Beulah Bog

garlic mustard

There are only a few bogs in Wisconsin, which should not come as a surprise, since the soil and temperature conditions are not ideal here. The bogs are small here, but this is a very high quality one. Around the bog the dominant vegetation is an overgrown oak savanna, which is still recognizable from the occasional bur oaks and shooting stars. The reason why there's a bog here afterall is that cold air drains down the hill, providing the cool circumstances bogs feel good in.
Going in we were warned to clean off shoes of possible garlic mustard seeds. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial, and it's one of the number one herbaceous invasive problems in Wisconsin. First year plants consist of a cluster of 3 or 4 round, scallop edged leaves rising 2 to 4 inches in a rosette. Second-year plants generally produce one or two flowering stems with numerous white flowers that have four separate petals. Garlic mustard is the only plant of this height in our woods with white flowers in May. Garlic mustard is an exotic species introduced from Europe presumably by early settlers for its supposed medicinal properties and for use in cooking. It is widely distributed throughout the northeastern and Midwestern U.S. from Canada to South Carolina and west to Kansas, North Dakota, and as far as Colorado and Utah. Garlic mustard grows in upland and floodplain forests, savannas, yards, and along roadsides, occasionally in full sun. It is shade-tolerant, and generally requires some shade; it is not commonly found in sunny habitats. It cannot tolerate acidic soils. The invasion of forests usually begins along the wood's edge, and progresses via streams, campgrounds, and trails.

smooth sumac

poison sumac

Teri pointed out honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) and buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica and Rhamnus frangula) as some other nasty invasives threatening our native ecosystems. We learned the difference between smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). The poison is similar in effect to that of the closely related poison ivy, but is even more virulent. With both, infection is usually due to contact. The sap becomes gummy on drying and is often carried to other parts of the body by the hands. For first aid, wash the exposed parts with hot water and strong soap to remove as much of the poison as possible. The regular sumac is found on dry sites and has reddish berries in upright clusters.

arrowhead

wild calla

cottongrass (sedge)

leatherleaf

huckleberry

Moving into the bog we saw arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.), wild calla (Calla palustris) and sedges, like cottongrass (Carex spp.). 

tamarack

We learned that to tell apart leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) and huckleberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides) we need to take a look at the leaves: leatherleaf has leaves brown on one side, green the other, where huckleberry is all green; and leatherleaf leaves are also getting smaller towards the tip, where the huckleberry's ones do not. The main tree element in the bog was tamarack (Larix laricina) with its scary-looking but actually very smooth clusters.

Arriving into the middle of the bog we found the three carnivorous plants, pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), with its smooth-in-rough-out hairs, bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) (review how it gets its food!) and sundews (Drosera ratundifolia and Drosera intermedia).

sundew

pitcher plant

bladderwort

Martin's Woods

Martin's Woods is a state-protected natural area with very high-quality forest. It's a mix of mesic, wet-mesic and wet hardwood patches. According a highly reliable source that starts with S and ends with -teve, this is the single richest site for tree diversity in Wisconsin, with about 80 species in total.

basswood

yellow-bud hickory

black walnut

blue ash

emerald ash borer

emerald ash borer damage

Among the tree species we saw here were basswood (Tilia americana), yellow-bud hickory (Carya cordiformis), black walnut (Juglans nigra), and of course, the already familiar sugar maple (Acer saccharum).






We saw blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata) with its square twigs. When you dip its leaves into water, it turns the water light blue - hence the name. 
These ash trees are greatly threatened by the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), an innocent-looking but deadly beetle from Asia. The insect lays its eggs into the bark of the tree, and the larvae burrow through under the bark, destroying the tree. In a typical small town /city situation, the 4-year period, from year 8 through year 11 after infestation, will see 60 - 70% of their trees die in that region. They are calling this the curve of death because on a graph that charts time and tree death after beetle introduction, the plotted line angles almost straight up during those 4 years, ending in all the local ash trees being dead. As insects migrate, new epicenters of ash tree mortality pop up more and more frequently. These then begin to coalesce. This pattern will continue until eventually, all the ash are dead. There's no good chemical control method out there, partially because the invasion happened so quickly that there was simply no time to adequately test anything against these awful bugs. What's further devastating is that it threatens the entire Fraxinus genus, not only one species, as it would be usual. Researchers are now considering the import of some parasitoid wasps that are natural enemies to the emerald ash borer - but of course, we know the risks of bringing here yet another exotic species.

Kentucky coffeetree

We also mentioned Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica), a legume tree, which is often said to grow around late Native American villages, but this is not entirely true. It prefers riversides, because there it can sprout easily, and the Native Americans also frequented rivers - so they didn't move there because of the coffeetree... what a surprise. It's seeds can be used as a substitute for coffee, but in large quantitities they are toxic. This plant also offers an interesting evolutionary story: almost every part of the plant is poisonous, and other than humans, no other animal eats its fruit or seeds. The seeds are too large to be wind-dispersed, so how does is reproduce? Apparently, this plant used to rely on large mammals like mastodons for its dispersal. These swallow the seeds in whole, so the poisonous juice does not harm them, and by passing through the animal's digestive tract the seed degraded anough to germinate quickly upon exit. But mastodons and other American elephants disappeared, and the Kentucky coffeetree hasn't figured out a way to adapt yet. Fortunately, its backup system keeps is alive, the seeds can travel down in rivers, and disperse, so there's another good reason why these trees like to be near rivers. But, despite being geologically widespread, it still counts as a rare tree in Wisconsin.

jack-in-the-pulpit

wild ginger

Moving onto herbaceous plants, Martin's Woods is a wonderful place to visit in the spring to see spring ephemerals. We saw the emerging fruit of jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), the flowers of wild leek (Allium tricoccum), which has tasty underground bulbs, but the leaves are gone this time of year already. We also saw wild ginger (Asarum canadense), which has rhizomes (not roots!) that are edible, and make excellent ginger candies. And for last, a little forest-art.

tiny mushrooms growing in a black walnut shell

wild leek

Baxter's Hollow

white pine

Because the area has quartzite bedrock, the soil is more acidic and lower in nutrients than usually in Wisconsin, and his in combination with variable topography (northern and southern slopes, cold air drainage) creates an environment that northern species prefer, so we see a mixture of southern and northern species in the area. Since the area is heavily wooded, we see white pine (Pinus strobus), which i the most shade-tolerant pine in Wisconsin, instead of jack or red pine (jack pine is the least shade-tolerant of all).

red maple

sugar maple

We found sugar maple (Acer saccharum s.s.) as well as red maple (Acer rubrum), the two of which can be told apart by the slight differences on their leaves. If you take a close look, you'll notice the U-shaped curve between leaf margins on the sugar maple leaf, while the red maple leaf has more of a sharp V.

Another set of easy-to-confuse plants are grape woodbine or Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus vitacea) and poison ivy, our nasty but faithful friend who pops up pretty much everywhere. Woodbine is one of the most ecologically widespread species (which is not the same as the most common), and often grows together with poison ivy. For a long time botanists thought there were just one of each, but later they found out that there are two species of woodbine and two species of poison ivy as well. Well, whichever species you come across, poison ivy always has three leaves, whereas woodbine usually has five, so you can tell them apart.

woodbine (left) and poison ivy (right)

doll's eyes

Doll's eyes (Actaea pachypoda) or white baneberry is a herbaceous perennial plant. Its most striking feature is its fruit, a 1 cm diameter white berry, whose size, shape, and black stigma scar give the species its other common name, "doll's eyes".The berries are highly poisonous, and the entire plant is considered poisonous to humans. The berries contain cardiogenic toxins which can have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle tissue, and are the most poisonous part of the plant. Ingestion of the berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death. The berries are harmless to birds, the plant's primary seed dispersers. Both Native American and settlers made tea out of the roots for relieving pain of childbirth. Settlers also used the plant to improve circulation and to cure headache or eyestrain.

yellow birch

Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) needs coars woody debris to grow. The bark is smooth, yellow-bronze, flaking in fine horizontal strips, and often with small black marks and scars. The twigs, when scraped, have a slight scent of oil of wintergreen. 

ring of baby shoots around parent basswood

Basswood or linden (Tilia spp.) is not shade-tolerant, so it competes with much better shade-tolerant sugar maple by forming a "fairy ring" or baby shoots around the parent tree, so when the parent dies, the shoots are ready to take its place, and sugar maple does not have any time to catch up. 

jewelweed

lumberjack's toiletpaper

maidenhair fern

A couple of other fun plants we saw: large-leaved aster (Aster macrophyllus) or lumberjack's toiletpaper, maidenhair fern (Adiantum spp.), bellflower (Campanula spp.) witch hazel (Hamamelis spp.), which blooms in the fall, unlike most shrubs, and jewelweed (Impatiens spp.) of touch-me-not, which (based on anecdotal evidence) can be used as a remedy for poison ivy rashes. If crushed and rubbed into the skin soon after the encounter with poison ivy, it is rumored to make things better. Since the two plants often grow together, it's a fairly convenient solution - much like having a candy store and a dentist next to other :).

witch hazel

bellflower

Otter Creek

The creek we explored, Otter Creek, provides home for at least 72 species of caddis flies, plus a couple more that were discovered later. Many ephemeral insects emerge for only 1 day, mate, lay eggs and then die. An interesting little fact for trout fishers is that trouts know their flies very well, so you need to match the flies availabe at the time to the bait you use, otherwise the trout are just going to laugh at you. 

clubmoss

partridge berry

skunk cabbage

Finally, a few plants I found by the creek, which might or might not have caught your eye: clubmoss (Lycopodium spp.), partridge berry (Mitchella repens) and skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). 

Hemlock Draw

Our first station in Baraboo Hills was Hemlock Draw. Baraboo Hills are very anciant mountains, but they were slowly eroded to the hills we see today. It's very important in terms of conservation, this is the largest wooded area under protection in Wisconsin, and it has a crucial role e.g. in maintaining bird populations.

bracken fern

Among the species we took a look at was bracken fern (Pteridium spp.), which occurs pretty much on every continent, except Antarctica. Its success is partly thanks to the fact that herbivores don't really like it - but we still don't fully understand why that is.

prickly ash

Prickly ash (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis) is in the citrus family (not a real ash), and it's also often called the toothache tree or tingle tongue because of the numbness of the mouth, teeth and tongue induced by chewing on its leaves or bark (thus relieving toothache). It was used for such medicinal purposes by both Native Americans and early settlers. When fully grown, the bark has distinctive corky spines, hence the scientific name (Hercules' club). It's often confused with Aralia spinosa, often called Devil's walkingstick or Angelica tree, which also has nasty spiny stems, but it doe not have the medicinal properties of Z. clava-herculis.

Moving in, we discovered squawroot (Conopholis americana) under some beech and oak trees, this parasite that gets its food from tree roots, doing no photosynthesis itself.

wood nettle

squawroot

And along the trail some of us got intimate with wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), which has a stem covered with stiff white hairs that have the capacity to sting when they are rubbed against. This nettle is native, unline stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), the way to tell them apart is the former has alternate leaves, the latter has opposite leaves. But they hurt all the same if you walk into a patch.

Blue River Sand Barrens

glade mallow

poppy mallow

On our way to Blue River Sand Barrens, Steve pointed out two plants of interest: glade mallow (Napaea dioica), which is the only species that is endemic to Wisconsin, and poppy mallow (Callirhoe triangulata), a species of special concern in Wisconsin, rare globally as well.

sand barren

false heather

This ecosystem is partly or completely of anthropogenic origin, likely early plowing or grazing disturbed the vegetation and allowed the formation of eroded, sandy patches across the area. The attempt at farming ultimately failed, because the only way to successfully farm here is to irrigate like crazy. The landscape is now a quilt of sand barren and dry mesic prairie patches. The dry mesic prairie is dominated by grasses, with many forbs (clovers, legumes) in between. Both ecosystems require fire to maintain them, but not as frequently as a wet or wet mesic prairie would, because it's harder for shrubs to creep in the first place.

When the wind blows out the vegetation (a blowout), and ground cover is less than 50%, we call it a sand barren. Sand barrens are a tough environment, since they are very dry, hot, and the soil continuously moves, so we see only early colonizers like false heather (Hudsonia tomentosa), mosses, lichens and a fungus called earth star (Geaster spp.). Once these took root, other species can move in and succession continues. Since the pebbles are too heavy for the wind, we see a phenomenon called desert pavement, many colorful pebbles on the surface of the sand barren.

desert pavement

earth star

There are many ways (and combinations of these) to adapt to dry circumstances:

1. being succulent, like prickly pears (Opuntia humifusa). The flat, fleshy pads are covered with spines and short bristles, for maximum water retainment. The large, waxy yellow flowers bloom in late June. The common name refers to a pear-like fruit that turns red when mature. The fruits as well as the pads (when peeled) are edible.

prickly pear

2. being active in the spring, then either disappearing for the rest of the year, or going dormant for the summer and returning in the fall, when water is once again, available. This strategy is a characteristic of many annuals that thrive here. Being an annual would be hard in e.g. a prairie, since the vegetation is dense there and annuals would have to "start over" every year.

long-hair hawkweed

3. being hairy, like the long-hair hawkweed or prairie hawkweed (Hieracium longipilum), to prevent excess transpiration. Hawkweeds have a funny way of procreation, which is worth mentioning. A couple fancy scientific terms here: apomixis refers to the replacement of the normal sexual reproduction by asexual reproduction, without fertilization. Apomictically produced offspring are genetically identical to the parents. Pseudogamy refers to any reproductive process that requires pollination but does not involve male inheritance. So, this plant needs to be pollinated, but is not fertilized. Which is also why poor Mendel, who tried to prove his theories on hawkweed after peas worked just fine failed miserably. 

resurrection plant reviving
after 3 hours of addition of water

4. being tough, waxy, with small leaves to survive the blowing wind, like false heather (above)


5. being able to dry out and then, when water is available, "ressurect": resurrention plants are a group of unrelated plants, a life form, who are capable of extreme dehydration, over month or even years. 


6. producing milky juice, like most milkweeds, it cuts down on transpiration




A couple random fun pics I took from the area:

hilarious tree front

hilarious tree back

turtle nest

Sahara

And last but not least, a couple good sites if you want to know more about Wisconsin's ecosystems/animals/plants:

Invasives in Wisconsin - DNR
Wetlands of Wisconsin - DNR
Endangered plants and animals in Wisconsin - DNR