A Wider View - Wood Frog

June 7, 2013

While visiting Tummonds State Nature Preserve in Portage County last June, I didn't have my ultrawide angle lens with me, but that didn't prevent me from using the wide-angle closeup technique.  The so-called "kit lenses" that come bundled with digital SLR's can focus quite closely.  With my lens dialed in to its widest setting, I moved in on this frog as close as I could.  The end result is an image that shows the wood frog and its habitat.  To me, this picture provides much more information than a tight shot of the frog only.

-Tom

A Wider View- Common Lupines

May 16, 2013

Burying the camera in a clump of lupines gives us the view that a Karner Blue Butterfly might have as it searches for a mate.  Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve lies in Ohio's Oak Openings Region (which extends into Michigan), one of the the Great Lake's most fascinating ecosystems.

-Tom

Taking in a Wider View - Daughmer Bur Oak Savannah

May 8, 2013

Can you see that small house on the horizon to the right?  What a spectacular place to live, eh?

-Tom

Taking in a Wider View - Daughmer Savannah State Nature Preserve

May 8, 2013

White this is just on the far edge of being a wide-angle closeup, I'm going to count it because I just really like this photo.  The closeup subject in to the right is a type of sedge, possibly Carex lacustris.  Daughmer Savannah is a true gem of Ohio that was dedicated as an Ohio State Nature Preserve in 2012.  A remnant of the Sandusky Plains, a visit here will give you some idea what Ohio's prairie areas looked like at one time.



-Tom

Taking in a Wider View - Large White Trillium

Taking in another ultra-wide angle view at Collier State Nature Preserve in Seneca County.  The large white flowered trillium is our official state wildflower.

-Tom

Taking in a Wider View - Woodland Stonecrop - Not So Wide

Our eyes have lenses that let us see the world at a certain angle of view.  We can't zoom in or out like we can with a camera.  My go-to lens for wide-angle closeup work is Canon's 10-22 mm zoom lens.  This lens lets me get an image like I shared yesterday, which put this small clump of Sedum ternatum in context- it was growing out of the root ball of a tree.  When I zoom the lens to 22 millimeters, I can focus more closely on the plant itself, getting the entire plant in focus, which is very difficult to do with traditional macro lenses.

-Tom

Taking in a Wider View - Woodland Stonecrop

Using all natural light this time, again during a site visit to Davis Memorial State Nature Preserve on May 3, 2013.

-Tom

Taking in a Wider View- Under the Mayapples

Another one of my more successful wide-angle closeup images, this taken while laying on the ground at Davis Memorial State Nature Preserve on May 3, 2013.  To balance the light between the bright background and the shaded foreground underneath the mayapples, I used flash.

-Tom

Wedge-shaped Beetle

Wedge-shaped Beetle, Macrosiagon limbata

Thank you bug guide!  Smith Cemetery, Union County, Ohio, this past weekend on a field trip for the Midwest Native Plant Conference.  Male- indicated by the long feathery antennae.

Tom

Davis Memorial State Nature Preserve

Dolomite gorge at Davis Memorial.

Sometimes you see so many interesting things in one day, it seems like I could write dozens of posts. That's how I feel about my early November trip to Adams County. For me, these posts are a way to remember and cement into my brain the names of the plants that I observed. Hopefully, you enjoy seeing what I saw as well!

If you've been following along, you'll remember the first stop of the day was Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve, then on to Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. Completing a trifecta of Adams County Preserves (there are even more that we didn't get to!), we headed over to Davis Memorial State Nature Preserve.

Davis memorial is underlain by both Dolomite and Shale. Where the dolomite is exposed grow many interesting plants. Proving that field botanizing is most definitely doable in November, we saw:

Walter's violet, Viola walteri. Very much a southerner, southern Ohio is the furthest north this species grows in the U.S. It is an Ohio threatened species.

Tall larkspur, Delphinium exaltatum I had only seen this species once before, at a fen near Springfield, Ohio. Beautiful when flowering, this species is rare throughout its range, and is a candidate for federal listing by the United State Fish and Wildlife Service.

And one of my personal favorite pteridophytes, walking fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. This one doesn't seem particular to calcareous habitats, however, it does seem to be fairly frequent on the dolomite gorges of southern and southeast Ohio.

That wraps up a trifecta of Adams County State Nature Preserves. Next we were off to the moss workshop, held at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve. I'll have more on Ohio's largest privately owned protected natural area in the next post.

Tom

Chapparal Prairie State Nature Preserve

The crinkled leaves of prairie dock

Liatris stems

The fruits of a native tree. Do you recognize these?

After Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve, we headed on over to Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. If only we were here in early August! Can you imagine what these fields of prairie dock and Liatris would have looked like back then?

Tom

Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve

Last Friday before the moss workshop, I had the fortune to visit several State Nature Preserves in Adams County. The first stop of the day was Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve, where I found the blackjack oak seen in the oak quiz post. There are some top notch botanists who identified this oak right away- some without ever seeing it in the field.

Little Bluestem and Red Cedar

Adam Lake Prairie is a tiny prairie patch on a hillside in Adams County. Of all my botanical travels to Ohio's hotspots of diversity, I have visited Adams County the least. It is known for its xeric limestone prairies. If you've been following along at Steve Willson's Blue Jay Barrens blog, you are familiar with this type of ecosystem. Some of these barrens also can occur on shale, and that is the case of Adams Lake Prairie. Although small, if you ever find yourself in Adams County, Ohio, not too far from the town of West Union, this little botanical wonder inside Adams Lake State Park is definitely worth a visit.

The shriveled leaves of Prairie Dock.

You nailed blackjack oak, but how about this one?

The hills created by the Allegheny Mound Ant are a common sight in this part of Ohio.

And finally, here's a violet for your perusal. I talked quite a bit about the stemless blue violets over over last weekend with Daniel Boone (yes, a real person for those of you that have never met Dan!), one of the midwest's most enthusiastic and prolific botanists. This past field season, he went on a quest to find all of Ohio's violet species, and in the process, helped us understand more about one of our endangered species, the bog violet, Viola nephrophylla.

The leaf above isn't bog violet, but I'm sure Dan would know it right away. Unfortunately, I'm itching for Tom Cooperrider's book right now, but it's a few miles away on the bookshelf at the office. Can someone pinch hit for me?

Tom


View Ohio State Nature Preserves in a larger map

Bigelow Cemetery, Smith Cemetery, Two of Ohio's Remnant Prairies

Only tiny remnants of Ohio's prairie past, these two cemeteries in Madison County are ablaze with glory right now. If you haven't seen these pioneer cemeteries, they are worth the drive.

Bigelow Cemetery State Nature Preserve






and Smith Cemetery State Nature Preserve






Although I have lived in Central Ohio for six years, I have not yet adequately examined Central Ohio's natural remnant prairies, but I'm going to start now. They are just fantastic places.

Tom

Meet Up with Tom, AKA The Fishing Guy

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with Tom aka "The Fishing Guy" at Kent Bog State Nature Preserve. I made a quick check of the bog and updated a few rare plant records. We had a great time looking at the tamaracks, sedges, and other bog plants. For more, check out Tom's post of our meeting.

Have a fantastic and safe holiday weekend.

Tom

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.

The Floral Wonders of Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve

Although not intentionally planned, I have visited two of Ohio's most interesting botanical regions the last two Fridays of botanizing. Last week, it was the Adams County area, full of dolomite prairies and other cool things, and yesterday, I was in the Oak Openings at Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve, recently opened to the public. The commonality between the two areas? Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, was in full bloom during both my visits. Here in the Oak Openings, it just wasn't covered with great spangled fritillaries.


Wow, isn't that a great view? The fountainous big bluestem intermixed with the orange of the butterfly weed would make a gardener jealous. I'm always impressed by nature's arrangement of the landscape- we can only attempt to replicate this arrangement with hard work and dedication, but in natural systems, it just happens all by itself, with a little help from us via prescribed burns.

Speaking of grass like plants, during this trip, I found what our friend Jim McCormac has termed a "mega-rarity". An endangered sedge species, that until Wednesday, was only known from the most extreme northwest county in Ohio. Tim Walters discovered it somewhere in the Oak Openings on Wednesday. Ryan Schroeder and I found it on Friday at Lou Campbell preserve, just two days later. I'll detail the find in a future post, look for it soon.

But now, some of the showy early summer flowering plants from Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve.

White colic root, Aletris farinosa

Flowering spurge, Euphorbia corollata

Lythrum alatum, winged loosestrife, our NATIVE loosestrife that is also purple.

Virginia mountain mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum

Kalm's St. John's wort, Hypericum kalmianum

Swamp rose, Rosa palustris

and finally, a Pucoon, a Lithospermum species.

Even though we're entering summer, Ohio still has very interesting wildflower species in bloom. We're "in-between" the typical heights of the season- spring wildflowers and summer prairies, but Lou Campbell Preserve has plenty to offer. If you're in the northwest Ohio area, be sure to visit and check out the trail that Ryan and his staff have built. Wet prairies, oak forest, lupine savanna- it's all there. Just remember to bring your mosquito gear- if you aren't careful, they'll carry you away.

Tom

It's Always Nice to Find What You're Looking For

As many of you know, my job involves looking for rare plants and high quality natural ares in the Lake Erie watershed portion of Ohio. Searching for rare plants is a combination of knowledge, intuition, sticktoitiveness, extreme attention to detail, and sometimes downright luck. Last week, I searched for the tiny one flowered wintergreen at Oak Openings Metropark for about 3 hours, only to come up empty. It was the only sight know for that little plant in Ohio, and if I can't find it in the next week or two, it will probably be considered an extirpated species instead of endangered, because it won't have been seen for over twenty years.

Today was a different story. I went to relocate Iris brevicaulis at Dupont Marsh State Nature Preserve, adjacent to the Huron River in Erie County. Coupled with the knowledge of where the plant had been found, and the knowledge provided to me by my guide today, Brad Phillips of Erie Metroparks, were were able to locate this beautiful iris within about 5 minutes of stepping off the trail. A good day, indeed. This species was last documented from Dupont Marsh in 1991. It differs from our other blue irises, mostly distinctly, by its short, zig-zag stem, spreading perianth (the flower), and its 6 angled capsule (if fruiting).







Here's the more common iris of the Lake Erie marshes, Iris versicolor. I snapped this shot at the Navarre Unit of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge while co-worker Rick Gardner and I were surveying the vegetation of the diked marshes in the area, so very close to the Davis-Besse nuclear power station.



Notice how much longer the flowering stems are in the directly above, and then compare that with the low flower image in the next image up- the Iris versicolor flowers are the same height as the leaves, whereas the Iris brevicaulis flowers are hidden amongst the lower reaches of the blades.

It's always nice to find what you're looking for, and today, that is exactly what happened.

Tom

Fowler Woods Sate Nature Preserve

A kingnut aka shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa)

A few shots from my trip today to Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve. The purpose of the trip was to help my colleague from the Forest Service collect Ash seeds. These other things caught my eye as well.

A western chorus frog.

A pumpkin ash (Fraxinus profunda) samara that had pierced a spicebush (Lindera benzoin) leaf.

Slug and eggs.

To learn more about Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve, go here.

And to see more pictures of animals, check out Camera Critters.