Southern Indiana Sedgin'

Just ask Lindsay... I've been doing a lot of travelling lately, both for work and for fun. This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to travel for fun - to botanize in southern Indiana. Better than that, I was out in the field all day with Mike Homoya, Indiana's Heritage Botanist. Throughout the day, I could be found frantically scribbling in my notebook about all of the plants we were seeing, many of which I had seen rarely or never before. Some additional photos and commentary are posted here at Through Handlens and Binoculars, but in this post I am focusing on four of the more exciting sedges that we saw.

The sedge above is Carex oklahomensis, Oklahoma Sedge, an endangered species in Indiana. It is somewhat similar to C. stipata, of which it has been treated as a variety in the past, but you'll notice that it doesn't have the spongy, inflated culm of C. stipata. Carex oklahomensis is found in wet meadows, marshes, and alluvial bottomlands, mostly in the plains and southern states. However, its range is thought to be increasing to the north and east. We saw this species in abundance in a wet sand flat.

Yes, it really does exist! Above is Carex lupuliformis, False Hop Sedge, a rare species in Indiana. While its range includes the entire eastern half of North America, it is said to be rare and local where it occurs. Until yesterday, anyone I had ever asked about this species said they had never seen it. You may think that this looks a lot like C. lupulina, the far more common and closely related hop sedge. The best way to tell the two apart is by looking at the achenes, which are longer than wide and not strongly knobbed on the angles in C. lupulina, but which are nearly as wide as long and strongly knobbed on the angles in C. lupuliformis.

Just look at those knobs! After seeing this, I was sure I'd never seen C. lupuliformis before, even though I had seen some plants with achenes that were weakly knobbed on the angles. Mike also pointed out a few additional characters to distinguish the two; C. lupuliformis usually has longer spikes, and the perigynia are usually more spreading than in C. lupulina.

As if seeing these two sedges hadn't already made my day, we also saw Carex crus-corvi, Ravenfoot Sedge, a plant I had only seen once before. Maybe the common name Ravenfoot Sedge makes sense to some, but I think it should be called Golf Tee Sedge.

Agree? These are the perigynia. Get a good look at those long, pointed beaks. The beaks of the perigynia are what make the inflorescence look so "spiky." Carex crus-corvi is found throughout most of the eastern half of the United States, as well as in Ontario, in habitats including wet meadows, marshes, swamps, and alluvial bottomlands.

I apologize that this photo isn't that great, but the culms of this species are shorter than the leaves and therefore the spikes are often somewhat hidden. This is Carex cumberlandensis, Cumberland Sedge. This beautiful sedge is found in mesic forests in the eastern half of the United States, but moreso in the southern portion of this range.

Southern Indiana is a world away from northern Indiana in terms of topography, geology and floral associations. I hope to get back more often in the future, as I rarely have the opportunity to botanize this scenic part of the state.

Echinacea paradoxa

While conducting vegetation sampling at Hercules Glades Wilderness in southwestern Missouri (roughly 25 miles from the Arkansas line) I came across a paradox. Well, actually Echinacea paradoxa. I assume it is called this because it has yellow ray flowers where those of most Echinacea are purple.

This taxon is essentially an Ozark endemic. Technically, there is a purple colored variety in Oklahoma and Texas that is often treated as a distinct species. The best floral display of Echinacea paradoxa occurs at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Camden County where stretches of glade are littered with thousands of stems. At Hercules Glades Echinacea paradoxa, like E. pallida, is limited to small openings between juniper trees within the larger glade context. Over the past two weeks I have covered several hundred acres of glades and I have seen only this small population.

They persist here only because they have been overlooked by the greedy, greasy (yeah I said greasy) hands of root diggers. Historically, both species were common and dominant members of the glades in the region. Hey, just what we need, another example of human exploitation of the natural world. Echinacea paradoxa is listed as Globally Imperiled.

Pinkladies!

Imagine my surprise when, after ariving at the Loblolly Marsh bioblitz in Jay County, Indiana on Friday afternoon, I stepped out of the car and the first plant I looked at I didn't recognize! I feel pretty comfortable with the flora of northern Indiana, but I'd never seen a scene like this in the state.

I immediately knew that I was looking at an Oenothera, as the four large petals and four-parted stigma are diagnostic characteristics. I'd seen Oenothera speciosa along roadsides south and west of Indiana, but I didn't think this species occurred in the state. Shows what I know. While it isn't known from the Indiana counties of the Chicago Region, Showy Evening Primrose, or Pinkladies as it is more affectionately known, is found as an introduced plant in a few scattered counties throughout the state. I collected a specimen and keyed it out in my hotel room Friday night, and sure enough, I was looking at Oenothera speciosa. Pinkladies can be found within much of the southern half of North America, and is often planted in highway wildflower plantings. The flowers are often more pink than they are in this population.

For a recap of the bioblitz and a few more photos from the event, click here.

Boreal Highlights

I had the opportunity to spend the last week in Superior, Wisconsin, working on a boreal forest and black spruce-tamarack swamp restoration with Andrew Blackburn, Josh Brown, Nick Gressick, Nicole Kalkbrenner, and Gary Walton. This is the same site at which we last year found the first state record for Wisconsin of Canadanthus modestus (click here to see my post on that find). Below are some highlights from our visit last week.

This is Viola novae-angliae, a species of boreal forests in Wisconsin that is also known from Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Gary mentioned that it used to be state-listed in Wisconsin; it is common at this site.

Vicia americana is a plant found in a variety of upland habitats in Wisconsin. It is also known from much of North America.

I saw Maianthemum trifolium (=Smilacina trifolia) for the first time ever on this trip. We first saw it in a roadside bog near Wascott, Wisconsin. At our site, it was growing in Sphagnum spp. within the black spruce-tamarack restoration area. It is known from all provinces in Canada, as well as from New England and a handful of northern states in the United States.

Rubus pubescens is an herbaceous, thornless raspberry species of bogs, conifer swamps, boreal forests, lowland forests, sedge meadows, and pine barrens. It is found in nearly every county in Wisconsin, as well as throughout most of Canada and the northern United States.

This is the beautiful sedge Eriophorum angustifolium. This cotton grass is known from the northern half of North America, as well as from a few southwestern states. It grows in a variety of wet habitats.

You may have seen my recent post on this species, Castilleja coccinea. At this site in Superior, Andrew and I found just a single Indian Paintbrush plant. In Wisconsin, this species is found in boreal forests, lowland forests, prairies, and on sand dunes.

We saw numerous sedges on the site, but one of my favorites has to be Carex castanea. Chestnut Sedge, as it is known, is only found in a few northern counties in Wisconsin. It can be found throughout northeastern North America in cedar swamps, mesic conifer-hardwood forests, conifer forests, and mesic meadows.

Corydalis sempervirens is found throughout the eastern United States and Canada, as well as in Alaska and Montana. It is endangered here in Indiana and is rare in the Chicago Region; this was the first time I've ever seen this species. Rock Harlequin is found in sandy soil following a disturbance (fire, scraping, etc.), and it doesn't persist long in the absence of disturbance. In Wisconsin, it is found on cliffs and in savannas. We found it on the site in a burned area.

Last year at the site, we saw Corallorhiza maculata; this year, Gary and Nick found Corallorhiza trifida, a new one for me. In Wisconsin, this species is found in boreal, upland, and lowland forests. Its North American range is generally the northern two-thirds of the continent.

Natural or Introduced?

While botanizing in a St. Joseph County floodplain woods a week ago, I came across a population of Matteuccia struthiopteris, Ostrich Fern, a rare plant in Indiana. Ostrich Fern is often planted as an ornamental fern. It is known (as a naturally occurring plant) from St. Joseph County and adjacent LaPorte County, both from single collections by our own Keith Board. Plants of the Chicago Region (1994) states that it is found in "moist, often calcareous woodlands, either on slopes or floodplains." The woods in which I was botanizing was a floodplain woods with some degradation, but there were no signs a former home site or of this population being an escape from a nearby residence. In fact, one of its associates at this location was Asimina triloba, with which it also apparently grows at a known location in Berrien County, Michigan.

My question is this. With landscaping using native plants as well as well-intentioned "restoration" becoming more widespread, how do we track naturally occurring populations of rare plants versus those that have been introduced, or does it even matter? Specifically, how do I know whether this population was naturally occurring and if I should collect and report it?

Just a Dandelion?

Justin and I spent a few hours botanizing together at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Sunday. I took Justin to a sand blowout where I knew that the Federally Threatened Cirsium pitcheri grew, and we saw several plants in flower.

We then began heading back into black oak savanna when we noticed a dandelion. I mentioned to Justin that there was another dandelion in the Chicago Region that I'd never seen, but that I wasn't sure how to distintuish it from Taraxacum officinale. Consulting Plants of the Chicago Region right there in the field, I read the key as Justin examined the plant. Conincidentally enough, we were staring at a new plant for both of us, Taraxacum laevigatum (=T. erythrospermum), the red-seeded dandelion. I bet you've never seen two seasoned botanists get so excited about a dandelion!

This species differs from our common dandelion in several ways. The terminal lobes of the leaves of T. laevigatum aren't noticably larger than the lateral lobes, while the terminal lobe is larger than the laterals in T. officinale. Also, the lobes on the leaves of T. laevigatum are divided all the way to the midvein, while the terminal lobe of T. officinale is not much divided or is divided only part way to the midvein. If flowers are present, you can tell the two species apart by examining the inner phyllaries, which are mostly flat at the tip in T. officinale and callous-thickened at the tip in T. laevigatum. Finally, the seeds in T. officinale are stramineous to brown, while those in T. laevigatum are deep reddish-brown.

For comparison, I've included photos of Taraxacum officinale from my yard, both in flower and fruit, below.

I will never look at a dandelion, especially in sandy soil, the same way again.

Roses Are Red, Violets Are... All Different Colors!

Here are just a few of the many violets that grow in northern Indiana. Identification and nomenclature are debated at every turn, so please feel free to chip away at these identifications - I can always play the amateur card. One thing I would never do is debate the ID of a blue violet with basal, cordate leaves. Doing so would be an exercise in futility.

Viola sagittata - Arrow-Leaved Violet

Viola lanceolata - Lance-Leaved Violet

Viola palmata - Lobed Violet
Viola pubescens - Yellow Violet

Viola sororia - Common Blue Violet

Viola pallens or V. incognita - Smooth or Hairy White Violet

Viola conspersa - Dog Violet

Viola pedata - Bird's Foot Violet

Viola canadensis - Canada Violet

Viola striata - Cream Violet

Viola rostrata - Long-Spurred Violet

Does Anyone Smell Smoke?

Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), that is. I'd say that smelling Prairie Smoke would be much more pleasant than smelling Old Man's Whiskers, the common name given for this plant in the PLANTS Database. Just my personal preference.
Tony and I spent a good part of the day botanizing grassed swales in northwest Indiana (not too exciting), so I decided to post a few photos of this gorgeous Rosaceous plant, which is growing in my home landscaping. Geum triflorum isn't found naturally in Indiana, but it is known from prairies in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan (threatened), as well from much of Canada and the western United States. The only place I have ever seen this plant growing naturally was on a remnant hill prairie in Wisconsin. I'm typically a purist when it comes to native landscaping, but this is just a cool plant.
As you can see in the close-up, the "smoke" or "old man's whiskers" are actually mature, plumose styles visible when the plant is in fruit. (As a side note, nature is full of plumose, or feathery, structures... to see another click here.) These feathery styles are important for seed dispersal in this species. The nodding flowers aren't very showy, as they consist of 3/4" pinkish sepals surrounding white or light pink petals that never seem fully open.

According to Illinois Wildflowers by Don Kurz, Geum triflorum has been used in the past to treat sore or inflamed eyes, canker sores, sore throats, and flesh wounds; it was also smoked to "clear the head."

The Fields are on Fire

On May 18, Tony and I were at the Clark and Pine East Nature Preserve, more commonly known as "Bonji." The Bonji site is now an Indiana Dedicated State Nature Preserve, though it consists of formerly mined sand dunes. A rare and unique flora persists at this heavily impacted site, and aditional restoration efforts are underway to control invasive species.

As we drove along, we noticed that the low ridges appeared to be ablaze... a sure sign that the Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) was in bloom.

Moving closer, we could almost feel the warmth of this flaming gem. We just had to take a quick break from work to take some photos. It is a scene like this that gives me a sense of what the great Hoosier botanist Charlie Deam must have felt when he was taken to the prairies at 17th and Whitcomb Streets in Gary for the first time by the great Chicago Region botanist Floyd Swink in the late 1940s. "When he was shown the Indian Paintbrush stretching for blocks into the distance, he said: 'I have collected in every township in the state of Indiana; I am now in my eighties; this is the finest Indiana natural area I have ever seen in my life.'" (Swink and Wilhelm 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.)

Moving closer, you can see the georgeous flowers...

Ahh... yes... those georgeous, green flowers.

As you probably know, the "paintbrush," which can range from white (in forma alba) to yellow (in forma lutescens) to scarlet red (in forma coccinea) is actually a series of brightly colored, lobed bracts. The flower is the yellowish-green structure above each bract. If you look closely, you'll see two broad, rounded calyx lobes (sometimes with colored tips), a protruding bilabiate corolla with a galeate upper lip, and an exserted style/stigma.

While most of the bracts on the plants that we saw were orange in color, a few scattered plants had scarlet-colored bracts.

The genus Castilleja was named in honor of Spanish botanist Domingo Castillejo; the specific epithet coccinea obviously comes from the bright red bracts. Castilleja coccinea is somewhat parasitic on the roots of other plants, and can be found throughout much of eastern North America. Native Americans made a tea from the flowers that was used as both a love charm and a poison (don't get any ideas, Commander).

Plant Quiz

Well, I could say that this is a plant quiz, but I really am just confused. I would appreciate any help. This is from a mitigation wetland in Central Indiana (Madison County), but I don't think it was seeded. I have been watching it all winter and waiting for it to bloom. It only grows in standing water, although I don't think it fits the definition of true aquatic, since it doesn't have any thin leaves and does emerge from the water. In the winter, it would be in 6" deep water and have basal leaves that float to the surface. You can see some of the basal leaves in one of the pictures. Now it is blooming. The petals are tiny (<6mm) I have assumed it is a buttercup, but I can't get anything to fit.

Right Place, Right Time

The National Park Service and National Geographic Society joined forces this past weekend to hold a 24-hour BioBlitz at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (to see a National Geographic account of the event, click here). I participated by leading survey teams at Miller Woods Pannes, Howe's Prairie, and Inland Marsh. My teams tallied over 200 plant species at these sites during our field trips. However, my most exciting find came at my campsite at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore campground.

In April 2005, Keith found Collinsia sparsiflora, a species native to the extreme western United States and never before seen in Indiana or the Chicago Region, at the horsemen's campground at Potato Creek State Park.

Soon after Keith's observation, the campsites were herbicided by the park, and this plant hasn't been seen at this location since.

On Friday, I spotted what I believe to be Collinsia parviflora, a species native to the western United States, Canada, and scattered counties in the northeastern United States, growing in gravel at my campsite.

Until now (if my identification is confirmed), this species was not known from Indiana or the Chicago Region. The closest known population of maiden blue-eyed Mary to northwest Indiana is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. At my campsite, there were several individuals of Collinsia parviflora, so I made a collection in addition to taking photographs.

My campsite was chosen for me by someone from the National Park Service... I guess they picked the "right place" for me to stay.

Now for the "right time" part... I found this plant when botanizing my campsite by lantern with Maryland botanist Joe Metzger, who was sharing the campsite with me, at approximately 9:00 PM CDT, in the dark. Who says that the only good botanizing takes place during the day? I guess I take this 24-hour BioBlitz thing pretty literally!

I am interested in hearing opinions about my identification, especially if you have seen Collinsia parviflora.