Show, Don't Tell

Field Observations

7/16/2020 10 am to 11:45 am

Today I discovered a second childhood. My curiosity was renewed with a vigor after the Nature Photography lecture. I wanted to see what sort of interesting photos I could capture from my 2 hours in Thomas Woods today. Everything was new and super exciting, even the smallest plant or log. I believe I noticed and spent more time just crouching down than I normally would have otherwise, getting down on the level of various ground plants and insects.

I didn't stray far off the path today as it had rained that morning, but I did at least step in a bit to investigate some microbiomes that caught my eye. One particular tiny habitat that caught my eye was a a knee high tall stump which looked like something had been eating at it. I noticed many rectangular shaped wood pieces piled on the top. I found a millipede resting on one side, as well as various ants crawling around. They seemed to be carrying tiny white objects I was unable to identify. An additional interesting mini forest section was I found a large tree with sap leaking out of it which was attracting all sorts of insect life, including a butterfly and a hornet! The hornet I watched land in the sap, fly away, then land back on the tree, and repeated for awhile. Possibly taking sap back to its nest!

Millipede Ant carrying white object

Another activity I did was just to simply stand still and access my senses of smell, hearing, and touch. Due to the previous rainfall, the air smelled moist and fresh, more foresty than usual. I could even hear the water dripping off the vegetation and splattering on the ground. The woods were also filled with song: mourning dove, cicada, a crow, and what I think was a Field Sparrow that I identified using the Audubon library of bird sounds. On my skin I could feel the humidity and wetness of the air but because I was in the shade it felt pleasant rather than stifling.

Of course I was drawn to the many wildflowers which were an easy subject to photograph. It was during this hunt for flowers to snap a photo of that I noticed the Tall Bellflower really only grows along the forest edges on the outside of Thomas Woods as well as along the paths inside it. And it grows everywhere!! It really enjoys the edge space. This makes me think about the diversity that often occurs at the edges of different environments and ecotones, or even just topographical differences such as a path cutting through a forest or the transition from forest to meadow or wetland. I too, prefer the edges of my human habitats. As a queer person I am on the outside of the heterosexual and heteromantic spaces. As a trans nonbinary person I exist in my own ecotone of the masculine and feminine.

Species Identification

Tall Bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum)

This flower can be 3-6 feet tall, hence the name Tall Bellflower. However, the common name is misleading as the flowers are more flat than bellshaped, but its close relatives all have bellshaped flowers. This plant blooms from June to August. You can find it growing in a preferred habitat made up of partly shaded, rich soils in mesic woods or along shaded streams. Tall Bellflower seems to prefer slightly disturbed soils as well.

You can easily distinguish this flora by its five petaled blue/purple flowers as well as hairy stem and alternate leaves which have a rough texture and hairs along the main veins. The leaves are also toothed as well. There are some interesting relationships with pollinators, such as the hummingbirds which are known to feed on Tall Bellflowers, as are bumblebees and leaf-cutting bees. Deer are also known to munch on the flowers and leaves on occasion.

Hilty, John. (2020). American bellflower. Illinois Wildflowers. https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/am_bellflower.htm

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. (n.d.). Campanulastrum americanum. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=caam18

Starry Campion (Silene stellata)

The Starry Campion is a perennial forb which can be recognized by its lance-shaped leaves which occur in a radial whorl of four leaves around the typically straight stem (the photos below show a plant found by me in the field which had fallen over). This wildflower grows to be about 2-3 feet in height and blooms during the months of May, June, July, and August. A helpful identifier is the sticky stem and the flowers which are white, tube shaped, and have five fringed petals. The flowers attract butterflies as well as many moth species. You might see this flower grown in many wildflower and pollinator gardens for this very reason.

Like many woodland flowers, Starry Campion prefers partial shade and is found in moist, acidic, rich soils. This forb can be found in open woodlands or praries/savannas. An additional common name for this plant is Widow's Frill.

In Michigan at least, this plant has a threatened status and is legally protected. Some theories about the causes of its endangerment include fire suppression and enclosed forest canopies, thus prescribed burns and bush removal may help support this species.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. (n.d.). Silene stellata. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SIST

Michigan State University. (2020). Silene stellata. https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/species/description/13896/Silene-stellata

Plant found naturally curved over Plant held upright for Identification/photographic purposes

Bald Faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata)

This wasp's common name may be Bald Faced Hornet, but it is not a true hornet. However, the bald face description does refer to its white colored face with the dark eyes which make it very distinguishable, as do the two white spots on the thorax and the white stripes on the bottom end of the abdomen. These white markings stand out on the rest of the body which is black.

Bald Faced Hornets are eusocial insects, meaning they live in a hive like honeybees, with a queen that lays eggs, drones which are males that mate with the queen, and workers who do all the rest of the work. Like many other wasps, this species builds paper nests, sometimes as long as 3 feet, where the colony lives. The nests, typically ball shaped, are built in the spring.

These wasps live on a meat and pollen/nectar diet. They typically eat other insects such as caterpillars and aphids and will visit flowers making them occassional pollinators.

Bald Faced Hornets are very protective of their nest and are able to sting repeatedly but only if threatened or you are too close to the hive.

Washington Nature Mapping Program. (n.d.). Bald-faced hornet. http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/facts/bald-faced_hornet_712.html

Northern Pearly-Eye (Enodia anthedon)

This butterfly is a woodland species typically found within damp woodlands, along woodland edges, or by streams. The flight of a Northern Pearly-Eye is quick and seems quite chaotic, then ends with the butterfly perched upside down on a tree trunk like in the picture____. You can recognize this brown colored butterfly by the many eye spots along its wings. Some are pretty big brown circles with a lighter circle around it on the forewing. The hindwing has spots with a brown center and yellow, brown, and white rings around it, as well as a tiny white spot on that brown middle center. There are also two large, dark bbands that run down the wings parallel to each other. These identifiers are able to be seen when the butterfly has its wings closed, open there is much less detailed eyespots but its the same tawny color.

The life cycle of this butterfly includes specific host plants including: white grass, bearded shorthusk, plume grass, and bottle brush grass. The adult butterflies consume fungi, dung, carrion, and tree sap from species such as birch, populars, and willows. The range of this species includes parts of lower Canada and the entire Eastern and Midwestern part of the USA.

Butterflies and Moths of North America. (2020). Northern pearly-eye. https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Enodia-anthedon

Wisconsin Butterflies. (2020). Northern pearly-eye. https://wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterfly/species/101-northern-pearly-eye

Question of the Week

Q: What are the soils like in your habitat? Combine direct observations of your soils in several locations (i.e. with soil pits) with research into other descriptions. How do your soils influence the plants on your site?

7/18/2020

I went out to do a bit of soil investigation on Saturday. I didn't have any equipment to dig soil pits so I tried doing some digging with thick sticks. The photos below don't quite demonstrate how dark the top layer (called topsoil) appeared as they were quite dark, due to presence of lots of organic material most likely, which makes sense due to the fact that this is a forest ecosystem as well as with the side close to the wetland that floods which would leave excess organic materials when waters fade back to original borders. I can't talk much about the other soil horizons as I was not able to dig past the initial layer due to soil being a bit dry at the moment (it has been summer with few rain storms this year).

However, looking at the plant species can offer clues to the existing topography. For example, I know that bottlebrush grass, tall bellflower, and starry campion are all herbaceous species that occur in moist, mesic woodlands. This offers a clue that Thomas Woods must be well-drained (most likely into the wetland) and is very mesic.

Ways soils can influence vegetation includes access to minerals (the make up of the soil) and soil texture itself. For example, soil texcture is what determines where soil exist on a scale from excessively drained to very poorly drained. Sand drains the most, silt is typically moderately drained, and clay is very poorly drained. Soils can be made up of combinations of these soil textures which adds even more complexity to topographic heterogeneity! Another part of the picture I know from the Natural Heritage of Indiana book as well as past course experience at Merry Lea, is that the soils are very young, 10-15,000 years old. This means they will support plant life better than older soils which had glacial movements much longer ago and thus are less rich.