Day 2: Blackwater Falls Wildflower Pilgrimage 2011

Day two was just a much fun as the first day. Again we headed up into the mountains, this time to Bickle Knob. Our first stop proved fruitful with the following finds: Clintonia umbellulata, Panax tribolius (Dwarf Ginsing), Streptopus amplexifolius (White Mandarine), Tiarella cordifolia (Foamflower) and many more.

 Streptopus amplexifolius (White Mandarin)

Tiarella cordifolia (Foamflower)

Trillium undulatum (Painted Trillium)

And then onto Otter Creek.

On the trail we found this birds nest. Inside is lined with deer hair. I wondered if the hair came from a live or a dead deer, there are probably plenty in the area. We suspected that it came from a cavity we found on the side of the hill and replaced it. It probably won’t be used this season but one never knows. Maybe a mouse will find it has all the comforts of home.

I know this was a flower walk but that is one of the good things about naturalist, they stop for everything. This Blister Beetle caught our attention. It is in the family Meloidae and I believe it is a Meloe impressus. You can observe its dark violet color. They are called blister beetles because of their defense mechanism of secreting a blistering agent called cantharidin, a poisonous chemical that will cause the skin to blister. When we first found them there were three and two were getting on top of this one. Mating was suspected but this one was having none of it and ran away leaving the other two confused. The adults feed on pollen. I read that in May to June the female digs into the soil about 1 inch deep where it places about 2,000-10,000 eggs.

Back to the cars and on up to Bickle Knob, we stopped to see the highlights of this trip. First the Stair Step Moss (Hylocomium splendens), a perennial clonal moss. Each year a new feathery frond starts and produces the stepping effect you see below. This makes it possible to estimate the age of the moss by just counting the steps. It is the only moss with this stair step arrangement.

Stair Step Moss (Hylocomium splendens)

Stair Step Moss (Hylocomium splendens)

The next highlight was another moss called Knight’s Plume Moss (Ptilium cristacastrensis). Ptilium means “plume-like” and crista-castrensis from the Latin is crista, “plume”, and castrensis, “military”, referring to the similarity between the moss and the plume on a knight’s helmet.

Knight’s Plume Moss (Ptilium cristacastrensis)

Knight’s Plume Moss (Ptilium cristacastrensis)

At Bickle Knob we found a blooming Halberd-Leaved Violet (Viola hastate). As you can see the leave is long and triangular in shape an apparently reminder early botanist of the halberds weapon in use during the 14th and 15th centuries. The halberd looks like a long pole with a pointed ax on the side.

Halberd-Leaved Violet (Viola hastate)

Bickle Knob is the home to one of the few remaining observation towers in the Monongahela National Forest. I climbed to the top were I was 4,000 feet in elevation and had a great panoramic view of the mountains.

Driving back down the mountain we stopped to see a large stand of Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis). The wild columbine in my area are not as lush and frequent as these.

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis)

Another of my favorites was the Wood-betony also called lousewort.  Both the red and the yellow form were on the bank beside the road.

Pedicularis canadensis (Wood-betony)

Pedicularis canadensis (Wood-betony)

This was just a small sample of what we found along the road. I would have to write about 5 more blogs to show everything but these were the highlights for me that day.

Stop by Outdoor Wednesday to see how others spent their time outside this week.

Blackwater Falls Wildflower Pilgrimage 2011

Last year I had such a wonderful time at the Blackwater Falls Wildflower Pilgrimage in West Virginia and I decided to go again this year. Instead of focusing on moss and ferns I went on the mostly wildflower walks and saws many that had never seen before. One of the best parts about this event is that everyone in very interested and have field guides open and are discussing the plants. There is plenty of time for photos and plant discussion.

The event last for two days and each day has a choice of 12 tours each lasting a day. This year I chose tours at the higher elevations and really enjoyed the cool mountain streams that we drove through.

Here are some of the highlights.

Shooting Star

The star of the trip was seeing the “Shooting Stars” for the first time. I saw one and was excited and then as I looked around I realized I was surrounded by them…they were everywhere. Dodecatheon gets is common name from the shape of the flower as you can see below and imagine this flower falling across the sky. It is a member of the Primrose family (Primulaceae). They can be found here in North America and northeastern Siberia. I found it interesting how the flowers are pollinated by bees. According the Wikipedia the bees “grab hold of the petals, and gather pollen by vibrating the flowers by buzzing their wings (buzz pollination). The vibration releases pollen from the anthers.

On the way up the mountain we stopped at this small shale barren alongside the road where we found Twist Flower. It was a nice unexpected sighting.

The name come sfrom the twist as seen above.

Also shown is Yellow Pimpernell (Taenidia integerrima) a member of the Carrot family (Apiaceae). There were right at home on the dry sloping bank. The umbels were about 4-5 inches.

Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis)

We returned to our cars and drove on up the mountain where I spotted Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis). Again back to Wikipedia where I learned that the Cherokees used it as a source of blue dye, which the Europeans settlers copied. They also used it as a medicine for various ailments. The scientific name comes from the Greek word bapto, meaning “to dip” or “immerse” and australis from the Latin for “southern”. The seed pods are often used in flower arrangements but did you know that once the seeds are mature, the stems break off from the roots and with the pods still attached are blown to another location. Now that is a form of wind dispersal I had not heard of before.

Other wildflowers we saw included: Bladder Campion, Emarginata violet, Wake Robin Trillium, Solomons Seal, Pipestem, Jack in the Pulpit, False Soloman's Seal, Yellow mandrake, Ginger and Wild Colombine. Below is a photo of the Bladder Campion.

The other highlight of this particular tour was the opportunity to see Gay wings (Polygala paucifolia). It is also known as Fringed Polygala for Flowering wintergreen. It is a perennial about 6 inches tall. The two “wings” are sepals. The fringed part made me think of a star nosed mole going to a Mary Kay convention.

It looks like a bee has cut a hole and robbed this flower of its nectar without taking the pollen. I have seen that before on Dutchman’s breeches.

The road we were taking was a gravel road through free range cattle farms. The cows stared at us like they had never seen a car before.

When we stopped for lunch I found what looked like nice log to sit on but it is was a little too high to be comfortable so I got up to move to the one next to it. When I did I noticed a snake right behind the spot where my feet were just a minute ago. Calling “snake, snake, snake I got the attention of the Herpetologist with us and he ran over and pulled the reluctant snake from its hide out. As you can see it was around 6 feet long. The eye clouded over is an indication that this Black Rat snake was going to shed within the next 24 hours. It was a very old snake, possibly 20 years.

As we descended the mountain we stopped for a rare view looking down onto Seneca Rocks.

Be sure to stop and check out other flowers on Today's Flowers. Click here.

Pachysphinx modesta Sphinx moth

Last night a very large sphinx moth came to my porch light. It was on the screen door and when I tried to take a photo its first reaction was to drop to the ground  and there it stayed. After taking the photos I came in and identified it as a Modest Sphinx (Pachysphinx modesta).

Pachysphinx modesta

I tried to encourage it to crawl onto my finger like the large silk moths do but it would have none of that and just began to flutter endlessly. Not wanting to stress it more I came back inside and turned the lights out and it flew away probably to mate. It was very fat and the largest sphinx moth I have seen, this one had a wing span of about 4.5 inches.
A couple nights ago I found this tiny (4 – 8 mm) spider on the leaves of a Sassafras tree. Its little white abdomen really stood out. From “Spiders of the Eastern United States” by W. Mike Howell and Ronald L. Jenkins I learned that it is a Arniella displicata from the family Areneidae. The common name Sixspotted Orbweaver comes from the three pairs of small black spots on the top of the abdomen. They said they found them in the month of May and well, I guess that holds true for me as well. It had started making a rolled up leaf to lay its egg case and was not on a sycamore as the authors suggested.

Arniella displicata

She was a brave little soul and did not drop down or run away as I took her photo.

Arniella displicata

Planaria to Phantom midge in the Pond

Update on me: It's been awhile since I last blogged, I have still been active and out and about seeing the wonders of nature but I have not been writing. I needed to give my writs a rest.

To take up where I left off I wanted to show some more of the critters I found in the water. While there are a lot of microscopic animals that live in the water and can only be seen with a compound microscope, today I want to focus on those that can be seen with a simple magnifying glass and even without the aid of such devices.

Planarian are one of those animals you read about in text books, study in school and then forget about them but I found one in my sample and was fascinated watching it. Its crossed eyes made it even more endearing. Actually they are ocelli that detect the intensity of the light since they don't like to be in the spot light and prefer the dark side of things.

I think this one just ate.

Planarian are a non-parasitic flatworm in the Turbellaria class and are common in many parts of the world. It reminded me of a snail as it glided along the side of the tank, with ear like projections (auricles) similar to the  snail that shares this tiny tank.   They are famous for the extraordinary ability to regenerate lost body parts and even a whole other self when cut in half.  I didn't have the heart to experiment on it.

This one is next to a scud.

Next up is Hydra shown below. This one is stretched out get grab some food swimming by but they can also go from this half inch long size to the size of a pin head. The tentacles surround the mouth and bring the food to it. Attached to the tentacles and parts of its body are tiny stinging cells used in defense and killing its pray. The other end is a foot with sticky secretions used to hold it to twigs, the underside of the water surface and in this case to the side of the tank.

They reproduce by sex and by budding like a plant but usually during different seasons.  The buds appear when it is well fed. You can see one on the side of the hydra below. Eventually it will break away and have it's own independent life. There has been much written about hydras and I encourage you to find some to observe. Collect some pond water with a few plants and wait.  Usually they will appear in a day or two.  You can see them without a hand lens and are good things for kids to see.

Hydra

I noticed the critter below one afternoon when I saw a lot of wiggling in the water.  I suspect it was trying to break free and go on to it's next stage of life.  I have not confirmed what it is but I believe it is the pupa of the midge Chironomus. I don't know what happened to it because I never saw it again after I took the photo. Perhaps it just flew away.

Midge Pupa

The next two photos are of Daphnia, members of the order Cladocera commonaly called water fleas because of their jumping motion swimming style. They are between 0.2mm and 5 mm in length; very tiny indeed yet I could still see them without a hand lens and take these photos with my point and shoot Cannon G11.  Like other insects this one is divided into segments but they are almost invisible. The head is fused and bent down towards the body and the rest of the body is covered by a carapace. You can see the brood-pouch in this one.

Daphnia

Daphnia

Pictured below is a Phantom midge larva commonly called a glassworm because of its transparency. It will eventually pupate into a small non-biting midge. They feed on other small aquatic larvae such as Daphnia. This one is facing left and the dot farthest to the left is one of its eyes. The next set of dark spot are air sacs that they use to enable it to migrate up and down the water column in response to atmospheric pressure. When it is low (during the night), they move to the surface. They are fairly common and can be found in lakes all over the world. They can grow up to 2 centimeters in length.

Phantom midge larvae (Charborus sp.)

So that is it for the pond water, I had a fun and learned a lot from this late winter activity.


Check out the other critters at Camera Critter by clicking here.