“Bringing in all the rest”

Since it was impossible to keep up with submitting a new blog entry every month, I am force to cram the remaining plants of 2015 in this one. So here is a scaled down list and information of interesting plants I came across during field work from July to September in 2015.

Sometimes I get lucky and I am assigned a survey that is close to my home. It's welcomed since I don’t have to be away from the family too long. In July I had an opportunity to conduct a plant survey that was about 5 miles from the home. Though I was looking forward to the reduced time on the road, I wasn’t too excited about the possibility of finding new plant species I haven’t already come across in the past.

Well, of course I did come across an unfamiliar sedge species fairly quick, the hairy-fruited sedge (Carex trichocarpa). This sedge was a dominant species within a large, 2-acre wetland which was probably once a pasture many years ago. Kind of exciting when I find a new sedge species to add to my personal list, especially since I found it so close to my neck of the woods. When I ran the sedge through Gleason and Cronquist later that afternoon it was a very easy sedge to key, another bonus.

Hairy-fruited sedge with habitat in background

The first field characteristic I noticed about the hairy-fruited sedge was its growth habit. This was a large population and it was obvious immediately  this sedge doesn’t form 'clumps' (cespitose) but spreads by long creeping rhizomes which produces far more vegetative shoots than fertile shoots. The next field characteristic I noticed was the large vegetative shoots that are reach about 3’ high, and have a cluster of 2’ long arching leaves near the shot apex. 

Vegetative shoot of hairy-fruited sedge left
and fertile shoot on right.

Taking a look at the reproductive shoot of hairy-fruited sedge you will first notice the dark red to purplish color band at the sheath apex. Next you will notice separate male and female spikes. The female flower spikes are long (4 cm to 7 cm) and narrow (1 cm to 1.5 cm), and separated along the stem, while 3 to 6 male spikes are clustered at the tip. The perigynia are hairy and posses a 2 mm to 4 mm double toothed beak which are mostly straight.

Female spikes of Hairy-fruited sedge

Another area I surveyed near my home was a large wetland mitigation area that contained a huge detention pond. Within 5 minutes of walking through this area, I spotted another new plant species I never identified in the field before. There, growing within the outflow area of the detention pond was river bulrush (Schoenoplectus fluviatilis).

Inflorescence of river bulrush (Shoenoplectus flaviatilis)

The river bulrush stood out like a sore thumb among the broad-leaved cattails and rice-cutgrass within the area. Seems the most common bulrush species I see 95 percent of the time here in southwestern PA is great bulrush (Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani), and three-square bulrush (Schoenoplectus pungens) the other 5 percent of the time. River bulrush is kind of unique due to the presence of leaves along the entire stem and inflorescence bracts that are similar to the stem leaves. All other species of schoenoplectus species found in PA have an inflorescence bract that appear as a continuation of the stem and lack stem leaves. In PA, river bulrush is considered rare though it is considered fairly secure across its north central range here in the US.

A question that came to mind when I first found the river bulrush was how did it get here? The detention pond had to of been constructed within the last 20 years or so. I say this because I used to hunt deer and squirrels in this exact spot growing up in the 1980’s and the area looked completely different. What I remember seeing where the detention pond now sits was a large forested valley with a perennial stream running through with various hillside wetland seeps. So possible this river bulrush is a transient plant that may have traveled here via soil brought in during construction of the detention pond or transported by water fowl.

Another new plant species for me this year was mud-hyssop (Gratiola neglecta). I came across this plant on a gravelly, sandy shore along a perennial stream in McKean County PA. As soon as I caught site of this plant I knew I was unfamiliar with it.

Mud-hyssop (Gratiola neglecta) 

Though the mud-hyssop isn’t a rare plant species in PA it is a new one for me and I was glad to add it to my personal species list. I always tell myself there are only about 3000 vascular plant species growing here in PA, so chances are pretty good I will come across a few I don’t know every now and then!

Probably my favorite plant genus is Spriranthes. I had a chance this year to survey for Case’s ladies-tresses (Spiranthes casei) in northern PA and what a challenge. One of the biggest challenges was to gather enough specific identification information to help distinguish Case’s ladies-tresses from similar Spiranthes species in the field.

Case’s ladies-tresses growing out of old railroad tie

The field characteristics I used to separate Case’s ladies’-tresses from look-alike plants such as nodding ladies-tresses (Spiranthes cernua) and yellow nodding ladies-tresses (Spiranthes ochroleuca) were the upper sepal length of 7.5 mm or less, single loose spiral flower arrangement, and creamy colored flowers with a distinctive yellow throat.

Case’s ladies-tresses inflorescence, 'lose' spiral of flowers



Nodding ladies-tresses inflorescence, 'tight' spiral of flowers

One of the highlights of 2015 was the chance to take part in the field monitoring of the federally endangered northeastern bulrush (Scirpus ancistrochaetus). I was able to visit 4 environmentally different sites in south central PA that contained populations of northeastern bulrush.

 

The sites ranged from sparsely vegetated depressions (vernal pools) to completely vegetated emergent wetlands, to inundated emergent wetlands. One thing that stood out after visiting all 4 sites was northeastern bulrush seemed to prefer growing in those specific areas within each site that experienced seasonal fluctuations in water level. This is no surprise for the experts of northeastern bulrush but it is an import habitat characteristic when trying to determine suitable habitat for the species.

 

The most obvious visual characteristic for northeastern bulrush is the drooping orientation of the mature inflorescence. People will describe the overall look of the inflorescence as ‘exploding fireworks’, where the arching rays appear as 'trails' and the tight cluster of spikelets the main area of 'explosion'. That’s how I ‘see’ it?

 

Mature inflorescence of northeastern bulrush: Exploding fireworks

Careful though since many of the northeastern bulrush individuals I saw flowering within the sites didn’t have the obvious ‘exploding fireworks’ inflorescence.

 

A very interesting characteristic of the northeastern bulrush is their ability to form bulblets within the leaf axils and even within the inflorescence. I am not familiar with the complete reproduction behavior of northeastern bulrush but my hunch is this species can dominate the vernal pool habitats fairly quick if enough individuals begin to produce these axillary bulblets.

'Bulblets' developing within the inflorescence
of northeastern bulrush

'Bulblets' developing along  the stem
of northeastern bulrush

One of the associate plants growing within a particular northeast bulrush site was golden-club (Orontium aquaticum). Golden-club is very distinctive in the field when in bloom and even when not in bloom. As you can see by the photo below, golden-club has large, elliptic to oblong shaped, dark green, petiolate leaves. When you squeeze the leaves of golden-club you will notice the sponge-like texture which comes from the many air sacs inside the leaf.

Golden-club (Orontium aquaticum) 

This plant can be found growing in shallow water along the littoral zone of lakes and pond and even streams and wetlands in muddy to peaty substrates. Unfortunately golden-club blooms in the spring and I observed the plant in the late summer. The flowers of golden-club are borne along the apex of a spadix and possess a bright yellow perianth during anthesis.

 

 

"Until Next Time, Keep Botanizing!"