Evening Light at Little Pond

Evening Light at LIttle Pond, originally uploaded by Tom Arbour.

We're enjoying the clean, cool, air here in Maine. It's wonderful to get away from everything once in a while.

Carex Retrorsa, Reflexed Bladder Sedge

We botanists love sedges. With over 160 Ohio species in the genus Carex alone, this group alone can provide a lifetime of wonderment. On Friday June 26th, at Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve, Ryan Schroeder and I happened across a nice wet sedgy spot that was home to a really rare sedge in Ohio (state endangered), Carex retrorsa, or the reflexed bladder sedge. How did it get that name, you ask? Well, the word retrorse, when used in the botanical vernacular, means bent or curved backward or downward.

See anything retrose about this sedge? The perigynia, which are actually the sedge's female flowers, are the large spiky things. The balloon shaped sack is where the seed of the sedge develops, called an achene. In Carex retrorsa, the perigynia are pointed out and even downward. Reflexed = retrorse. Reflexed bladder sedge. It all makes sense, doesn't it?

The most interesting thing about this find is that Carex retrorsa had been found in Lucas County before 2009- but over 100 years ago. That was until Wednesday, when Oak Openings botanical guru Tim Walters found it somewhere in the area, and showed it to my boss. Said boss just happened to mention Tim's find to me on Thursday. Then, Ryan and I just happened to find Carex retrorsa at Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve. Quite a story, isn't it? Not documented for over 100 years (in the oak openings), then, twice in three days.

Tom

The next post I'm working on is video and photographs of the gypsy moth infestation at Highbanks Metropark.

Sedges, Sedges, Sedges

Take a few seconds to look at all the different species of sedges in this short slide show. Depending upon who you "hang" with, you probably either think sedges are wildly awesome or just downright obscure. We botanists love sedges- Ohio has around 160 species of Carex alone, and knowing what type of sedges are calling a particular place home can tell you much about its ecological significance.

Sedges don't have traditional flower parts- The genus Carex, which most of these species belong to, instead have separate male and female flowers. The female flowers are composed of a sack like structure called a perigynia. Towards the top of this sack is a hole through which pollen can enter. Often, the plant's stigmas will be sticking out from the perigynia, making it easier to grab pollen. Male flowers are often much smaller and less inflated. Some sedges have male flowers and female flowers in the same inflorescence, while others are on different spikes. Look for that in these images.

Yes, they do look alike, but by taking a look at the shape of the peryiginia, you usually tell the species. Often you have to do this with a 10x or greater handlens, but still, many sedges can be readily learned in the field, if you work at it. I've been at it for about 5 years now.

Enjoy these sedges! Mostly carex, one Scirpus (old name) and one federally endangered plant thrown in for good measure, the running buffalo clover.

Happy sedge watching,

Tom

Time for Collective Naturalizing 2009 Style

The field season is at me fast and furious. So much to see, so much to document. If you've been with me for a while, you'll remember last year's collective naturalizing posts. A list of pictures, some things I know, some I may not, but let's all work together to put names on these pictures that I took today from a swamp/fen/marsh complex in Ashtabula County with Jim Bissell and the Northeast Ohio Naturalists of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. One hint: There are three species of plants pictured on the Ohio rare plant list. One endangered, one threatened, one potentially threatened.

Guesses welcome, OK, here we go:

1. Midland painted turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata
2. Swamp saxifrage, Saxifraga pensylvanica
3. Necklace sedge, Carex projecta, Ohio threatened species.
4. Viburnum opulus var. americanum (syn. Viburnum trilobum), Ohio endangered species. Yes, WoodsWalker, it is being munched by Viburnum leaf beetle!.
5. Some type of Sphinx moth. Any help here would be appreciated!
6. Beaver handiwork on Populus deltoides.
7. Carex stricta, tussock sedge.
8. Arisaema tryiphyllum subsp. stewardsonii
9. Sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis
10. Skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus
11. Highbush blueberry, Vaccinnium corymbosum
12. Two vascular plants here, one blooming, one not. Maianthemum canadense and Coptis trifolia
13. Cinnamon fern, Osmunda cinnamomea
14. Water or purple avens, Geum rivale, an Ohio potentially threatened species.
15. Me driving in the car during a deluge, which we just missed before we got back to the saftey of our vehicles. In case you didn't recognize, that's Ohio on the left, Pennsylvania on the right.

Thanks for chipping in everyone.

Tom

High on Carex

December is a tough month. Today, when I was walking down the hallway towards the glass door that would lead me out of the office, I did a double take. I actually saw blue sky. It had been raining all morning, and now, finally, the clouds had broken. No more rain, and even a little bit of sunshine. It was the first that I had seen since last Friday, when I took the pictures of the Juncos. Getting shots in the daylight at this time of year just isn't conducive to my work schedule! I need to try harder- perhaps even take the camera to work and try to catch a cooper's hawk taking down a morning dove.

But I digress. During the field season, I travel across the Lake Erie Watershed searching for Ohio's rare plants. Us botanists collect specimens of plants when we're in the field, allowing us to document a plant's existence. Often, when I collect a specimen, I have no idea what it is, and it takes careful examination under a dissecting scope to put an ID to it. Plant ID is challenging, but all it really takes is time and a great deal of patience.

My view at work the last few weeks has looked liked this:





I've spent hours looking through the scope at plant parts. What you see here is a closeup view, taken through the scope using my Panasonic LZ8 (digiscoped!) of the perigynia of Carex comosa, a fairly common sedge in Ohio found in marshes. This particular specimen I collected back during our June trip to Kelleys Island.

Sedges in the genus Carex are fascinating to study. Just like learning the birds that come to your yard, I'm trying to learn the sedges of Ohio. It is a large group with over 150 species just in our state. What is amazing is that sedges superficially look alike- but once you learn what to look for, they really begin to look different. Ever watch the show John and Kate plus 8? When Megan and I first started to watch the show, we couldn't separate the sextuplets-at all. Now that we've watched a million episodes, we've begun to get to know them and they all look very different to us. The same thing goes with sedges! Enough studying, patience, and persistence, and you'll soon be able to tell Carex gracilescens from Carex blanda!

Tom

P.S. Note the time of this post. I can't sleep- and I'm apparently high on Carex.

Kelleys Island Collective Naturalizing

Rico G. and I are back from our last botanizing trip to Kelleys Island State Park. A few pics from the island. If you'd like to offer an interpretation, please pick a number and go at it. There are some things that we are going to need help with here, especially those two strange cans. These things are all over the island, and the strangest thing is that they don't have any easy way of being opened, and many of them appear to never have been opened. What are these things?

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This weekend, I'm participating for the first time in the "Camera Critters" meme. Welcome new readers.

Tom

The Power of Collective Naturalizing

Ok, I think I just made up a new phrase. What the heck do I mean by "the power of collective naturalizing"? One of the coolest things that I do as an ecologist is get together with other top notch ecologists and naturalists around the state, and we do what we love- we naturalize. Or botanize. Or bird. To most of us, we love it all. Just being in a natural area, interpreting the plants, the animals, the ecological systems, it is fantastic. And when you're with a bunch of people, it is amazing how many new things you can learn in just a few days in the field.

I was in the field three days this past week, in two parts of the state, and all three times with fantastic naturalists. Here are just some of the things we saw. Some of these things I know to species, other to genus, and others, I don't really have a clue. I want to know what you know. Know what something is? Comment, give the number, and tell us something about that plant or animal-maybe your experience with it, whether you see it often, or maybe it is rare in your area. Let's collective naturalize through the blog. This is an experiment and something new that I've never done here, but I think it could be quite fun.


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