June is here!

"Summer is here and things are popping up fast"

June 2015 was a very good month for botanizing. My surveys kept me in the southwestern most corner of PA, yet I did get a chance to travel back up to McKean County which is located along the north central border of PA and New York State. Though I live in southwestern PA, I haven’t been able to botanize much of the southern most portion of Washington County or most of Greene County. This is mainly due to the lack of public land in the area.


Much of Greene County and southwestern Washington County is still pretty much free of large cities and suburban sprawl. The area consists mainly of rolling hills and moderately steep stream valleys covered in a patchwork of active agricultural land, fallow fields, woodlands, and forests. Most of the forests in this area are early to mid-succession stage, though some isolated mature forest tracks do exist, especially along ravines and steep hillslopes.

Short’s sedge (Carex shortiana) is one plant that seemed to pop-up during plant surveys more than expected in southwestern PA this year. Short’s sedge doesn’t have a PA legal status right now though it does have a proposed PA status of rare. This is one of my favorite sedges due to the ‘flattened’ chocolate chip-like perigynia that make the sedge easy to spot in the field when mature. Only thing is the perigynia mature quickly and fall.

Short's sedge growing on an old abandon
logging road positioned on an inactive floodplain

Some additional characteristics to look for to help identify Short’s sedge after the perigynia fall are the light green foliage, large ligule, and the gynecandrous (male on bottom and female on top) arrangement of the flowers within the upper most spikes. Short’s sedge is usually found in disturbed habitats such as mixed-forb wetlands that are usually associated with calcareous substrates. Look for Short's sedge within emergent wetlands or moist fields that have developed due to past disturbances.. Most of the populations of Short's sedge I came across this year has been growing in old natural gas and transmission line ROW's. One indicator plant species for Short's sedge is meadow sedge (Carex granularis). If you see meadow sedge within a disturbed wetland here in southwestern PA there is a good chance the area is suitable for Short’s sedge.



The chocolate-chip
like perigynia of Short's sedge

A new PA listed plant species I was able to finally identify in the field this year was Nuttall’s hedge-nettle (Stachys cordata), which has a current legal status of endangered in PA.

 

Nuttall's hedge-nettle

In a forest setting I was able to spot this stachys species from approximately 30 feet away due the plants large, heart-shaped leaves that stood out among the semi-open understory layer.



Nuttall's hedge-nettle population

 One of many Nuttall’s hedge-nettle look alike plant species here in southwestern PA is wild germander (Teucrium canadensis). Nuttall’s hedge-nettle is usually found growing within rich, mesic forest slopes while wild germander is usually found growing in more open habitats such as along forest edges, fencerows, or floodplains. When contrasting Nuttall’s hedge-nettle with other look alike plants (Stachys tenuifolia and Stachys palustris) in the field you may first notice that Nuttall’s hedge-nettle leaves are usually much longer and wider.

Wild germander leaf on left and
Nuttall's hedge-nettle stem on right

 Taking a closer look at the stem of Nuttall’s hedge-nettle you will notice the long hairs along the stem edges and also along the flattened angles. Most other stachys species found here in southwestern PA have glabrous stems or hairs only on the angles, except for Stachys palustris. Though Stachys palustris has as a shorter calyx than S. nuttallii.





Wild germander stem on left (glabrous) and
Nuttall's hedge-nettle stem on right (pubescent)

Taking a closer look at the flowers of Nuttall’s hedge-nettle and wild germander you will notice that an upper lip is present for Nuttall’s hedge-nettle while absent in wild germander.

Wild germander flower spike on left
and Nuttall's hedge-nettle flower spike on left



One plant species here is southwestern PA that doesn’t have a legal status but is proposed rare is yellow leaf-cup or bear’s-foot (Smallanthus uvedalius). The only real look alike plant for yellow leaf-cup is Polymnia canadensis, which goes by the common name white leaf-cup due to the white petal flowers this species develops.




White leaf-cup and yellow leaf-cup flower heads

Though I was familiar with yellow leaf-cup before this survey, I have to say this year was a learning experience for me. We located a few new populations of yellow leaf-cup during the survey and it seemed most were shared with white leaf-cup plants. So I learned quickly how to spot the differences in leaf characteristics between yellow leaf-cup and white leaf-cup. This came in handy when driving home from the field and doing a little roadside botanizing!

The photo below shows one stem each leaf of both species leaf-cup species. You will notice that yellow leaf-cup has palmately lobed leaves while the white leaf-cup has a pinnately lobed leaf.

White leaf-cup leaf on left (pinnately lobed) and
yellow leaf-cup leaf on right (palmately lobed)

 Another feature to look for to separate white leaf-cup from yellow leaf-cup is the difference in stem pubescence. White leaf-cup has an obvious pubescent stem while the stem of yellow leaf-cup stem is glabrous.




White leaf-cup stem on left (glabrous) and
yellow leaf-cup stem on right (pubescent)

 

During late June I was back up in McKean County PA surveying for creeping snowberry and oblong-fruited serviceberry. Didn't locate anything too out of the ordinary in McKean County in June though I did come across some interesting plants. The next 5 plants below are ones I saw in McKean County PA that I just don’t see too often and wanted to share.

The first plant is a fern called long beech fern (Phegopteris connectilis) which I haven’t come across in about 10 years.



Long beech fern (Phegopteris connectilis)

 The most obvious field characteristics to help identify this fern is the lowest pinna pair which is not connected to the rachis by wings as is in the more common long beech fern (Phegonoptris hexagonoptera). I do come across the broad beech fern often here in southwestern PA which has more of a range across PA than long beech fern. Long beech fern is usually in the more mountainous areas of PA and the northern and northeastern counties in the state. 

In the same area that I found  long beech fern I had a chance to observe 2 shrubs which some people may confuse while in the field. Mountain maple (Acer spicatum) and striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum) are similar in that they both are large shrubs or small trees that have simple, opposite, 3 to 5 lobes leaves, though looking closely one can see obvious differences. First striped maple has smaller, almost fine, double-serrated leaf margins with U-shaped sinuses, while mountain maple has larger, coarser serrations with V-shaped sinuses.



Mountain maple on left and stripped maple on right

 Sometimes to confirm identification it’s a good choice to look at the buds. Mountain maple has pubescent buds and twigs while stripped maple has glabrous buds and twigs. Bark difference is obvious in that stripped maple has white stripped bark while mountain maple does not.

Staying within the same cool mountain stream habitat in McKean County, hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides) is another plant species I took time to photograph. Below is a photo of a patch of hobblebush I came across along Panther Run in McKean County.

 

Hobblebush habitat

This was a very immature population of hobblebush though great to see none the less. Seems this shrub is commonly browsed by deer in PA contributing to it scarcity. As I was told years ago, this plant gets its name due to the thick, dense patches it forms that cause people to trip or hobble as they walk through.

The hobblebush has a northern and central distribution in PA. It also has some very distinctive characteristics that help distinguish it from other viburnums in the field here in PA. First of all hobblebush is found growing mainly along the banks of cool mountain streams or ravines. During the growing season you will notice the opposite, large broad leaves that are 4 to 6 inches across, with heart-shaped leaf base and margins that are finely serrated.

Leaves of hobblebush

Next take a close look at the terminal bud of hobblebush and you will notice the bud is ‘naked’ (without bud scales) and covered in rusty to tan colored hairs.

The last plant I wanted to share is purple avens (Geum rivale). This plant has a northern distribution in PA, mainly the northern most counties that border New York, though you may come across purple avens in the central PA counties at higher elevations.

Purple avens flowers

Purple avens is not too difficult of a plant species to identify when in bloom due to the large flower heads that are about ½” to ¾” across with dark purple sepals and pale purple petals. When not in bloom focus mainly on the habitat, because purple avens is usually found in peaty wetlands or marshes in the northern counties and if you are lucky enough to have a seed head to inspect look for the plumose style tip.

 

"Until Next Time, Keep Botanizing!"