Hiking Trails at Elachee Nature Center

Elephantopus tomentosus was one of the few flowers

This nature destination in Gainesville has been on my list of things to do for years and recently I used an available Sunday to give it a look. With 12 miles of hiking trails amid 1400+ acres, you won’t be surprised to learn that my slow pace only covered part of this north Georgia treasure on that day.

From their website:  "Elachee is a regional environmental education center and recreation destination to unplug, reconnect with nature and learn. For nearly four decades, Elachee and its devoted community partners have worked tirelessly to build a sustainable legacy for future generations to enjoy."

I started from the parking lot at the Aquatic Studies Center (2100 Calvary Church Road, Gainesville, GA 30504), hiking on the Eastlake Trail, turning onto Dunlap Trail and then crossing over the suspension bridge to the southbound part of the Westlake Trail for the return to the Aquatic Studies Center. I crossed five creeks in the process and passed through thick woodlands, packed with Piedmont plants that included an incredible array of plant species.

The number of woody plant species that I saw on my hike was phenomenal and almost every corner brought something new: maples (Acer sp.), multiple oak species (Quercus sp.), hickories (Carya sp.), sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), ash (Fraxinus sp.), beech (Fagus grandifolia), and pine (Pinus sp.) were the canopy, at times providing thick cover and dense shade. Other areas were more open, sometimes due to recent storms, and large debris was on the ground, fungi blooming in their decaying carcasses. With all the recent rain, it was a great day for finding mushrooms. These six pictures are only a portion of what I photographed:

The understory layer of small trees and shrubs varied based on whether I was walking through moist low places or drier ridges. Some of the many things I saw were at least 3 species of blueberry (Vaccinium sp.), musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana), hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), horsesugar (Symplocos tinctoria), azalea (Rhododendron sp.), a huge grove of snowbell (Styrax grandifolius), spicebush (Lindera benzoin), sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus), dwarf pawpaw (Asimina parviflora), mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana), hobblebush (Leucothoe sp.), hazelnut (Corylus americana), alder (Alnus sp.) and so much more. I just kept thinking: “That too?!”

While the trails were well-marked, I carried a paper copy of the map with me so that I could anticipate the turn towards the suspension bridge. Another distraction along the way was an attempt to spot caterpillars. The many young sweetgums that sprout along the trail are perfect places to find some of our large moths and I was thrilled to spot one with a regal moth caterpillar.

Regal moth on sweetgum

Tiger swallowtail on ash

As I crossed the bridge, I spotted another caterpillar high up in the canopy of an ash tree next to the bridge. Resting on a silken hammock, it was the caterpillar of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. This was my first time seeing this caterpillar in the wild and I must admit that I squealed a bit. After a few pictures, I hurried on my way because raindrops showed up and I was only halfway through my hike.

A carpet of ground cedar (Diphasiastrum digitatum)

As I approached Chicopee Lake at the end, the herbaceous layer was especially rich, with several kinds of ferns and thick carpets of ground cedar (Diphasiastrum digitatum syn. Lycopodium digitatum). I even found a small population of groundpine (Lycopodium dendroideum perhaps and it probably has a new name too). This seems to be a good area for bird watching. The last part of the trail crossed over the dam by the lake, a hot and sunny stretch of meadow-like growth full of blooming plants like thoroughwort and partridge pea. Down at the water’s edge, I could see huge stands of Joe pye weed (Eutrochium sp.). Butterflies swirled around the area. At the parking lot, blooming plants included downy sunflower (Helianthus mollis) and ironweed (Vernonia sp.) and there was good butterfly watching there too.

Joe pye weed at lake's edge

Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)

Viceroy on Helianthus mollis

According to their website, they have recorded “38 species of upper story trees, 18 species of mid-story trees, 44 species of shrubs, 25 species of vines and 197 herbaceous plants” and the preserve is “one of Georgia’s largest, protected green spaces”.

I certainly plan several trips back there. I need to hike the other side of the trails as well as visit in the spring to see more of the herbaceous plants in bloom (although the fall goldenrods and asters look promising for a good show along with great leaf color). Don’t wait much longer to visit this woodland treasure.

Native Annuals In My Garden

When we think about annual plants, the colorful ones that you buy in six-packs are more likely what come to mind. We certainly don’t think of annual plants like those being native, but there are plenty of annual natives and some are quite garden-worthy. I usually grow mine from seed – either seed that I gathered, bought, or that was dropped from plants in a previous year. Occasionally, someone else grows them  – either my friend Sheri, who is a very talented propagator, or a local nature center that has spring plant sales. Here are some of the ones that I try to keep going in my garden.

In the spring, tiny annual bluet (Houstonia pusilla) pops up along low-growth roadsides (even bare dirt) and is only noticed if there are sufficient numbers to make a spectacle, often a wash of pale purple about ½ an inch high. I have collected seeds and plants from places and have had some success with it returning the next year.

Houstonia pusilla

Salvia coccinea

Scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea) is one that Sheri shared with me and I absolutely love it. Bright red flowers decorate the plant until frost and it grows in dry, sunny areas.  Hummingbirds and long-tongued butterflies like it. The only problem is that it is late to germinate (it depends on soil temperature) so usually I buy it from the nature center because they grew it in the greenhouse. A few seedlings pop up later in my garden (see first picture in this blog) and add to the display.

Partridge pea (either the large-flowered Chamaecrista fasciculata or the small-flowered Chamaecrista nictitans) has bright yellow flowers and small compound leaves. [Unfortunately, it looks very similar to chamberbitter as a seedling and gets pulled by many people as a result.] This plant is popular with bees and has a special characteristic: it is a host plant for sulphur butterflies. The small-flowered species reseeds well in my garden, but this year Sheri grew some of the large-flowered one for me and it is blooming beautifully right now.

Chamaecrista fasciculata

Sabatia angularis

I have tried for years to transport seeds from roadside populations of rose-gentian (Sabatia angularis) but have met with limited success until this summer. Suddenly, the side yard was covered with seedlings! I have been ‘forced’ to suspend cutting the lawn in that area in order to let them thrive. Apparently, many of those seeds sat dormant until this year.

Other seeds that I have gathered from roadsides include purple false foxglove (Agalinis purpurea) from the parking lot of a shopping center and blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum) from areas near my neighborhood. Agalinis requires a relationship with grasses to do well and I’ve had it return from seed once but it appears to be taking this year off. It is a host plant for the common buckeye butterfly. Both of these bloom in late summer/early fall.

Agalinis purpurea

Helianthis porteri, also known as Stone Mountain daisy

Stone Mountain daisy (Helianthus porteri) is a summer-blooming member of the sunflower family. I have had limited success with this and usually get seedlings from friends or plant sales. Some wild animal ripped out most of mine this year. I have several friends that grow it very well and it reseeds for them and comes back every year. In the wild, it thrives on granite outcrops where it no doubt enjoys great drainage.

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is one that I really don’t have the habitat for – it wants a damp, part-shade spot – but if you have that then you really should try to grow it. The hummingbirds love the flowers and the touch-me-not seedpods that burst when you touch them are a delight for kids. It is not sold as a plant very often but you can get seeds online.

Impatiens capensis

Coreopsis tinctoria

Coreopsis tinctoria is one of my favorite summer annuals but it’s not the best garden flower for me. It wants lean soils in sunny places and grows too big and floppy in the garden so I always have to stake it. Of course, now that I’ve criticized it, I’ll have an abundance of it next year and fall in love again. This is another one that is readily available as seed online.

So there you have it – the native annual wildflowers that I try to use in my garden. Several years ago, I wrote about native annuals and included some of the more undesirable native annuals (like ragweed) for a garden setting. We certainly have our fair share of annuals and I do have to mention one thing - they all have one goal: to make as many seeds as possible!

Old World Relatives

A visit to England gave me an opportunity to see some of the relatives of our own Georgia native plants. For example, we have oaks in Georgia and they have oaks in England. Taxonomists confirm that the plants are related by assigning them all to the genus, Quercus. Millions of years ago, they shared an ancestor. This blog is about some of the woody relatives that I noticed as we vacationed in several areas.

The very first one that I noticed was the London planetree (Platanus ×hispanica), related to our sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). However, this relative is unlike the others that I’ll discuss as it is not a true 'relative.' It is actually considered to be a hybrid between the American one and the Asian one (occidentalis × orientalis). This tree was common in parks and on streets, sometimes reaching very large sizes, offering a great deal of shade on some of the very hot days that we were in London (into the 90’s).

London planetrees provide a lot of shade in parks

My favorite relative was the English oak (Quercus robur).  It is fittingly the national tree of England and I found it used in several ornamental flourishes on signs and buildings. It is a principal part of the National Trust’s logo. I looked for it wherever we went and found many beautiful English oak trees in the Cotswolds in particular (notice the acorn on the post and in the Cotswold way decal in the top photo).

Stately oak in a pasture

Oak flourish on building

Lime or Linden trees (Tilia cordata) are relatives of American basswood (Tilia americana) and are used much more in England as a landscape tree. They were in parks in London and near homes in the countryside.

Linden or Lime tree (Tilia cordata)

European beech (Fagus sylvatica)

It was easy to spot the relative to our American beech (Fagus grandifolia) as the European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) were heavy with fruit almost everywhere we found it. I saw it first in Avebury where the large trees grew on a hill overlooking the ancient stone circle. It was in parks and in the woodlands that we passed through on the Cotswold Way walking path.

Another plant in fruit was the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra), close kin to our black elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis).  Laissez-faire attitudes towards landscaping allowed it to pop up in a variety of places and I was always happy to see the clusters of fruit as we walked to different places.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)

Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior)

The ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) were heavy with seed during our visit. They are related to the green (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) and white ash (Fraxinus americana) trees found in Georgia. This apparently is a common tree in England and we did see it a lot.

Sorbus aucuparia near one of the Cotswolds crossings

Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) is a relative of mountain ash (Sorbus americana) and was readily recognized by its compound leaves and bright fruits. We saw it quite a bit in the Cotswolds and occasionally in other parts. It is not related to ash at all but the compound leaves resemble those of ash.

Maples (Acer) were also very common and, based on the seeds that were present, I’d say that I saw at least 3 different species. Field maple (Acer campestre) was certainly one of them and the others may not have been native.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is good for hedges

Hedges are used throughout England and two of the plants that I saw used a lot, especially in the countryside, have American relatives: hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna and Crataegus laevigata) and blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Both plants were forming fruits during our visit. The hawthorn I recognized readily as it looks very similar to our parsley-leaved hawthorn (C. marshallii). The blackthorn puzzled me for a bit as the large blue fruits looked similar to a blueberry. After a bit of searching, I found the right identification as well as references to it being used in country hedges.

Other plants that I saw were shrubby dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) and European cranberry tree (Viburnum opulus), both forming fruit (fruit always makes a plant more noticeable). In York, I found hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) in a large garden; it is kin to our American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana); it was also in fruit and there was no mistaking it! I’m sure there are many, many others but these were some of the ones that I enjoyed recognizing as we dashed from place to place (and thanks to my husband for his patience while I took photos of some of them).

Viburnum opulus

Carpinus betulus

I also saw many Georgia natives in use, similar to when I took a trip to France in 2015. This time I posted what I found on my Instagram feed instead; I found enough to do at least a post per day during our two weeks there. If you are looking to learn more about British trees, The Woodland Trust is a great resource.

Virginia Creeper Is Worth It

Virginia creeper in fruit

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a rambunctious native vine that is generally welcome in my yard (with a little light editing). However, I know that there are many gardeners who either curse it or are afraid it is actually poison ivy (the two plants can look very similar as seedlings when a Virginia creeper might start with 3 leaflets instead of the normal five).

It’s hard to find for sale, of course, so I potted up a few of my seedlings for an upcoming fall plant sale because there are always a couple people that ask for it (and I like a sale that has a few out-of-the-ordinary things).

Nessus sphinx moth caterpillar

I got a little pushback from a fellow sale committee member about including it when there are so many other native vines that people would want. It wasn’t two days after that conversation that I found what many butterfly and moth enthusiasts already know: Virginia creeper is a host plant. This chart from Illinois lists 15 different moth species that use it as a host.

I found the caterpillar of the Nessus sphinx moth (Amphion floridensis) on one of my potted Virginia creeper plants. I found two caterpillars on the same plant, one was light green and the other had already turned light burgundy.

I found them in the morning when this particular species can be found at the base of the vine, resting overnight. Thanks to the Caterpillars of Eastern North America (which is a great book), I was able to identify this when many other sources do not acknowledge Virginia creeper as one of its host plants.

Nessus sphinx caterpillar almost done

Nessus sphinx moth burrows into soil for the next phase

I decided to bring them into a cage and raise them like I do some butterflies. I included a pot of dirt for them and they both eventually pupated in the soil. I don’t know if I’ll get to see them emerge as an adult; I put the pot outside for now. Here is a picture of the day-flying adult moth from Wikipedia.

Nessus sphinx moth adult (Photo credit)

Of course, in addition to being a host for insects (more than just moths, by the way), Virginia creeper produces delicious berries for birds and has fabulous fall color.  Yes, it can be an aggressive vine but actually most vines are aggressive.

I think it is the lack of showy flowers that cause people to discount this vine as a worthy plant in the home landscape. I’m here to say that it has plenty of reasons to be a part of what you grow in your wildlife garden.

Virginia creeper's modest flowers

Virginia creeper fall color