found primarily in the eastern third of North America, this member of the Cashew Family (Anacardiaceae) possesses stunning fall foliage in colors ranging from yellow to orange to red to purple; the drooping white berry-like fruit add to the aesthetic value of what I think is one of the most attractive of our native shrubs.


As mentioned in my previous post, fens in northeastern Indiana are often dominated by grasses and sedges. Tussock Sedge (Carex stricta) and prairie grasses such as Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans) are the most conspicuous and well-known of these graminoids, but one of the matrix species found in nearly every fen is the grass shown above, Marsh Wild Timothy (Muhlenbergia glomerata). Marsh Wild Timothy is found in the northern half of North America in a range of plant communities including bogs, fens, hot springs, marshes, and wet meadows.


It seems that anytime I see Greater Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) or Lesser Fringed Gentian (G. procera), I also see Nodding Lady's Tresses (Spiranthes cernua) nearby, and these northeastern Indiana fens were no exception. Nodding Lady's Tresses (above) is in the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae), and is found throughout much of the eastern half of North America in open plant communities ranging in wetness from wet to dry. In northern Indiana, this is one of our most common orchids.


Standing taller than many of its companion species in northeastern Indiana fens, Swamp Thistle (Cirsium muticum, above) is a more attractive and better behaved version of the non-native thistles that threaten many of our natural areas. With a similar geographical range to the previous species, this member of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae) grows in bogs, fens, wet prairies, marshes, and open wet woods.


During our outing, we saw two species of Juncus, both of which possess seeds with (relatively) long white tail-like appendages. The more common species that we encountered was Smallhead Rush (Juncus brachycephalus, not pictured), but we also saw Canadian Rush (Juncus canadensis), shown above. Some people would look at the photograph above and think that it was a grass or a sedge, but like other members of the Rush Family (Juncaceae) and unlike grasses (Poaceae) and sedges (Cyperaceae), Canadian Rush has flowers that are radially symmetric with three sepals and three petals, looking much like a tiny version of a classic flower. In Canadian Rush, the flowers are clustered into round or nearly round heads. This species is found throughout the eastern half of North America, as well as in a few locations in the Pacific Northwest, in a variety of wet areas including those with high acidity, alkalinity, or salinity.

One reason that fens are so interesting to me is that you can go back to the same location at various times throughout the year and see a different suite of species blooming during each trip. In later summer and early fall, goldenrods (Solidago) provide much of the color. The following three species of goldenrod were found in all of the fens we visited.


Ohio Goldenrod (Solidago ohioensis, or Oligoneuron ohioense for those who choose to split Solidago) is one of the most common fen species of goldenrod. Restricted to states and provinces surrounding the Great Lakes, this member of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae) grows mostly in calcareous wet soils. This and the next species both possess flat-topped inflorescences.


A goldenrod similar in appearance to Ohio Goldenrod and found growing with it in northern Indiana fens is Riddell's Goldenrod (Solidago riddellii, or Oligoneuron riddellii), shown above. Riddell's Goldenrod has a slightly greater geographical distribution, extending west across the Mississippi River. Riddell's Goldenrod has leaves that are folded in half lengthwise and often pointed at the tip, whereas the leaves of Ohio Goldenrod are flat and often blunt at the tip.


A third goldenrod species that we saw in all three northeastern Indiana fens is Bog Goldenrod (Solidago uliginosa). Unlike the previous two species, the inflorescence of Bog Goldenrod is not flat-topped. This species (treated in the broad sense) is found throughout much of the eastern half of North America in bogs, fens, marshes, and wet woods.

I hope that this brief account of northeastern Indiana fens in the late summer/early fall gives you a good idea of why fens are so special and amongst my favorite places. My next post, in about a week, will conclude my recap of Nasby Fen, Sawmill Fen, and Lime Lake Fen, and will touch on some of the butterflies we noticed while botanizing.

Thinking Back (And Ahead) To Warmer Temperatures

Boy, was it cold here yesterday; my car thermometer read 6 degrees Farenheit Saturday morning! The only way for me to get through cold snaps like this in the middle of winter is to look back at photographs I took the previous summer, when the landscape was green and the days were long.


On 11 July 2009, Tony Troche and I spent a couple of hours botanizing at Round Lake Nature Preserve in Starke County, Indiana. Our best botanizing at the preserve came in a rich calcareous wet prairie adjacent to the lake and marsh communities.


Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa), an excellent indicator of calcareous soils, was abundant. Walking was cumbersome in places because of the low shrubby habit of this species and trying to avoid Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron radicans).


Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum), the plant known by Dioscorides as "lytron" (and hence the origin of the genus name Lythrum), was a common forb throughout the wet prairie. This is another species characteristic of wet areas with pH of 7 or greater.


Sedges were common at this location, with one of the more abundante being Dioecious Sedge (Carex sterilis).


An interesting sedge that I have only seen at a handful of locations was White Beaksedge (Rhynchospora alba), a species of acidic and alkaline soils. The white spikelets make this species unique among our beaksedges.


One of our biggest highlights, though, was the highly charismatic Tuberous Grasspink (Calopogon tuberosus). The flowers of most orchid species, including all of them around here except for grasspink, twist when the flower is opening so that the lip is at the bottom, a process known as resupination. In Tuberous Grasspink, the lip is above the rest of the flower.


"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." -Hal Borland

A Rare Find At Houghton Lake

In 2006, The Nature Conservancy of Indiana acquired a fantastic property in Marshall County. The property, known as Houghton Lake, consists of a fen surrounding a lake that has become alkaline as a result of the calcareous groundwater flowing through the surrounding soil and into a basin. I had visited this property in the past, before it was purchased by TNC, and had assisted with compiling a plant species list that boasts over 180 vascular plant species.

Houghton Lake and surrounding fen

The soil in the fen consists of marl, which is a mix of clay and calcium carbonate that is gray in color and often speckled with remnants of shells. Surrounding this marly substrate at a slightly higher elevation is alkaline peat soil. Typical fen species can be found growing in both of these soils, but the fen itself was likely historically found mostly in the mucky soils surrounding the marl. The marl footprint most likely outlines the historical area of Houghton Lake. As the land was drained for agricultural use, the lake level dropped, exposing marl soils that were then colonized by the encroaching fen species.

Marl

In addition to the existing 100+ acres of lake and fen, approximately 90 acres of lower quality natural land and 180 acres of agricultural fields surrounding the fen were purchased by TNC. Stuart Orr, North Central Indiana Land Steward for TNC, is tasked with restoring the degraded and agricultural lands to a more natural state. This past Saturday, Stuart held a work day at Houghton Lake to collect seed to be installed in the area now in agicultural production after subsurface drainage tiles have been removed and ditches have been plugged or filled and a more natural hydrologic regime has been restored. The goal is to restore sedge meadow, wet prairie, and even fen in this area where these communities were present prior to being drained for agricultural use. On Saturday, our target species for collection was Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata). This member of the Asteraceae has a dense terminal spike of discoid flower heads (there are no ray flowers). It is most commonly found in wet prairies, mesic prairies, and sedge meadows throughout eastern North America.

Dense Blazing Star in bloom in a Marshall County, Indiana fen, July 2004

Given my busy schedule, I don't get to attend many work days (in fact, I think this was my first TNC work day), but helping out with these is something that I feel strongly that everyone who visits and enjoys our natural areas should make time to do. I am involved with several local conservation organizations who all hold numerous work days of their own throughout the year, and I try to attend at least one or two of these events per year. This isn't much, but every little bit helps. Site stewards have very limited staff and rely heavily on volunteer work to accomplish their enormous management goals, and they should be commended for the grueling work that they do. It isn't fair to them or to our natural areas to simply visit these sites for pure enjoyment without giving a little back. I encourage everyone to assist these conservation organizations with their management objectives as much as possible. This is also a great way to have a chance to see these preserves and learn more about the plants and animals that call them home.

Dense Blazing Star in seed

In the four or so hours that we were at the site, our small group collected what Stuart thought would amount to 5 pounds of Dense Blazing Star seed once the seed was dried and separated from the stems, involucres, and chaff.

Seed collecting

Near the end of the work day, I had some time to take a few photos of plants and insects at the preserve. A species that used to be dominant in the fen but that has been reduced a bit by management burns is Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda). As populations of this low shrub, which is in the family Rosaceae, were thinned by fire, habitat for herbaceous fen species that don't deal well with competition was restored. White Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in particular has responded well to the prescribed burns. While Shrubby Cinquefoil is a native and desirable fen species, it can suppress the growth of other desirable fen species in the absence of periodic disturbances such as fire or flooding.

Shrubby Cinquefoil

Another characteristic shrubby fen species is Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). Along with dogwoods (Cornus spp.) and willows (Salix spp.), this native shrub can often encroach on fens, leading to shrub-carr communities when fire or flooding is removed from the system. In the fall, the drooping white berries contrast sharply with the compound crimson leaves, making this member of the Anacardiaceae far more beautiful than it is ever given credit. For some reason, and I assume that it is the dermititis caused by contact with Poison Sumac, this species is considered a noxious weed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

Poison Sumac

Many people pigeonhole Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) as a tallgrass prairie species. While this member of the Poaceae is a dominant component of mesic prairies, Big Bluestem is also a characteristic species of alkaline fens. It can be found throughout most of the eastern two-thirds of North America, growing up to 8 feet tall.

Big Bluestem

Swamp Thistle (Cirsium muticum) is a member of the Asteraceae that is found throughout the eastern half of North America in wet prairies, fens, bogs, marshes, and swamps. With appressed phyllaries that sometimes have short apical spines, this is a thistle that does not poke you when you attempt to touch the sticky involucre. The specific epithet muticum means blunt and without a point, referring to the shape of the phyllaries.

Swamp Thistle

An easily overlooked composite (Asteraceae) of fens, wet prairies, tallgrass prairies, and streambanks is Purple Rattlesnakeroot (Prenanthes racemosa). Found in southern Canada and the northern half of the United States (except the northwest), Purple Rattlesnakeroot has smooth stems from the base to the middle of the plant (but the stems are pubescent above). The similar Rough Rattlesnakeroot (Prenanthes aspera) is found in drier habitats, has stems that are pubescent throughout, and has cream to yellow-colored ray corollas.

Purple Rattlesnakeroot

In a recent post about another TNC fen property, I included photographs of Lesser Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis procera). The similar Greater Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) grows at Houghton Lake in the drier portions of the fen. This member of the Gentianaceae has wider leaves than Lesser Fringed Gentian, and the petals are fringed both along the sides and along the apex. The flowers of Greater Fringed Gentian also seem to be a deeper blue than those of Lesser Fringed Gentian. Greater Fringed Gentian is found mostly in states and provinces surrounding the Great Lakes, but it is also known from the northeastern and southeastern United States, North Dakota, Quebec, and Manitoba.

Greater Fringed Gentian

Meadow Spikemoss (Selaginella apoda) and Hidden Spikemoss (Selaginella eclipes) are two very similar species in the Selaginellaceae. Both are easily overlooked in wet areas, as they often are well hidden beneath dense herbaceous vegetation. They also look a lot like mosses in the genus Mnium. Meadow Spikemoss is found in swamps, meadows, marshes, pastures, damp lawns, open woods, and streambanks, in basic to acidic conditions. Hidden Spikemoss is found in moist to wet calcareous areas, swamps, meadows, pastures, and open woods, but rarely on rock. I believe that the plant in the photograph below, taken at Houghton Lake, shows Hidden Spikemoss, which has median leaves with long acuminate tips (versus acute tips in Meadow Spikemoss).

Hidden Spikemoss

The best I can tell, the meadow katydid in the photograph below is a Short-winged Meadow Katydid (Conocephalus brevipennis), a common species of the eastern United States. This species usually has short wings (as the common name suggests) and has a dark brown band that runs from the top of the head down the back. This individual is a female, as evidenced by the long ovipositor.

Short-winged Meadow Katydid

The singing insect below is what I believe to be a Round-tipped Conehead (Neoconocephalus retusus). This species has a shorter, rounder cone than most other members of this genus, and there is a narrow black line across the front of the cone (that can be seen if you click on the photograph to enlarge it). The song of the Round-tipped Conehead is very intriguing, as it consists of a long, raspy buzz that sounds like an electric short.

Round-tipped Conehead

Finally, at the end of the day, we happened upon a very interesting moth hanging out on one of the blazing star inflorescences we had collected. Stuart guessed that maybe it was a Blazing Star Borer Moth (Papaipema beeriana). When I got home and downloaded my photos, I compared this photograph with those in my books and online, and it appeared that Stuart's guess was correct. We've sent several photos to moth and Papaipema experts, and they agree that in fact this is the fairly rare Blazing Star Borer Moth. If you only ever click on one photo on our blog, you have to click on this one and look at the eyes of this moth. Amazing! As the common name suggests, the Blazing Star Borer Moth is dependent upon blazing star for survival of the species. Females deposit eggs in the soil at the base of a blazing star plant in the fall. When the eggs hatch in the spring, the larvae climb to the base of the blazing star plant and bore into the stem to feed. In late summer, the larvae burrow into the soil and pupate prior to metamorphosis into an adult moth.

Blazing Star Borer Moth

So there you have it... if I hadn't attended this work day, I wouldn't have had the chance to see these interesting plants and insects or to learn about this rare moth. This is incentive enough for me to attend more work days.