danbadlands 的最愛

Asplenium tutwilerae seen in situ at type locality. Ca 200 plants total, most small and depauperate due to drought stress. Plants growing on acidic conglomerate bedrock outcrops. Fertile allopolyploid (tetraploid) of Asplenium Xebenoides. Locality intentionally obscured.

comparison between Xyris iridifolia (left) and Xyris difformis (right).
first 2 photos show the difference between the shape of the spikes, and the broad flattened scape of X. iridifolia versus the thinly winged scape of X. difformis, highlighted by the sunlight in pic 1.
3rd photo compares habit — iridifolia taller, with longer and much broader leaves; difformis shorter, with narrower leaves.
4th pic shows seed difference — elongate and dark grey in iridifolia, rounded and pale yellow in difformis.
both found together in bottomland forest, as typical; creek in background

Significantly outside previously reported range. Multiple plants including a couple of small trees in two separate groups. Found along lower slopes of wooded valley near creek. In association with mountain-laurel, Piedmont azalea, common sweetleaf, sourwood, chalkbark maple, and common witch-hazel.

These look red in the spring and I love it 💕

Also - look at the abundance of invasive species. All the hits: Chinese wisteria, kudzu, mimosa tree, Chinese umbrella tree saplings. I’m tryin to get that stuff out but it is tenacious

I didn't have enough light (or patience) to attempt a photo of the leaf hairs that could be zoomed in to see how the hairs branch, but I attempted it with a digiloupe. (For once my uncooperative phone camera worked.) Velvety yellowish hairs under the leaf. Leaves shaped like water oak or laurel oak but no red oak group pointy tip. Flaky bark like a white oak. This one appeared to be embracing the pine.

I've had a pin in my Google Maps elsewhere in this tract for a couple years now. There's an herbarium record I want to follow up on. (Nothing rare; I want to compare it to the weird Monotropa uniflora I found elsewhere in Jasper County.) But I was never going this way on Highway 11 before. When an iNat observation of a lifer oak popped up in the same tract AND there was traffic on 75 encouraging me to take the alternate route to Piedmont NWR (20 to 11), I decided to finally check out this spot on my way to Piedmont.

This is a powerline ROW on a tract that three or four different maps show as Oconee National Forest, but for some reason there are private property signs along one edge (Feldspar Rd) which I only saw because I drove down to see if there was an easier place to park. (There is a place to park on Highway 11, but I was hoping to not leave my car in such a visible spot.) (I now have a dashboard sign that says NOT BROKEN DOWN. LOOKING AT FLOWERS.)

After looking at all my maps (and seeing several iNat records from different people in the tract), I concluded that here at least was Oconee NF or at least, I was very unlikely to get into trouble based on all of these maps supporting that reasonable belief. Still, I didn't go far into the ROW. This is a longwinded way of saying that there may have been more Oglethorpe oaks present, but between my anxiety about an imagined unpleasant encounter and all the flies aiming for my eyes, I didn't go very far. I also wanted to make it to Piedmont NWR.

I really want to explore this spot more. If there is an uncommon oak here (plus some cool bugs), what others treasures are here?

I'd like to go back, but not alone, and maybe after contacting the Forest Service and/or adjacent property owner (and probably some of the iNatters who have been here, too) to ease my paranoid lawyer-y anxiety about accidental trespassing.

Largest tree might have been planted long ago, persisting at the site of an old farm house that has mostly disappeared. Whether the largest tree was planted, multiple smaller trees, including some on the other side of the road, were certainly not, and have escaped into the borders of the nearby woods.

Iridaceae: Iris germanica L.

G rhiz – Origine ignota – archeofita

288 m, bordo strada

288 m, bordo strada al margine di una recinzione (sfuggita alla coltivazione)

Cfr. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148862805 (trovata pochi metri più in basso)