It was a fine day, if hot and humid, to get out and hike the trails at Frenchtown Conservation Area (FCA). The FCA is Baton Rouge's largest conservation property, coming in at 496 acres with Sandy Creek just behind at 386 acres and Waddill Outdoor Education Center next at 237 acres. Owned and operated by BREC Conservation Department, this property is full of surprises. Summer months do not typically boast a wide variety of woodland flowers but along edges and openings and into open woodlands, savannahs and prairies, the procession of blossoms that began in the spring continues. Open swamps are also a great place to look for summer blooms.
On drive in down Frenchtown Road, for example, I pointed out a patch of Bear's Foot or Hairy Leafcup (
Smallanthus uvedalius) that I had only discovered a few days before while visiting to do trail work for BREC. It was in full bloom. Unfortunately, I couldn't grab a photo from my position in the backseat so I offer you this one down for you from the internet.
I like S. uvedalius. It's leaves remind me of Oakleaf Hydrangea. The fat, round rays stand in great contrast to the foliage. When I see it I think of its mesophytic relative Polymnia canadensis and the rich deciduous forest in which the leafcups tend to grow.
Upon arrival, we took a nice group shot. We visited two separate, unique botanical areas. One follows an escarpment from loess terrace into backwater sloughs of the Comite River. There, steep slopes between 10-20 ft can be found where a number of plants uncommon to our area can be found. Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum virginianum), Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa), Woodvamp (Decumaria barbara) were some of the main targets. The area is also quite rich in fern species. On our way out to this point, one of our members stumbled upon a large Xystodesmid Millipede, a diverse family of colorful millipedes many of which excrete hydrogen cyanide compound reminiscent of wedding cake.
Here I'm passing it around to let everyone get a good wiff. Cyanide compounds are also found in many plants in the Rosaceae family, including plums, apricots, apples, cherries and almonds. The crushed leaves of our native Cherry Laurel and Black Cherry give that distinct aroma as well. It is actually an evolutionary adaptation meant to deter insects, much as the millipede intends it to be used.
With a thick canopy cover most of the plants I wanted to show people were hard to find, but I think people enjoyed learning about an area where such topography can be found. I found another S. uvedalia specimen, another great addition to list in this area. There are numerous ridges in the area that still need to be combed through for cool plants. Getting out in March and April next year will be important to future botanical surveys. On our way out to next area we found several Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria) plants and some blooming Anglepod (Matelea gonocarpos).
Next we visited the second botanical area: the azalea patch.
In the above picture I am taking some cuttings of Rhododendron canescens. There are likely more patches in East Baton Rouge, but I have not seen any others on public land. We took several cuttings and a slough filled with Golden Club (Orontium aquaticum), a parish record that has not been been recorded in the annals of science. Again, they're not in bloom right now, so I offer this picture from the internet instead.
Hard to believe that in all the years of botanical exploration in this area, this plant was never documented. I will be returning when they are flowering to gather specimens to be entered into the LSU Herbarium.
On our way out, we found an interesting plant in a ditch. I had not seen this one in Baton Rouge yet: Coastal Rose-gentian (Sabatia calycina). I'd never seen this plant period and only seen one kind of Sabatia down on coasts behind dunes and in marshes. There are however a few inland species. These specimes were not in optimal habitat and appeared to be hanging by a thread. I'd love to get seed and see if we could get a health population going somewhere.
Plant List from the Frenchtown hike:
Gulf Sebastian's Bush (Ditrysinia fruticosa)
Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa)
Virginia Snake Root (Aristolochia serpentaria)
Bear's Foot (Smallanthus uvedalia)
American Strawberry Bush (Euonymous americana)
Wild Comfrey (Cynoglossum virginiana)
Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium)
Silverbell (Halesia diptera)
Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens)
Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
...more to be added as I remember them. Send an email to canpsbr at gmail for others you remember seeing.
After lunch at McAlister's Deli, we headed over to Burden to clean up the cuttings. We had a great turn out: Kitty Bull, Janella Rachal, Brenda
Baumgardner, Ken Basson, Mary Ann Atkinson, James Henson, J Edgar Hough,
WIll McManus, Leif Remo, Helen Peebles, Brian Early, Dick Ehlricher. Several new faces, which was great to see. The Rhododendrons were only a small portion of the workday, however. We had a number of plants that were donated that needed to be separated and repotted. Just in the nick of time, too! Summer heat and overgrown root systems do not go well together and many plants desperately need room grown larger and healthier.
We finished with quite a shipment of plants. Some of the plants we divided:
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Redbud (Cercis candensis)
Wooly Huckleberry (Gaylussacia mosieri)
Alabama Azalea (Rhododendron alabamensis)
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
Florida Anise (Illicium floridanum)
American Strawberry Bush (Euonymous americanum)
Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)
Coralbean (Erythrina herbacea)
Winter Huckleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)
Foxglove Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
As you can see, this makes us very happy.
Our plants are currently protected under shade cloths and overhead irrigation. They still need to be monitored however and everyone in the propagation team is encouraged to swing by Burden to check on them.
Afterwards, we went to the milkweed patch I mentioned in our
previous propagation post. CANPS member Brian Early donated some Aquatic Milkweed he had propagated himself from wild plants around the state. We planted some 15 seedlings into the patch. Those transplanted from Cleggs stock into the same area have been thriving so it seemed that this would be a good place to improve genetics. Hopefully this patch will thrive and produce a genetically healthy patch capable of re-seeding.
All in all, a great day. Can't wait for July. Summer party pot luck and movie screening.
