Once upon a winery

Day 2, 7/11/06

So, why do we have the plants we have? Why do they grow where they grow? That's what Tuesday was all about. Succession was our topic today in class and what plants come along with that succession. We have an interesting perspective on things here around Lake Erie because the bedrock (limestone and dolomite) is so close to the surface. There are some areas, including some that we were visiting this week, that are almost desert like and in other areas you have lush forests.

We talked about early successional plants and what adaptations they had that allowed them to do that. This can range from plants as simple as lichens and mosses and from there is slowly move on to shrubs and small trees like rough-leafed dogwood and up to larger trees like Pin Oaks and on. It all depends on where you are. Around here, you're talking about a wetter environment with moderated temperatures due to the lake effect.

Our field trip for the day to demonstrate this was going to Middle Bass Island. This is the home of the old Lonz Winery. It has since been turned over to the state parks and they're pretty much letting it go wild. It's a botanist's dream. They're in talks apparently about what they're going to do with the building. Everything from museum to resort has been mentioned I guess. We'll just have to wait and see what happens eh?

Our first stop was almost right off the docks and we checked out various grasses (like Timothy Grass and Reed Canary Grass) and trees (like Hackberry and Black Willow). I managed to get a nice specimen for pressing from the willow with some flower heads and seed tufts on it.

As we went along, fighting off large mosquitoes, we collected berry spikes from some Staghorn Sumac (for later use) and munched on ripe mulberries (the blacker they are, the sweeter they taste). We checked out the old grape vines that had been allowed to go wild since the 1960's and came across some Trumpet Vine hiding under the trees. Of course it was completely surrounded by Poison Ivy but we came out unscathed.

Middle Bass Island is where I got to see my first glacial grooves. When we got to the spot, my attention was immediately distraced by us finding some great rushes and sedges but then I noticed the rock it was growing on. I had always seen photos of the grooves at Kellys Island (you'll see a pic or two that I took later) and was expecting to see fencing around anything like this. Not so here. You could walk on it, touch it, even roll around on it if you wanted. One thing we noticed, thanks to the handy dandy compass that I have attached to my fishing hat, is that the grooves are running almost directly east and west. One would think they would run relatively north and south. Facinating but I have no clue why the glaciers would suddenly decide to go east or west. That, however, is a question for the Geology of Lake Erie class. We were all about the Swamp Milkweed and the Umbrella Sedge (yet another pressing specimin). Did you know that milkweeds have a neat little thing called nectar cups that help distinguish them?

I'll fast forward a bit (past the bird sized mosquitos, the rain, and the tree hugging incident - hey, it was a beautiful tree!) to two of the cool places we went to. The shoreline and Kuehnle Wildlife Area were very very cool. We even got to see an Eagle nest at Kuehnle! I couldn't get a good picutre myself though.

At Haunk's Pond, we drifted around the side of the road looking at all sorts of plants like the Elderberry, the Water Horehound, Lady's Thumb, and Rice Cutgrass (not a fun grass to walk through in shorts).

The other spot we visited was the shoreline. We navigated though the trees and mosquitoes and black flies till we found our destination. It was well worth it. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be in a place that is such a harsh envorionment with the wind and water and extremes in temperature (the quarry at Kellys is another example, but that comes later) and yet it still has a mass amount of life! We saw Winged Loosestrife (which is native, unlike Purple Loostrife) and Hairbells (which are endangered) and Marsh Roses amongst others.



The trip overall was awsome! If you ever get to visit Middle Bass State Park, bring some bug spray, but hike around and see the wonderful things they have there.

Can't throw a stone without hitting catnip

Monday, 7/10/06

What a great class! Our first full session started out with going over the basics: basic plant anatomy, structures and functions. Now, I realize that one may be thinking, "This is a college class, why go over these basic concepts?" First off, even though I've been essentially been through several Botany 101 type classes, there were things that I learned about leaf margins and thorns and spines and flowers that I hadn't learned before. Secondly, if this class is here to give us a foundation of information that we can take to the classroom and teach our kids, we have to be able to start from scratch if necessary. We had teachers from middle school up through high school.

We also spent the morning wandering Gibraltar Island and learning how to use a dichotomous key. I dicovered that there's a LOT of catnip in the island. It is invasive by the way. Thank God cats won't swim. (Lisa calls it Gibraltar Gold. Her cats won't accept any other.)



We also collected a few things and were shown how to press them properly. It'd be a few days till they were ready though. Only one needed to be mounted on herbarium paper.

In the afternoon we checked out the Butterfly house which is right by Perry's Cave. It's a gift shop that has a lovely greenhouse in the back where they bring in cocoons and hatch butterflies and release them into the greenhouse. They fly around and dive bomb you while they seek out new plants to drink from. It's very cool. None of these butterflies are native, by the way, and they aren't allowed out. Here's a beautiful photo by my classmate, Georgia, of a butterfly.

While there, we talked about vectors for pollination. Everything from bees to beetles to birds and people and how the plants have structural adaptations to entice specific pollinators. For example, some flowers like violets have a bottom leaf that acts like a landing strip for bees or other bugs. Or plants that has a horrible fragrance to attract flies to pollinate them like skunk cabbage.

Once we were home and fed and cleaned up, we regrouped to finish pressing our collective plants for the day and called it a wrap.

Preview

Okay, I admit it, I forgot my notes so no entry today BUT I will post a few pictures from this last week as a sneak preview of things we did. :D















Keep your eyes peeled here and at my Higher Aquatic Plants blog for more to come!

I feel like I've been here before....

So, once again, I'm off to Stone Laboratory at Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Once again, I got up way too early and got here too early to register so I had some time to burn. I dropped my stuff at the main office and headed into town for lunch and some distraction.

My distraction of choice for this trip was the Perry's Victory and International Peace Monument. Here's a picture of Commodore Perry very kindly pointing out his memorial. Did you know that the bedrock layer was only 12 feet below the surface and that the memorial column is taller than the Statue of Libety AND each block used to make the memorial weight between 2-5 tons? Call me a geek but I learned all sorts of cool stuff there.

I also got to see a muzzle-loading, flintlock gun demo by some of the park rangers. They talked about the conditions on the frontier and how the War of 1812 affected the settlers. He also talked about the uniforms and what they ate (hardtac sounds really gross). Then he and another chap did what they called a Dwayne maneuver. It involved lining your men up, getting them to all load, aim, fire (lather, rinse, repeat) at the same time. US forces could get 3 rounds set up per minute if they were good. The opposing forces could do 4 rounds. Eek! There also was a young female ranger who talked to us about what life was like for the women. Yeah, be happy you live now, Ladies.

From there, I enjoyed a lovely perch sandwich at the Put-In-Bay Brewing Company. Lovely place that used to be a dry goods store, buchery and grocery, and even a fire house at one point. Then I enjoyed a nice walk back to the office and I came back to Gibraltar Island, home of Cooke Castle.

After settling in, I came to find that my class, Local Flora for Teachers was the only week course this week and I met all 8 of my classmates. Once again, I found I knew one of them from a prior class I took at Ohio State and I also got a cool set of roomies for the week. All of whom are in my class! Sweet!

Our first session was Sunday night when we got here and we went over our sullabus and talked about what we were going to be doing this week. Besides learning to identify plants, we are also going to be collecting plants and learning how to press and dry them and then mount them properly so they can be used in a classroom setting. Also, we get to put together a lesson plan that we can take home to use with the kids we teach. And you wanna know what else? We're going to go to Pelee Island in CANANDA on Wednesday! I haven't been to Canada since I was a kid! And you wanna know what else?? Yes! There's more! Our teacher is going to treat us to a dinner on Thursday made of nothing but what edible plants are from around here. How cool is that? I wrote a paper in that prior class I was talking about that went into edible plants found around Ohio. Right up my alley, no?

To say the least, I'm excited. Can you tell? Till next time!

What plant is this?

Hi there, it's OSU Nature Gal in a new reincarnation. You can read about my prior fishing adventures here. This blog however will be dedicated to my EEOB 694 class, Local Flora for Teachers at Stone Laboratory. On to the first entry!

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Gearing up for my EEOB 694 class at Stone Lab. Tonight, I'm going to try to get as much stuff packed up as I can. On the way home I'm going to stop to pick up some batteries and laundry money amongst other things. One other thing I'm going to remember to pack for this trip is a few hangers. I had nothing to hang my jackets on last time. Oh yeah, Amy, don't forget your padlock! Thanks, Amy, for reminding me.

Speaking of jackets, guess who's hoping and praying that the weather is going to stay the way it is right now? Oops! Looks like scattered thundershowers in the 10-day forcast. Note to self, not only rain jacket but an umbrella just in case on this trip. Also, I might rethink my pj's and pack something a wee bit cooler to wear since they're predicting the low temps as around 70-74 degrees. I'll have a blanket in case I get too chilly. My wee fan that attaches to my bed is coming too.

I already have my books for this week and I got all giddy when I found one of them is a giant key for wildflowers and the other for woody plants. By the time I get my hands on the book for the last class I'll be able to identify every plant in America!

Wish me luck!