Mahonia showing berries. Note that there are still flowers towards the tips of the racemes.

Thanks to the mild temperatures this winter, the Mahonia (Mahonia sp.), Grape-holly, or whatever it is that you prefer to call it, on the Dinosaur Trail has been in bloom continuously since the fall. It now has berries where once, bright yellow flowers lured honey bees, various flies, and ants to perform the pollination duties. These plants should provide a good crop of berries for the birds this year.

Not quite ripe these berries will turn deep purple with a light blue pruinosity later in the season.

Common Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is showing its first sprouts of the season.

Fresh shoots are beginning to show themselves on elderberry. This plant is on the Dinosaur Trail opposite the Maiasaura.

There is only a handful of Silky Willows that I'm aware of here at the Museum, all are on the north side of the Wetlands.

The buds on Silky Willow (Salix sericea) are beginning to awaken from their winter slumber. This small tree or shrub is more northern in distribution than the abundant Black Willows that grow just about everywhere you look here in our Wetlands. The silky variety is rare on the coastal plain, more common here in the Piedmont and Mountains.

Silky Willow blooms very early here at the Museum and these trees should be in their glory by next month (March). It’s been very mild and things are moving rather quickly here in the Piedmont, but we may yet get a blast of coldness to slow things down a bit.

I expect that we’ll have to wait and see what the rest of winter brings us. Until then, enjoy the weather, and the early floral happenings.

Red Maple in bloom (2/3/12).

Don't walk by a red maple without getting a close look at the flowers, they're quite pleasing to gaze upon.

At least two Red Maples here at the Museum are in bloom. The trees are located in Explore the Wild on the north side of the Wetlands. Being out of the wind at the bottom of a former quarry, and on the north side of that quarry where they get direct sun the year-round, it’s typically warmer where these trees grow. In my opinion, they’re slightly ahead of schedule. But according to the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association the trees are at the very beginning of their normal blooming period.

Red Maples are early bloomers no matter where they grow which is one reason that they’re a personal favorite of mine, they brighten up the otherwise gray and brown winter landscape with their red buds and blooms.

Not quite ready, these catkins have a week or so before they're ready to pollinate.

Another woody plant that’s in bloom a tad ahead of itself is Hazel Alder. We have three here at the Museum, all are located just west of the maples mentioned above. Alders are shrubs or small trees and can grow to 20 feet or more. Ours are much smaller, probably because they’re out competed for sunlight by the many Black Willows growing all around them. Alders are a wetland species.

Both male and female flowers are present at the same time and are located at the tips of the branches, the males in the form of catkins dangling just below the reddish female flowers. The catkins put out abundant amounts of pollen which is carried by the wind to the female flowers.

All three of our alders are in various stages of readiness for the “breeding” season.

Almost ready. A few more days should be all that's needed for this alder to put forth pollen.

Ready for action. Note the lone female flower above the catkin on the left. There are often two, three or more females present.

If you suddenly find yourself sneezing during the month of February here in the Piedmont and are near a wetland, you may be allergic to alder pollen.

A tap of a finger, or gust of wind, releases generous amounts of pollen from the catkins.

And you thought you were safe from allergies during winter.

This "leaf" is about 2 inches across and appears to have been jabbed onto the end of the twig.

It’s winter and the trees, most of them, don’t have leaves on them. But it was pointed out to me by Meredith (Master Teacher here at the Museum) that several small trees on the south side of the Wetlands still had some of their leaves attached, though they were all attached to the tree in an odd way.

According to Meredith, the leaves looked as though they had been stuck onto the twigs in a manner as would a receipt on a receipt spike, as if they had been pushed onto the end of the twig. The little leaves were not actually attached to the tree but would spin freely and ride up and down on the twig with the wind.

Hmm, another mystery to solve.

The bark of a young sycamore.

First, if possible, we had to determine what kind of tree we were dealing with. There were three or four of the trees next to the boardwalk where it descends into Explore the Wild.

They were all sycamores, young sycamores (12′ – 20′) that had yet to acquire the pealing lower bark and white upper bark of mature trees. I remembered the trees from earlier in the year when they had their large, broad leaves. But there were more clues to the identity of the trees besides the remembrance of the past season’s leaves.

The large bud and leaf scar, which surrounds the bud, are distinctive.

Leaf scars are what’s left after the leaves fall off of the tree, they are where the leaf petiole, or leaf stem, had been attached to the twig. Sycamore leaf scars are distinctive, although I had to be reminded of that by referencing a tree field guide. The scars nearly encircle the buds.

OK, so it’s a sycamore, but what are those little leaves spinning around on the twigs? I remember seeing those small “leaves” when they were green during the growing season. I was curious as to why they were so small. They looked like stunted sycamore leaves. But I simply shrugged them off as, well, stunted sycamore leaves that hadn’t grown out completely due to some insect or disease infestation. And besides, I’m sure that at the time I was too busy doing something else to dig any deeper, there’s so much going on during the summer, you have to pick your mysteries carefully.

Both leaf and stipule scars are clearly seen here.

A stipule is an outgrowth of a young leaf and is part of the base of the leaf. Although some plants do not have stipules, in those that do the stipule can take on many forms. It can be a very small tendril like structure, a spine (the thorns on acacia trees are stipules), or it may take on the shape and form of a leaf.

I have yet to discover the definitive answer as to the purpose of stipules but they may have evolved as a protective structure for young emerging leaves. The stipules that are more leaf-like in structure may actually perform some of the functions of leaves (photosynthesis).

Sycamores happen to have stipules that are very much like leaves.

The stipules remain on the tree much longer than do the leaves due to their shape.

Why don’t the stipules fall off the tree when the leaves do. Many of them do, but those that don’t are still on the tree during winter due to their manner of growth. As you can see in these photos the base of the stipule nearly surrounds the twig, it’s attached to the twig for most of the twig’s circumference.

The leafy part of a sycamore stipule grows both outward and around the stem. The stipule that I have in my hand at the moment had actually grown into itself, the sides had grown together and were attached, holding it onto the twig.

When the stipules dry out they retain their shape (like leaves do) and since they grow around the twig, and despite the fact that they have detached from the twig at the point of growth, they stay on the twig. Eventually they become too brittle or decay to a point where they break apart and fall to the ground. But for most of the fall and part of the winter some of the stipules remain on the tree if for no other reason than to make curious naturalists wonder what they are and why they are there.

Read enough about stipules? If so, you can stop here, I’m done. If not, you can look deeper into their structure, origin, and purpose by browsing through “The Nature and Origin of Stipules,” Ansel Augustus Tyler, at Google books where that publication has been digitized and is viewable online.

Yellow-rumped Warblers have been variously known or referred to as Myrtle Warblers, Butter Butts, Dendroica coronata and Setophaga coronata. By whatever name, they’re still the same species and are the most often encountered warbler during North Carolina’s winter season.

As I stood in Catch the Wind on a sunny day during the first week of December I watched a flock of these versatile birds attack a Wax Myrtle, scoffing up the berries with wild fury. Luckily, the myrtle didn’t have many leaves on it allowing me to get a handful of acceptable photos, here’s some of them.

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The following three photos are of the same bird selecting and eating one of the wax myrtle’s berries.

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And finally this last bird gives us a glimpse of where the species name coronata came from.

Although dressed in the dull plumage of winter, there's a hint of what will become a brilliant yellow crown on top of the head.

And that’s all for now.

What are we?

But first, the clues:

Palustris means swamp, swampy, or of the swamp.

Hot, stylish, phat, fly, and coxa are, or can be, other words for hip, although coxa is more literal than the others in that it refers to the hip bone.

So, now we have “swamp hip,” which doesn’t make a lot of sense. I was going to use a clue such as rosa or rouge but thought it a bit too obvious. So, I left it to you to piece it together, to visualize red fruit, hips, swamp…I only know of one fruit that is referred to as hips, and that is the fruit of roses.

Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris) in the Wetlands (5/26/10).

By the way, rose hips are edible, are very nutritious, can be made into tea, soup, jelly, syrup, and wine, among other things, and they have way more vitamin C than do oranges. So go pick you some hips, but make sure that the hips you pick have not been sprayed with some sort of pest or herbicide.

Swamp Rose grows in our Wetlands here at the Museum and is just one of several common species found in our area. It is very similar to Carolina Rose except for the habitat in which it tends to grow and the fact that the Swamp Rose has thorns that are recurved, curved backwards on the stem. The thorns on Carolina Rose are typically straight.

Multiflora Rose is an introduced plant and has many small white flowers, not single blossoms such as the Carolina and Swamp Roses display. Multiflora Rose can quickly take over a meadow or field edge, crowding out native plants.

What are we? (photo - 11/19/11)

Clues:

Palustris

Hot, stylish, phat, fly, also coxa.

If you don’t know, take a guess!

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Answer here.

Groundsel Tree (Baccharis halimifolia), Siverling, Sea Myrtle, Saltbush, whatever you prefer to call it, is native to coastal marshes. But, you may have noticed it’s white billowing flowers and silky seeds as you drive along the Piedmont’s highways each fall where it grows in the roadside ditches, and in fact, any wet spot in our area.

Groundsel Tree in front of a Bald Cypress in the Wetlands.

Groundsel’s seeds are dispersed by the wind so it can travel great distances in a hurry, botanically speaking. It may have infiltrated our area along those same highways that speed us to the coast on our vacations, propagating in the sloughs along the road. But of course it’s also planted as a windbreak and border plant.

The North Carolina Native Plant Society places it in Rank 3, or Lesser Threat, on their invasive species list, Rank 1 being a Severe Threat.

As far as its utility, the wood is soft and of little use (there’s not much wood on this shrub) and I don’t know of any animals that eat the seeds. However, many bees, wasps, flies, and some butterflies nectar on the flowers, often one of the only nectar sources around during fall. From personal experience, I know that along the coast Monarch Butterflies use the plant for both nectar and shelter and migrating songbirds use the shrub for shelter and gleaning insects.

The purpose of this post, however, is not to discuss the merits of the plant but to, well, have a look below…

The slightest puff of wind sends the silky seeds airborne.

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Many of the seeds end up in the water. The red-brown area is made up of Bald Cypress and Dawn Redwood needles dropped the previous day.

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The abundant seeds create a white film on the water's surface.

By the way, there are both male and female trees (dioecious). Both sexes are required to produce viable seeds.

See you in the Wild!

What's that at the end of the trail?

An Albertosaurus!

Down to the Wetlands.

The way to the Bears.

Looking back.

Looking across.

Looking into the willows. A trio of mergansers.

…and much, much more.

From it’s name you may have inferred that it is a pretty (showy) plant and has three-lobed leaves (trefoil). The flowers are indeed attractive and the leaves have three leaflets, but where does the tick part come in. If you brush against the plant in the fall or winter you’ll probably carry some of the plant’s seeds along with you, they stick to you like a tick sticks to you.

The flowers in June.

The seeds in November.

The seeds on my sweatshirt after brushing up against the plant.

Butterfly Weed (a milkweed) has silky-topped seeds which when caught by the wind are carried off to be gerninated elsewhere.

Some plants disperse their seeds through the wind. Cottonwoods, willows, and milkweeds are just a few of the plants whose seeds are carried by the wind to germinate far from the mother plant.

Other plants conceal their seeds within a tasty, juicy fruit. Birds and mammals that eat the fruit carry the seeds with them and disperse them in their droppings or scat.

Some seeds simply drop to the ground and germinate beneath the mother plant.

Many plants use the stick-to method. The surface of the seeds are covered with, often, tiny hooks which, when rubbed against by an animal, or naturalist, attaches itself to the fur or clothing for a free ride to far off lands. If the seed happens to be chewed or rubbed off in a suitable location for gemination it will have done its job and a new plant will emerge from the soil the following spring or summer. This is how Showy Tick Trefoil gets to wherever it is that you happen to see it growing.

Tiny velcro-like hooks cover the seeds of tick trefoil assurring that anything that walks by will carry some of the seeds with them to be dropped far from their point of origin.

This hook-on strategy is a good one for a prairie plant. There are, or were when this plant evolved, millions of buffalo and other mammals wandering the prairies. What better way to get your seed from one place to another than to be growing in the path of a migrating herd of American Bison with all of that thick, brown fur to cling to!

Bald Cypress.

River Birch.

Eastern Cottonwood.

Dawn Redwood.

Winged Elm.

Goldenrod.

Groundsel Tree.

Mockernut(?) Hickory.

Red Maple.

Dwarf Sumac.

Sweetgum.

Take a stroll in the afternoon anytime after 3 and have a look for yourself!