Time for a New Plant Quiz!

Good luck!

Amaranthaceae - Amaranthus tuberculatus

I'm not sure that anyone is still playing the family game, except for me. In fact, I don't even know if our scorekeepers are still keeping score! Nonetheless, I'm claiming the fantastic Amaranthaceae with Amaranthus tuberculatus (aka Acnida altissima).



Amaranthus tuberculatus is one of the dioecious members of this family. In the photo above, you can see the staminate flowers. I collected both a staminate plant and a pistillate plant to accurately identify this common species.



Amaranthus tuberculatus is found in muddy ground and ditches throughout much of the United States. This plant was photographed in Moline, Illinois on September 11, 2008.

Plant Quiz Answer: Galeopsis tetrahit

No one correctly guessed the most recent plant quiz, Galeopsis tetrahit, common hemp nettle. Below are photos of the plant in flower.



The genus name Galeopsis means "looks like a weasel," which is supposedly a reference to the flowers. I don't see it. This plant was found in Superior, Wisconsin, but as I said earlier, it is non-native and found throughout much of northern North America.



Since no one got this quiz correct, do I post the next one?

Liparis loeselii

While performing the last session of monitoring for this growing season at Cabin Creek Bog in Randolph County, Indiana, I found an orchid I had never seen and that had not been collected at the bog or even in Randolph County. They were growing under the shrubby cinquefoil, between the tussocks.

Currently blooming in the fen are Agalinus purpurea, Lobelia kalmii, Parnassia glauca, and Spiranthes cernua. The Gentianopsis procera is up, but not blooming yet. I like the fall fen flowers.

An Aster (or Canadanthus) New to Wisconsin?

Nicole Kalkbrenner and I are currently in Superior, Wisconsin doing some botanical inventory work at a boreal forest restoration. We have been working with local botanists Gary Walton and Paul Hlina. Today, we came across an Aster that I'd never seen.



In examining this plant, it appeared similar to Aster novae-angliae, but without the strongly auriculate-clasping leaves, and with stipitate glands only in the inflorescence.



Gary suggested that maybe this plant could be Aster modestus. Upon keying this plant several times, I am fairly convinced that it is indeed Aster modestus (now known as Canadanthus modestus). Below are additional photos of the stem and leaves.


Note that leaves are not strongly clasping.


Scabrous pubescence on top surface of leaves.


Soft pubescence on bottom surface of leaves.

We believe that this would be a new state record for Wisconsin. I made a collection and plan to submit it to the herbarium at Madison.

Do any of you have any experience with this plant? Any thoughts on this would be welcomed.

Scott.

The Next Plant Quiz

Below is the next plant quiz. Good luck!

Plant Quiz Results: Ambrosia bidentata

YES! It IS Ambrosia bidentata. Nice work, Scott.

This little fella is most commonly encountered along gravel roads in Missouri, but it also occurs on our glades as well as prairies in the SW part of the state. It is quite aromatic when crushed and always reminds me of summer nights, cruising gravel roads and drinking beer when I was in high school; a true Ozark right of passage.

Below is a photo of the blooming plant. Try not to sneeze.

Two special rarities

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to study in the field two of Michigan's rarest plant species. Hall's bulrush (Schoenoplectus hallii) is a globally imperiled species with a mostly Midwestern distribution, occurring on drawn-down sandy pondshores and other similar habitats, including seasonally wet agricultural fields. In Michigan, this species is found exclusively in a habitat we call coastal plain marsh, which occurs in shallow depressions or the margins of precipitation-fed, isolated ponds and lakes on broad, sandy outwash plains or lakeplain in southwestern Lower Michigan. It is always associated with coastal plain disjuncts, many of which are also rare in the state. The interesting thing about Hall's bulrush is its peculiar germination biology. The timing, frequency, and amount of precipitation over the year must be just right in order for seed germination to occur. Decades can pass between appearances of Hall's bulrush in any given site. This year, conditions were favorable for this species to germinate and appear above ground for the first time since 2002. Most plants were quite small (3-4") and senescing due to the late summer drought we are experiencing.

An even rarer (in Michigan) species occurring with Hall's bulrush in Michigan is the dwarf burhead, Echinodorus tenellus.















This tiny annual member of the Alismataceae was first collected in Michigan during the First Geological Survey, in 1837, near White Pigeon in St. Joseph County. Amazingly, after 152 years, it was rediscovered in Michigan in 1989 at the Allegan State Game Area, in the same area occupied by Hall's bulrush. It has a preference for low, wet spots within shallow depressions that support coastal plain marsh or wet-mesic sand prairie dominated by Panicum virgatum and Spartina pectinata. These areas are saturated or shallowly inundated during a portion of the growing season, and are free from significant vegetative competition. Most of these low, wet spots were created by ORV use in these wetlands, a type of disturbance that is noted as a threat to these systems yet one that creates microhabitats colonized by dwarf burhead, Hall's bulrush, and a variety of other tiny annuals that find refuge in the compacted, wet, bare areas created by ORV activity.

Do these rare species owe, in part, their continued presence in Michigan due to human disturbances to their habitats? Funny how the most obscure, nondescript members of our flora have so much to tell us about ecology, conservation, and management.

New Plant Quiz

Here is the next installment of the "Plant Quiz". It is either super difficult or super easy.

My attempts at allowing the image to be enlarged have failed. Perhaps a second photo will appease?

Most Recent Michigan Botanist

Has anyone looked at the cover of the most recent Michigan Botanist, with a great paper on prairies in Michigan? Isn't that our very own Wild Brad Slaughter on the cover??

Plant Quiz Winner

Somebody tell me how he does it! We've already got a winner to the most recent plant quiz, and it is Justin "Shotgun" Thomas. Justin correctly identified the plant in the photo as Trichostema dichotomum, blue curls, aka the bastard pennyroyal. Trichostema is translated as hair-stamen, for the capillary filaments, and dichotomum refers to the inflorescence forking in pairs.



Trichostema dichotomum is found in dry open woods and in clearings, and is currently considered Rare in Indiana (though I believe it will soon be downgraded to Special Concern).

Next Plant Quiz

Below is a photo of the next plant quiz. This photo was taken in September 2007 in an open woods near Bloomington, Indiana. Good luck!

Heliopsis Quiz Winner!

We have a WINNER!!!! Scott Namestnik, please come forward to claim your prize. Indeed, my quiz photo was a mutated Heliopsis helianthoides that had developed a whorl of three leaves, rather than the typical opposite leaved status. Sorry it was a tough one, I should have posted a photo of a 'normal' one, but I was too lazy to crop the flower out of the pic and the only one I had without a flower was the wierdo. At any rate, good job Scott.

Hydrocharitaceae

Hydrocharitaceae; Vallisneria americana growing in Wolf Lake in Whiting IN. Typically it was growing with Potamogeton amplifolius and Myriophyllum spicatum. Since Scott is not doing lake surveys to claim the aquatic families I will take a stab at them.

Interesting Plant Identification Webpage

If you have some time, take a look at some of the links on http://www.scivee.tv/user/1202/video. Sort of interesting, and a different way to see plants.

Scott.

Xyridaceae

Xyris difformis from pin hook bog. I decided that the plant was difformis and not X. torta as the stems and leaves did not seem twisted and the leaves were typically larger than 2mm. I saw this beauty growing in pinhook bog with Rhychospera alba, Hypericum viriginicum, Sarracenia purpurea, Eriophorum sp., and Drosera rotundifolia. Early this year this same spot was covered with Pogonia ophioglossoides.

Scott, Jenny Allison, and I also found Habenaria ciliaris which was the main reason for the trip. There was only the one flowering individual able to be seen from the boardwalk on this trip despite the presence of other basal leaves in the area. This was the first time it had been seen this year.

FQA and it use in mitigation/restoration sites

Below is an exerpt from an email I sent to a client that requested information about using FQA in conjunction with mitigation banks. I hadn't thought about the subject before and just assumed that FQA was a perfectly acceptable thing to use wherever plants are found. But when I considered the true application of FQA, I wasn't so sure. Any thoughts?
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I have used FQA in conjunction with mitigation monitoring in Indiana and didn’t really find it to be a great match. The problem is that FQA is designed to evaluate the floristic quality of “natural” communities. With this comes the assumption that all the taxa existing in situ are there of their own volition, demonstrative of the level of past disturbance of the site and represent taxa of a natural reproducing community existing in perpetuity (given that no bulldozers or invasive species interfere).

Mitigation sites and restoration sites don’t necessarily have these qualities. Take the wetland at Shaw Nature Reserve for example. It looks like a decent wetland creation, but many of the taxa planted and seeded there would not have occurred there “naturally” and most of them (Bald Cypress, for one) will probably not reproduce in situ. So to base an FQA off planted and/or seeded taxa is sort of misrepresenting them as being “natural”.

Another example is if I conducted a FQA of the landscaping around my house, which is all native, I would have a phenomenal list and corresponding numbers. However, if I don’t weed and trim and shape the landscape, the “system” would quickly crumble and the floristic quality would degrade dramatically. Just because for a brief snapshot of time I can assemble a group of taxa, doesn’t mean said taxa form a functioning natural community. Just something to consider.

How about another quiz plant?!

Here's the new quiz! This plant was growing in open upland woods in southern Missouri. Have fun using your thinkers on this one!

***UPDATE AND HINT: Okay, no one is biting so I'll give you a big hint. This specimen was abnormal, in terms of leaf arrangement. It is usually opposite, rather than whorled. This was just a mutant. That little tidbit should make this a much easier quiz! I admit it was just a little too tricky. Sorry!

Heteranthera dubia

Yesterday in Elkhart County, Indiana, I saw something that I think I've only seen once before, on a river in southern Missouri.... Heteranthera dubia in flower! This species was fairly abundant on a mudflat in a mitigation wetland, growing with Ranunculus longirostris. It is common to find water star grass, as it is known, vegetatively in northern Indiana lakes, often growing with the similar-looking (at least vegetatively) Potamogeton zosteriformis. The leaves of the latter have a distinct midrib, while those of H. dubia do not. It is interesting to note that this plant is in the same family as Pontederia cordata.

Unknown Help

The first unknown I encountered while doing deer browse sampling in a woods in Will Co, IL. Most of the individuals were shorter, averaging less than a foot in height. There were a few larger individual that were larger but nothing was flowering. My first thought was that it was some species of Lonicera, but then Scott mentioned that it could also be a Symphoricarpos. I am just looking for any ideas on what it might be.

The second unknown was growing on the edge of prairie next to a walking trail. There was just the single plant present. It was growing amongst Andropogon gerardii and Silphium laciniatum. Any help would be nice.