Family and Flora

As we've done the past several years, Lindsay and I are hosting our families for Easter, which means that Lindsay has the daunting task of preparing food for around 20 people on Sunday morning.  This also means that our nieces are in town, so today we spent several hours at Potato Creek State Park.

Lily preparing for the egg hunt

The egg hunt at the park is split into different age groups, and Lily's group was before Chloe's.

Find those eggs!

Lily's group moved across the area in which the eggs had been hidden like a swift wave, leaving no eggs in their wake. 

Success!

After this hunt was completed, my mom and Lily came over to watch Chloe's group hunt for hidden eggs.

The look of determination

The eggs that were hidden for Chloe's group seemed to be more widely dispersed, but the hunt was over nearly as quickly as it began.

Success!

After the hunt, Chloe and Lindsay were all smiles as my dad tried to count how many eggs Chloe had found.

Shouldn't this be a TNC ad?

Lily and Chloe then tallied their eggs and checked out their prizes.

Chloe with an artist's conk

After the hunt, Chloe, Lily, my mom, Lindsay, and I walked a trail, where we found a couple of Red-backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus), saw basking Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta), heard Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus), tried to catch Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), admired shelf fungi, and photographed a few flowering plants.

Pawpaw

These were the first Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) flowers I'd seen this year. For more information on Pawpaw, see my recent post at Get Your Botany On!.

Woodland Phlox

Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata ssp. laphamii) is always a welcome spring sight.  Aside from those blooming in my yard, these were the first individuals of this species I'd seen in flower this spring.

White Trillium

No matter how many photographs I have of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), for some reason I cannot resist taking photos of the first plants I see in bloom each spring.

Prairie Trillium

I had seen Prairie Trillium (Trillium recurvatum) with buds earlier this spring, but now this trillie is in flower as well.

After Potato Creek State Park, we made our annual trip to Jimmy John's for lunch, another Easter weekend tradition.

Our wishes to you for a happy holiday!

That Time Of Year

As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent 2 April 2011 in Attica, Indiana botanizing with Bill Ringer. We first visited Fall Creek Gorge (aka The Potholes) (shown below), and then spent some time in similar habitat on property owned by Bill and some of his neighbors.


Our target for the day, as determined when I first met Bill at the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society (INPAWS) annual conference in November 2010, was Snow Trillium (Trillium nivale). Little did I know when we set up our excursion that fall day that I would have already had the opportunity to see this species in 2011 with Lee Casebere. Regardless, I met up with Bill last Saturday morning, and it was definitely worth the trip.


It didn't take long to find Snow Trillium (above), which was in bloom just outside of the parking area in a somewhat degraded calcareous upland forest. After seeing our first population of blooming Snow Trillium, we continued to hike, finding more and more Snow Trillium and discussing the other plants we were seeing along the way. Just like every other spring, I couldn't resist photographing the blooming spring wildflowers. I don't know what it is about them... my collection contains loads of photos of all of the plants included in this post, but every spring, I cannot resist the urge to photograph them again. Maybe it is the fact that these plants are adapted to bloom early enough in the year that the trees towering above them have not yet produced leaves, allowing enough sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. Maybe it is the glorious array of color produced almost instantaneously after the much anticipated build up as the days get longer and the ground temperature increases. Or maybe, just maybe, it is that wait itself that makes this suite of plants so alluring. If Harger's Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis var. hargeri) bloomed in April, would we not display the same exuberance that we do at the first signs of the burgundy blossoms of Bloody Butcher (Trillium recurvatum)? It's just that time of the year.


You've seen them before, and you'll most likely see them here again next year, but I simply cannot resist. Above is Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa), and below is Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica).


Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) blooms for a very short time, making it difficult to find that perfect plant to photograph. I can't say that I'd ever seen a plant at this stage, with the flowers still mostly closed but starting to open and with a pinkish tinge, somewhat reminiscent of a tulip (Tulipa sp.) flower.


The Bloodroot plants that I enjoy seeing the most, though, are those with open flowers and leaves that are still wrapped tightly around the stem, like the one below.


I had seen these wildflowers blooming already this year, but I had not yet seen the two species below.


Purple Cress (Cardamine douglassii, above) is sometimes confused with the more conservative Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa, not pictured), but the former has stems that are pubescent above, sepals that are usually deep purple at the tips, and petals that are often lavender (but sometimes white); the latter has stems that are hairless above, sepals that are usually green, and petals that are white). You can find Purple Cress in nearly any moist woods, regardless of how much disturbance has taken place. Regardless, each year, I take photos of this species the first several times I find it in flower.


And who can resist taking photos of flowering Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria, above)? This has to be one of the most interesting and attractive of the spring wildlfowers, does it not? Like many of the ephemerals, Dutchman's Breeches relies on insects for more than just pollination. In addition to the long-tongued bees that help this species to reproduce, ants play a very important role in seed dispersal of Dutchman's Breeches, as they find the sugary, fleshy seed appendages known as elaiasomes and take them back to their nest for a tasty feast. Unbeknownst to the ants, they are also spreading the seeds to new locations, giving rise to new populations of Dutchman's Breeches within the forest.

Finally, just a few more photos of Snow Trillium from last weekend, as my photographing obsession was taken to new heights with this species this spring (I took almost 100 photos of Snow Trillium at the three sites at which I saw it this year!).


The plant below was tiny, or my lens cap is enormous...


... and lastly, one of my favorite shots of Snow Trillium this year.

Fear Not, Northerners!

Although the calendar indicates that winter has officially ended, the weather in northern Indiana during the past few days hasn't felt very spring-like... and it doesn't appear that the temperature will increase much in the next week or so. Believe it or not, though, the spring wildflowers are preparing to do their thing. There has been an increase in wildflower posts on the blogs that I follow from southern Indiana, southern Ohio, and Missouri in the past couple of weeks, indicating that the spring flora is maturing in those areas. Unable to wait, I headed out in the field both of the past two weekends to see what I could find. On March 13 in Culver, Indiana, Lee Casebere, Scott Holaday, and I saw the spathe and spadix inflorescences of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus, below), our earliest flowering native plant in this part of the state.


There wasn't anything else in bloom in these northern Indiana woods, so the next weekend (March 19) Lee and I drove to southeastern Indiana, primarily in search of Snow Trillium (Trillium nivale), by far our smallest, cutest, and earliest flowering trillium.


We weren't disappointed! After just 30 minutes or so of taking photographs of Snow Trillium, I told Lee that it was already worth the 4 hour drive to the site from my house.


A few of the plants, like the one below, had lightly pink-tinged petals.


Snow Trillium wasn't the only plant in flower in these woods. The diminutive and inconspicuous Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa, below) was also in bloom.


Another early season bloomer, Sharplobe Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. acuta, below) was also in flower. However, we had to wait until later in the day to see the inside of the flowers, as they close up at night.


Finding these species in flower was not unexpected in southern Indiana in mid-March, but the next few surprised me. A few plants of Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, below) had started to open.


Another plant that I hadn't expected to see in flower so early in the year was Virginia Springbeauty (Claytonia virginica, below). I can't find much information about the pubescence of the species, but one source that I found said that the stem and leaves are supposed to be glabrous. The plant in the photograph below is distinctly pubescent.


Although not yet in flower, Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica, below) already had visible flower buds.


Finally, although it won't be in flower until much later in the year, we saw several plants of Crippled Cranefly (Tipularia discolor, below), an orchid that is found more easily in winter (when the leaves are present) than when the nearly invisible flowers are present (and leaves are absent) later in the year.


Note the green, wrinkled top surface of the leaf (above) and the strongly purlish undersurface (below). This orchid is much more common in the southern half of Indiana than it is in the northern part of the state, so I never tire of seeing it.


So, for those of you north of here that still have snow on the ground, and for those at this latitude who are itching to get out and see plants blooming, hopefully this gives you some hope that shortly after we get past this cold stretch, the forests will be exploding with color.

To Honor a Botanical Legend

A couple of weeks ago, the botanical world lost one of its finest when Fred Case passed away at the age of 83. Fred, a botanist and high school biology and natural science teacher, authored three botanical works: Wildflowers of the Northeastern States, Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region, and Trilliums (co-authored with wife Roberta, who was also a teacher and field biologist). The latter of these, which has gained acclaim from gardeners and botanists alike, is one of the most treasured books in my collection.

To honor Fred and Roberta, below are photographs of all but one of the species of Trillium that I saw in 2010 (I did not take a photo of Nodding Wakerobin, Trillium flexipes, which I saw in April at Bentley Woods).

Whip-poor-will Flower (Trillium cernuum), June 7, 2010, Pokegama Wetlands, Douglas County, Wisconsin

White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), April 18, 2010, Bentley Woods, St. Joseph County, Indiana

Ozark Wakerobin (Trillium pusillum var. ozarkanum), April 22, 2010, Shannon County, Missouri

Bloody Butcher (Trillium recurvatum forma recurvatum), April 18, 2010, Bentley Woods, St. Joseph County, Indiana

Bloody Butcher (Trillium recurvatum forma luteum), April 18, 2010, Bentley Woods, St. Joseph County, Indiana

Toadshade (Trillium sessile), April 21, 2010, Spurgeon Hollow, Shannon County, Missouri

Wood Wakerobin (Trillium viride), April 20, 2010, Victoria Glade, Jefferson County, Missouri

Tapertip Wakerobin (Trillium viridescens), April 25, 2010, Mount Magazine, Logan County, Arkansas

Tapertip Wakerobin (Trillium viridescens), unnamed purple-petaled form, April 25, 2010, Mount Magazine, Logan County, Arkansas

Trillium sp., presumably an unnamed purple petaled and sepaled form of Tapertip Wakerobin (Trillium viridescens) growing in the same colony as plants in the previous two photos, April 25, 2010, Mount Magazine, Logan County, Arkansas

2010 Spring Botanical Excursion, Part I

In April 2009, Justin Thomas and I took a botanical trip to Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Because seeing numerous species of Trillium was our goal, we dubbed our botanical excursion "Trillium Tromp 2009" (see posts here and here). Although we were only able to hunt down three species of Trillium, our trip was a huge success, as we saw various other interesting plants. This April, Justin and I were at it again, this time with Brad Slaughter and Doug Ladd joining us on our ramblings through Missouri and Arkansas. While this year's trip was not technically considered a Trillium Tromp by name, we did two better than during Trillium Tromp 2009, finding five species of Trillium (three new to me).


Brad drove down to my house from Michigan on 20 April 2010, and the two of us then headed to Missouri. Justin met us at Victoria Glade just southwest of St. Louis, where we saw Wood Wakerobin (Trillium viride), shown above.

The following day at a preserve in Shannon County, Missouri, we stumbled apon a familiar trillie, Toadshade (Trillium sessile), shown above.


On our way south to Arkansas on 22 April 2010, we stopped near Winona, Missouri to see Ozark Wakerobin (Trillium pusillum var. ozarkanum), pictured above.


At Magazine Mountain in Arkansas on 25 April 2010, we found Tapertip Wakerobin (Trillium viridescens), shown above. The characters used to distinguish this species from Wood Wakerobin are not very clear; I'm using the known ranges of the two species, more than anything else, to distinguish between the two.

The fifth species of Trillium that we observed on our trip was Bloody Butcher (Trillium recurvatum), not shown. We observed this species at several locations in Arkansas.

But enough of those trillies... let's get to the rest of the trip!

As I mentioned, we stopped at Victoria Glade on our way south. The plant richness on rocky, thin-soiled glades never ceases to amaze me. Our target at this location was the rare Fremont's Leatherflower (Clematis fremontii), known only from Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.


As with most of our target plants on this trip, we were not disappointed.


Also common in the glade was Prairie Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre), a species found throughout central North America from Manitoba to Texas.


A partial list of other plants we observed in the glade inlcudes Baptisia australis, Bouteloua curtipendula, Camassia scilloides, Carex crawei, Carex meadii, Castilleja coccinea, Dodecatheon meadia, Echinacea pallida, Eleocharis compressa, Glandularia canadensis, Nothoscordum bivalve, Rudbeckia missouriensis, Sorghastrum nutans, and Sporobolus neglectus.

Along an intermittent stream in moist woods surrounding the glade, we found both the blue (forma tricorne) and white (forma albiflora) color morphs of Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium tricorne). You can see the white color morph in the background in the photo below.


Additional plants we saw in the wooded portion of the property include Arisaema dracontium, Asarum canadense, Carex blanda, Carex jamesii, Carex oligocarpa, Chaerophyllum procumbens, Erythronium albidum, Hybanthus concolor, Hydrastis canadensis, Ilex decidua, Lilium michiganense, Mertensia virginica, Phlox divaricata, Rhamnus caroliniana, Sanguinaria canadensis, Silene stellata, and Staphylea trifolia, among others.

The three of us spent 21 April 2010 botanizing in Missouri's Ozarks. Our first stop was at a Shannon County preserve, where we saw a mix of dolomite glade and woodlands.


Here, our target was White Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium candidum), as this site is one of just a few stations for this species in Missouri. The flowers seemed smaller than those on plants I've seen in Indiana prairies and fens.


Of course, we didn't just go for a single species, so we did plenty of botanizing before and after finding the lady slipper population. Scarlet Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) was in bloom, with bracts ranging in color from red to orange to yellow from plant to plant.


Another attractive plant that was in bloom was Robin's Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus). This composite is generally found in dry conditions throughout the eastern half of North America.


Other plants we saw at this preserve include Actaea racemosa, Astragalus crassicarpus var. trichocalyx, Baptisia bracteata, Berchemia scandens, Carex digitalis, Carex hirsutella, Carex meadii, Carex planispicata, Carex umbellata, Castilleja coccinea, Celtis tenuifolia, Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, Dichanthelium boscii, Dirca palustris, Echinacea pallida, Galium arkansanum, Gymnopogon ambiguus, Hypoxis hirsuta, Liatris cylindracea, Lithospermum canescens, Lonicera flava, Manfreda virginica, Minuartia patula, Pedicularis canadensis, Pellaea atropurpurea, Rhamnus lanceolata, Rudbeckia missouriensis, Scutellaria bushii, Silene virginica, Silphium asteriscus, Sorghastrum nutans, Taenidia integerrima, Thaspium trifoliatum, Vaccinium stamineum, Zizia aptera, and Zizea aurea, among many others.

Our next stop on 21 April 2010 was the fens at Shut-in Mountain.


At the fen and in the surrounding woodland, we saw Calopogon tuberosus, Carex albolutescens, Carex buxbaumii, Carex crawei, Carex leptalea, Carex sterilis, Carex suberecta, Carex tetanica, Castilleja coccinea, Nemastylis geminiflora, Parnassia grandifolia, Pedicularis lanceolata, Rhynchospora capillacea, Rudbeckia fulgida, Solidago buckleyi, Zizia aptera, and many, many others.

On 22 April 2010, we left Salem, Missouri and drove to Arkansas, where we met up with Doug Ladd and Theo Witsell. Theo was our guide for the next couple of days, taking us to various preserves and giving us directions to various others.


Our first stop was at Dry Lost Creek Glade in Bauxite Natural Areas. As the name implies, this property was historically mined for bauxite for the production of aluminum; however, remnants of the glade and woodland complex present prior to settlement still exist.


At this preserve, Fringed Bluestar (Amsonia ciliata) was one of our highlights. This species is known from the southeastern and southcentral United States.


Fuzzy Phacelia (Phacelia hirsuta) was also observed in abundance at this site, particularly in scrubby areas and woodlands.


Some of the other plants we saw at Dry Lost Creek Glade include Aesculus pavia, Aristolochia reticulata, Asclepias hirtella, Callitriche heterophylla, Carex bushii, Carex flaccosperma, Carex glaucodea, Chasmanthium sessiliflorum, Clinopodium glabellum, Dichanthelium laxiflorum, Dichanthelium scoparium, Drosera brevifolia, Hypericum pseudomaculatum, Isoetes butleri, Isolepis pseudosetacea, Juncus scirpoides, Lotus unifoliolatus, Melica mutica, Muhlenbergia capillaris, Packera tomentosa, Piptochaetium avenaceum, Scutellaria parvula var. australis, Tridens chapmanii, Trifolium carolinianum, Ulmus alata, Vicia minutiflora, and Zanthoxylum clava-herculis.

I've posted some additional photos from our trip here on Get Your Botany On! If you haven't already read Part II of my report, click here.