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| Tom's Journal (Blog)
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On the Search for an Orchid Kathie and I joined a Prairie Enthusiasts' field trip in southwestern Wisconsin led by Jim Sime. The main purpose was to find a rare late-blooming orchid called Spiranthes ovalis (October lady's tresses). It has Special Concern status in Wisconsin. This delicate species is hard to find, but Jim Sime has an eagle eye. Today we saw at least 50 separate plants at one site, and at least a dozen at another. Both sites were in Grant County. These are the only two reported locations in Wisconsin. Most of the plants were found in relatively brushy habitat mixed in with bur or black oak on south-facing slopes with exposed limestone present or nearby. Brambles and prickly ash were present, although not dense. I managed to push my way through a moderately dense prickly ash stand to reach the specimens I photographed. This is the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, where bedrock is not far from the surface, and the soil is thin and relatively unfertile. I suspect there are more locations in Wisconsin for this small orchid, but one would have to be lucky to find them. Even when flowering, the plants are inconspicuous. A survey back and forth across likely areas might work, but most of these plants are found by chance. I plan to look for them (and other Spiranthes species) at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. Although the NRCS plant database shows this species all over the eastern United States, I wonder how common it is in most states. It is listed as Endangered in Florida and Pennsylvania and Threatened in Iowa and Michigan. I'm not sure why Wisconsin has it classified in less strict category of Special Concern.
This was the last Prairie Enthusiasts field trip of the year. There probably won't be another until next May. However, we won't be idle. We've got seeds to collect for another month, and as soon as cold weather sets in we'll return to brush cutting. Although we made great progress last winter on invasive brush, we still have more areas to contend with.
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| Little Bluestem Color This is the time of year when little bluestem is showing color (reddish stems), making it easy to spot. The photo shows our south-facing slope, which has one of the largest populations of little bluestem in these parts. When we first started restoration of this hillside, ten years ago, there were occasional wisps of little bluestem mixed in with all the invasive brush. After clearing and annual controlled burns, the bluestem thrived. With more bluestem, the slope burned better, which encouraged even more bluestem, which encouraged even better burns, etc. etc.
At one time we used to worry about whether we were getting too much little bluestem, and that maybe we should not burn so often. Were we losing our forbs? A visitor from the short grass prairie of Colorado dispelled me of that idea. What we had, he said, was a great short grass prairie. It was the little bluestem that made the prairie, and we shouldn't worry about forbs. Wisconsin prairie enthusiasts worry too much about forbs, he averred. Well, I'm not sure I would want a little bluestem monoculture, but I don't really see the forbs going away permanently. On a really dry site such as this, the forbs that are there are really short. Lots of gray goldenrod, sky-blue aster, purple prairie clover, lead plant, etc. etc., but fairly tiny. I've driven all over southwestern Wisconsin, but I have never seen a south-facing slope which looks as good as ours. And it took only ten years! |
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| A Legacy Bur Oak The photo below shows what certainly must be a champion bur oak for Dane County. This classic open-grown oak is on World Dairy Drive in the complex of buildings related to agriculture and sundry areas. The Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Dane County Extension, and the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP, fondly known as Dat-Cap) are all nearby. The tiny person under the spreading branches is Kathie. Bur oak acorns were on the mowed lawn under the tree. Obviously folks love this tree, as it was saved when the area was developed. A remnant from prehistoric times!
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Progress on Ridge Prairie The Ridge Prairie is the second of two prairies we planted in early winter of 2005 (the other was Crane Prairie). This is a fairly dry site at the top of the ridge (hence its name), and has undergone a quite different history. Although there are a lot of "good" plants, we have had considerable trouble with bird's foot trefoil and Queen Anne's lace. By mid July, Queen Anne's lace was dominating many parts of the prairie, so we elected to mow those areas. Since Queen Anne's lace is a biennial, mowing at time of peak flowering should control it. We mowed in the early stages of the July drought, and a week later we began to wonder if we had wrecked the prairie. Without rain, the tiny plants left by the mowing were shrivelling up, and we could see big pieces of our prairie going under. Fortunately, the rains really came in August, and the prairie plants were brought back. Today, during our landowner visit, the folks walked slowly across the prairie with their heads down, looking for species. Being able to recognize prairie species at the nonflowering stage is a skill which several people had (including Rich Henderson, our "guru"), and we were pleased to see lots of "good" plants. In fact, Rich pronounced the prairie "very good". The photo below shows the northern end, which had been mowed. In the back of the photo are several areas that were not mowed. Although these had a lot of good plants, they also had a major infestation with daisy fleabane, an annual which should not persist. All the tall dead stalks in the background are due to these plants. Of course, if you get down on your hands and knees among the dead stalks, you can see good plants, but it is lots harder to survey there than in the mowed area.
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Landowner Group Visit On Sunday we had a visit from a group of landowners interested in prairie and savanna restoration. This is an interesting group that has been active for about five years. It was put together by Rich Henderson, of The Prairie Enthusiasts, but has continued on its own, kept together by email and by the group's passion for restoration. These are people who own larger parcels of land on which they are doing restoration work. Most of these folks do not actually live on their land, although they may have cabins or other overnight facilities. Because this is seed collecting time, we devoted a fair bit of time on the trip to techniques of seed collecting, how to recognize when seed are ready, etc. This is the second time the group has visited Pleasant Valley Conservancy, and folks seemed quite impressed with all the progress made since they were here five years ago.
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A Couple of Late-flowering plants The season is winding down and most species are in seed or are completely gone for the year. However, a number of plant species are just in their prime. I assume that most of these are short-day plants that aren't able to initiate flowering until the day-length is reduced. One species that is now in full bloom is stiff gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia). Although the UW Herbarium calls this a perennial, Cochrane and Iltis call it a "winter annual (biennial)". I think it is no doubt that it is monocarpic (flowering only once and then dying). Because of this, it seems to move around a lot, never showing up in exactly the same place two year's running. Because new plants must arise from seed, it is wise not to "overcollect", leaving plenty of seed for next year's crop. This year, a quite nice patch turned up right next to the fire break on the west side of the Pocket Prairie, a place I know it has never been before (photo below). We always have a lot of stiff gentian along County Highway F, where a number of prairie and savanna species held on for many years, and are thriving now that we are maintaining careful brush and weed control. We find other patches here and there in our planted prairies as well as the savannas. According to the UW Herbarium, stiff gentian is found almost exclusively in southern Wisconsin, but collections have been made in every county in the two southern tiers.
Another plant in full flower right now is a wetland species called beggar's tick (Bidens cernuus) (see photo below). I am not certain of the origin of the common name, but I do know that this species makes "pitch-forked" shaped seeds that stick right into you and resist removal. We find bidens along the edges of our springs and right in or immediately adjacent to open water. This is an annual and is a good wetland indicator species. It is considered obligate, which means it is only found in wetlands. This is in contrast to a number of other plant species, called facultative, that are found in wetlands but are also found in wet-mesic or even mesic habitats. One of the attractive features of the wetland at Pleasant Valley is that the water comes primarily from underground springs. There is water welling up all over, and many of these features remain open all winter. Some of them contribute to the small creeklet that flows along the north and east side of the wetland. We have a big patch of bidens right next to one of these flowing springs. This particular spring is interesting because the water flows for a distance on the surface and then disappears underground, upwelling further away.
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Seed Collecting is at its Peak The weather is great and the seeds are ripe; let the seed collecting begin! Actually, we have been collecting seed since July, but only a few species at well spaced time intervals. Our intensity picked up around the end of August, and we are now in full swing. The great August rains seem to have led to good seed set. At Pleasant Valley Conservancy we are on a Tuesday and Thursday schedule (oh the joys of being retired!). Our weekends are reserved for Madison Aububon Society and The Prairie Enthusiasts. Today, four of us collected over a dozen species. In fact, the back of the Forester was packed with bags, and we were just barely able to close the tailgate. Today we collected: Bromus latiglumis Some of these we only collected in small amounts, as we are not planting any large areas this winter. Seed collecting is the time when our careful note taking throughout the growing season comes in handy. We know just where collectible amounts are present and can concentrate on those. For instance, Virginia wild rye (Elymus virginicus) did very well in the Crane Prairie this year. In past years we have had to scrounge around to find enough, but this year, this rye was so plentiful in the Crane Prairie that we could make our quota in a short time. This is the best year we have ever had for prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis). It is very prevalent on the original dry remnant (thanks for the rain!), but is also doing quite well in one of the sandier parts of the Pocket Prairie (now in its 8th growing season). Culver's root (Veronicastrum virginianum) has done very well in the White Oak Savanna, Kuhnia on the south-facing slope, poke milkweed in closed savanna areas that were cleared of brush last winter, etc. etc. We've got a lot of seed collecting yet to do, and the season won't end until early November. In fact, we are having a volunteer workday on Sunday,
Octobert 14, from 10 AM to 12 Noon, followed by lunch. Any interested
parties are invited to come. Please call me at 608-238-5050 to confirm. |
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Purple milkweed pods and seeds The third-growing-season purple milkweeds in our forbs garden grew very well this year, flowered profusely, and made a lot of pods. This is a real breakthrough, as pod-formation in the plants growing in the field is usually very spotty. Last year I obtained only three pods from all the plants that flowered. This year I also have only three pods, and they are very skimpy with seeds of questionable viability. Those in the forbs garden really look good. The photo below shows an opened one with a few seeds thumbed away.
Getting clean seeds of milkweeds is a trick. If you wait until the pods are open and the seeds are starting to float away on their "fluff", you have a mess. The technique is to collect the pods just "before" they open, crack them open, and remove the center column with all the seeds. Grab one end of the column and use the thumb to knock the seeds off into a container. If this is done right, you end up with seeds without fluff. (The single seed in the photo above still has its fluff on it.) How does one know when a pod is about to open? Experience. When a pod or two of a plant has already cracked and is starting to release seeds, this is probably the time when the other pods are getting ready to open. Press unopened pods with the fingers. If they feel solid and hard, they aren't ready. If the pod wall is flexible and pushes in, it is probably ready. Once the pods are collected, cut the top off above the center column. Then peel back the pod and carefully lift it out with the seeds intact. Carefully "thumb" the seeds off. It is better to try this a few times with common milkweed pods before starting on the rare ones. |
A Bad Blog Experience My apologies to those who have been following this journal. It turns out the blog software I started using this summer has some problems I was not aware of. I am returning to my old system, which does not permit feedback or comment, but which is lots more flexible. Anyone interested in commenting or has questions can contact me at info-tATsavannaoak.org, where the AT in the address is converted to the familiar email symbol.
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