A species that matters - Cuphea viscosissima

Blue Waxweed or Clammy Cuphea (Cuphea viscosissima) is infrequently encountered in North Carolina. It has been reported from the northern mountains, southern mountains, and northern Piedmont - perhaps it is overlooked and unreported at stations in between?  The species is widely distributed in neighboring states to the north and west, but is apparently most common in Missouri and southern Illinois.

Clammy Cuphea (Cuphea viscosissima): perimeter of Mt. Vernon Prairie, MO (08/21/15)

One of the most interesting traits of Blue Waxweed is the abundance of sticky hairs (shown above) which are thought to serve as defense against insect pests. Several years ago I noticed this adaptation in action. A grasshopper had landed on a Cuphea stem presumably to feed but ended up stuck by its front and hind legs (see below). At the time, the grasshopper was alive and well. Perhaps it would have eaten its way free, or perhaps eventually succumbed? Either way, evolution was thwarted when I felt a bout of compassion and flicked the grasshopper free.

Grasshopper stuck on Blue Waxweed (Durham Co, NC - 9/27/11)

Plant conservationists are often expected to justify saving native plants, with the implication that each species must stand on merits that we can measure.  To many, an otherwise obscure and insignificant species (like Blue Waxweed) only really "matters" if it holds the cure for cancer, or provides some other potential human benefit. When the utilitarian argument is needed it comes in handy to have a couple local, supporting examples.

Blue Waxweed serves admirably. Unexpectedly, Cuphea viscosissima produces some of the highest concentrations of capric acid among herbaceous plants (1).  Also known as a medium chain triglyceride, this type of "goat smelling" fatty acid has several commercial and industrial uses whose demand is growing exponentially worldwide. However, current supply comes almost exclusively from oil palms and coconut, creating a virtual "tropical oilseed monopoly" (2). Consequently, Blue Waxweed has been under consideration for massive production. One estimate suggests that 2.7 million hectares of Cuphea fields could supply North America and Europe's demand. I can only imagine!

Cuphea viscosissima in natural habitat, bordering sandstone glade in Missouri (8-18-2015)

References
(1) http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=ncrpis_pubs
(2) https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/V2-372.html

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Using 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil with Azadirachtin in Your Garden: Stop Chewing Insects!

Using 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil with Azadirachtin in Your Garden: 

Stop Chewing Insects!

I have been using Neem Oil for several years. It is outstanding for stopping chewing insects in your vegetable garden. It is 100% natural as it pressed from the seeds of the Neem tree. If you look up Neem Oil use in India, you will find it has been used for well over a 1000 years.

I sell 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil with all its components on my blog. You are certainly welcome to purchase it from me but no matter from where you purchase it.... make sure it is 100% cold pressed with the component azadirachtin. That is what kills chewing insects. That is what you are paying for as an insect killer.

Sadly, in the States they sell a filtered product of Neem and all you get is the oil. All the key components are gone. An oil in itself does smother and kill insects but you can use any oil for that. If you buy Neem Oil make sure it is not filtered. This video will explain the products that ARE NOT useful and yet fool you buy saying Neem Oil.

Neem oil changed the way I can grow kales, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, collards and the related crops. Neem oil with Azadirachtin coats the leaves, the insects chew and ingest it and in several days they die. It will not harm non chewing insects if they are not sprayed by it. There are several ways to mix the spray. You can watch my videos but because soaps and climates vary... ALWAYS test spray new sprays on leaves of your different vegetables. You should wait 48 hours to see if the spray damages the leaves of the different plants. If there is not damage spray away.

Here are some testimonials from people that have used 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil and/or purchased what I sell. Just make sure you buy 100% cold pressed Neem Oil with all its components. you want the Azadiracthin.

Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)

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PhD student Stephen Via wins 1st place!

Stephen Via won 1st place for best student presentation at the International Phytotechnologies Conference! He presented his work titled "Physiological and morphological responses to explosives contamination across plant functional groups”.  Additionally, Stephen was awarded travel grants through the conference and VCU graduate school.  Congratulations, Stephen, for your significant accomplishments! This is excellent recognition for you, CPEL, and the Integrative Life Sciences program at VCU. We are all very proud of you!
 

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The fatal flowers of Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum)

Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum); Durham Co, NC (9/14/15)

I find Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum) to be one of our most interesting natives.  Perhaps this is because I often root for the underdog, and so many gardeners, farmers, and even "conservationists" despise thistles. Hopefully their aversion may change if they come to understand the wildlife uses of native thistles and more particularly the benefits for native bees and butterflies. A fairly impressive, preliminary list of these has been documented using Tall Thistle, including over 20 native bees and nearly as many butterflies (1)

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) visiting Tall Thistle; Durham Co, NC (9/14/15)

Tall Thistle occurs widely across the eastern US, from the prairie regions eastward, but is largely absent from the southeastern coastal plain. In North Carolina it has been reported mainly from western Piedmont and mountain counties; Durham County appears to be the easternmost location in the state.

Predominately white flowering Cirsium altissimum with a scattering of pink flowers  (Durham Co, NC - 9/14/15)

The majority of plants I have seen in North Carolina flower white, with a lesser intermixing of pink flowers (elsewhere in the range flowers seem to be more typically pink or purple and less commonly white). Tall Thistle is "monocarpic" meaning individual plants die shortly after flowering and setting seed (the classic case of monocarpism is the Century Plant). Cirsium altissimum is sometimes listed as biennial, but one group of authors (2) documented individual plants taking up to 4 years to emerge from young rosettes (such as the one shown below) into flowering stems.

Densely pubescent leaves of C. altissimum

In comparison to most thistle species, Cirsium altissimum has relatively soft and prickle-free leaves. Lower leaf surfaces are covered with dense white pubescence and stems are obviously hairy to the naked eye. Large leaves, a foot or more long, may develop on heavily shaded plants (see below). Some flowering stems exceed 10' in height and most produce multiple blooms.

Large shade leaves of C. altissimum, almost free of thorns

The large natural range of Tall Thistle and frequent occurrence in many regions suggest this is not, generally, a species whose survival we would need to be overly concerned about. HOWEVER, in a strange twist of fate, Tall Thistle may now be threatened by efforts in Midwestern prairie regions to eliminate truly problematic and invasive thistle species. A "bio-control" agent (weevil) deliberately introduced to control non-native thistles actually uses Tall Thistle "as frequently and intensively as it uses the targeted, exotic host plant" (3).

Cirsium altissimum seems to thrive only in relatively open habitats.  Ironically, the site where Tall Thistle occurs in Durham Co, NC also happens to be both nutrient rich and moist, creating growing conditions very conducive to dense woody plant growth. This apparent conundrum seems to suggest, at least in our area, that Tall Thistle requires regular disturbance and is likely another in the growing list of fire benefiting species. In fact, the currently large Durham population only appeared after burning. Thus far, we have been able to keep a portion of the site open with a combination of prescribed fire, selective chainsaw removal of trees, and invasive plant control.

Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum) flowering in open, "savanna"; Durham Co, NC (9/25/15)

References:
(1) http://illinoiswildflowers.info/flower_insects/plants/tall_thistle.htm
(2) http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/ES11-00096.1
(3) http://www.researchgate.net/publication/26278359

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Mountain Bog Recovery & Expansion

Bog edge, before thinning (June 2015)

Bog edge, after thinning (July 2015)

The above images were taken near the perimeter of a so-called "mountain bog" in western North Carolina.  The first image shows the conditions before active restoration, the second image shows the same locale after clearing dense rhododendron invasion.  The only evident trees in the initial image are red maple and a lone pitch pine (Pinus rigida). After clearing the dense brush, a number of previously hidden stems of Pitch Pine in the heart of the wetland become apparent. The images also document (especially the second one) a small tributary creek feeding into the site from a black plastic culvert. Hugging the margin of this tributary (just past the lone pitch pine) is a grove of pitcher plants (see image below). 

Numerous pitcher plants (Sarracenia jonesii) hiding in this dense herbaceous foliage

At one time other rare plants were apparently present here when the creek was able to fan out gradually across the area, and the site was more open. However, years ago a road was constructed through the edge of the wetland. Several feet of fill material buried portions of the wetland, and altered the hydrology in some subtle and not so subtle ways (plans are in the works to remove the offending road section and culvert in hopes of restoring more natural water flows and reopening original wetland surface area for bog plants, stay tuned!). The dense thicket of shrubs that developed along the altered stream course excluded nearly all ground layer plant diversity directly underneath. In addition, the thick wall of green created both a sun and rain shadow across the nearby pitcher plants (these pitchers thrive in open sun, in saturated soils).   

Bog edge, before Rhododendron removal (June 2015)

Bog edge, after Rhododendron removal (July 2015) 

Numerous studies have shown that canopy vegetation can intercept and effectively remove up to 50% of seasonal or annual rainfall (Carlyle-Moses and Gash 2011, Forest Hydrology and Biochemistry). In contrast to deciduous plants, the evergreen rhododendrons continue to intercept rainfall all year long. At this site, the result could be losses of as much as 30" of water recharge per year! By removing the wall of rhododendrons we hope to create more open, sunlit conditions and add water back into the wetland system.  

Pile of Rhododendron previously removed from interior and margins of bog

We have been working on this restoration for several years, having been slowed mainly by lack of funding and resources to complete the task; the Friends of Plant Conservation (www.ncplantfriends.org) has recently established a means by which people can support this effort. 

Mountain Bog interior conditions in 2011, before restoration, note forked pine tree

Mountain bog conditions in 2014 after interior brush removal, note forked pine

Elsewhere on this blog I have discussed a few of the rare plants whose populations have begun to rebound due, in part, to these restoration efforts.  Won't you help this progress continue?

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Ornithology for the people - Florence Merriam Bailey

By Jessie Reese

           Florence Merriam Bailey was a pioneering naturalist best known as a celebrated field guide author and for her extensive observational field studies of birds. She was born in 1863 and developed an early interest in natural history and ornithology, which became her life’s pursuit. As a community organizer and environmental advocate, she helped form several chapters of the fledgling Audubon Society and led classes in ornithology there.

 

 

She began observational studies of birds near her hometown in New York and her undergraduate institution, Smith College. In contrast to traditional ornithology at the time, where the standard was to shoot the bird first, then identify it using taxonomic key, Florence refused to kill birds, even if it meant letting one go unidentified. She authored her first field guide in 1899, Birds Through an Opera Glass, which focused on bird identification in the field for amateurs.

 

 

After living in Western North America and publishing several more identification guides, Florence moved back east and met and married Vernon Bailey, a naturalist and colleague of her brother, both of whom worked for the U.S. Biological Survey. They traveled and worked together throughout Western North America, though sources report that he “collected and studied” while she merely “observed”.

 

 

 

However, Florence consistently published her observations in peer reviewed journals and authored several more books, while her husband authored mostly government technical reports. Florence was recognized throughout her lifetime by such achievements as being the first female elected fellow of the American Ornithologist’s Union (AOU) and the first female awarded the AOU’s Brewster Memorial Award for her work Birds of New Mexico. However, it is likely that Florence encountered significant bias early in her career, at a time when male ornithologists opposed the growing popularity of birdwatching, in part because many field guide authors, birdwatching enthusiasts, and Audubon supporters were women. Florence also was severely underrepresented in Who’s Who in America, where she was listed simply as the “brother of C. Hart Merriam” (then the Chief Naturalist at the U.S. Biological Survey) and as being “interested in ornithology”. Interested though she was, a proper citation would include the fact that her first book was the first modern field guide of its kind, that she authored over 100 publications, and helped lead American ornithology away from collection towards the modern observational study.

 

 

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Pioneering herpetologist - Doris Mable Cochran

By Logan McDonald

Doris Mable Cochran was an American herpetologist born in 1898.  Before she formally began her collegiate education she was already working at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  She published over 90 taxonomic publications and devoted over 20 years of studies in the West Indies. Cochran established herself in the herpetology community and was well respected by those in her field for her knowledge and experience.  For example, she was the 2^nd elected distinguished fellow of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and served as its secretary. 

Despite her contributions to the field, she experienced injustice within the Smithsonian.  This was focused around her title and pay grade- which did not reflect her level of experience.  Her supervisor, Waldo Schmitt advocated on behalf of Cochran.  Yet, individuals such as Remington Kellogg within the Smithsonian, were adamant in opposing her efforts for recognition.  Cochran retired before being properly acknowledged as a full Curator and died shortly thereafter.  Despite her lack of recognition from the Smithsonian, Cochran was acknowledged by her peers with several neo-tropical frog species named after her.

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