Category Archives: Plants & Fungi

plants & fungi

Tiny Autumn Orchid

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Late Coralroot, flower close-up (photo by Kate St. John)
Late Coralroot, flower close-up, 14 Sep 2015, Butler County, PA (photo by Kate St. John)

Last Monday I attended a botanical outing that promised fall orchids including this one: Late Coralroot.

Late or Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza) is a tiny orchid that grows in eastern North America from Quebec to Texas.  Like Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) it’s a parasitic plant that feeds on fungi so it has neither chlorophyll nor leaves. Most of the year it lives underground.  Then in late summer it sends up one stem to produce tiny flowers only 1/5″ long which bloom from August to October.

The stems we found in Butler County, Pennsylvania were dark purple-brown, about 8 inches tall.  From above they looked like small useless sticks but as soon as we found them we realized how easy it would be to step on one unawares. Yow.

The plant’s color and size made it difficult to photograph. Nonetheless, here are some (poor) photos to give you an idea of the plant.  Here it is as seen from ground level, though not the entire plant.

Late Coralroot (photo by Kate St. John)
Late Coralroot (photo by Kate St. John)

This closeup shows the flower’s white un-notched lip with purple spots.  It also shows a strange characteristic: Some flowers are rotated sideways.

Late Coralroot flower, turned on its axis (photo by Kate St. John)
Late Coralroot flower, turned on its axis (photo by Kate St. John)

When the flowers go to seed they droop along the stem.

Late Corlaroot, flowers gone to seed (photo by Kate St. John)
Late Corlaroot, flowers gone to seed (photo by Kate St. John)

Though abundant in the spot where we found it, this plant is listed as endangered in several states and “Exploitably Vulnerable” in New York … so I’m not revealing its location.

 

(photos by Kate St. John)

Extirpated From Pennsylvania?

Deer, Mammals, Plants & Fungi
Hobblebush with fruit, early Sept in Maine (photo by Kate St. John)
Hobblebush with fruit, early Sept in Maine (photo by Kate St. John)

15 September 2015

Here’s a plant that’s easy to find in Maine but is nearly gone from Pennsylvania even though our state is in the middle of its range.

Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides) is a shrub 6-12 feet high that grows in rich moist forests from Quebec to Georgia. Its arching branches hold pairs of leaves with delicate white flowers in the spring (click here to see) and abundant fruit in the fall that ripens from red to blue.  It’s called “hobble” bush because its long branches take root where the tips touch the ground, then hobble passersby.

Hobblebush is not extinct in Pennsylvania but it’s extremely hard to find and is extirpated from most counties.  In 20 years of Pennsylvania hiking I have seen it only once, growing on top of an isolated, sheer-sided, 15-foot high boulder near Cook Forest.

For plants, habitat loss is the usual cause of local extinction but hobblebush disappeared from Pennsylvania without the help of bulldozers.  The agent of change here is white-tailed deer.

Deer in western Pennsylvania, Fall 2011 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Deer in western Pennsylvania, October 2011 (photo by Steve Gosser)

Hobblebush is such a favorite deer food that the plant’s abundance is in inverse proportion to the deer population.  Where deer are in balance with their habitat, hobblebush thrives and they enjoy its flavor, but in Pennsylvania we have 30 deer per square mile (sometimes 70!) so our hobblebush was eaten to the ground long ago.

This situation is not new.  For more than half a century deer have been so abundant in Pennsylvania that they’re forced to consume everything edible from the ground to as high as they can reach.  Our forests have browse lines — shown below — and deer eat the hemlocks that shelter them in winter, a case of eating themselves out of house and home.  (Click here to read more.)

Browse line in Butler County, PA (photo by Kate St. John)
Browse line (empty gap beneath trees) in Butler County, PA (photo by Kate St. John)

So that’s why seeing hobblebush in Maine is such a treat and why it’s found on top of high isolated boulders in Pennsylvania.  At that elevated location the deer can’t reach it.

Have you seen hobblebush in Pennsylvania?  Or is it extirpated from your area?

(photo of hobblebush at Acadia National Park and a browse line in Pennsylvania by Kate St. John,
photo of deer by Steve Gosser)

Master Asters

Books & Events, Plants & Fungi

Asters (photo by Kate St. John)
Asters (photo by Kate St. John)

September is the month for asters and goldenrods but these plants are so hard to identify that I usually say: “It’s an aster (or goldenrod) but I don’t know which one.”

Now there’s hope for the aster-onomically challenged.  Pennsylvania Botany is offering a one-day seminar on identifying asters and goldenrods on September 22 at Nescopek State Park.  Participants will use keys and floras and get plenty of hands-on practice.

Master asters at this seminar.  It’s open to the public but is not free.  See the links below for more information.

Aster and Goldenrod Identification Workshop
September 22, 2015 • 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Nescopeck State Park, Environmental Education Center
1137 Honey Hole Road • Drums, Pennsylvania 18222
Directions/information on Nescopek State Park.

 

(photo by Kate St. John)

Bees Can’t See Red

Insects, Plants & Fungi

Honey bee at camas (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Honey bee at camas flower (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

When I wrote about hummingbirds and orange jewelweed last week, some of you wondered if the birds sipped at pale (yellow) jewelweed, too.  While finding the answer I learned a cool fact:  Bees can’t see red.

Hummingbirds are attracted to shades of red so they see the spots on orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) as a delicious target and rely on this plant during fall migration.

Over time the spur on Impatiens capensis has evolved to maximize pollination by hummingbirds with a tight cone-shaped entrance that guides the birds’ bills.

Spotted jewelweed, Impatiens capensis (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis)
Orange jewelweed, Impatiens capensis (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis)

Hummingbirds don’t care about yellow so they don’t choose the other jewelweed — the “pale” one — but bees do.

Bees see yellow, purple, blue, and a color called bee’s purple, a mixture of yellow and ultraviolet which we humans can’t see.  Bees can’t see red so they aren’t much attracted to orange jewelweed.

However, pale jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) is designed for bees.  Not only is it yellow but its expandable entrance accommodates both large and small bees, brushing their bodies as they walk in.

Pale jewelweed, Impatiens pallida (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis)
Pale jewelweed, Impatiens pallida, with a bee inside (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis)

Though the two jewelweeds grow near each other, they send different signals.  Red is for birds.  Yellow is for bees.

 

(Honey bee photo from Wikimedia Commons. Orange and pale jewelweed photos by Flora Pittsburghensis.  Click on the images to see the originals)

p.s. On the subject of bees (in general) here’s a recent article from The Allegheny Front about breeding stronger honey bees:  Building a Better Honeybee

Showy Food For Birds

Plants & Fungi
American spikenard fruit at Schenley Park, August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
American spikenard fruit at Schenley Park, 20 August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Here’s a native perennial that produces lots of fruit for migrating birds.

American spikenard (Aralia racemosa) is a showy plant that grows three to five feet tall and wide.  It blooms in airy greenish-white spikes from June to August and ripens its fruit in August and September, just in time for migrating birds. Click here to see it in bloom.

American spikenard, Schenley Park, August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
American spikenard, Schenley Park, 20 August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

In my opinion, the plant was misnamed. People must have hoped it was similar to the real spikenard, Nardostachys jatamansi, a Himalayan plant in the Valerian family whose root is made into fragrant essential oil (called nard), but American spikenard is not at all like it and isn’t even in the same family. The American plant isn’t valuable to humans; it cannot make perfume.

But Aralia racemosa is valuable to birds. It’s a low maintenance plant that likes full sun or partial shade and spreads slowly by seeds and rhizomes.  In August it offers showy fruit for birds.

Click here for more information at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

(photos by Kate St. John)

It Grows a Mile a Minute

Plants & Fungi
Mile-a-minute weed (photo by Kate St. John)
Mile-a-minute weed (photo by Kate St. John)

19 August 2015

If you ever see this plant, eradicate it!

My first encounter with Mile-a-minute weed was a decade ago in the Laurel Highlands when a small patch of leaves caught my eye.  Such perfect triangles! I didn’t know the plant but if I had I would have uprooted it.

Mile-a-minute weed (Persicaria perfoliata) is an annual, trailing vine, that thrives in sunlight and can grow 6 inches a day(!).  It has triangular leaves and perfoliate cups at the stem joints, called ocreae, where it produces flowers and fruit.  Notice the recurved thorns on the stems and on the underside of the leaf veins that give it this alternate name: Devil’s tear-thumb.

Mile-a-minute stem (photo by Kate St. John)
Mile-a-minute stem (photo by Kate St. John)

Persicaria perfoliata tried to invade North America several times but didn’t take hold until the late 1930s when it charmed a nurseryman in York County, Pennsylvania. He received it unintentionally in a shipment of seeds, was fascinated and allowed it to grow. By the time he realized his mistake it was too late.  Birds and animals love the fruit and spread the plant. 

Mile-a-minute fruit (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Mile-a-minute now swamps southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic and New England.  It has spread more than 300 miles since it left York.  Click here for the map.

If you think you’ve found Mile-a-minute weed, check a few things before you pull.  Does it have perfect-triangle leaves?  Does it have perfoliate cups at the stem joints? Does it have thorns?  If so, you’ve found the bad stuff. 

Before you put on long pants, long sleeves and gloves to pull it out there’s one more question to ask: Does it have fruit? If so, be very careful not to spread the seeds while you pull — collect them first. This annual plant can only return next year if the seeds spread.

I found a fruitless specimen dying in Frick Park last weekend.  I had noticed it in July and was finally returning to pull it but, thankfully, park stewards had already dosed the area with therapeutic defoliant.  Good!  I administered the final blow and pulled it out.

(photos by Kate St. John and Wikimedia Commons)

Now Blooming: Biennial Gaura

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Biennial gaura (photo by Kate St. John)
Biennial gaura, closeup (photo by Kate St. John)

Though the plant looks like a tall weed, this pretty flower is blooming now in fields and open areas.

As its name suggest, Biennial gaura (Gaura biennis) takes two years to bloom.  In the first year it’s a rosette of basal leaves that sends down deep roots to survive wet winters and dry summers.  In the second year it grows 4-6 feet tall and blooms in August.

The flowers are white when they bloom and turn pink as they fade.  I never notice the plant until the flowers are pink.

 

(photo by Kate St. John)

Sneezes Coming Up

Plants & Fungi

Giant ragweed closeup (photo by Kate St. John)
Giant ragweed closeup (photo by Kate St. John)

These yellow capsules are closed but soon they’ll burst open and fling their pollen to the wind.

Last Wednesday I found this giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) growing along Nine Mile Run Trail south of Commercial Street.  The plant is so tall that the flower spike is at eye — or should I say nose — level.  Fortunately it’s not as tall as the record-setting 21-foot specimen in Texas.

Giant ragweed flower spikes (photo by Kate St. John)
Giant ragweed flower spikes, 12 August 2015, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)

Though the flowers aren’t open yet ragweed season officially begins today, August 15.  Hang on to your handkerchiefs!

Learn more here about ragweed and how to identify the ‘common’ one.

 

(photos by Kate St. John)

UPDATE August 16:  The capsules have opened.  The pollen is out.   Ahhhh-choo!

Giant ragweed and its pollen, 16 August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Giant ragweed and its pollen, 16 August 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)