Pine Barren Flora

[bobpbx]

You are rocking on Terry! I'll keep watch on that first one. We need more clues. There are several more of those out there.

The second photo with my hand in it is Carex tonsa (my best guess w/0 a spike). You are right on the D. scoparium, Fimbristylis, Erichtites (but I'm going to prove that one out for Al's sake), the Torrey's muhly, the peanuts, the P. verrusosum, and the Rhexia, and the Scleria is S. pauciflora.

Our Juncus is Juncus debilis. Your A. virginicus is in fact Schizacrium scoparium (I'm 90% sure), and your P. virgatum is not there. Maybe your looking at the emerging Phragmites (my current guess...the one with my hand in the photo) or the Calamovifa brevipilis?

 

[Teegate]

We speak english on this forum!

 

[turtle]

" Our Juncus is Juncus debilis. Your A. virginicus is in fact Schizacrium scoparium (I'm 90% sure), and your P. virgatum is not there. Maybe your looking at the emerging Phragmites (my current guess...the one with my hand in the photo) or the Calamovifa brevipilis?[/QUOTE]

Missed this Juncus the other day too....and thought of it here today. The Schizachyrum that I am seeing now appears really, really glaucus this year, more so than in recent years. Perhaps due to the drought conditions ? I wasn't seeing it in your photo, although I know that's not the only factor. I got a great comparison picture the other day of the two, side by side. The stem in your hand I was unsure of (young phragmites). It was the Calamavilfa inflorescens that I mis-diagnosed. Check out this leaf comparison....

Paulownia on the left. Catalpa on the right.

 

[turtle]

We speak english on this forum!

Missed this rush the other day too...and thought of it here today. The bluestem that I am seeing now appears really, really blue this year, more so than in recent years. Perhaps due to the drought conditions? I wasn't seeing it in your photo, although I know that's not the only factor. I got a great comparison picture the other day of the two, side by side. The stem in your hand I was unsure of (young, invasive, skanky, useless reed grass). It was the Pine Barrens reed grass flowers that I mis-diagnosed. Check out this leaf comparison.

Princess Tree on left. Catawba tree on right.

Better ? Gee Guy, I found a stone for your the other day out in the middle of nowhere that I need to send you also....

 

[Teegate]

I was just joking. Don't change anything.

Looking forward to knowing about that stone.

 

[bobpbx]

" Our Juncus is Juncus debilis. Your A. virginicus is in fact Schizacrium scoparium (I'm 90% sure), and your P. virgatum is not there. Maybe your looking at the emerging Phragmites (my current guess...the one with my hand in the photo) or the Calamovifa brevipilis?

Missed this Juncus the other day too....and thought of it here today. The Schizachyrum that I am seeing now appears really, really glaucus this year, more so than in recent years. Perhaps due to the drought conditions ? I wasn't seeing it in your photo, although I know that's not the only factor. I got a great comparison picture the other day of the two, side by side. The stem in your hand I was unsure of (young phragmites). It was the Calamavilfa inflorescens that I mis-diagnosed. Check out this leaf comparison....

View attachment 7997 Paulownia on the left. Catalpa on the right.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm. Your Paulownia does not look like the first photo, does it?

In regards to the Schizachrium, I'm going to double-check that. I was going by the color mostly, plus I thought I saw a pussyy cat (er, I mean a feathered rame of florets indicative of Schizachrium).

 

[bobpbx]

Yeah, that's better Terry!

 

[bobpbx]

Terry, what about those fan leaves. Maybe Iris prismatica?

 

[turtle]

I was just joking. Don't change anything.
Looking forward to knowing about that stone.

That was fun....will send stone info shortly...have to download from new phone.....haven't done that yet.

 

[manumuskin]

So am I right about the wild lettuce? Seventh pic below the aerial.

 

[bobpbx]

So am I right about the wild lettuce? Seventh pic below the aerial.

Al, I don't think you are, but, as I said, I'll get back out there and get the inflorescence and explain to you why I disagree. It has to do with the flower heads and what they consist of. You deserve that much for being interested.

Besides, you may be right. I've been wrong many times in botanical analysis. I don't mind being wrong at all...it's how you learn.

 

[Spung-Man]

So am I right about the wild lettuce? Seventh pic below the aerial.

Looks like it to me too! You can use the young seedling leaves sparingly in salad, but we generally avoided wild lettuce in favor of dandelion and chicory.

S-M

 

[Spung-Man]

Empress-Tree, Paulownia tomentosa, has a neat trick. When the tree is cut to the ground, it sends up an herbaceous stalk with giant leaves that look different than adult leaves. That herbaceous stem usually dies to the ground the end of the first year. Then a woody stem arises the next season to start a new tree. Some fanciful gardeners like to “stool” empress-tree as an ornament as a vigorous specimens will put out three-feet-wide leaves on a ten-feet high stall; something out of Jurassic Park.

Most Catalpa in the Pines are the crooked shorter Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides), as opposed to the straighter taller Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa). I have the former next to the old homestead at my place. We always called them Indian- or Johnny-Smokers, or cigar tress; still don't know why. Swedish botanist Peter Kalm (as in Kalmia) reported giant specimens of these Fish-Bait trees in Swedesboro between 1748 and 1749, leading to speculation that the Lenape brought the northern species into our area prior to European contact.

Southern catalpa has a small native range around Alabama, and northern catalpa has a small native range around Arkansas – both pretty far away from here. Swedesboro stock is almost exclusively the northern species. In a pinch I used its fish worm (Catalpa sphinx – Ceratomia catalpæ) to catch catfish although meal worms from stale chicken feed were preferred. A catalpa deep in the woods is a good sign that someone had lived nearby in the past. Catawba, as in Tall Pines at Catawba (Barrett & Scull 1968) had big catalpa too, which may have been the forgotten town’s original namesake.

S-M

 

[manumuskin]

Looks like it to me too! You can use the young seedling leaves sparingly in salad, but we generally avoided wild lettuce in favor of dandelion and chicory.

S-M

I have made dandelion/chicory coffee from roasted roots of both plants mixed 50/50. The Dandelion gives it a coffee smell but the chicory gives it a sweeter flavor.I like the smell of coffee but not the taste.

 

[manumuskin]

Empress-Tree, Paulownia tomentosa, has a neat trick. When the tree is cut to the ground, it sends up an herbaceous stalk with giant leaves that look different than adult leaves. That herbaceous stem usually dies to the ground the end of the first year. Then a woody stem arises the next season to start a new tree. Some fanciful gardeners like to “stool” empress-tree as an ornament as a vigorous specimens will put out three-feet-wide leaves on a ten-feet high stall; something out of Jurassic Park.

Most Catalpa in the Pines are the crooked shorter Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides), as opposed to the straighter taller Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa). I have the former next to the old homestead at my place. We always called them Indian- or Johnny-Smokers, or cigar tress; still don't know why. Swedish botanist Peter Kalm (as in Kalmia) reported giant specimens of these Fish-Bait trees in Swedesboro between 1748 and 1749, leading to speculation that the Lenape brought the northern species into our area prior to European contact.

Southern catalpa has a small native range around Alabama, and northern catalpa has a small native range around Arkansas – both pretty far away from here. Swedesboro stock is almost exclusively the northern species. In a pinch I used its fish worm (Catalpa sphinx – Ceratomia catalpæ) to catch catfish although meal worms from stale chicken feed were preferred. A catalpa deep in the woods is a good sign that someone had lived nearby in the past. Catawba, as in Tall Pines at Catawba (Barrett & Scull 1968) had big catalpa too, which may have been the forgotten town’s original namesake.

S-M

When I was a kid I filled up my bottom dresser drawer with dried catalpa pods.My Mom said what are these and I told her cigars and I was going to smoke em.I smoked a few and then they sat there for a few months and eventually she chucked em.

 

[ecampbell]

I called them Jonny Smokers and my wife knew them as Indian Smokers. As kids we lit one up but it can't be smoked.

 

[manumuskin]

I called them Jonny Smokers and my wife knew them as Indian Smokers. As kids we lit one up but it can't be smoked.

We called them Catalpa Seegars.

 

[bobpbx]

Looks like it to me too! You can use the young seedling leaves sparingly in salad, but we generally avoided wild lettuce in favor of dandelion and chicory. S-M

Al and Mark, that is not lettuce (Lactuca), it is fireweed (Erechtites). To be fair, I collected more samples today and analyzed them. Keep in mind some facts:

1) Lettuce has small ligulate flowers. What that means is that the individual florets have a strap for a corolla (think of a belt shape) that sticks out of the head to give the appearance of rays on most asters. But these are very short.

2) Fireweed has nothing but large disc flowers in the head. These are tiny corollas shaped like a small cup with lobes cut into the top. When you look at a fireweed flower, you won't normally see them. You have to slice open the heads.

3) Lettuce has compressed and usually winged achenes (seeds).

4) Fireweed has terete (round) or prismatic (sharply angled) achenes.

Here are photos of Fireweed taken today. In the next post you'll see photos of lettuce today. I happen to have one in Bamber almost 8 feet tall right now.

 

[bobpbx]

Photos of lettuce. The final photo is a comparison of a lettuce inflorescence (on left), with Fireweed on the right.

 

[manumuskin]

Thanks Bob.This means I have been mistaking fireweed for wild lettuce for years.Glad I never attempted to eat it.What you show as wild lettuce is not what I thought lettuce was.I have been calling that fireweed lettuce for years.I have just been educated.Thanks