What You Don’t See Still Exists

Pretty obvious statement, I know, but a reminder doesn’t hurt. This has been a very discouraging year for some wildlife, particularly insects such as monarch butterflies and bees. Even more discouraging is that the ramifications extend beyond this year.  Lower insect populations mean lower bird populations in the future. Birds whose populations were already low may reach critically low levels, levels that make it hard to keep breeding. 

Chestnut-sided warbler

Last week I happened to look out my window at just the right moment to see an unusual bird flitting through the bushes nearby. I snapped a quick picture through the window screen. Not a good picture, but it was enough for me to identify that it was a hooded warbler. He had a few companions with him and I got a better picture of one of them. It appears to be an immature chestnut-sided warbler.

As the birds searched for (and found) a few insects to eat, I was glad that my plants had a few caterpillars on them. I was glad I had not used any pesticides. My friend JoAnn said that warblers come through in the morning this time of year as they migrate. They stop and rest for a while and refuel on insects (warblers are insectivores). I have seen small birds in the tops of trees some mornings – they always move quickly, as if searching, and chatter amongst themselves.

If I hadn’t seen these by my window at just that moment (they were quickly gone) then I never would have known that they come through. Or that they exist.

 

Trichostema dichotomum

Other things are overlooked. Tiny blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum), blooming now, are hardly noticed. Should they go extinct, would we notice? The species exists for a reason – we know that it supports native bees for example. 

Chamaecrista fasciculata

More people notice the colorful partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). It is considered a weed by most despite its cheerful yellow blossoms. 

It is a host plant for sulphur butterflies such as this pale cloudless sulphur that gracefully floats through the late summer garden. I had a lot of them last year so I’m glad that someone let their weeds live.

Cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae)

I went out to walk the dog for the night and a small grey moth flew away from the plant I brushed past. Without that encounter I would not have known it existed. Yet it and many other species of similar moths do exist and they play a role in our ecosystem. 

Perhaps one like it laid the egg that became this caterpillar now munching on the Conoclinium coelestinum. Perhaps this caterpillar will be the one to give tomorrow’s visiting warbler the energy to go a little further towards its winter home. I likely will not even see the encounter. But it doesn’t make it any less real.

Conoclinium coelestinum

Tadpoles are swimming in a bucket that holds water from our heavy summer rains. I can watch mosquitos lay their eggs (while their friends bite me). You probably think mosquitoes are useless, but they are actually the perfect size meal for hummingbirds and an important source of protein for them.  I hope the tadpoles are eating some of the larvae in the water, helping the frogs reach adulthood. It's part of the process.

The natural world around us is complex, but each piece carefully intersects with another. It’s good to remember that because our stewardship is important. So that even though we don't see them ... they will still be there.

 

 

Bad Kitty, Bad Plant

When you have a cat, you usually know if he/she is a chewer. This one is a chewer. So we can add “bad mama” to the title because I should have known better. I would not ordinarily write a post about this situation, but I want the information to be out there.

Florida anise (Illicium floridanum)

Florida anise (Illicium floridanum) is a coastal plant that grows very well even in non-coastal areas of the southeastern US. It is native from the panhandle area of Florida to southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. It naturally grows in moist shady areas and has become a popular landscape plant for those conditions.

It is a broadleaved evergreen shrub with thick glossy leaves, red or white flowers and star shaped seed pods. The leaves are 2-6 inches long, 1 inch wide and smell of anise when crushed or torn. The twigs also have the same scent.

That’s the plant, now let’s hear about the cat. Salem the cat is a chewer. We don’t have houseplants, and we don’t have cut flowers. Any bowls of leftover vegetable matter (such as kitchen waste destined for the compost pile) are subject to midnight nibbles with discarded bits flung down to the floor.

Several days before the cat and the plant got together, the plant got broken in the yard and I decided that perhaps I could root it. I made a fresh cut on the stem, trimmed the lower leaves and stuck it in a pot in the garage. The section was about 3 inches long and all new growth.  I decided to let the cat explore the garage … I had done it before and always remembered to remove any plants first. I forgot.

Cat came back in about an hour later, ate a snack and then threw up. Not a big deal for cat owners. I went to bed. Later, he pooped diarrhea all over the bathroom floor and my husband cleaned it up. Around 4 am, I woke up to a ruckus. I found him in the living room, legs in every direction and a wild look on his face. Major symptom: he could not control his limbs.

As we headed to the car, I spied the plant: chewed and pulled out of the dirt. Upon arriving at the emergency vet, I told them that it appeared he’d eaten this plant (and by now my husband had used his phone to find out that it is toxic). Other than information that it is toxic, there was little information on how to treat or how the patient turned out or ingestion in felines or animals. One study about infants in China indicated that the patients recovered once the ingestion stopped.

End result is that the cat is fine. They treated him with fluids, activated charcoal and a Diazepam injection, and he was released about 30 hours after we took him in. At about 14 hours post-ingestion he still had some mobility issues and had thrown up once more. Blood work showed nothing unusual except an elevated white count. Without knowing that the plant had been ingested, the likely recommendation would have been expensive tests to search for the source of neurological issues.

I don’t think he ingested a lot based on observation of the chewed plant but clearly the toxin is strong. So if your cat, dog, child or anything has ingested, eaten, chewed, swallowed, nibbled or made tea or a drink out of any part of this plant (leaves, flowers, seeds) and you are seeing some reaction such as vomiting, diarrhea or loss of motor control … please take them to a vet or doctor immediately for the best chance of recovery.

We pulled through ok and I hope that this information helps someone in the future. By the way, blood work a week later still showed elevated white count so we are assuming that is unrelated to the plant issue.

Let These Plants Live

The roadsides are putting on their fall colors - not leaf colors, but flower colors. Damp roadsides are sporting the tall pink spires of Joe pye weed (Eutrochium spp.), the giant purple-topped ironweed (Vernonia spp.), the tiny blue blooms of downy blue lobelia (Lobelia puberula) and the dangly orange flowers of jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).

Eupatorium appears out of nowhere

Damp roadsides aren’t nearly as common as dry roadsides, however, so the bulk of the flowers fall into the group of plants that many people consider WEEDS. These flowers blanket unmowed areas with a profusion of white and yellow flowers, each plant sporting dozens and dozens of tiny little blooms.

Are they weeds? No, they are essential food for late season butterflies, beetles, bees, wasps and flower flies. Every year come September, their blooms transform non-descript looking plants into beautiful fountains of nectar.

Eupatorium altissimum serves many insects

You may have found one in your garden – an unexpected guest in between the plants that you put there. Instead of removing it, consider yourself lucky to be host to such a pollinator magnet. Take some time during the warmth of the day to see who comes to visit. 

E. hyssopifolium is favorite of mine for its smaller
size and finely textured leaves.

The white plants are most often a species of Eupatorium with common names that include boneset and thoroughwort. About 17 species are found in Georgia with many of the ones looking very similar until you examine the leaves. I reliably find the following in my area: Eupatorium album, E. altissimum, E. capillifolium, E. hyssopifolium, E. perfoliatum, E. rotundifolium and E. serotinum.  

Eupatorium capillifolium is an exception to the previous descriptions - it is known as "dogfennel" and most people would swear that it doesn't flower because the flowers are so nondescript. Like the others in this genus, it is an important plant for wildlife; in particular, the small seeds are relished by songbirds in the late fall.

The yellow plants are usually goldenrod (Solidago). The first to bloom in my area is anise-scented goldenrod, Solidago odora. Prolific in areas where it has been allowed to seed in, in my garden only a couple of plants exist. It is not a "runner" like the later blooming Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis.

Solidago odora mixed with little bluestem

The impact of goldenrod on the environment in Georgia cannot be overstated. Not only is it the top herbaceous perennial for supporting native Lepidoptera's larvae, but the late season blooms are important for certain butterflies ... like the migrating Monarch butterfly. Want to learn about other native goldenrods? Check out one of my earlier posts here.

So if one of these plants pops up in your garden, my plea to you is to let it live. Both of them offer so much to our wild fauna.

 

By the Gurgling Stream

Last weekend I sat by a gurgling stream in a beautiful State Park in north Georgia and thought how lucky I was to be there among such beautiful surroundings. Children shrieked with laughter nearby as they played in the edge of the water. Tall trees stood by the stream, creating shade and cool green beauty. I paused in my task for a moment to appreciate it all - and then went back to pulling out invasive plants.

Here amongst the beauty and the fun, invasive plants have moved in, stealing resources from the native plants that made this place so unique. I was there with a group of nine people from the Georgia Native Plant Society to pull stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) on this late summer day. We waited to do this in late summer so that we can eliminate this annual grass before it flowers and set seeds but also late enough in the year that it doesn’t have a chance to grow back.

Heuchera villosa likes wet rocks

We also pulled out any Japanese honeysuckle that we found (much reduced from our earlier work on it), and several people worked on an area of kudzu (Pueraria montana) that was growing right in the middle of the park. We used no chemicals, so unfortunately that will be back. 

For the annual grass, repeated removals works fairly well. We could see improvement from our work last year.

A bee-mimic fly on bear's foot (Smallanthus uvedalius)

 Despite all that gloomy talk, the area is lovely and the waterfall was busting out with all the moisture we've been having. Visitors crowded the park, many stopping to ask what we were doing or to ask us to identify another plant. 

I showed several folks how the exploding seed pods of touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) earned that plant its common name. Moisture-loving plants like jewelweed (its other common name) were so big and lush that they were actually shading out the stiltgrass. We had little work to do in that area.

 

Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis

Plants are not the only thing to see - butterflies, bees, beetles and even a few snakes were out to delight children throughout the trails. Kids would race by, but if you offered to show them a critter they put on the brakes.

Copperhead with stiltgrass

One of our volunteers discovered a copperhead close to where she was working on the trail. I wondered later how many times that snake showed up on Facebook by the end of the day!

We decided to leave the weeds around him for another time.

Tradescantia subaspera

Still the plants are important (and beautiful) and controlling the plants that would love to out-compete them is an important task to those of us that love native plants. 

Parks have limited personnel and funds to deal with invasive plants on a regular basis. We noticed that several areas were being mowed/weed whacked and that has helped. 

But sometimes good plants get mowed down as well since selective removal is much more time consuming. Volunteer help, often through their "Friends of" group, is an important resource for them. Knowledgeable plant folks can really make a difference.

If you live near a park, I encourage you to get involved in keeping these areas preserved for the native flora for which they were intended.