http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php Native plants for the southeast US, habitat restoration, and other science concerns en hughes@plantbio.uga.edu Copyright 2008 2008-05-12T07:01:18 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1205 2008-05-11T05:36:42 Wayne (mailto:wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com) General 1205@http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php Here's the weather this early Sunday morning. We oughta get a bit of rain out of this one. Can't miss! We've been in a tornado watch since late yesterday afternoon, but up until 3AM the weather was calm. The watch has been extended several times, now to 10AM. Right now, most of the lightning is down around Columbus, 150 miles southwest of us, but I did manage to recover this cloud to cloud discharge. And because we are what we are, a nice Libellula vibrans, Great Blue Skimmer. He was actually a rather small one. Apparently the white face is diagnostic.

We’ve been in a tornado watch since late yesterday afternoon, but up until 3AM the weather was calm. The watch has been extended several times, now to 10AM. Right now, most of the lightning is down around Columbus, 150 miles southwest of us, but I did manage to recover this cloud to cloud discharge.


And because we are what we are, a nice Libellula vibrans, Great Blue Skimmer. He was actually a rather small one. Apparently the white face is diagnostic.



]]> http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1204 2008-05-10T05:40:56 Wayne (mailto:wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com) General 1204@http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php This morning I was awakened at 3:30 by the sound of thunder. This wasn't scheduled to happen, though it was a perfectly good time to get up. Apparently a tiny thunderstorm had developed just over our heads. Within a few minutes it had developed into a fairly substantial zone of instability, and with the last hour of rolling thunder and frequent lightning mixed with spates of rain we've all been having a cheerful time of it. So where did this come from? We *are* scheduled for potentially spectacular thunderstorms later tonight as a cold mass collides with a magnificent sending of warm wet air on its way at this very moment from the Gulf. But this little episode of instability was quite a nice surprise. Thursday night's rain left Friday morning wet and drippy. I had another agenda that I'll mention at some future date but part of it was documenting the bank along Goulding Creek as we move upstream from the western portions of the potential new property to the old. Just before we get to the old property line we encounter an S-curve in the creek, which comes into the photo from the center left, turns sharply at center, flows past us at the lower left, and then snakes back around unseen to the right, behind where I'm standing. You can make out the high bank on my side of the creek straight ahead, and the big mass of deposited soil on the far side just ahead of me. That's the result of periodic floods, which in their furious rush scour out the banks ahead of the flow, and then drop the soil and sand in the lee of the flow. It's a story told many times along Goulding Creek as it winds through our little watershed. The walk eventually landed me at the point at which the old roadcut crosses Goulding Creek, the site of so many previous investigations. Looking into the floodplain, you can barely see the roadcut as a depression in the foreground, now covered with Smallanthus, Bearclaw, on the right, giving way to Verbesina, Crownbeard, on the left. If you walked down that roadcut and headed into the the vanishing point of darkness, you'd eventually arrive at SBS Creek, flowing downstream from left to right. Here, for fun, are a couple of photos, the left taken March 9, and the right taken May 9. What a difference two months make! And that's where I found the fourth box turtle of 2008, apparently in high anxiety. Or maybe he, and it is a he, is just happy to see me. I am always hoping for a re-encounter with an old friend, but was fairly sure this one was new. And so he is - the pattern of spotting is unique and actually fairly unusual. The individual spots, usually connected into ideographlike patterns, remain unconnected and isolated here. The usual documentary thumbnails: Finally, a little puzzle. Connect the dots: On my way back up to the house, and at the start of the big gully, I stopped to photograph a wolf vaccinium, and found this bone, about six inches long and fresh enough to have flies investigating the shreds of meat still attached. I didn't check the general area so can't be sure, but the bone is certainly isolated from any larger kill.However, within five feet was this artifact. The isolated bone. The fallen balloon. The silly conclusion.

Apparently a tiny thunderstorm had developed just over our heads. Within a few minutes it had developed into a fairly substantial zone of instability, and with the last hour of rolling thunder and frequent lightning mixed with spates of rain we’ve all been having a cheerful time of it.

So where did this come from? We *are* scheduled for potentially spectacular thunderstorms later tonight as a cold mass collides with a magnificent sending of warm wet air on its way at this very moment from the Gulf. But this little episode of instability was quite a nice surprise.

Thursday night’s rain left Friday morning wet and drippy. I had another agenda that I’ll mention at some future date but part of it was documenting the bank along Goulding Creek as we move upstream from the western portions of the potential new property to the old. Just before we get to the old property line we encounter an S-curve in the creek, which comes into the photo from the center left, turns sharply at center, flows past us at the lower left, and then snakes back around unseen to the right, behind where I’m standing.


You can make out the high bank on my side of the creek straight ahead, and the big mass of deposited soil on the far side just ahead of me. That’s the result of periodic floods, which in their furious rush scour out the banks ahead of the flow, and then drop the soil and sand in the lee of the flow. It’s a story told many times along Goulding Creek as it winds through our little watershed.

The walk eventually landed me at the point at which the old roadcut crosses Goulding Creek, the site of so many previous investigations. Looking into the floodplain, you can barely see the roadcut as a depression in the foreground, now covered with Smallanthus, Bearclaw, on the right, giving way to Verbesina, Crownbeard, on the left.


If you walked down that roadcut and headed into the the vanishing point of darkness, you’d eventually arrive at SBS Creek, flowing downstream from left to right. Here, for fun, are a couple of photos, the left taken March 9, and the right taken May 9. What a difference two months make!


And that’s where I found the fourth box turtle of 2008, apparently in high anxiety. Or maybe he, and it is a he, is just happy to see me.


I am always hoping for a re-encounter with an old friend, but was fairly sure this one was new. And so he is - the pattern of spotting is unique and actually fairly unusual. The individual spots, usually connected into ideographlike patterns, remain unconnected and isolated here.

The usual documentary thumbnails:


Finally, a little puzzle. Connect the dots:

	On my way back up to the house, and at the start of the big gully, I stopped to photograph a wolf vaccinium, and found this bone, about six inches long and fresh enough to have flies investigating the shreds of meat still attached. I didn’t check the general area so can’t be sure, but the bone is certainly isolated from any larger kill.
However, within five feet was this artifact. The isolated bone. The fallen balloon. The silly conclusion.

]]> http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1203 2008-05-09T07:52:21 Wayne (mailto:wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com) General 1203@http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php We got a little rain relief last night, 0.29 inches, about twice what Athens got. Meanwhile I've been watching evapotranspiration climbing as the trees leaf out and the temperatures rise. ET has climbed 20-fold in the last month, from a winter's end of usually 0.01" to 0.20" most dry days now. We hardly dare but to skirt around the issue, since there are surely those that but they understood it would suggest that cutting down trees might be a solution to the problem of water reserves. Fortunately them ones are none too bright. I've been good about letting dragonflies sit in photo folders, but I have to let this one out now. In fact, there are two of them, both individuals spotted on the same day about a thousand feet apart. If this is a Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Libellula pulchella, then it's new for me and adds to the collection of Libellula. I like the deep chocolate brown coloration. The twelve spot designation is obvious - three dark brown blotches on each of the four wings. I'm guessing that the individual above, and this one below, to both be females, although I am not looking at the terminal appendages. I'm going by the new word, "pruinescence", that I learned at bugguide. Pruinescence is the appearance of pigment atop the old which imparts a frosted appearance, and it usually occurs in males as they mature. Common whitetails are great examples of this, but the Libelluidae also sport this trait, and this species shows it as additional frosty white spotting on the wings. So these are either females or immature males. If you go to google and click on the maps tab, then zero in on your location, you'll probably be presented first with a terrain map (if not, click on that tab). Why should you do that? Because these are very neat, and surely everyone should know their terrain! Here's the immediate area between Wolfskin Road and Black Snake Road that shows our current property in yellow (very roughly). The contours show that it's situated on the southeast slope of a large hill, and straddles the hollow through which SBS Creek flows. The added blue is Goulding Creek, at the 600 foot contour above sea level. Within the yellow is the house at about 650 feet, and northeast of the yellow is an elliptical peak that marks about 700 feet. As you're driving (or biking) along Black Snake Road, you can look southeast and see the rise of the substantial hill of which we're a part. The orange boundaries include versions of the property we're considering purchasing. That little contour loop at the north end marks the "deck" that has been featured lately. A larger view of the area including west Oglethorpe County, in the right 2/3 of the image, and the eastern portions of Clarke (Athens) and Oconee Counties at upper left and lower left, respectively. I think it's particularly neat how the terrain south and east of Wolfskin Road is much more rugged that that north of Hway 78. That's the bicycling area, and by that you would know it even if you hadn't seen it here first. And finally, an even larger view that now includes Athens at upper left, Watkinsville at lower left, and more of the north and southwest portions of Oglethorpe County (right half).

I’ve been good about letting dragonflies sit in photo folders, but I have to let this one out now. In fact, there are two of them, both individuals spotted on the same day about a thousand feet apart. If this is a Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Libellula pulchella, then it’s new for me and adds to the collection of Libellula. I like the deep chocolate brown coloration. The twelve spot designation is obvious - three dark brown blotches on each of the four wings.

I’m guessing that the individual above, and this one below, to both be females, although I am not looking at the terminal appendages. I’m going by the new word, “pruinescence”, that I learned at bugguide. Pruinescence is the appearance of pigment atop the old which imparts a frosted appearance, and it usually occurs in males as they mature. Common whitetails are great examples of this, but the Libelluidae also sport this trait, and this species shows it as additional frosty white spotting on the wings. So these are either females or immature males.




If you go to google and click on the maps tab, then zero in on your location, you’ll probably be presented first with a terrain map (if not, click on that tab). Why should you do that? Because these are very neat, and surely everyone should know their terrain!

Here’s the immediate area between Wolfskin Road and Black Snake Road that shows our current property in yellow (very roughly). The contours show that it’s situated on the southeast slope of a large hill, and straddles the hollow through which SBS Creek flows. The added blue is Goulding Creek, at the 600 foot contour above sea level. Within the yellow is the house at about 650 feet, and northeast of the yellow is an elliptical peak that marks about 700 feet. As you’re driving (or biking) along Black Snake Road, you can look southeast and see the rise of the substantial hill of which we’re a part. The orange boundaries include versions of the property we’re considering purchasing. That little contour loop at the north end marks the “deck” that has been featured lately.

A larger view of the area including west Oglethorpe County, in the right 2/3 of the image, and the eastern portions of Clarke (Athens) and Oconee Counties at upper left and lower left, respectively. I think it’s particularly neat how the terrain south and east of Wolfskin Road is much more rugged that that north of Hway 78. That’s the bicycling area, and by that you would know it even if you hadn’t seen it here first.

And finally, an even larger view that now includes Athens at upper left, Watkinsville at lower left, and more of the north and southwest portions of Oglethorpe County (right half).

]]> http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1202 2008-05-08T04:36:16 Wayne (mailto:wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com) General 1202@http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php Yesterday's walk, a good bit earlier than usual, took me to the deck, that open area of the property we're trying to negotiate, and then back by way of the knoll that sits up to the north of the house. GIGO: I cheated a bit on the knoll photo above - I shot obliquely into the morning sun so that the contrasts were exaggerated, but it really is that vibrant. The cool season grasses are thick and luxurious and I'm sure I know people who are screaming to get out the mower. But no: walking through the grass disturbs large numbers of tiny moths and other insects. Tiny moths mean tiny caterpillars, and these both serve as food for arthropod and tetrapod predators up the food web, and I'm thinking that that is all to the good. Right now I hear a multitude of the latter expressing their deep appreciation of our forebearance in the matter of mowing. The visit to the deck was mainly for taking another look at the buckeyes for the developmental abnormalities I mentioned yesterday, but I did admire the Appalachian Ragwort that is coming up through the grasses. You'll recall that several years ago I decided to document the box turtles that wander the property. None of these gets a name until a second observation, and that's only happened once, with Sylvia, a delightful re-encounter indeed. The last couple of box turtle discoveries have been of inexplicably dead animals, so I was pleased to find one on May 4, and then two yesterday, all happily feeding. None of these resembles the previous finds, and so they're numbers 9, 10, and 11 (neglecting the dead ones). My last find on Sep 4 of last year was the second of only two living turtles spotted in 2007, so this is already a good season! I'm not sure about including the first one, since it was found across Goulding Creek on the bank opposite the confluence of SBS Creek and Goulding. However, this one may range back across the creek, so I'll keep it. This one had a very slight concavity to the plastron so it may be a male, but I'm going with female. If so, then we have documented four males and seven females (living). Nice red markings on the legs! And a few documentary thumbnails. The next two were found yesterday morning, and I'm wondering if this was just coincidence or if they were more out and about in the early morning. This female was nestled down in the litter eating some disgusting soft gray thing. She was halfway up the west slope from SBS Creek, fifty feet downstream from Troll Rock. A very oddly shaped turtle! And another female, this time with red eyes, which are usually considered male characteristics. Her plastron says otherwise. She too, was engaged in a messy breakfast. I found her just above Goulding Creek on the shady floodplain north of the deck area.

I cheated a bit on the knoll photo above - I shot obliquely into the morning sun so that the contrasts were exaggerated, but it really is that vibrant. The cool season grasses are thick and luxurious and I’m sure I know people who are screaming to get out the mower. But no: walking through the grass disturbs large numbers of tiny moths and other insects. Tiny moths mean tiny caterpillars, and these both serve as food for arthropod and tetrapod predators up the food web, and I’m thinking that that is all to the good. Right now I hear a multitude of the latter expressing their deep appreciation of our forebearance in the matter of mowing.

The visit to the deck was mainly for taking another look at the buckeyes for the developmental abnormalities I mentioned yesterday, but I did admire the Appalachian Ragwort that is coming up through the grasses.


You’ll recall that several years ago I decided to document the box turtles that wander the property. None of these gets a name until a second observation, and that’s only happened once, with Sylvia, a delightful re-encounter indeed. The last couple of box turtle discoveries have been of inexplicably dead animals, so I was pleased to find one on May 4, and then two yesterday, all happily feeding. None of these resembles the previous finds, and so they’re numbers 9, 10, and 11 (neglecting the dead ones). My last find on Sep 4 of last year was the second of only two living turtles spotted in 2007, so this is already a good season!

I’m not sure about including the first one, since it was found across Goulding Creek on the bank opposite the confluence of SBS Creek and Goulding. However, this one may range back across the creek, so I’ll keep it.


This one had a very slight concavity to the plastron so it may be a male, but I’m going with female. If so, then we have documented four males and seven females (living).

Nice red markings on the legs! And a few documentary thumbnails.


The next two were found yesterday morning, and I’m wondering if this was just coincidence or if they were more out and about in the early morning.

This female was nestled down in the litter eating some disgusting soft gray thing. She was halfway up the west slope from SBS Creek, fifty feet downstream from Troll Rock. A very oddly shaped turtle!




And another female, this time with red eyes, which are usually considered male characteristics. Her plastron says otherwise. She too, was engaged in a messy breakfast. I found her just above Goulding Creek on the shady floodplain north of the deck area.




]]> http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1201 2008-05-07T07:25:35 Wayne (mailto:wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com) General 1201@http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/index.php Glenn was examining yesterday's collection of buckeye leaves when he found something a little interesting. To the left is a photo of a normal bract on the branch of a buckeye. In buckeyes, the leaf is palmately compound, with 5-7 leaflets radiating from a central petiole. In painted buckeye both the first leaf and the young inflorescence emerge from the bud. The bracts are a pair of leaflike organs that cover and protect the bud that contains the developing shoot. When spring arrives, the bracts open up and the new leaves expand. Bracts, like leaves, are terminal organs - they don't develop into anything else or act as a source of new growing points. Once their role in protecting the new shoot is over, they senesce and fall off. You can see how the bracts function in the photo below. They're the curly reddish pair attached to the old twig of last year, and though the new leaves are now greatly expanded you can see how they fit within the enclosure made by those bracts. But look closely at the tips of the bract at center. There is a tiny, but perfect palmately compound leaf emerging from the tip of the bract. (This is also true for the other bract in the pair.) Looks like the bract itself is a bit abnormal, more swollen, thicker, and curlier than the normal bract in the first photo. Glenn suggests that the bract or a patch of cells on the bract have been redefined to act as a petiole. The petiole is the stemlike structure that connects the stem to the blade of a leaf and it will also enclose all the plumbing, the xylem and phloem, that nourishes the leaf blade. Here the bract, or a part of it, seems to be acting as a petiolar source, thereby producing leaves, like a petiole normally does. This is not necessarily a genetically transmittable mutation; we'll have to go back to look at the plant that produced this branch to see if all the bracts look like this. It is a developmental abnormality, but it could have been produced by environment. Temperature, disease, and other insults can cause one organ to develop as another. Or it might be a somatic mutation in a cell that led to the formation of this pair of bracts, but which mutation has not made it into the germ line that produces pollen or egg. Or, and this would be the jackpot, it might be a mutation that is also included in the gametes and then it would be genetically transmissible. Mutations that produce changes in body parts fall into the group of homeotic mutations. Homeotic mutations cause identity changes in organs, since body shape is defined by homeotic genes. A part that would normally develop into one organ instead develops into another, so you get the peculiar classic examples of legs growing out of the head of a fly, instead of the proper antennae. Since mutations in homeotic genes redefine body parts, they're avidly studied. Homeotic genes were first discovered and mapped out thoroughly in animals, and in particular the fruitfly Drosophila, with its enormous collection of spectacular mutations. But the same strategy of using homeotic genes to make a body and to define body parts is also employed in plants, though by a set of genes that is not homologous to that in animals. And, in plants as well as in animals homeotic mutations have been isolated to map out and understand how the plant body is formed. Mutations in one homeotic gene may convert a petal into a sepal, or a sepal into a leaf. And so a host of such floral mutations in the model mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana has been exploited, as in fruitflies and other animals, to unravel the molecular genetics of flowering, called the ABC model of floral development. In plants, homeotic mutations have been unwittingly used as sources for crop and floral varieties. Brocolli and cauliflower, both forms of the species Brassica oleracea, are homeotic mutants that cause inflorescences to arrest and proliferate into chubby edible structures. Or take cultivated roses, for instance. Cultivated roses have multitudes of petals, but the family Rosaceae is characterized by five petals and many stamens, the male flower parts. Where did all the extra petals come from? The extra petals in the cultivated rose derive from conversion of stamens into petals, and if you look at the innermost petals in the center of a rose you'll probably see some stamens that seem to be halfway in between being a petal and a stamen. As for this particular buckeye abnormality, even if it is a transmissible mutation it doesn't look to be a very successful experiment. The tiny leaves are already rather parched, and seem to have stopped developing as the supporting tissue of the bract senesces and prepares to fall off. Glenn was examining yesterday’s collection of buckeye leaves when he found something a little interesting.

To the left is a photo of a normal bract on the branch of a buckeye. In buckeyes, the leaf is palmately compound, with 5-7 leaflets radiating from a central petiole. In painted buckeye both the first leaf and the young inflorescence emerge from the bud. The bracts are a pair of leaflike organs that cover and protect the bud that contains the developing shoot. When spring arrives, the bracts open up and the new leaves expand. Bracts, like leaves, are terminal organs - they don’t develop into anything else or act as a source of new growing points. Once their role in protecting the new shoot is over, they senesce and fall off.

You can see how the bracts function in the photo below. They’re the curly reddish pair attached to the old twig of last year, and though the new leaves are now greatly expanded you can see how they fit within the enclosure made by those bracts.

But look closely at the tips of the bract at center.

There is a tiny, but perfect palmately compound leaf emerging from the tip of the bract. (This is also true for the other bract in the pair.) Looks like the bract itself is a bit abnormal, more swollen, thicker, and curlier than the normal bract in the first photo. Glenn suggests that the bract or a patch of cells on the bract have been redefined to act as a petiole. The petiole is the stemlike structure that connects the stem to the blade of a leaf and it will also enclose all the plumbing, the xylem and phloem, that nourishes the leaf blade. Here the bract, or a part of it, seems to be acting as a petiolar source, thereby producing leaves, like a petiole normally does. This is not necessarily a genetically transmittable mutation; we’ll have to go back to look at the plant that produced this branch to see if all the bracts look like this. It is a developmental abnormality, but it could have been produced by environment. Temperature, disease, and other insults can cause one organ to develop as another. Or it might be a somatic mutation in a cell that led to the formation of this pair of bracts, but which mutation has not made it into the germ line that produces pollen or egg. Or, and this would be the jackpot, it might be a mutation that is also included in the gametes and then it would be genetically transmissible.

Mutations that produce changes in body parts fall into the group of homeotic mutations. Homeotic mutations cause identity changes in organs, since body shape is defined by homeotic genes. A part that would normally develop into one organ instead develops into another, so you get the peculiar classic examples of legs growing out of the head of a fly, instead of the proper antennae.

Since mutations in homeotic genes redefine body parts, they’re avidly studied. Homeotic genes were first discovered and mapped out thoroughly in animals, and in particular the fruitfly Drosophila, with its enormous collection of spectacular mutations. But the same strategy of using homeotic genes to make a body and to define body parts is also employed in plants, though by a set of genes that is not homologous to that in animals.

And, in plants as well as in animals homeotic mutations have been isolated to map out and understand how the plant body is formed. Mutations in one homeotic gene may convert a petal into a sepal, or a sepal into a leaf. And so a host of such floral mutations in the model mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana has been exploited, as in fruitflies and other animals, to unravel the molecular genetics of flowering, called the ABC model of floral development.

In plants, homeotic mutations have been unwittingly used as sources for crop and floral varieties. Brocolli and cauliflower, both forms of the species Brassica oleracea, are homeotic mutants that cause inflorescences to arrest and proliferate into chubby edible structures.

Or take cultivated roses, for instance. Cultivated roses have multitudes of petals, but the family Rosaceae is characterized by five petals and many stamens, the male flower parts. Where did all the extra petals come from? The extra petals in the cultivated rose derive from conversion of stamens into petals, and if you look at the innermost petals in the center of a rose you’ll probably see some stamens that seem to be halfway in between being a petal and a stamen.

As for this particular buckeye abnormality, even if it is a transmissible mutation it doesn’t look to be a very successful experiment. The tiny leaves are already rather parched, and seem to have stopped developing as the supporting tissue of the bract senesces and prepares to fall off.
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