A fun weekend at the Midwest Native Plant Conference

Last year we had such a good time at the Midwest Native Plant Conference in Dayton that we decided to go again this year. Held at the Bergamo Center, a Marianist retreat center in Beavercreek, it features excellent speakers on a wide variety of topics, outstanding field trips and leaders, and a chance to socialize with new and old friends who enjoy learning about the natural world as much as we do. To top it all off, the grounds are lovely and there are a variety of vendors, including many who have lots of native plants for sale.

At a talk by Rick Darke, author of the new book The Living Landscape, we learned about designing our gardens with layers of native groundcovers, perennials, shrubs and trees to maximize their attractiveness to wildlife. Jim McCormac from Ohio's Division of Wildlife gave an excellent talk featuring Ohio's 13 native milkweed species, pollination of milkweeds, and the importance of milkweeds to wildlife, especially monarchs. The featured plant of the conference was white oak, and David Brandenburg gave an outstanding presentation on wood and winter botany, featuring meticulously labeled specimens for study.  Other excellent talks that we went to centered on orchids of the eastern United States, native plant conservation and singing insects. That is a lot of variety indeed!

Saturday night we did a night walk to hear some of those singing insects that we learned about earlier in the day. While I don't think I'll ever be particularly good at identifying all the sounds of the night, I now know a lot more about field crickets, ground crickets, tree crickets, coneheads and katydids! Here is a sword-bearing conehead (what a great name!) captured by our leaders:

And here is a view of it after it was released from the jar:

Sunday was the field trip day and we went to Huffman Prairie, which I described in a previous post. Our leader was Five Rivers Metro Parks' Dave Nolin, who for the past 29 years has been involved in restoring and managing this wonderful resource on the Wright Patterson Air Force Base property. The flowers were still amazing:

Here is one that we didn't see on our previous visit, a drought-tolerant perennial called biennial gaura:

Enjoying all the seeds produced by the multitude of plants in the prairie was this gorgeous indigo bunting:

What a fun weekend! We might have slightly overdone it at the plant sale booths

but we are definitely looking forward to next year's Midwest Native Plant Conference!

Summer on the Prairie

Now is the time to visit Ohio's outstanding prairie areas! Yesterday we spent the morning at the 100-acre remnant tallgrass prairie known as Huffman Prairie on Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton. I had no idea that it was open to the public, and I had no inkling of its historical significance.

Now a part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park, its full name is Huffman Prairie Flying Field. After their very brief, straight line flight at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903, the Wright brothers brought their plane back to Dayton. At this point, they had demonstrated that flight was possible, but they didn't have much, if any, control over the plane. 

According to the National Park signage, "When Wilbur and Orville returned to Dayton they built the 1904 Wright Flyer II and spent the summer at Huffman Prairie Flying Field testing it with mixed results. In 1905 they poured all they knew about flight into a new plane. It wasn't perfect, but with some time and effort they developed an airplane capable of banking, performing figure eights, and making repeated landings and take-offs--the world's first practical airplane." Here is a photo of the field where they developed the plane:

And here is a replica of the hangar where they stored the plane each night, in pieces because the building was so small:

Apparently they did all this flying (and crashing) in coat and tie:

Photo from the National Historic Park signage.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field is well worth a visit just for its historic significance and excellent interpretive signage, but just behind the hangar replica is the 100-acre grassland that has been restored by WPAFB and Five Rivers MetroParks to its pre-settlement condition. In mid-summer it is absolutely magnificent:

Butterfly numbers have, in general, been low this summer but we saw pretty many at Huffman Prairie. Purple coneflower seemed to attract the most; here is a red admiral:

a black swallowtail:

a tiger swallowtail:

and a giant swallowtail:

In addition to purple coneflower, the prairie had lots of gray-headed coneflower,

black-eyed Susan,

and beebalm or monarda, the lavender plant in this photo:

One of the most striking plants is the royal catchfly, which is usually bright red but thanks to a recessive gene a pink-flowered one will occasionally occur:

This tall purple plant is Liatris spicata or dense blazing star:

In addition to all these amazing plants and butterflies, we had an added bonus when one of our friends spotted a very cool dragonfly, a flag-tailed spinylegs. It was dispatching an orange sulfur butterfly, quite efficiently eating all but the wings:

And we spotted several birds, including common yellowthroat, indigo bunting and this eastern meadowlark:

Here is another view of this incredible display of native plants:

Just for the record, I'm still peeved that Dayton didn't get a space shuttle when the fleet was retired. The three shuttles and one test orbiter basically went to coastal sites: Los Angeles, Virginia (Smithsonian), Cape Canaveral and New York. Did all of these have anywhere near the aviation significance that Ohio has had? Consider the National Museum of the Air Force at WPAFB, all the Wright brothers sites contained within the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Site, the Waco Aircraft Company in Troy that made gliders that landed in Normandy on D-Day, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong...plus a location in the heart of the nation. 

In any event, now is the time to get out and visit some of our prairie areas, and Huffman Prairie is an excellent choice. While you are there, consider that these prairie plants are beautiful and drought-tolerant in the garden as well!

A Steamy Summer Day in Adams County

Mid-June is in some ways rather quiet botanically in Ohio--the rush of spring ephemeral wildflowers is over and the abundant prairie blooms have not yet begun. But there is plenty to see as some summer butterflies are starting to appear and a few stunning flowers are beginning their prime season. So Wednesday we headed south with a friend to Adams County, which I have mentioned in this blog several times. Appropriately, one of the roads we take to get to some of the nature preserves is called Steam Furnace Road, and the day was definitely steamy! 

One of our first stops was an interesting preserve that has several pocket prairie areas that support many rare plants. Along the trail we were excited to find a butterfly that was new for us, the northern metalmark:

Notice the metallic "threads" that give this tiny butterfly its name! Its upper side is beautiful, and the underside is equally stunning with its bright orange color and intricate pattern, plus cool green dashes:

Northern metalmark caterpillars feed on a plant called round-leaved ragwort, which is abundant in the area where we found three of the adults. We saw it in bloom several weeks ago.

Some of the other butterflies we saw here included the northern pearly eye:

and the tiny eastern tailed blue:

We were interested to see this unusual plant called the climbing milkvine--milkvines are in the milkweed family but are not in the same genus as the milkweeds:

After that hike we headed to Adams Lake State Park, a perfect site for a shady picnic. Refreshed and rehydrated, we did the very short hike at Adams Lake State Nature Preserve, another pocket prairie that hosts a variety of unusual flora and fauna. 

American ipecac was in bloom; supposedly Native Americans used it as an emetic but it is not the source of the ipecac that is given these days to induce vomiting in the case of accidental poisoning (that comes from the roots of a South American plant):

A main attraction at this preserve is the Edward's hairstreak butterfly, which we didn't see when we were there last week. Today was a completely different story, and we saw at least 25 individuals! Most were nectaring on orange milkweed, often called butterfly weed:

Edward's hairstreak has a really unusual life cycle. Eggs are laid in bark crevices of young oak trees, and after they hatch the caterpillars live in huge anthills built by Allegheny mound ants:

At night, the ants accompany the caterpillars to small oak trees where the cats feed, protected by the ants from predators such as small parasitic wasps. This shingle oak, growing next to one of the ant mounds, would be a likely food source:

I am not making this up! The caterpillars exude a sweet substance called honeydew that the ants consume, and thus it is a mutually beneficial relationship. The adults only last a few weeks, but right now they are abundant in this location.

We didn't see many of the ants, probably because it was so hot that they were inside their mound. But we did spot a dragonfly, a beautiful female eastern pondhawk, eating an ant--the circle of life, indeed!

In addition to the Edward's hairstreaks, great spangled fritillaries were taking advantage of the nectar offered by the orange milkweed:

We made one last stop before heading home, and that was Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. In a few weeks this area will be full of blooming prairie plants such as rattlesnake master, crownsbeard and prairie dock, but today we enjoyed seeing lots of orange milkweed plus whorled loosestrife:

and purple milkweed:

We were even treated to a view of a fairly unusual butterfly, the hoary edge, which was perched atop a prairie dock leaf. It is named for the frosted-looking edging on its hindwing:

A brief stop at a UDF for ice cream was a welcome relief from the heat, and we all agreed that this trip had been a great way to spend a summer day!

By the way, it has been a little while since I posted on this blog, mainly because we have been busy exploring. If you'd like to read more about what we've been up to, check out botanist Andrew Gibson's excellent blog here and here to find out about one of our recent adventures!

Flying Dragons

Recently we have been putting a bit of effort into finding and identifying dragonflies. These huge insects look like relics from a prehistoric world, which, in fact, they are. When I was working as a naturalist at camp for many years I was familiar with a few of these creatures, and especially with their aquatic nymphs because I often led aquatic ecology sessions. This activity is better known as "creeking" which is, by the way, one of the most fun ways to spend some time as a child or as an adult! 

The nymphs were, for me, generally unidentifiable as to species, but the pond on the property hosted several common types of adults and I loved their names; the Halloween Pennant, Blue Dasher, Widow Skimmer, and Twelve-spotted Skimmer were just a few. I really gained an appreciation for their speed, the fierce way they defended their territories, and their ability to change direction in an instant.

Lately I've realized that the dragonfly world is much larger than I thought. Ohio has over 160 species! Many spend most of their time around ponds, but some prefer forests or flowing streams or a variety of other habitats. All have aquatic or semi-aquatic juvenile stages, that breathe with gills and are able to catch and eat small fish and insects. Adult dragonflies will not sting or bite humans, but they are fierce predators which can use their legs to catch large and small insects on the wing. 

Here are some of the Ohio dragonflies that have been new to us in the past year. Many thanks go to friends who have helped us with identification! A good place to start if you are interested in dragonflies is the Ohio Division of Wildlife's guide to dragonflies and damselflies which is online at this link; print copies can be found at many parks and nature centers.

I'll start with a real stunner--the Rusty Snaketail. These large dragonflies generally are found near clean streams; their presence is indicative of a high quality watershed. This one was found near Big Darby Creek.

A bit less flashy is this Brown Spiketail. Spiketails generally have contrasting dark brown or black and yellow patterns. Most are seen in late spring or early summer, and prefer small shallow streams and ditches. This one was found at Gallagher Fen.

Here is another member of the spiketail family, the Arrowhead Spiketail. Note the bold, arrow-like yellow markings on the abdomen. This critter breeds in woodland streams and has stunning blue eyes.

Another blue-eyed large dragonfly is this Lilypad Clubtail. It breeds in weedy ponds and at the edges of lakes, and adults are rarely found far from a pond that has a lot of emergent vegetation. 

Closely related is the Unicorn Clubtail, which looks very similar except that the very last segment of its abdomen is completely yellow. Some of these field marks are subtle and a photo is a real help in identification! Unicorn Clubtails often bask on the shoreline, allowing close photos.

Some of the smaller dragonflies are fun to watch too. Here is a Painted Skimmer--some references say that it is uncommon, but we've seen quite a few of them this spring. Skimmers are a large group, and can be found in most ponds and lakes in the summer. In general, they tend to perch in the open for easy viewing, which is a big help to us dragonfly novices!

This beautiful dragonfly is the Carolina Saddlebags, named for the broad red areas on the hindwings. It breeds in ponds and lakes and also tends to perch in the open at the tip of vegetation. Interestingly, it is highly migratory and tends to arrive in Ohio in mid-April. Other related Ohio species include Black and Red Saddlebags.

This has to be one of my favorites, the aptly named Dot-tailed Whiteface. It is very common right now in many ponds and is great fun to watch defending its territory and zipping around the shoreline. It emerges in early spring and can be seen most of the summer. 

Yesterday we spotted a really interesting dragonfly called the Gray Petaltail. It belongs to a primitive insect family dating back 250 million years. It is usually found in the woods, on tree trunks and fallen logs. The one we spotted was on a hitching rail in Hocking State Forest, along a stream where horseback riders often stop to rest along a bridle trail. 

Underneath the hitching rail are often found a variety of butterflies, including these Tiger Swallowtails, which get nutrients from the--ahem--nitrogen compounds that are deposted by the horses. 

Although not well camouflaged, the petaltail had a good perch on which to hunt for its next meal, because these dragonflies are fierce butterfly predators:

Several times we watched it go after a butterfly. It seemed to ignore them when they were on the ground, but as soon as one started to fly the petaltail went off in pursuit and then came back to its perch. We figured that this one must have just emerged as an adult, because it was pretty slow and we didn't see it catch anything in at least 15 tries. It seemed a bit more adept in the later attempts!

Last year we found a Gray Petaltail in the same area that had been successful in capturing a butterfly; that time it was a Red-spotted Purple:

I hope you've enjoyed learning about a few of Ohio's dragonflies. Keep an eye out when you are outside this summer; they are always fun to watch!

Much of the background information in this post is from Dragonflies and Damselflies of Northeast Ohio by Larry Roche, Judy Semroc and Linda Gilbert, available at this link.