Botany Blog Plants of the Northeastern U.S.

June 25, 2016

Creating a native meadow with plugs

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 18:03

Some pictures of a project that I’ve been working on at SUNY Cortland for about the last year and a half. This is part of a much larger area that has proven to be a challenge in that the original installation was overrun by invasive weeds in the first growing season.

Plants were grown in 38 cell deep star plug trays in a greenhouse in 2015 from seeds collected locally and some donated by the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society. Species include Agastache foeniculum, Allium cernuum, Asclepias sullivantii, Asclepias incarnata, Asclepias speciosa, Andropogon gerardii, Aquilegia canadensis, Geum triflorum, Monarda fistulosa, Monarda puctata, Heliopsis helianthoides, Penstemon hirsutus, Penstemon digitalis, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, Schizachyrium scoparium, Sisyrinchium angustifolium, Viola sororia, and Ratibida pinnata. Most were about 4 months old at the time of planting though a few were added later.

Plugs in the greenhouse, April 2015

Greenhouse

The site was sprayed with Roundup in June of 2015 and planted soon after. The after photos are from June of this year after hand weeding and mulching.

June 21, 2015

Bioswale1before

June 24, 2016

Bioswale1

June 21, 2015

Bioswale2before

August 4, 2016

Bioswale2

June 21, 2015

Bioswale3before

Aug 4, 2016

Bioswale3

June 21, 2016

Mountain Woodsorrel

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 23:52

Mountain Woodsorrel (Oxalis montana) is now blooming in northern hardwood forests of Central NY. Colonies of this plant may not flower in a given year but they are very attractive when they do.

Oxalis_montana

June 16, 2016

Pine Barrens in June

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 10:56

Made another visit to the NJ pine barrens yesterday. Two orchids were in abundance in the peatlands. All but one of our native orchids have flowers that are resupinate, which means that the pedicel of the flower twists 180 degrees as the flower opens. Grass pink orchid (Calopogon tuberosus) is not resupinate and therefore the lip petal, which on other orchids is on the bottom, is on the top. The lip of grass pink is also crested.

Grass_pink

Rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides) usually bears a single flower but I found one large plant that had an extra flower bud above the open flower.

Rose_pogonia

The recent warm weather seems to have made up for a cool spring, so some plants that I did not expect to see flowering were in full bloom including the globally rare bog asphodel (Narthecium americanum).

Narthecium

Some goldencrest (Lophiola aurea) was also in bloom.

Goldencrest

A number of carnivorous plants can be found in open peatlands of the pine barrens. This is likely the flower of striped bladderwort (Utricularia striata) as they were rather large, however humped bladderwort (U. gibba) is similar and occasionally has large flowers as well.

Utricularia_striata

Slender blue iris (Iris prismatica) was occasional on the margins of streams. It resembles northern blue flag (I. versicolor) but has much narrower leaves.

Iris_prismatica

Dwarf huckleberry (Gaylussacia bigeloviana) is apparently secure in NJ but rare in most other states. This one was found growing on an open sphagnum mat.

Dwarf_huckleberry

Swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum) was just coming into bloom. The flowers are very fragrant.

Swamp_azalea

I normally wouldn’t take a picture of a common ribbon snake (Thamnophis sirtalis). On the way out of the swamp I found this one sunning in a shrub. Presumably it was doing this to get off the cold substrate of wet sphagnum.

Garter

Back on dry land we saw many Eastern turkeybeard (Xerophyllum asphodeloides) plants in bloom. The lower flowers of the inflorescence open first. Most plants were nearly done blooming and I was only able to find a few that still had unopened flowers at the top of the inflorescence.

Turkeybeard

Pine barrens stitchwort (Minuartia caroliniana) was abundant in the few open sandy areas but absent everywhere else.

Pinebarren_stitchwort

While many people regard greenbriers as a nuisance, I was excited to find round-leaved greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia) in full bloom.

Smilax_rotundifolia1

Some plants also had fruits of them.

Smilax_rotundifolia2

June 11, 2016

Van Brunt’s Jacob’s Ladder

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 16:18

Polemonium vanbruntiae is just starting to bloom in Central NY. This northeastern U.S. endemic occupies a rather limited range that extends from Quebec in Canada (historic in New Brunswick) south through ME, VT, NY, PA, WV, and MD. One population, now extirpated, was known from NJ. The majority of populations are found in NY. The long protruding stamens (botanists would say they are exserted, i.e. surpassing the lobes of the corolla) and relatively tall flowering stems distinguish this species from other Polemonium spp.

Polemonium1

June 10, 2016

Alvar Grassland

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 20:19

Yesterday I visited a beautiful alvar ecosystem in upstate NY. Alvars occur on mostly flat expanses of limestone bedrock with very little soil accumulation (a type of pavement barren). Alvar plant communities are typically dominated by grasses and sedges, with scattered forbs, shrubs and trees. Many of the plants are rare and a few are found nowhere else in the state.

Balsam ragwort (Packera paupercula) was one of the dominant forbs at the site and was putting on a spectacular floral display.

Balsam_ragwort

Downy arrowwood (Viburnum rafinesquinum) is a shrub found in open areas on limestone, usually along the edge of grassland. It can also occur in woodlands but will not usually bloom in the shade. A related species, V. dentatum, is a common shrub of wetlands that is tolerant of a wider range of pH values.

Downy_arrowwood

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) occurs on very thin soils over limestone. This species can also occur in more acidic environments like pine barrens and sand dunes. This plant, like many other alvar species, likely thrives here because of its ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions that limit the establishment of more aggressive plant species.

Harebell

Many native roses thrive in dry environments. The most common species in the alvar community is smooth rose (Rosa blanda).

Smooth_rose

There is even a rare species of poison ivy found in alvars. Western poison (Toxicodendron rydbergii) is a small shrub, unlike the climbing plant (Toxicodendron radicans) more commonly found in NY. As the common name suggests it is more frequent in the Western U.S. where annual precipitation is lower. In the East it is most often found growing on sandy or gravelly soils.

Western_poison_ivy

Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) is widely distributed in NY but rarely abundant where it is found. It is tolerant of drier conditions than our other native lilies. Some of the more unusual habitats for this species in NY are powerline right of ways where brush clearing maintains the high light exposure this species requires. This specimen was found growing up through a russet buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis) that would probably have overgrown the lily had it not been dwarfed by the harsh environmental conditions of the alvar.

Wood_lily

The real highlight of the trip was a huge population of scarlet paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) that covered many acres of the site. This species is a hemiparasite that attaches itself to the roots of surrounding plants to acquire some of its water and nutrition. Scarlet paintbrush has experienced a severe decline and is extremely rare outside of the alvar ecosystem in NY, and even in alvars the populations are typically small, making the population at this site a significant remnant of New York’s natural heritage.

Indian_paintbrush

On the way back I made a short stop at a fen near Lake Ontario to see one of the most beautiful of our native orchids, dragon’s mouth (Arethusa bulbosa).

Arethusa4

 

June 7, 2016

Green Dragon

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 20:42

That’s one long spadix!

Green_dragon

June 1, 2016

More NJ spring flowers

Filed under: North American Native Plants — admin @ 23:12

I visited southern NJ again on May 12th and found the following plants blooming in the pine barrens.

Lance-leaved violet (Viola lanceolata) is normally found on moist sandy soils bordering ponds, lakes, and rivers. These plants seemed to be quite drought tolerant, growing on an open sandy site without any nearby water source.

Viola_lanceolata

A similar species is primrose-leaved violet (V. primulifolia), which some botanists believe is a hybrid of V. lanceolata and V. pallens though it can occur without one or both parents nearby.

Viola_primulifolia

A common biennial plant in the pine barrens is blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis). Since its life cycle is heavily dependent on successful annual seed production this plant is a prolific bloomer.

Linaria_canadensis2

Another interesting plant blooming in pine barrens this time of year is American ipecac (Euphorbia ipecacuanha). The root of this plant has been used to make an emetic (syrup of ipecac, which induces vomiting), hence the common name and specific epithet.

Euphorbia_ipecacuanhae

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