Bob's Brain on Botany

Welcome to bobklips.com, the website of Bob Klips, a plant enthusiast living in Columbus, Ohio.
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Free Central Placentation!
Soapwort
June 18, 2010. Columbus, Ohio

Soapwort, also called bouncing Bet, Saponaria officinalis, is an Old World member of the Caryophyllaceae, the pink family. According to the Best Book Ever Written --"The New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada," by Henry A. Gleason (1952, New York Botanical Garden) --the species was in cultivation before it spread to roadsides and waste places. I wonder what is was in cultivation for. The specific epithet "officinalis" indicates that the plant has or had some medcinal purpose. Was it cultivated for medicine, or just because it is pretty. It is pretty pretty. Here is is beautifying the edge of a parking lot in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio.

Soapwort population in Columbus. June 17, 2010.

The genus name "Saponaria" is from the Latin sapo, soap, in reference to a mucilaginous juice that the leaves contain, forming a lather with water. But I wouldn't recommend washing dishes with it, because the plant is somewhat poisonous.

Soapwort. June 18, 2010. Columbus, Ohio.

Soapwort somewhat resembles various campions and catchflies but the flowers of those genera have 3 styles (Silene) or 5 styles (Lychnis). Saponaria flowers have only 2 styles. Some pink family traits seen in the images above and below are the simple oppositely arranged leaves, and 5-merous flowers that have sepals fused together, and separate petals with a distinctly narrow base ("claw") and expanded blade. If the flowers below are any indication, soapwort flowers develop in "protandrous" fashion, with the stamens maturing before the pistil.

Soapwort flowers. June 18, 2010. Columbus, Ohio.
Upper blossom is older, and shows exert styles and withered stamens.
Lower blossom is younger, showing fresh stamens, and style included.

Another pink family feature, a bit obscure but nonetheless intriguing, is that the fruits have an unusual placentation type.

"Placentation" refers to the manner in which the seeds are borne along the inside of the ovary. Here are three examples from the grocery store, and then, soapwort.

1. Marginal Placentation. Fruits such as legumes, that are composed of a single modified seed-bearing leaf (megasporophyll), or "carpel," bear their seeds along a line that corresponds to the margin of the leaf that, in highly modified form, encloses the seeds. Such a "unicarpellate" fruit bears its seeds along a line on one inner edge of the ovary. This is barely visible as bulges in the photo below.

Snow pea, showing seeds borne along one row.

The row along which the pea seeds are borne is its "marginal placenta."

Snow pea split to show marginal placentation.

2. Axile Placentation. Except for legumes, unicarpellate pistils are quite uncommon. Most pistils are "syncarpous," i.e., composed of two or more seed-bearing units (carpels) fused together. Sometimes the carpels are evident as chambers of the fruits, or at least ridges or incomplete internal divisions. It is common for seeds to be produced where the internal divisions of the carpels some together, or on the chamber-forming internal walls of the fruit. Here's a cross-section of a hot pepper, showing this common placentation type, called "axillary placentation."

Hot pepper split to show axillary placentation.

3. Parietal Placentation. A fairly uncommon placentation type is one where the seeds are borne along the inside wall of the ovary. The gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) has this "parietal placentation." Here's a cucumber split to illustrate the placentation type (and to make a salad).

Cucumber showing parietal placentation.

4. Saving the best for last, it's Free Central Placentation!! An uber-uncommon placentation type is had by soapwort and other members of the Caryophyllaceae. Here, the ovary has no internal walls, but there is a central post-like column attached only at the base of the ovary, and that column is covered with seeds! This condition is called "free central placentation." The photo below shows (left) a soapwort flower dissected to expose the outside of ovary, topped by its 2 styles, and (right) a soapwort fruit split lengthwise to expose the seed-covered central column.

Soapwort flower and fruit details.
Left: flower with overy topped by 2 styles.
Right: fruit split showing free-central placentation.

A Weed, Not Weed. Knotweed
Polygonum aviculare
June 17, 2010, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Maron County, Ohio

There was a Grateful Dead convention at Killdeer Plains today. One of the participants rolled up the leaves of this little plant in a little piece of paper and was about to set it on fire. I said to him. "That's knotweed." He said, "Oh, far out, man. Thanks. My mistake. What a bummer."

Common knotweed, Polygonum aviculare (Polygonaceae, the smartweed family) is an annual herb with repeatedly branched stems. The leaves are small, with a distinctive Polygonaceae feature. The leafstalks have cylindric appendages at their base called "stipules" sheathing the stem. "Polygonum" is from the Greek, meaning "many knees," in reference to the conspicuously jointed stems of many of the species. Hmm. Maybe it was the jointed stems that attracted the deadhead's interest.

Common knotweed. June 17, 2010. Killdeer Plains. Marion County, Ohio.

Common knotweed is abundant in dry open areas. especially along roadside disturbed areas, as shown below.

Habitat of common knotweed
Killdeer Plains, Marion County, Ohio.

Knotweed flowers lack petals, but the calyx is pretty pretty. It's composed usually of 5 sepals, alternating with 5 stamens. The fruit is a dry one-seeded type called an "achene." Incidentally, buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, the achenes of which are a grain-like foodstuff, is a member of this family. The only other economically important (in a good way) polygonaceous species is rhubarb. (Rheum rhaponticum).

Common knotweed flower. June 17, 2010. Marion County, Ohio.

The 4th Red Flower
Round-leaved catchfly
June 16, 2010. Deep Woods Preserve, Hocking County, Ohio.

A few years ago somebody told me there are just four pure red Ohio native wildflowers. Is that true? I hope so, because if it is, today I snapped a picture that makes my scrap-book complete, and further cements my eternal gratitude to the Canon Corporation for making a camera that produces respectable images under the low light conditions of Deep Woods' deep woods.

This is it: round-leaved catchfly, Silene rotundifolia, a woodland herb in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae) with a fidelity to rocky cliffs and banks. A southern Appalachian species at the northern edge of its range here in southern Ohio, it is a weak-stemmed, decumbent plant with 5-8 pairs of broadly lance-shaped to nearly round leaves. Here at Deep Woods it grows on, and at the rocky talus base of, a sandstone cliff in a hardwood forest part of the preserve. Round-leaved catchfly is potentially threatened in Ohio, known from only 4 counties.

Round-leaved catchfly at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

On an unidentified leaf quite near the catchfly are some other life-forms, the photographing of which also benefited from a high-ISO camera setting. This is a pretty pair of net-winged beetles (family Lycidae) that appear to be Calopteron reticulatum, identified using the superb "Kaufman Field Guide to the Insects of North America," by Eric Eaton and Ken Kaufman. The authors note that these beetles are "usually seen sitting on leaves or flying slowly through forests at dusk." They also tell us that larvae occur in decaying wood or crawling on the forest floor.

But I digress; back to the red flowers. Two other red Ohio flowers are also members of the genus Silene. One of these is also a woodland wildflower, but more common and wide-ranging than S. rotundifolia: fire pink, Silene virginica. Compared to round-leaved catchfly, fire pink has a more upright growth form, and fewer pairs of leaves, which are narrowly oblanceolate (backwards lance-shaped). Here's fire pink as it appeared almost exactly one year ago in a rich woods in Marion County, situated in the Northwestern Till Plains bio-region of the state.

Fire Pink at Myer's Woods Preserve Marion County. June 14, 2009.

The third scarlet Silene is another rare species, a prairie wildflower called royal catchfly, Silene regia. Royal catchfly is threatened in Ohio, which some people find surprising in light of the fact that it has been found in some fairly disturbed roadside sites, and easily also thrives in cultivation and prairie restorations. The photo below was taken at the restored prairie on the OSU-Marion campus.

Royal catchfly at the OSU-Marion's Larry R. Yoder Prairie. July 23, 2007.

The 4th member of the crimson quartet is, of course, the famous cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis (Campanulaceae, the bellwort family). This much-loved wetland herb occurs at Deep Woods Preserve, where this picture was taken during August of last year in wet soil along a bank of the creek that bisects the property.

Cardinal flower at Deep Woods. August 16, 2009.

The genus Lobelia displays several "derived," i.e., evolutionarily advanced, floral traits: an inferior ovary; bilateral rather than radial symmetry, and; fusion not only of the petals with one another, but also fusion of the anthers with the terminal half of the filaments. While we might have to wait a few weeks to see cardinal flower here, a different lovely lobelia in flower today. This is a meadow and prairie species called pale-spike lobelia, Lobelia spicata, fairly common in the open meadow where, earlier today, we saw cow-wheat and jelly baby (see below).

Pale-spike lobelia at Deep Woods Preserve, Hocking County,Ohio.

A few other plants caught our eyes on this beautiful midsummer day. The top of a large sandstone boulder in the woods is the home of a thriving stand of rock skullcap, Scutellara saxatilis. The skullcap genus is one of the more easily recognized ones within the mint family, as the calyx bears a distinctive upright protuberance on its upper edge. Like round-leaved catchfly, this is a species chiefly of the Applachians, at a northern boundary of its range in south-central Ohio.

Rock skullcap at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

In areas of the forest where eastern hemlock predominates, the soil is rich in organic humus (not to be confused with organic humous; I tried the soil on a piece of pita bread and it wasn't very tasty!). Here, an especially robust leafy liverwort covers soil, rocks, logs and tree bases. This is Bazzania trilobata (family Lepidoziaceae). Bazzania leaves are arranged in an "incubous" fashion (incubous, not to be confused with...oh, never mind). Leaves that are incubous are shingled in such a way that the upper edge of each leaf overlaps the base of the next higher leaf along the stem. This arangement is less common that the opposite form, called "succubous." The leaves of this Bazzania are prominently 3-lobed at the tip.

Bazzania trilobata (and Dicranum moss) at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

Parasites, Hemiparasites, and Myco-heterotrophs, Oh-my!
Cancer-root, cow-wheat, and Indian pipes.
June 16, 2010. Deep Woods Preserve. Hocking County, Ohio.

A group of plant enthusiasts decided to go on a general purpose midsummer botanical foray to Deep Woods, a privately owned nature preserve in Hocking County, Ohio. One of the first plants seen in flower today is Indian pipes, Monotropa uniflora, in the subfamily Monotropoideae within Ericaceae, the heath family (formerly placed in its own little family, the Monotropaceae).

Indian pipes in flower. Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

While fully and completely a flowering plant, because Indian-pipes lacks chlorophyll and is ghostly white, it is sometimes mistaken foor a fungus. Tom Volk, on one of his excellent " Fungus of the Month" pages (where of course he starts out be explaining this isn't a fungus at all), cites current research that elucidates the 3-way relationships, wherein Indian pipes is parasitic on a mushroom-style basidiomycete fungus that is itself engaged in a mutualistic mycorrhizal (i.e., "fungus-root") association with forest trees. This is called "myco-heterotrophy." Volk cites research done by Martin Bidartono and Tom Bruns that show the fungal hosts of members of the Monotropoideae to be quite specific and, moreover, not shared among co-occuring monotropoids. The hosts of Monotropa uniflora are members of the genera Russula and Lactarius.

Flowers of Indian pipes. June 16, 2010. Deep Woods Preserve. Hocking County, Ohio.

Not far from the pipes, we did in fact see a Russula fungus. Nearly impossible to identify to species, Russula mushrooms are often colorful, have a brittle stalk that can be snapped like a piece of chalk, and have widely spaced gills that do not bleed white when broken. (If the gills do bleed white, then it's probably a Lactarius).

Russula mushroom (and Polytrichum moss) at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

Speaking of fungi, just a spore's throw away from this mushroom is an interesting little mushroom-like non-mushroom fungus called a "jelly baby," Leotia lubrica. Leotia is an ascomycte, i.e., a member of the class of fungi that produces spores in microscopic sac-like structures (asci) as opposed to the club-like ones (basidia) had by mushrooms (basidiomycetes). As most macroscopic ascomyscetes have a cup-shaped fruiting body, it is a distinct treat to see this little cap-and-stalk shaped one.

Leotia lubrica

"Jelly baby" fungus (and Dicranum moss, and Cladonia lichen) at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

But I digress; let's get back to Monotropa. Ohio's only other monotropoid species is pinesap, Monotropa hypopithys. Looking like a multi-headed Indian-pipes, pipesap tends to occur in the same rich forest habitats as does Indian pipes, but is much less frequent. According to the Bidartono and Bruns (2001) paper cited above, pinesap's fungal hosts are various Tricholoma species. Unbeknownst to us this fine June day, pinesap, unseen, was present and flowering or perhaps just about to come up. A couple of months later a few fruiting pinesap plants will be seen in the immediate vicinity. (I'm so far behind on the web site!)

A glimpse into the future: pinesap (in fruit).
August 7, 2010 at Deep Woods, Hocking County, Ohio.

Growing in a shady spot at the edge of the glade-like meadow where we did much of our botanizing, in a dense bed of Polytrichum and Dicranum mosses is a more typical representative of the heath family. This is a very low-growing trailing plant that, being woody, is technically a shrub even though it just looks like a wildflower: teaberry, Gaultheria procumbens. Having as distinctive oil wintergreen flavor, teaberry is delightful to nibble on.

Teaberry at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

In this open meadow where the soil is thin and dry, there is another wildlflower that may be a bit less self-sufficient than we expect plants to be. This is cow-wheat, Melampyrum lineare, in the Orobancaceae (broomrape family), to which it was recently transferred from the Scrophulariaceae (figwort family) by somebody who didn't much like it and noticed that "broomrape" is an even skeezier name than "figwort." Cow-wheat is a "hemiparasite," meaning that it is in fact green and photosynthetic, yet derives some of its nutrition, perhaps only some of the time, as a direct root-parasite on other plants (sans fungal intervention). It must have taken a keen eye (and some digging) to have originally discerned this, because cow-wheat looks for all the world like a regular little old wildflower, with nothing in the least parasiticey (ahh, no spell checker in Kompopzer, no wiggly lines...freeeeeedom, yay!!) about it.

Cow-wheat at Deep Woods. June 16, 2010.

Deep in the woods, another member of the Orobancaceae is quite abundant. This is cancer-root, Conopholis americana. Cancer-root is a "holoparasite," i.e., it lacks chlorophyll and is wholly dependent on its host for nutrients and water. Conopholis directly connects to oaks and beech by means of underground attachment organs called "haustoria" that tap into their roots.

Cancer-root in fruit. June 16, 2010. Deep Woods, Hocking County, Ohio.

Be it ever so humble, there's no grass like brome.
Canada brome, Bromus pubescens
June 15, 2010. Wyandot County, Ohio

The grass genus Bromus (variously called "brome," "chess," and "cheat") is a fairly distinctive one, striking by virture of its large, narrow, many-flowered spikelets arranged in lax open panicles. The most common brome grasses are introduced weeds. An annual called cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum, for instance, is one of the most noxious weeds of western pasture land. Therefore it was a special treat to finally meet a native brome growing alongside the Marion-Wyandot County Road, on the Wyandot side. It's Canada brome, Bromus pubescens (formerly called B. purgans) --a tall perennial of moist woods.

Canada brome. June 15, 2010. Wyandot County, Ohio.

As seen here, the spikelets are generally pubescent. Note also the lemmas are awned, as is often the case with brome grasses, although in this species the awns are shorter than in many other bromes, and according to the manuals, the awns may be lacking entirely.

Canada brome spikelets. June 15, 2010. Wyandot County, Ohio.

An Unusual Moss with Distinctive Gemmae.
Orthotrichum obtusifolium
June 13, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

I was there looking for lichens and also to snap some pics of Anomodon minor (see below). Leaning across a little intermittent tributary stream to the Scioto River running through the rich woodland here, is a leaning hardwood sapling, perhaps an elm.

tree branch with Orthotrichum obtusifolium

Leaning tree, habitat for lichens and mosses.

The lichens turned out to be Phaeophyscia ciliata and Physcia stellaris. They were nice to see, although both species are quite common. It was also clear that, sharing the log with the lichens, there are sterile (i.e., lacking sporophytes) individuals of a common corticolous moss genus: Orthotrichum. There are 10 species of Orthotrichum in Ohio, and identification to species is tough even if you have compete specimens with capsules. But a close look at the Orthotrichum tufts revealed them to be of two types: one with acute leaves that could be any of several annoying species, and others that are distinctly blunt tipped.

foliose lichens and Orthotrichum obtusifolium

Two lichens, and two mosses close together, on a branch.
Phaeophyscia ciliata is the sparse brownish lichen in the lower left.
Physcia stellaris is the abundant lichen, bearing apothecia.
The mosses are Orthotrichum species --one a mystery, the other shown below.

Moreover the blunt-tipped ones looked all porcupiney (yay, no spell-checker!) because the leaves are beset with elongate 4 to 8-celled assexual reproductive structures called "gemmae."

Orthotrichum obtusifolium microscope view.
Note blunt leaves and abundant gemmae on the leaf surface.

Orthotrichum obtusifolium is quite an uncommon, or at least uncommonly detected, moss in Ohio. The range map in the Ohio Biological Survey's "Catalogue and Atlas of the Mosses of Ohio" (1996, Andreas and Snider, revised, March 2010) only shows 6 counties. Delaware County, marked by a weird purple asterisk, is not one of them, yet.

Range map from "Catalogue and Atlas of the Mosses of Ohio."

Anomodon minor
June 13, 2010.
Delaware County, Ohio.

The moss genus Anomodon is notable for being one of the few mosses for which different species of a single genus can often be seen growing in mixed patches. There is nonetheless some differentiation of habitat. One of our most abundant and distinctive mosses is Anomodon attentuatus, which can often be seen in open woods clothing the bases of hardwood trees like a ragged green ankle sock. Here it is a few years ago at Deep Woods Preserve in Hocking County, Ohio.

Anomodon attenuatus at base of tree.
Deep Woods, Hocking Cty. OH. May 7, 2008.

A closer view shows us the basis for the specific epithet attenuatus, as the leaves get smaller towards the branch tips, each somewhat flattened branch tapering nearly to a point. Here what it looks like when wet.

Anomodon attentuatus. February 14, 2005. Deep Woods Preserve.

...and here's Anomodon attenuatus dry and somewhat curled up, seen with the dog lichen, Peltigera canina on a sandstone boulder.

Anomodon attenuatus and Peltigera canina

Anomodon attentuatus with dog lichen.
Shade River State Forest. Meigs County, Ohio. September 19, 2009.

Microscopically, the leaves of A. attenuatus are distinctive. They are broadly tongue-shaped.

Anomodon attenuatus leaf.

...with tips that are acute, and marked by a few irregular teeth, and cells that are "pluripapillose," i.e., beset with many small bumps.

Leaf features of Anomodon attenuatus.
Left: serrate tip. Right: papillose cells.

Another common species is Anomodon rostratus. While this may often be seen with its just-described congener at the bases of trees, A. rostratus seems a little more at home on moist partly shaded rock ledges, seemingly without regard for chemistry, occurring both on basic limestone and acidic sandstone. Here it is on limestone along the Scioto River in Franklin County.

Anomodon rostratus carpets limestone ledge along Scioto River.
Franklin County, Ohio. March 17, 2008.

Close-up, we see a feature of Anomodon rostratus that clearly differentiates it from other members of the genus. The leaves are arrayed regularly around the branches, giving them a tubular appearance, like a cat's tail. The techno-mossy term for that is "julaceous." The yellowish color is distinctive, too.

Anomodon rostratus. March 17, 2008. Franklin County, Ohio.

Again, the microscope is useful for confirming the identification. The leaves of Anomodon rostratus end in a beak-like hair-point.

Anomodon rostratus leaf.

The big excitement, and why we're talking about Anomodon today, is that in a rich open woods alongside the Scioto River in Delaware County, there is a another, less common but by no means rare species, Anomodon minor. Fairly robust, having flattened branches, and occurring often on trees, this can be, and probably often is, overlooked because it resembles A. attenuatus. It seems to be more of a high-bark species though.

Anomodon minor high on bark of hardwood tree in rich woods.
June 9, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

Compared with A. attenuatus, Anomodon minor branches project out more, in a shelf-like fashion.

Anomodon minor. June 9, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

...and the branches, while flattened, do not taper.

Anomodon minor. June 9, 2010, Delaware County, Ohio.

Through the microscope, the identification is clinched. The tongue-shaped leavdes are very blunt, without any terminal teeth.

Anomodon minor leaves.

Along the road near the woods is another plant whose genus begins with "A." and has 4 syllables. This is woodland thimbleweed, Anemone virginiana (Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family).

Woodland thimble-weed.
June 9, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

In typical buttercup fashion, the thimble-weed flowers are radially symmetric, with numerous stamens and numerous pistils, spirally arranged.

Woodland thimble-weed.
June 9, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

Bulblet Fern and Orchard Spider
June 9-13, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio

In a lovely wooded area alongside the Scioto River in Delaware County, Ohio is a little limestone cliff covered with cryptogams. One of these is bulblet fern, Cystopteris bulbifera (family Dryopteridaceae, the wood-fern family), seen here with mosses, mainly Anomodon attenuatus and Anomodon rostratus.

Cliff with bulblet fern. June 9, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

The moist limestone rock habitat is a typical one for this fern. It may be distinguished from afar by the long-attentuate shape of the fronds. Beneath, see that these ferns are producing clusters of sporangia. Very beautiful ...isn't that a sight for sore eyes? Get it, "sore eyes ....sori"? Oh well, anyhow, the sori (11 are shown in the photo below) are clusters of tiny globe-shaped structures within which spores are produced. In Cystopteris, and indeed most fern genera, the developing sori are covered by a flap of tissue called the "indusium." The Cystopteris indusium is hood-shaped. The common name "bladder fern" sometimes used for members of this genus refers to the indusium shape.

Bulblet fern sori.

In addition to reproducing sexually by spores, bulblet fern has an asexual means of making new plants that are clones of itself. These are pea-sized bulblets produced along the lower midrib.

Bulblet fern bulblets

Sharing the cliff with the bulblet ferns is an orchard spider, Leucauge venusta, identified using the wondeful new "Common Spiders of Ohio" field guide by Rich Bradley, published by, and available for free from, the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Bradley tells us that this is a an orb-weaver, but unlike most orb-weavers, it makes a horizontal, not vertical, web (suggesting a relationship to another spider family, the long-jawed spiders). Another unusual feature: the female's legs are green. In real life she looked a lot more silvery that this photo shows.

Orchard spider. June 13, 2010. Delaware County, Ohio.

Another intruguing aspect of the orchard spider is the presence of odd elaborate web-like specialized setae on the base of the hind leg, seen as approx. 8 very faint curved parallel lines in the center of the zoom-crop image below. Those are a part of her body, not her web; they are believed to be a sensory adaptation.

Modified setae on femora of orchard spider. (Look closely.)

Ashland
June 8, 2010. Dublin, Ohio.

All of the trees visible in this photo are ash (Fraxinus, family Oleaceae, the olive family) trees along Blazer Parkway in Dublin, Ohio. Considering the emarald ash borer, perhaps we should wish the company were named "Oakland."

Ash trees along Blazer Parkway. Dublin, Framklin County, Ohio. June 8, 2010.

Graminoids
Claridon Railroad Prairie
Caledonia, Marion County, Ohio. June 7, 2010

There are three families of "graminoids": grass-like plants with linear leaves and small wind-pollinated flowers These are: (1) grasses themselves (family Poaceae), (2) sedges (Cyperaceae), (3) rushes (Juncaceae). All were in evidence today at Clarison Railroad Prairie in Caledonia, Marion County, Ohio.

Grasses have their minute flowers eveloped by wee little paired scales: (1) the outward-facing and usually larger lemma and (2) the inner, usually smaller palea. All together, the flower, lemma and palea constitute the "floret." Grass florets are often aggreated into tight little two-ranked spikes, appropriately called "spikelets," that are the actual grass infloresence. Note however that spikelets in many grasses are one-flowered, and also that the spikelets themselves are displayed in a secondary infloresence that gives grasses their distinctive looks from afar, with great variety among the various species. In fowl manna grass, Glyceria striata, the spikelets are 5-8 flowered, and they are disposed in a loosely wide-spreading branched panicle.

Fowl manna grass at Claridon Prairie. June 7, 2010.

Here's a zoom-crop of a portion of the manna grass panicle, showing details of the spikelets, in the font that everybody loves to hate, Comics Sans! Note that each spikelet includes, at its base, one additional pair of scale-like appendage, both called "glumes." The lowermost (relative to the growth axis of the plant, also called "proximal" first glume generally the smaller of the two.

Manna grass spikelets.

Sedges too have minute flowers associated with little scales. Sedge scales, however, are not paired as are those of grasses; they come one per flower, and are indeed called "scales." In most sedge genera the florets are arranged spirally in each spikelet. In the big genus Carex and many other sedges the flowers individual flowers are unisexual (either male or female), with both sexes on an individual plant (i.e., they are monoecious), and there is substantial variation in the way they are disposed on the plants. In Buxbaum's sedge, Carex bubaumii, the spikelets are bisexual, with the staminate (male) flowers beneath the pistllate ones. That is evident because, after having released pollen, the male flowers leave little trace and so appear and a constricted part of the spkelet owing to the now empty scales, whereas the female ones are plumply in fruit. I'm really glad the "Kompozer" doesn't have a spell-checker because I think that "plumply" would have a little wiggly line underneath, and I'd have to think of another word. Part of the plumpiness, plumposity, and its plumpaceous nature is due to the presence of a unique Carex feature, the perigynium: a bag-like structure that surrounds the actual fruit, which is a one-seeded achene.

MOUSEOVER the IMAGE for SPIKELET DETAILS

Carex buxbaumii at Claridon Prairie. June 7, 2010.

MOUSEOVER IMAGE for details

Another carex that is prominent here is tussock sedge, Carex stricta. Tussock sedge produces its male flowers in terminal spikelets that are entirely staminate. The pistillate scales are a dark purple-black in the center. Nice. Also, as it happens, one of the diagnostic traits of sedges in this group is a feature of the basal leaf-sheath. Here the sheath is seen to be frayed in a ladderlike fashion (inset).

Tussock sedge at Claridon Prairie. June 7, 2010.

The third graminoid family is Juncaceae, the rushes. Rushes look like tiny little lilies and it would be nice if they were, but rushes are evidently not especially close to lilies taxonomically. Nonetheless, radially symmetric flowers with three sepals and three petals that all look alike, 6 stamens and a superior ovary with three chambers (carpels) that develops into a capsule fruit type describes both rushes and lilies pretty well. Here's path rush, Juncus tenuis.

Path rush at Claridon Prairie. June 7, 2010.

Fortunately for insects in search of nectar, not all the plants here are wind-pollinated. Wild garlic, Allium canadense, at least has a few flowers along with the bulblets in its umbel.

Wild garlic at Claridon Prairie.

Iris in the Key of E.
Claridon Railroad Prairie
Caledonia, Marion County, Ohio. June 4, 2010

One of the best prairie remnants in the Sandusky Plains region of central Ohio is a narrow strip of land squeezed between a little-used county road and an active set of railroad tracks in Caledonia, Marion County Ohio. It's called the Claridon Railroad Prairie. A wildflower that is conspicuous today is a blue flag iris that I belive to be northern blue flag, Iris versicolor (Iridaceae, the iris family). A few years ago I did a vegetation survey of this tract. (A .pdf of the study results is available here.) At that time I gave each species careful scrutiny. This one proved to be quite a puzzler to identify with certainty, distinguishing between northern blue flag and southern blue flag, I. virginica var. shrevei, formerly known as Iris shrevei. I still have some doubts.

Iris at Claridon Prairie, Caledonia, Marion County, Ohio. June 4, 2010.

Based on range maps in E. Lucy Braun's Ohio monocots book, it seems that northern blue flag, indeed more northern, wouldn't be expected this far south, whereas the southern blue flag that ranges across central Ohio is the likely choice.

Iris range maps.

Looking at the actual plants, here's a closer view of the iris, with a silver-spotted skipper visiting.

Blue flag with skipper at Claridon Prairie. June 4, 2010.

...and here's a shot showing developing fruits, and ants visiting.

Blue flag with ants at Claridon Prairie.

Iris flower structure is a little weird; some details are explained here. The main thing to keep in mind is that the biggest and brightest appendages are the sepals. Here's the relevant couplet in E.'s key (the key of E).

Iris in the key of E.

Looking at the key, and looking at the plant, we see a fairly bright yellow blotch at the base of the blade, hinting towards I. shreveri/virginica. But close examination of the blotch revealed it to be essentially glabrous, so maybe it's greenish-yellow as well. The measaurements were more in line with versicolor too I seem to recall, as was also something to do with the shape of the base of the style-branches, the significance of which is indicated in this key, from Gleason and Cronquist's Manual of the Vascular Plants...(1991, the New York Botanical Garden).

Iris in the key of G&C

All-righty then, case closed. The verdict: northern blue flag: Iris versicolor. Ahh but wait. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I bring as a witness the Iris virginica schrevei page on the excellent and well-informed web site Wetland Wildflowers of Illinois where a flower is illustrated that looks for all the world like our suspect, especially considering the similarity of latitude and habitat --The photograph was taken at a moist remnant prairie along an abandoned railroad near Urbana, Illinois! They call attention to the hairless nature of the yellow blotch, a character that the afformentioned keys associate with the northern one. Perhaps versicolor ranges more widely than is generally believed, or, alternatively, that viginica/schrevei is more variable. Interesting!

SCREEN CAPTURE FROM EXCELLENT WEBSITE

southern blue flag on Illinois wildflower site

Iris virginia schrevei page of
Wetland Wildflowers of Illinois. (I added the elliptical annotation.)

Free Parking Weed Walk
OSU Columbus Campus, June 1, 2010

It's probably against the rules, but to avoid paying for parking and also to get a little exercise when I need to do something on the Columbus campus of OSU, I park at a very public satellite facility of OSU that has "visitor parking" about a mile from the building I need to be at. The walk is pleasant and botanical.

Today the walking path is lined by motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca (Lamiaceae, the mint family) in flower. With its square stems, opposite leaves, sympetalous (i.e., having fused petals) bilaterally symmetric flowers clustered together into tight clusters (verticels) in the axils of the leaves, motherwort is instantly recognizable as a "mint."

Motherwort. June 1, 2010. Columbus, Ohio.

Motherwort, native to Europe, is a well-known herbal plant that, as the comon name implies, has been used for all conditions uterine --symptoms premenstrual, childbirthey, post-partum, menopausal, and the like, as well as for heart ailments (hence the specific epithet "cardiaca", an old generic name meaning "for the heart") The photo below shows a hypertensive menopausal syrphid fly visiting a blossom.

Syrphid fly visists motherwort in Columbus, Ohio., June 1, 2010.

Nearby, a member of another well-marked family, the mustard family (Brassicaceae). This is, I believe, hedge mustard, Sisymbrium officinale. The genus is an awful lot like Brassica, from which it is distinguished technically, in part, by a minute difference in the way in which the seed leaves (cotyledons) are folded in the seed. Superficially, the hedge mustard flowers are smaller, and the fruits narrower, than those of Brassica. The specific epithet "officinale" means "of the apothecary" in reference to some medicinal use of the plant. In this case, it has been used as a poison antidote, diuretic, expectorant, tonic, and laxative. Sometimes it almost seems that all herbal medicine consists of using "___________" (fill in the blank with a plant name, expecially one that ends in "wort") being used as a poison antidote, diuretic, expectorant, tonic, or laxative.

Hedge mustard in Columbus, Ohio. June 1, 2010.

Earlier observations ("back")