Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Eastern Candlewax Lichen (Ahtiana aurescens)

My most recent wildflower adventure took me to our hunting property for the first time this year. Between the rains which sometimes make the lane in impassable; the horrible storms which have caused so much damage in my own landscape; and my volunteer commitments, there just wasn’t an appropriate time for me to get out there until now.

But the rains had subsided for awhile and my brothers and a nephew cleared away the fall-downs at the hunting property, so a time presented itself.

Oh, what a wonderful feeling to be back at this very special place. Our hunting property is not the hardwoods you see with White Trilliums and Solomon Seals. It’s primarily a cedar swamp with lots of ledge rock which means it has very different, very special species of plants. Lichens, for example.

Eastern Candlewax Lichen

Lichen growing on the limb of a fallen pine tree. Eastern Candlewax Lichen (Ahtiana aurescens) is a Wisconsin Special Concern lichen and is found on the bark of cedar and pine trees, rarely hardwood trees.

The Eastern Candlewax Lichen (Ahtiana aurescens) grows throughout Northeastern USA, and “is most commonly found on cedars and pines, and rarely on hardwoods. It is pale gray-green on top, in overlapping lobes whose shape is somewhat similar to oak leaves. The underside is pale brown, and shiny. The apothecia—small goblet-shaped fruiting bodies—are brown in color and less than ¼” (7 mm) in diameter.” (FloraFinder)

General overview of lichen morphology

I found this image and general overview on the WDNR (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) webpage. I thought it might be of interest to others also.

Lichens represent a unique symbiotic relationship between two or sometimes three organisms: a fungus; an alga; and/or a cyanobacterium. This figure provides a good overview of a generalized lichen. The main body of the lichen is called the thallus. The thallus is the vegetative part of the lichen (i.e., not including any reproductive structures like apothecia) and is often what we visually associate with a lichen. The figure above depicts a foliose thallus with the upper surface curled up in places to reveal the lower thallus surface. The magnified thallus cross section on the right shows a number of additional layers. In this example, the top layer is the upper cortex, which is made up of fungal filaments. Underneath that is the photobiont, either an alga or a cyanobacterium or both. Beneath the photobiont is a loose layer of fungal strands (hyphae) called the medulla, and below the medulla is the lower cortex.

Lichens can reproduce sexually via spores, which are associated with the fungal component of the lichen. However, these spores must again find an appropriate photobiont before a new lichen is formed. Lichens can also reproduce asexually. The two structures shown in the box on the left function in asexual reproduction. Both isidia and soredia are essentially photobionts wrapped in a fungal skin. These can be released from the thallus to form new lichens. (WDNR)

See the Glossary of Common Lichen Terms for descriptions of more lichen-related terms and photos that depict these features.

   Send article as PDF   

Remembering

During our last walk around the hunting property, my brother Dave and I found the Purple Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psycodes) he had discovered the previous year. It was the perfect memory for our last adventure.

This week is the fifteenth anniversary of my oldest brother Dave’s passing. Dave was my turkey hunting partner. We shared the joy of being at our hunting property — hiking and exploring, learning about all the different plants, watching how the hydrology changed what we saw from one year to the next, watching the birds and listening to their different calls, catching sight of the various animals as they stealthily picked their way through the underbrush…

And learning how to hunt turkey together. Oh the stories I could tell about our fun times — about the ones that scared us “half to death,” about the ones that got away, and about the ones that didn’t!

He died much too young, of course, and our family has felt his loss immensely. The brain tumor that took him from us has taken many other heroes also. Senator John McCain for one. I pray the researchers will find a cure for this horrible disease soon.

Note: Coincidentally, 9/11 happened just three years earlier — another day to remember!

   Send article as PDF   

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

I found this wonderful surprise in my prairie this week. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw two spikes of Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) blossoms standing there in between the Woodland Sunflowers and the Spotted Jewelweed. Everything is such a mess all around the area, but there was this surprise. I was amazed! Great Blue Lobelia was one of the earliest natives I planted in my wet mesic prairie, but I haven’t seen it in awhile. The reward from Mother Nature for sustaining all the damage to our landscape was this surprise.

Great Blue Lobelia

Great Blue Lobelia is native to the Eastern and North Central USA and north into Canada. It likes wet ground, so you’ll find it growing along streams, rivers and lakes, as well as swamps, marshes, ditches and low-lying wooded areas.

It’s stalks of bright blue flowers are showy and are often found in clumps. The flowers themselves consists of a tube like blossom with upper and lower lips. Two lips on top and three lips on the bottom with an accentuating white stripe. They bloom late July or August and continue through September or early October.

It’s leaves are alternate and they are a chubby lance-shaped, light green. They can be up to six inches long and are typically irregularly toothed, which makes them fairly distinctive as they climb up the stalk.  It gets it’s name siphilitica because it was used to treat venereal disease syphilis. The roots, stems and leaves are toxic, so large quantities can be hazardous to one’s health.

   Send article as PDF   

An Experiment with Non-Native Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’

There is a large area of non-native Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ between our deck and our patio. They were there when we bought the house and they stay pretty well confined to this area, so I leave them. My husband thinks they’re pretty. I guess I do too, BUT — they do not seem to feed any insects.

In this short video you can see insects buzzing around the goldenrod (Solidago sp) and the Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), gathering nourishment, but no insects are visiting the Goldsturm. I will occasionally see an insect land on a Goldsturm blossom, but they only circle the brown center disk and then fly away to the nearby native species (which have invaded!). They don’t seem to gather any nectar or pollen from the Goldsturm.

Pros and Cons of Nativars or Cultivars

Two migrating species, the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies getting some last minute nectar on a very windy day, September 20, 2017. The Painted Lady is sitting just above the birdbath. Notice the Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ in the photo. Neither butterfly was interested in this cultivar; only the native New England Aster (Symphyotricum novae-angliae).

There are pros and cons to be cited about cultivars of native plants or nativars. Certainly in the case of the Goldsturm, they are very beautiful with their glossy bright yellow-gold petals and dark brown center disk. They bloom for a very long time. And because they are a cultivar of the Rudbeckia, they thrive without much TLC adapting to almost any soil and light conditions.

However, the cons are more serious for wildlife. I’m not a botanist so I don’t know why insects aren’t visiting this plant for nourishment. I do know, however, when horticulturalists tinker with native plants to develop a desired characteristic, the result can change pollen quality or quantity. It can also change the availability of the nectar. Sometimes it is absent; sometimes it just can’t be accessed by wildlife.

Last year was the first year I saw any birds visiting the Goldsturms. Two Goldfinches stopped to check out the seed, but didn’t stay long and I didn’t see them come back. I assume the seed was not to their liking. Here is another con — cultivars are often sterile which means they don’t produce seeds for wildlife to eat.

For more thoughts on this, you might like to read a nicely written article on this subject by Rhonda Fleming Hayes entitled Plants for the garden: native vs. native enough. Thank you Julia Lundmark Vanatta for bringing this article to my attention.

 

 

   Send article as PDF