2012 Program Schedule of Events

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The Native Plant Society

of Northeastern Ohio

Conservation Guidelines for Field Trip Participants

Before a field trip we think it is a good idea to remind ourselves about some of the specific conservation practices guiding us during our walks. Please take a minute to familiarize yourself with the Conservation Guidelines below.

We keep to an absolute minimum any disturbance of the areas we visit. 

Chief Seattle: Take only memories; leave only footprints.   

We do not remove any plants, unless of course we are removing invasives or they are being removed for educational or scientific purposes by someone qualified in botany.

We are careful not to trample plants or tread in areas that are particularly sensitive.

When photographing a plant, we do not disturb it or the plants nearby.

We are cautious about the disclosure of the location of a site if it is the home of a rare species, or it is private land, or public land with restricted access.

Before going into the field on a trip, we wash off our footwear, since leaves, mulch, compost or soil on our shoes can carry unwanted seeds from invasive plants and earthworms or their cocoons into the area we are visiting.

The Native Plant Society

of Northeastern Ohio

Guidelines for Field Trip Leaders

Inform participants of our Conservation Guidelines for Field Trip Participants and take responsibility for making sure those guidelines are observed.

Be prepared to discuss the purpose of the outing and, to the extent practicable, helpful background material about the area and plants to be seen.

Obtain permission, preferably written, to conduct a walk on private lands (including land trusts and not-for-profit organizations).

Know the regulations for the area you are visiting. For example, many land management agencies prohibit pets in natural areas, even on leashes. Be aware of such regulations and notify participants, preferably in advance.

In planning a walk, try to make sure at least one person in the group is familiar with the area and knows the trails, sites of ecological sensitivity, and potential hazards.

Make sure the participants know before the walk begins, and preferably when advertised, whether the walk involves hazardous terrain or wet conditions. 

When walks are held in ecologically sensitive sites, such as bogs or dunes, consider limiting the number of participants. Also consider encouraging the use of binoculars to view plants of interest in sensitive areas.

Encourage the use of good field guides and hand lenses.

Report any significant plant discovery to the appropriate person or agency.

Be a good scout; be prepared.

These Guidelines are adapted from the “Guidelines for Walks” of the North Carolina Native Plant Society:
http://www.ncwildflower.org/guidelines.htm.

Summaries of past Activities

Mentor Marsh – August 13, 2011

After a hot summer, it was nice to have a beautiful summer day for a hike at Mentor Marsh, the 673 acre State Nature Preserve near Lake Erie. Natalie Gertz-Young, a part-time naturalist for Cleveland Museum of Natural History who manages the marsh, led the trip. Beginning at the nature center, we looked at the various exhibits and maps of the marsh and its location in the abandoned river channel of the Grand River. We then headed outside to see the rain garden that was installed last year with funding from one of the Native Plant Society grants awarded each year at the annual meeting. Plants included dense blazing star, cup plant, joe-pye weed, beard tongue, cardinal flower and purple coneflower. We then relocated across the marsh to the Zimmerman Trail, located on the forested ridge along the north side. Mentor is experiencing an explosion of the deer population with numbers estimated at 30 per square mile resulting in very little understory. Possible culling methods are being discussed. Two stops along the trail included a man-made vernal pool that was teaming with plant and animal life and a deer exclosure that represented the diversity of plant life that would be growing if the deer population was less. Our final stop was to the boardwalk constructed with fire-resistant wood after the previous board walk was burned in one of the marsh fires. Management of the invasive reed grass, Phragmites australis, along the boardwalk allowed for a great diversity of flowering herbs including two members of the parsley family, water parsnip and bulb-bearing water hemlock, blue vervain, swamp milkweed, umbrella sedge and various smartweeds. We enjoyed watching a great diversity of insect life visiting the flowers before calling it a day.as a beautiful

Coneflower, Eastern Purple Echinacea purpurea	Blazing Star, Dense Liatris spicata	Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis	Cup-plant Silphium perfoliatum
Milkweed, Swamp Asclepias incarnate			Photographs - Ami Horowitz

Big Creek Park, Geauga County  – May 10, 2011

After-Work Wildflower Walk  -

It was a beautiful evening for a hike with the weather was in the low 70’s. This after-work wildflower walk was one in a series of Tuesday walks offered by the Native Plant Society during April & May in different locations around northeast Ohio. This one was co-sponsored with GPD. Twenty eight people hiked the Wildflower and part of the Hemlock trail at Big Creek Park enjoying the great diversity of spring flowers. With the cooler April temperatures many of the early wildflowers were still in bloom while the later species were just starting to bloom, resulting in a species count of 40 kinds of flowers. Medicinal and food uses along with name origins and interesting insect pollination strategies were shared. The group was a great mix of novice and expert flower enthusiasts who shared their own stories along the way.e sun finally came out

Holden Arboretum, Lake County – April 23, 2011

The sun finally came out after a week of rain as 19 people met with the intention of exploring Stebbins Gulch.  Jim Bissel, Curator of Botany with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, led this joint trip with the Museum's North East Ohio Naturalists, NEON for short. Tom Yates and Nate Beccue from the Arboretum joined us.  With the heavy rain the night before, the group decided that the gulch might be a little too deep to traverse so decided to explore some of the other natural area of Holden Arboretum.  Following Foster Creek through a mature woodland brought us to a vernal pool where Jim looked for moss that harbors a certain species of beetle.  The majority of time was spent traversing the stream and enjoying the diversity of wildflowers that had finally emerged after the cold spring.  Species seen included various woodland sedges, squirrel corn, trout lily, white and red trillium, spring beauty, cut-leaved and tow-leaved toothwort, wild ginger, purple cress, dwarf ginseng, sharp-lobed hepatica and golden saxifrage.  Jim pointed out the difference between the more northern giant blue cohosh, Caulophyllum giganteum, which has longer stiles on the pistil than the more southern C. thalictyroides.  The group followed Foster Creek until it met up with Pierson's Creek then made their way back up the valley.

 

Cohosh, Blue  - Caulophyllum thalictroides	Spring Beauty - Claytonia virginica	Toothwort, Cutleaf - Dentaria laciniata	Trillium, Red - Trillium erectum
Trillium, Large-flowered  - Trillium grandiflorum	Trillium, Large-flowered - Trillium grandiflorum - old flower		Photographs - Ami Horowitz

Klyn Nursery Tour – October 16, 2010
Doug Yates, NPS board member and Certified Master Arborist who has worked for Klyn Nursery for 4 years, gave the group of 17 a behind the scenes tour of the wholesale nursery. Klyn Nursery, which has been in existence since 1921, has 500 acres, 50 of which are in containers. With 30 employees they sell to landscapers, garden centers, and park districts. They propagate nearly 200 species of native ferns, grasses, wildflowers, shrubs and trees along with a large collection of native cultivars. Water for the plants is from a pond and rain water with much of the nursery set up with a drip irrigation system to minimize excess water usage. A special mix of soil which uses composted municipal waste from Mentor mixed with pine bark, hardwood chips, silica gravel and peat is their growing medium. Doug showed us many of the specific areas where plants are grown including the wetland and pond edge species and the shade houses.

	Photographs - Tracey Knierim
	Shooting Star Photography

Thompson Ledges, Geauga County – April 17, 2010

This joint program with Geauga Park District was led by Native Plant Society president Judy Barnhart. A group of about 35 people explored the upper part of the Sharon Conglomerate sandstone ledges where a chestnut oak community dominates. Early low blueberry was in bloom along with the early blooming trailing arbutus, which was our trip goal to see. We almost missed its bloom period due the exceedingly warm 80 degree temperatures in early April. Another plant along the upper ledges was the rock cap or polypody fern which hangs right off the rock ledges. After skirting the upper ledge area we made our way down through an opening in the sandstone. Following along the base of the ledges an entirely different plant community exists. Hemlock and yellow birch dominate along with many of our spring wildflowers including sweet white violet, trilliums and mayapple. Features of the rock included bands of quarts pebbles, honeycomb weathering patterns, crossbedding, and large cracks or fissures in the rock. Many of the fissures cause large blocks to shift away from the main face revealing narrow channels to traverse. The non porous shale underlying the sandstone caused seeps and springs to arise at the base of the sandstone. A large butternut tree with numerous chewed nuts at the base culminated our trip of the ledges to the south. The group then proceeded to the more remote section north of Thompson Road. The highlight was a beautiful, large hobblebush in full bloom at the base of the ledges. A small stream cascading over the ledges created a waterfall and a small wooden bridge was constructed below. Part of this area was previously owned by the boy scouts. Some of the kids explored the smaller openings in the rocks trying to determine if the legend of a bear living there could be substantiated.

Arbutus, trailing, Epigaea repens	Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens	Rock-cap fern, Polypodium virginianum	Solomons seal, great, Polygonatum canaliculatum
Photographs - Ami Horowitz

 

 

Windsor Woods, Trumbull County – May 8, 2010

Jim Bissell, Curator of Botany with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, led this joint trip with the Museum’s North East Ohio Naturalists group, NEON for short. This nearly 1000 acre parcel owned by the Sampco Company is dominated by wetland habitat. The day was cool and windy with occasional light rain. After making our way about ½ mile back through old farm fields and scrub meadows we entered the wooded portion of the property. Situated in the flood plain of the Grand River, this section of the river has not entrenched itself in a stable channel and meanders between different channels periodically. In addition to these old channel ponds, the wet woods contained sphagnum moss hummocks interspersed with hollow depressions from wind thrown trees.  The woods contained swamp white oak, yellow birch and high bush blueberry, as well as a nice diversity of spring wildflowers. Being a typical Jim Bissell hike, we plunged right through the swamp forest and wetlands, those without knee high boots jumping from sphagnum hummocks to keep their feet dry.  Jim was hoping to document the presence of the West Virginia White butterfly whose numbers have been declining due to the spread of the invasive garlic mustard which it confuses with native mustards that it lays its eggs on. One butterfly was discovered hiding from the rain in a sphagnum hummock. All made it out relatively dry.

Ginseng, dwarf, Panax trifolius		Photographs - Ami Horowitz

Fern Workshop – July 10, 2010

 

This joint program with Geauga Park District was led by Native Plant Society president Judy Barnhart. The program began with an overview of the fern life cycle, parts of the fern, and the varieties of sori patterns found in ferns. Sori are groupings of capsule-like sporangia that contain the reproductive spores. Sori patterns come in comma, shield, linear, and cup shapes, to name a few, and help determine fern identification. Numerous samples were available for reference. The group practiced keying out a couple ferns using the Fern Finder booklet then headed down the trail to see what was out. Several common species were seen along the upland trails before heading down to a stream valley and following a nearly dry creek bed where the moist soil is ideal for fern growth. In total, 13 different species were encountered growing native with an additional 10 northeast Ohio ferns available as samples.

Fern Workshop, Swine Creek Park with Judy Barnhart	Fern Workshop, NPS, Swine Creek Park	Sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis	Woodfern, spinulose - Shield fern, Dryopteris carthusiana
Glade fern silvery - Spleenwort, silvery, Deparia acrostichoides	Photographs - Ami Horowitz

Waltons Beach, Ashtabula – August 14, 2010 Rick Gardner, state botanist with ODNR Division of Wildlife, led this trip to one of the best beach dune communities in the state.  This public beach owned by the city of Ashtabula, though relatively small in size, has a great diversity of species typical of a beach community which would be found growing along the coast. Twelve state listed plants are found here.  Though it was a very warm and humid day, a cool lake breeze made it fairly comfortable. Grass species seen included sand dropseed, purple sand grass, and beach grass which helps stabilize the dunes. We had to watch out for sand bur which has a prickly seed pod and hurt if you stepped on it. Other beach species were seaside spurge, a mustard species called sea rocket, sand bar willow, trailing wild bean, and silverweed. The most showy was the state threatened beach pea which was in full bloom. To top off the trip, an osprey was seen soaring over the lake.

 

Walnut Beach, Ashtabula, with Rick Gardner	Spurge, seaside, Euphorbia polygonifolia	Pea, beach, Lathyrus japonicus	Bean, trailing wild, Strophostyles helvola
Pea, everlasting - perennial, Lathyrus latifolius, Alien	Lettuce, wild, Lactuca canadensis	Walnut Beach, Ashtabula	Photographs - Ami Horowitz

Butterflies: Love Them and Need Them – August 15, 2010

Judy Semroc, naturalist with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Natural Areas department ,  gave a talk at Big Creek Park in Chardon on the beauty and value of butterflies and moths. She started off the program with basic flower biology and how butterflies are important for the pollination of many plant species and some of the unique pollination strategies that have evolved. She covered the life cycle of butterflies including how plants are critical to butterflies for egg laying as a butterfly caterpillar will only eat certain species of plants. (Sounds like some kids I know!)The second hour of the program was outside looking for butterfly and moth species in the Geauga Park District’s butterfly garden, along the pond edge, and in a milkweed meadow. In total about 7 different species of moths and butterflies were spotted feeding and egg laying, including numerous monarch eggs, caterpillars and adults getting ready for their overwintering trip to Mexico.

Butterfly worshop with Judy Semroc	Swallowtail, eastern tiger, Papilio glaucus on New york Ironweed	Monarch butterfly caterpillar, Danaus plexippus	Goldenrod, early, Solidago juncea

Photographs - Ami Horowitz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Visitors are welcome to all events.

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