SHORTIA NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB SPRING 2009 Shortia galacifolia Oconee Bells WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB President Juanita Lambert Secretary Cynthia McCurdy Vice President Frances Jones Treasurer Alan Graham OOOOOOOOOOOOOQOOOO From the Vice President Frances Jones In August, the Mills River was at one-sixth of its normal flow and the French Broad River reached its lowest levels since 1895 when record-keeping began. (Asheville residents were able to walk across sections of the French Broad for the first time in their lives.) Many cattle farmers, unable to grow enough hay, sold off their animals. Apple growers said their rain-stunted apples were small and less profitable. In February 2009, the southern mountains of western North Carolina remain locked in drought. Groundwater levels are two to five feet below normal. Western NC is today almost as dry as Reno, Nevada and our low soil moisture equals that found in Texas. Flartwell Carson, the French Broad River keeper, has said that if the mountain areas don’t get more rainstorms, the French Broad and other rivers will again drop to low levels. Why are we in this predicament? I attended a program at the Henderson County Library in which Mike Brewer of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration posited that our drought was caused by an unexplained high pressure system sitting over North Carolina and Tennessee that has been there for the past two years. An article on the internet titled, La Nina, not Climate Change, Responsible for Southeast Drought stated that during periods of La Nina, the equatorial Pacific Ocean cools. This affects air currents that in turn impact the jet stream. Douglas Lecomte, of the National Weather Service explains “The downstream effect, like throwing a rock in the stream and seeing ripples, is that high pressure builds up over the southeastern United States, which deflects storms into the north. It’s not so good for the south.” Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s opinion is that North Carolina’s drought is a naturally occurring cyclical phenomenon. The Earth Observatory’s conclusions are that the “post-2005 drought” in the southeast is no more severe than earlier droughts; dry conditions are only weakly linked to La Nina; tree rings show droughts in the southeast of equal severity in the past ; the twentieth century appears to have been unusually wet by the standard of the last one thousand years; models vary in their projections of future hydroclimate change; and finally there is no clear signal of anthropogenic climate change in this drought, but, climate change may increase stress on regional water resources. I guess this adds up to: we don’t know why we are experiencing this drought or how long it will last. We can perhaps take comfort in the idea that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It would be interesting to study written records of how trees, wildflowers, and North Carolinians fared during pervious severe droughts. p.i Member News New Member. Jim Hane is a retired landscape architect. He and his wife moved to this area five years ago from Michigan. They live in Cummings Cove. Jim worked for the Dept, of Natural Resources in Lansing. He is a volunteer at the N.C. Arboretum as a guide in the cultivated garden and at the desk in the Baker Center. ANNUAL DUES. January 1 , 2009 was the date for all membership renewals. This is the final request for renewals. Please fill in all the information on the green form and return it with your check so we can verify our membership records. Winter Meetings. These meetings will automatically be cancelled if the Henderson County Schools are closed. Check the weather reports or telephone the Henderson County Office at 697-4733. Book Sale, tt is the first day of March and big fluffy snowflakes are filling the sky, a perfect time to sort through the books on my shelves. Before moving to Oregon, Ann Matthes donated several boxes of books from her collection. As you think spring cleaning and sort through your books, put aside any related to botany, gardening or natural science and donate them for the WCBC book sale that will be held at the Annual Meeting in July. Contact Bonnie Arbuckle (696-22077) or Jeanne Smith (885-2530) with donations. Any change of address, e-mail or telephone number, please inform Alan Graham, 544 Tip Top Road, Brevard, N.C. 28712. 828-884-3947 Because of the state budget shortfall, we will not be able to provide bound copies any time soon. If we do get some copies printed in the future, I'll send out an announcement. In the meantime, you can print the list from our web site or download a .pdf file. -Misty Buchanan, Botanist, NC Natural Heritage Program P.3 LOOK AGAIN ! The flowers of our native Maples provide us with an interesting subject for study in the spring. Later in the season we will have no difficulty distinguishing between Red Maple ( Acer rubrum) and Silver Maple (_Ai saccharinum) on the basis of their foliage, but the blossoms emerge very early so this is of no help. They grow in small clusters, each made up of either staminate or pistillate flowers. The two species are superficially sim- ilar but have one difference which is diagnostic: Each individual flower of Red Maple has while those of Silver Maple have none. A. SACCHARINUM five petals, A. PENS YLVAN (CUM In two others — Striped Maple ( A . pensylvan- icum ) and Mountain Maple {A_^ spicatum) --the situa- tion is reversed. The flowers open later, but although the leaves are then in evidence they are confusingly sim^ar, differing mainly in that the margins are finely toothed in the first species and coarsely serrate in the second. The flowers, however, present no problem. Both are greenish yellow, but those of Striped Maple are long, bell-like, in pendulous racemes, while those of Mountain Maple are half as long with very narrow petals, and are much more numer- ous, in slender erect panicles. Sugar Maple ( A . saccharum ) has leaves that resemble Red and Silver Maple but have only a few large teeth. Its flowers have pale yellow sepals but no petals, and hang from long, threadlike petioles . A. .SACCHARUM A. SPICATUM EPIPHYTES Epiphytes are plants that grow above the ground and live attached to other plants. They use the host plant only as a foundation and support . They derive no sustenance from it because they can manufacture their own food by photosynthesis, and so are self-sustaining. By growing on trees as many orchids do, they are better able to reach the light. Over half of the 20,000 species of orchids are epiphytes. Epiphytes are not to be confused with parasites. Parasitic plants also live on and even inside the tissue of their host but they cannot synthesize organic sub- stances from carbon dioxide and water because, unlike most epiphytes, they have no chlorophyll. To survive, parasites must steal their food from the living tissues of their host. Many parasitic plants are responsible for diseases of crop plants such as the rusts on cereal plants, the brown rot of peaches and anthracnose of beans. Parasites are harmful, epiphytes are harmless. In northeastern North America, no flowering plants are found to be epiphytes. Occasionally small poplars are found on sugar maples or spruces. These are often referred to as ephemeral epiphytes. Such plants had their seeds disseminated by chance in suitable niches such as knotholes or soil-filled forks of trees. They do not usually complete their entire life cycle in this environment v as epiphytes do. Of the many members of the Orchid family which are epiphytic, only a few are seen in the southeast except in Florida. There is one epiphytic orchid found in South Carolina. This is Epidendrum magnoliae the Green-fly orchid, which was identified for us by Bonnie Arbuckle on a botany club trip to the S. C. Francis Biedler Audubon Forest in 2001. It was found growing on a cypress tree and was in bloom. Green-fly Orchid Although epiphytes are not accustomed to droughts as are other flora because they don’t have access to the ground, they do have some mechanisms to survive dry spells. These include the ability to take in carbon dioxide at night, and photo-fixing it during the day to reduce water loss by transpiration. Epiphytic orchids have "pseudobulbs" that store water, bromeliads have tanks of water in the rosette formed by their leaves and philodendrons send long trailing roots down below the canopy which allow them to collect water and nutrients. These plants typically have thick, waxy leaves to minimize water loss. Mistletoe species are hemi-parasitic, bearing green leaves that do some photosynthesis, and using the host mainly for water and mineral nutrients. Mistletoe species grow on a wide range of host trees and can commonly reduce the growth of the tree, or even kill it with heavy infestation. P.5 An epiphytic orchid made famous by a book “The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession” is the ghost orchid, Polyradicion lindenii. It is a native of southwest Florida and Cuba. In southern Florida it is found on host trees in Fakahatchee, Big Cypress and Corkscrew Swamps. “It is most sought after because of its beauty and because it is impossible to cultivate. The flower is a papery white and blooms once a year. The plant has no foliage -only roots which serve as both roots and leaves. Its lip is especially pronounced and each corner tapers in a long, fluttery tail. Because the plant has no foliage and its roots are almost invisible against the tree bark, the flower looks magically suspended in midair-like a ghost”* Ghost Orchid Polyradicion lindenii Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, is not a moss but a member of the bromeliad family, an epiphyte or air plant that has developed a unique way to make its food These plants have evolved the capacity to process their food from minerals dissolved in water that runs off across leaves and branches of the trees to which they are anchored. Spanish Moss is a flowering plant that reproduces by seeds. In spring the plant has a single yellow-green, fragrant flower on the end of a moss strand. The plant provides protection for insects and is a favorite roosting place for special species of bats. Many think Spanish Moss is a parasite, but instead it is an indicator of the health of the tree on which it is found. Resurrection Fern, Polypodium polypodioides, is an epiphyte common in the southeast and found from Florida to New York and west to Texas. It lives on the branches of large trees such as cypress and live oaks. It gets its name because it can survive long periods of drought by curling up and appearing dead. When just a little water is present, the fern will uncurl and reopen, appearing to resurrect. The club has seen this fern on a tall tree at the end of the woodland trail coming down from the main building at Jackson Park. Another site is along the wooded Coon Branch Trail at the Bad Creek Power Station. Here we get good looks at the fern since it is often seen growing on fallen tree trunks. *This quotation is taken from a book review which appeared in the Spring issue of Shortia 2002. The book review was written by Botany Club member, Jeanne Smith. She and her husband, Dick, saw the ghost orchid after a muddy search at Fakahatchee Swamp. P.6 Linnaeus and his Apostle, Pehr Kalm Carl Linnaeus was one of the founders of modern botany. It was Linnaeus’s systematic mind that brought order to the rapidly accumulating knowledge of strange plants that resulted from the expansion of European trade to many different parts of the world. His system, based on the sexuality of plants, was a giant leap forward that was crucial in the development of natural science. In Species plantarum in 1753, he simplified the naming principle by using only two-word Latin names, as in Homo sapiens - the binomial system upon which all biological naming is based to this day. Linnaeus was a popular teacher at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He called the students whom he especially valued his "apostles," and he selected from them nineteen men whom he sent abroad on voyages of discovery. Pehr Kalm was sent to the British and French colonies of North America. His goal was to describe the natural products of that part of the world and to find and introduce to Sweden such useful plants as might be expected to thrive in the harsh climate of Scandinavia. It was still believed that climate throughout the world was the same at equal levels of latitude, so that it would be easy to adapt plants found in the corresponding latitude of the French and English colonies of North America for cultivation in Sweden. Kalm was born in Sweden in 1716 but returned as a five-year-old boy to his family home in Finland, then part of the Swedish kingdom. Kalm was educated at Abo Akademi in Turku (Abo) Finland. There he was introduced to Baron Sten Carl Bielke, a friend of Linnaeus and, along with him, a founder of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. In 1740, Bielke invited Kalm to work as supervisor of his estate, Ldvsta, in Funbo parish about seven miles from Uppsala, while he also attended lectures at the University. During this time, the two patrons, Linnaeus and Bielke, prepared their young apostle for a journey of discovery to North America. Kalm left Sweden, accompanied by one assistant, Lars Jungstrom, in the fall of 1747 for London, where he would be able to board a ship bound for Philadelphia. It took almost a year to get to America. Hostilities between European powers made travel across the Atlantic dangerous, and ships left infrequently. Fortunately, Kalm used his time in England well, studying plants at the Apothecaries’ Garden, and making valuable acquaintances with several of the members of the Royal Academy of London who were knowledgeable about plants, agriculture, and America. Kalm arrived in Philadelphia on September 15, 1748. He soon was befriended by Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram, one of America’s first field botanists, and Cadwallader Golden, Surveyor-General of New York. Kalm was amazingly fortunate in the timing of his journey to Canada. Hostilities between England and France had taken place along his 225- mile route the previous year and would soon resume in what Americans called the French and Indian War. Kalm traveled north from Philadelphia through New York City, up the Hudson River past Albany and through what was then a dangerous no-man’s land between the British colonies and French Canada. P.7 Kalm was treated as a royal guest by the French government, in exchange for the help that had been given by the Swedish crown some years before to a French scientific party that traveled to Lapland as part of an attempt to define the shape of the earth. Kalm journeyed up the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Quebec with a party led by the royal physician and naturalist, Dr. Jean Franpois Gaulthier, who organized the trip to places of interest and helped him to find specimens. In appreciation, Kalm asked Linnaeus to name the genus Gaultheria (wintergreen) in honor of his host. Kalm spent the winters of 1749 and 1750 in Swedesboro, then called Raccoon, across the river from Philadelphia in the area that had once been New Sweden, the ill-fated colony of Sweden on both sides of the Delaware River. In March of 1750, Kalm married the widow of the Rev. Johan Sandin, who had been the pastor of the Swedish Lutheran Church in Raccoon. The following summer Kalm traveled north again to Niagara Falls, via the Hudson to Albany, and then west along the Mohawk Trail to the Iroquois capital, Onondaga, and then to Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario; from there he was taken by canoe to Fort Niagara. Although the purpose of his trip was to obtain plants and seeds, Kalm was greatly impressed by the size and majesty of Niagara Falls and wrote a description of what he had seen to Benjamin Franklin, who published it in his Pennsylvania Gazette on September 20, 1750. It was also reprinted in the Gentlemen’s Magazine 37 in London. Kalm’s was the first scientifically accurate description of the falls. Kalm left America reluctantly in 1751; there was still so much to explore and more plants to discover. He returned to Sweden via England accompanied not only by Jungstrdm but by many cases of seeds, specimen plants, two opossums, and a new wife and stepdaughter. In August of that year, Kalm returned to Finland to become Professor of Economics and Natural History at Abo Akademi in Turku, where he remained for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, few of the American plants that Kalm brought back to Scandinavia survived, and none were of economic benefit. Despite the failure to accomplish the task that Linnaeus had assigned him, Kalm’s travels were of value. He took careful notes along the way, not only about plants and animals, but also how people in the American colonies lived, what they ate, how they built their homes and public buildings, how they worshipped, and how they were governed. Fortunately, Kalm was a very thorough and methodical person and a good observer, and his journal and the resulting volumes that he culled from it have been a treasure trove of information for scholars of colonial America. His journal was an important source book about Canada for a later environmentalist, Henry David Thoreau. Linnaeus named several plants for Kalm, the most important being Mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia. Paula Ivaska Robbins, a member of WCBC, is the author of The Travels of Peter Kalm, Finnish-Swedish Naturalist, Through Colonial North America, 1748-1751 (Purple Mountain Press, 2007). P.8 SHORTIA do Anne Ulinski 1212 Chanteloup Drive Hendersonville, N.C. 28739 FIRST CLASS •iMrt i / ?nnq Library *Att: Dr. Buck New York Botanical Garden ^ mv 10458-5126 Bronx, N.Y. SHORTIA A quarterly publication of the Western Carolina Botanical Club Vol. XXXI No. 1 SPRING 2009 Editor: Anne Ulinski Editorial Assistant: Jean Lenhart Member News: Ruth Anne Gibson Please submit contributions for the next issue by May 15, 2009 The purpose of the Club is to study the plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Southeast through field trips and indoor meetings. Membership is open to all. Individual/family memberships are $15. New members joining from the period July 1 -December 31, pay $8. All memberships are renewable on January first of each year. Send dues to: Alan Graham, 544 Tip Top Road, Brevard, N.C. 29812 % ' * ' It- - 3 •4S SHORTIA NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB Summer 2009 Shortia galacifolia Oconee Bells WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB President Juanita Lambert Secretary Cynthia McCurdy Vice President Frances Jones Treasurer Alan Graham From the President Juanita Lambert The Native Woodland Garden at the Bullington Center was conceived as a stylized natural garden showcasing how native flora can be used in home landscaping. Members of the Western Carolina Botanical Club were very active in the initial wildflower plantings in the Garden in 2004, bringing plants from their own home gardens. Nearly thirty species were donated, many in quantity. They also transplanted unique plants from elsewhere on the Bullington property. Near the end of this early stage, a gateway was constructed at the beginning of the trail, formalizing the Garden’s entrance. In 2005, less-desirable woody vegetation of the Garden was thinned out to provide more light and to give the woodland a more spacious and mature feeling. During this time, Botanical Club representation at Bullington consisted primarily of Larason and Juanita Lambert. The Bullington Botanical Bunch formed when Bonnie Arbuckle joined the effort in early 2006. Bonnie became the defacto leader of the Bunch, with Juanita working closely with her and Larason assisting with the more laborious tasks. After they documented the existing (surviving?) herbaceous vegetation in the Garden, Juanita created plant labels listing the plants’ Latin and common names. They also transplanted additional perennials from around Bullington and wherever else they could find them, including their own gardens. Larason rearranged a conglomeration of large rocks into a "rock formation", and planted it with ferns. Planting in the Native Woodland Garden continued in 2007. As plant material requiring more sun became available, the Bunch's activities expanded to the opening near the Amphitheater, which they enlarged prior to beginning planting. Frances Jones joined the Bunch in 2007 and has been a regular ever since. In late 2007 and early 2008 the Bunch made several trips to a nearby property slated for development, rescuing a number of noteworthy species of bushes and perennials. In order to facilitate watering new plants being transplanted to the Garden, a series of fixed hoses was installed, with outlets at several levels, and during the dry summer of 2008, much time was spent watering the plantings. During these years, routine weeding and debris clean-up has been a regular part of the Bunch’s activities, but it’s all done in a spirit of constructive cooperation. The Bullington Botanical Bunch seems to have become a stable entity at Bullington, and its existence may be as much social as it is botanical. If you are at all inclined toward this kind of volunteer activity, we would love for you to join us. We typically work in the Garden for about three hours each Tuesday morning, and then enjoy a picnic lunch together, outside if the weather permits. Member News New Members Ann Ewing was born in Greenville, S.C. and moved to California when she was young. In California she served as a nature guide on a trail designed for the physically disabled. She has been living in Tryon for the last four years, and has designed a training program for the Tryon Garden Club for those members interested in serving as guides at Pearson Falls. Howard and Linda Jackson live in Asheville. Linda is a retired psychiatrist. Howard and Linda are volunteers with Dr. McCoy at the Bent Creek Institute Germplasma Facility at the N.C. Arboretum. They work two days a week . Linda mounts the dried plant culture and Howard assists with the computers and photography. Howard also serves as a guide in the Segway program . Mary Clare Jenks has lived many different places but always pursued native flowers where ever she is. She is a passionate gardener and birder. She has been a member of Tryon Garden Club for 15 years. She will be spending three summer months in Canada. Carolyn Trapp has lived in Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Florida, Montreal, Charlotte and now Arden. In all these places she has been interested in learning the native flora and sharing her knowledge with her children. California presented the most challenge as it was so different from this area. She is glad to be back in the mountains. Field Trip Cancellations. On occasion field trips need to be cancelled or changed either for weather conditions or other reasons such as road closings. Such changes are sent out by e-mail to all members at the latest by 7 a.m. the day of the field trip. If you do not have e-mail access, we will try to reach local members by telephone by 7 a m If in doubt, contact a leader or co-leader whose telephone number is listed on the schedule. When a field trip is cancelled, no member will be at the contact point. Any change of address, e-mail or telephone number, please inform Alan Graham, 544 Tip Top Road, Brevard, N.C. 28712. 828-884-3947 for more information. (Kate estimates it will take about two hours to get there.) -Ed. Stewartia ovata ia a small tree mostly concentrated in the s. Appalachians and interior plateaus of e. KY, south to AL, n. to Georgia and adjacent NC, SC, though also ranging into the Piedmont of NC and the coastal plain of VA. Uncommon to rare over most of its range, -from Ron Lance’s “WOODY PLANTS of the Southeastern U.S. (2004) -Ed. P.5 Did You Know? Last year the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign”, people, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments were encouraged to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year and register them with UNEP. Now the UNEP has set a new goal of planting 7 billion trees by the end of 2009. The campaign strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment. In 2008 the Botany Club joined with the Bullington Center in planting a tree for the planet, a cucumber magnolia ( Magnolia acuminata) on Bullington grounds. The tree was registered with the UN and the site appears on the UNEP worldwide map. The traditional way to identify an unfamiliar tree is to pull out a field guide and search its pages for a matching description. One day people may pull out a smartphone instead, photographing a leaf from the mystery tree and then having the phone search for matching images in a database. A team of researchers financed by the National Science Foundation has created just such a device — a hand-held electronic field guide that identifies tree species based on the shape of their leaves. The field guide, now in prototype for iPhones and other portable devices, has been tested at three sites in the northeastern United States, including Plummers Island in Maryland and Central Park in New York. The computer program compares the leaf snapshot to a library of leaf images. “We believe there is enough information in a single leaf to identify a species,” said John Kress a member of the research team. “Our brains can’t remember all of these characteristics, but the computer can.” The tree guide will be specific to trees and shrubs of the northeastern United States. A warning comment came from another scientist who believes in traditional education, too. “People don’t have to take botany for four years, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the value of learning information. If a computer can figure it all out, we can get lazy.” For the past several years, students from Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan have chosen to participate in an Alternative Spring Break program. This year for two weeks in March, the students helped to restore a Hoke County forest in the N.C Sandhills by planting 30,000 longleaf pine seedlings. P.6 Hornbeams & Hophornbeams Carpinus caroliniana and Ostrya virginiana Hornbeams and hophornbeams share many characteristics and often are difficult to tell apart. The following is excerpted from a recent issue of the Georgia Botanical Society newsletter. Carpinus Caroliniana , American hornbeam, ironwood, musclewood, blue beech, water beech Taxonomy: American hornbeam is in the birch family (Betulaceae), a medium -sized group of trees and shrubs with 6 genera and about 105 species. Five genera occur in North America: birches ( Betula ), alders ( Alnus ), hornbeams {Carpinus), hophornbeams ( Ostrya ) and hazelnuts {Corylus). Carpinus is the ancient Latin name for hornbeam and caroliniana means of North or South Carolina. The tree’s name “horn” means tough and “beam” describes the wood which is close-grained, very hard and heavy. Appearance: A small tree, 20-40 ft. high, up to 2 ft in diameter; short, irregular; often twisted, fluted trunk; crown close, flat-topped with long slender, zigzag branches. Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, simple, oblong-ovate 2-4 in long, I - 1/2 - 2 inches wide, upper surface dark green, dull, mostly smooth with a few hairs along the main rachis, very scattered over rest of surface; main lateral veins prominent, slightly indented; lower leaf surface lighter green, shiny, surface glabrous with appressed hairs only on rachis and lateral veins, leaf margin double serrate, teeth acute. Flowers: Borne separately on the same tree. Male flower in catkins; female in spikes or short catkins. Fruit: Nutlet at base of 3-lobed leafy bract; some in a spiral to form a cluster. Habitat: Mostly understory tree in hardwood forests on moist or wet soils along creeks or rivers. Is an excellent small landscape tree. The Club has identified it at FENCE, Davidson River, Pearson’s Falls, Horse Cove, Moore Cove Trail, Green River Cove. Palmetto Trail, Shinn Garden and Paw Paw Cove. Leaf, twig, enlarged bud at end of twig showing leaf scar and twig scar, enlarged twig with catkins P.7 Ostrya virginiana Ostrya virginiana, Hophornbeam, American hophornbeam, ironwood Taxonomy: The hophornbeams are a small genus of only eight species of the birch family ; one species in Mexico, Europe and western Asia; three in eastern Asia and Japan; three in the United States and Canada. O. virginiana is widespread in the Eastern U.S. Ostrya is the Greek name for a tree with very hard wood. The species name virginiana means “of Virginia”. Hop refers to the fruit which resembles hops, and hornbeam refers to the very tough, hard wood, (second in hardness only to dogwood). Appearance: Small tree, usually 20 to 35 feet high (sometimes up to 70 ft.), diameter 6 to 25 in; large rounded crown and cylindrical trunk. Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, simple, 2-5 in long, 1-2 in wide, elliptical to ovate. Main veins prominent and much indented in leaf surface; color lime green, dull wrinkled (rugose), more hairy than Carpinus with appressed hairs on surface and tangled hairs on rachis. Lower surface only slightly lighter than upper; dull, wrinkled (rugose), prominent interconnecting veins between main lateral veins; lower opposite veins opposite. Leaf base rounded to heart -shaped, tip acuminate; leaf margin single to doubly serrate, teeth acuminate, 3 mm long. Flowers: Borne separately on the same tree; male in catkins, femaie in spikes or short catkins. Fruit: Nutlet, borne in a bladdery sac, form a cluster resembling a hop. Habitat: Slopes and ridges, occasionally in bottoms; usually understory species with hardwoods. Abundant on limestone ridges and slopes. An excellent small shade tree. There are no records that the Club has seen this tree on any field trips. How to tell them apart:: Hornbeam bark is smooth, dark grey. Fluting trunk looks muscular. Leaves upper surface mostly glabrous, under leaf shiny. Fruit an exposed nutlet. Hophornbeam bark is rough shreddy, flaking and turning loose at free ends. Leaves upper surface wrinkled and hairy. Lower leaf dull. Fruit enclosed by a bladder sac. Lead, twig, enlarged bud at end of twig showing leaf scar and twig star, enlarged twig with catkins. P.8 §1 SHORTIA c/o Anne Ulinski 1212 Chanteloup Drive Hendersonville, N.C. 28739 * n ‘/nnp FIRST CLASS Library *Att: Dr. Buck New York Botanical Garden Bronx, N.Y. 10458-5126 SHORTIA A quarterly publication of the Western Carolina Botanical Club Vol. XXXI No. 2 Summer 2009 Editor: Anne Ulinski Editorial Assistant: Jean Lenhart Member News: Ruth Anne Gibson The purpose of the Club is to study the plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Southeast through field trips and indoor meetings. Membership is open to all. Individual/family memberships are $15. New members joining from the period July 1 -December 31, pay $8. All memberships are renewable on January first of each year. Send dues to: Alan Graham, 544 Tip Top Road, Brevard, N.C. 29812 SHORTIA NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB FALL 2009 Shortia galacifolia Oconee Bells WESTERN CAROLINA BOTANICAL CLUB President Juanita Lambert Secretary Nancy lha Vice President Frances Jones Treasurer Alan Graham From the President Juanita Lambert A recent study found that elderly folks derive substantial benefits to their mental well- being by participating in the game of bridge. Evidently it’s a very demanding game, requiring you to keep track of who’s playing what cards and thereby how you should play your cards to complement what cards you think your partner holds in order to defeat your competitors. Although perhaps not as demanding as bridge, the complexity of the botanical world presents a challenge to most of us. Each Spring seems to initiate a relearning process of the plants we knew the previous year. How many times have we asked one of our master botanists the genus of a plant as opposed to the common name. And to make things worse, the plant taxonomists keep coming up with new Latin names and shuffling around the taxonomy. In the face of resulting frustrations with forgetfulness, we can console ourselves that all these new names we’re learning and associating with visual images of plants and all of their intricate characteristics is likely improving our memories and fighting off senility. Many of us are also gardeners, and as such, are faced with the tedious task of weeding. But here again arises the need for perception and identification, and in a much more rapid manner as we decide what lives and what dies. Weeding could be viewed as applied botany. And it’s sometimes much more demanding, in terms of identification without the benefit of flowers, especially when you’re doing it quickly, to be done with the task. It’s sort-of like the computer "Pac-man” game, but with multiple kinds of "good guys" and "bad guys". Larason finds that it’s a very similar process, but at a much more rapid pace, in trying to save desirable plants while weed whacking. In addition to the mental exercise that weeding gives us, it’s good practice for our botanical outings, where many plants are not in bloom. Perhaps we should just slow down and enjoy the weeding as another form of botanizing. So while bridge might do more for our mental agility, our botanical outings give us the additional benefit of some exercise in our walks, and allow us to experience the beauty and wonder of the plants we encounter and many other aspects of being out in the natural world. cx> oo oo oo oo oo oo Cover: The flower on the cover is Shortia galacifolia , Oconee Bells. Our newsletter is named for this southern endemic which is now rare in the wild. P.1 Member News New Member Maryke Nol. Maryke Nol is a native of Holland. Now she lives in St. Petersburg, Fla. in the winter and Sherwood Forest in the summer. She became interested in identifying the flowers as she likes to hike and she also likes to read. Moved Long time members Bud and Laverne Pearson have moved to Florida. Laverne often volunteered as a co-leader or as a recorder on our weekly field trips. Bud served for two years as editor of Shortia. Book Sale The book sale which was held at the Annual Meeting netted $192. Thanks to aii who donated books and to those who set up and manned the tables. Field Trip Cancellations. On occasion field trips need to be cancelled or changed either for weather conditions or other reasons such as road closings. Such changes are sent out by e-mail to all members at the latest by 7 a.m. the day of the field trip. If you do not have e-mail access, we will try to reach local members by telephone by 7 a.m. If in doubt, contact a leader or co-leader whose telephone number is listed on the schedule. When a field trip is cancelled, no member will be at the contact point. Any change of address, e-mail or telephone number, please inform our Treasurer, Alan Graham 544 Tip Top Road, Brevard, N.C. 28712. 828-884-3947