Bobs Brain on Botany Plants of Central Ohio

Time 2020-12-20 14:04:49

Web Name: Bobs Brain on Botany Plants of Central Ohio

WebSite: http://bobklips.com

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JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site. Welcometo bobklips.com, the website of Bob Klips, a plant enthusiast living inColumbus, Ohio.(Additional content at flickr Photostreamand YouTube Channel) If youhavebotany questions or comments please email BobK .Thanks! A Common Lichen in an Unusual ConditionNovember 20, 2018Lemon lichen, Candellaria concolor, is a small brightly colored foliose lichen that is extremely common even n urban areas. The species reproduces by the production of powdery-granular soredia on the lobe margins, and rarely produces apothecia. Here on an ornamental elm tree on the Ohio State University campus the lemon lichen is abundant and, when examined closely, can be seen to be sparingly producing apothecia.Lemon lichen, Candellaria concolor, with apotheciaGrimmia at Airplane RockNovember  18, 2018Grimmia is a genus of dark (when dry) densely tufted rock-dwelling cushion mosses, that often (depending upon the species) have long white hair-points on the leaves. Identifying them to species can be quite trying, as the keys ask about features of sporophytes even though most often the plants don t have sporophytes. This one, at Airplane Rock in Hocking County kinda matches Grimmia olneyi,but that would be rare and it s hard to tell. Oh, well.Grimmia on the rocks (with a twist of lemon?)Milkweeds of OhioThere are 13 species of milkweed (members of the genus Asclepias, within the family Apocynaceae, the dogbane family) in our State. Here they are presented in alphabetical order.Asclepias amplexicaulis, clasping milkweedClasping-leaved milkweed.Clasping-leaved milkweed.Asclepias exaltata, poke milkweedPoke milkweed.Poke milkweed.Asclepias hirtella, green milkweedGreen milkweed.Green milkweed.Asclepias incarnata, swamp milkweedSwamp milkweed.Swamp milkweed.Asclepias purpurascens, purple milkweedPurple milkweed.Purple milkweed.Asclepias quadrifolia, four-leaved milkweedFour-leaved milkweed.Four-leaved milkweed.Asclepias sullivantii, Sullivant s milkweedSullivant s milkweed.Sullivant s milkweedAsclepias syriaca, common milkweedCommon milkweed.Common milkweed.Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly-weed, pleurisy-rootButterfly-weed, pleurisy-root.Buttery-weed. pleurisy-root.Asclepias variegata, white milkweedWhite milkweed.White milkweed.Asclepias verticillata, whorled milkweedWhorled milkweed.Whorled milkweed.Asclepias viridiflora, green-flowered milkweedGreen-flowered milkweed.Green-flowered milkweed.Asclepias viridis, spider milkweed, antelope-hornSpider milkweed, antelope-horn.Spider milkweed, antelope-horn.Apparent HybridsAsclepias sullivantii x syriaca hybridAsclepias amplexicaulis x syriaca hybridAsclepias tuberosa x syriaca hybridBio-blitz!A rare butterfly on an uncommon plantThe Rock Run watershed in Scioto County is under threat from logging. To help demonstrate the importance of this area, a group of naturalist, myself included, spent the day June 3, 2017 exploring the area and tabulating as many species of living things as could be recognized. The results aren t in yet. The Columbus Dispatch wrote a nice article about it that can be read HERE (link).This may be a rare butterfly (there is uncertainty because apparently the band doesn t look quite golden enough) Autochton cellus, golden-banded skipper foraging for nectar on an uncommon plant, Orbexilum pedunculatum, Sampon s snakeroot, a legume formerly in the genus Psoralea. Although the skipper s host plant (upon which its caterpillar feed) is a common species hog-peanut, (Amphicarpa bracteata) I was told that it s recently been discovered that there are two co-occurring varieties, one common and one rare, of the plant which somehow differ in their chemistry and thus their appeal/utility to the skipper. The type the skipper feeds on the uncommon one.Golden-banded skipper on Sampson s snakeroot. Scioto State Forest. June 3, 2017.Old limestone fence a haven for lichens and mosses.Griggs Reservoir, Columbus Ohio.Flanking the west bank of the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio, USA, there is a small park with a French-sounding name (Duranceau Park). The woodland remnants there are strongly influenced by the limestone bedrock and outcrops. Local limestone was quite some time ago used to construct a pretty little fence that marks the boundary of the park, separating it from the backyards of the adjoining residential properties.Limestone wall is a haven for mosses and lichens.The wall is a haven for mosses and lichens. One of them is a crustose lichen that is almost indistinguishable as to whether it actually is a lichen, rather than, say, a fossil or a mineral deposit. This is pitted stone lichen, Bagliettoa calciseda. (Earlier manuals referred to this as Verrucaria calcidseda.) The body if this lichen (its   thallus ) is within the stone (endolithic). The reproductive spore-bearing portion of this lichen tiny flask shaped perithecia are sunken into depressions in the limestone. Pitted stone lichen is widely distributed in northern and temperate regions wherever there is limestone.Bagliettoa calciseda is a pitted white crust on limestone.Several of the other crustose lichens produce their spores in a more typical, obvious, and evident manner: a disk-shaped structure called an apothecium. Often the apothecia are all, or almost all, that can be seen of the lichen, as the thallus is thin and inconspicuous, or even endolithic. Some of the most colorful lichen apothecia are orange ones in the genus Caloplaca. This beauty is sidewalk firedot lichen,  Caloplaca feracissima.Caloplaca feracissima is sidewalk firedot lichen. An especially charming, although more subdued, lichen that also exists mainly as apothecia is one I like to call buckeye lichen. This is Sarcogyne regularis, the real common name of which is frosted grain spored lichen. :Sarcogyne regularis looks like tiny buckeyes. Sterile crustose lichens, by which we do not mean germ-free, but rather lacking any spore-producing structures (i.e., apothecia or perithecia), are among the most challenging to identify. But here s an easy one. It s mealy firedot lichen, Caloplaca citrina. The thallus consists mostly of granular yellow-orange soredia (powdery granules consisting of algal cells and fungal hyphae, capable of dispersing and then developing into new lichens as a means of asexual reproduction).Caloplaca citrina is mealy firedot lichen.OK, I know what you re thinking that picture shows a bunch of apothecia what kind of sterile lichen has apothecia? Aha! You spied a different lichen those gray and white disks are mortar-rim lichen,  Lecanora dispersa. This species, quite the calciphile, is common even in cities, as the calcium in the concrete upon which it grows buffers the the effects of acidic air pollution.Here s another picture of Lecanora dispersa, at the edge of a fossil brachiopod.Lecanora dispersa and brachiopod fossil.The wall is home to some foliose lichens as well.Limestone wall is a haven for mosses and lichens.One of them is a strikingly white(ish) one called frost lichen, Physconia detersa.Physconia detersa is frost lichen. Frost lichen is called that because the lobes are largely coated with a whitish pruinia, powdery frost-like deposits of some combination of crystals of pigment, crystals of calcium oxalate, and dead cortical cells. The photo below shows the frosty nature of the Physconia lobes, as well as some pretty severe competition with a colorful other foliose lichen, Xanthomendoza ulophylloides.Physconia and Xanthomendoza.There are several similar genera of medium-sized foliose lichens distinguished, in part, by color. Phaeophysica is brown, with a black undersurface. The species shown here, I believe, is powder-tipped shadow lichen, Phaeophyscia adiastola.Phaeophyscia adiastola is a shadow lichen.Hey, what about the mosses? They re there. (Aren t I reassuring?) Cord glaze moss, Entodon seductrix is a shiny carpet moss (pleurocarp) with fingerlike branches.Entodon seductrix is cord glaze moss. A moss that was at first tricky to identify because it looked so twisted when dry I thought it was tornado moss (Tortella) turned out, under close examination, instead to be bear claw moss, Barbula unguiculata.Barbula unguiculata is bear claw moss. Barbula leaf tips have a claw-like projecting tip.Barbula unguiculata leaves

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