Happy Halloween!

The Ivy-Tailed Deer, an English species known for its taste in French wine, was caught here dining on native wildflowers. Deer traditionally dress as invasive pest plants on Halloween, just to scare the dogwoods (background).

A Strange Fox at Greenway Meadows

A couple days ago, Christy and Brian Nann sent me these photos of an animal they had seen at Greenway Meadows. In the first photo, it almost looks like a young deer, but the second photo suggested to us a strange version of a coyote.

I sent the photos to the Mercer County Wildlife Center for identification. Diane Nickerson emailed back that "it appears to be a red fox with a severe case of sarcoptic mange", and that the Center could treat it if it were trapped. Unfortunately, if the photos were taken back in August, there's little chance the fox has survived this long.

Odd Invasives Showing Up

During frequent visits to local nature preserves, I am periodically surprised to see a new plant on the scene. This has been happening more frequently lately, for some reason, and the new plants tend to be exotic species that may or may not prove to be invasive.

The first photo, taken in August at Greenway Meadows in a wooded area, is cutleaf blackberry (Rubus laciniatus).

The second, which I found growing both at the D&R canal and at Mountain Lakes, is water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes).

One day, I was in the Rogers Refuge parking lot and happened to look down at the plants growing along its edge, and was surprised to find a vine with five leaflets (third photo) It is most likely chocolate vine (Akebia quinata).

Thanks to Rachel Mackow for help with identifying these species. Rachel works for Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, and is very involved with organizing the Central Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team.

As with all problems, it's far easier to reduce the negative ecological impact of invasive species by intervening when they first show up, rather than waiting until they have spread so much as to be uncontrollable. The Strike Team's mission is to detect invasions early, and respond as quickly as possible. Up to now, New Jersey has not had that capability.

Name That Tree

Warning. This is a trick question. That lovely shade of gold in the distance looks like a tree. But a closer look reveals leaves of three. And why does it look like the trunk continues up past the gold, to a part of the tree that's lost all its leaves?

Turns out this bright contribution to fall's glory is a poison ivy "tree"--a vine that has climbed halfway up a tree, then sent out branches to flower and set seed on. One thing to take note of in the forest is that vines never bloom when they're crawling on the ground. Only upon making an ascent, up a tree trunk or up and over a shrub, do they send out flower shoots.

There's something else telling about Princeton woods in this photo. The tree canopy at the top of the photo has lost nearly all of its leaves, while the understory is still green. One distinguishing feature of many exotics is that they hold their leaves later in the fall and green up earlier in the spring. As evidenced here, the trees are mostly native, while the understory is predominantly exotic. This difference in timing may have to do with the different climate in which the exotics evolved.

Planting Session, Upcoming Talks, Wildlife Sightings

This Saturday, October 18, I'll be leading a planting session at Mountain Lakes. Come help if you can. We'll be planting some native shrubs grown from "live stakes" this past spring, some wildflowers, and a few tree seedlings lovingly cared for over the summer by FOPOS volunteer Kim Frances. Bring shovels and/or trowels, and gloves. Should be brisk but sunny. We'll meet at Mountain Lakes House, up the long paved driveway at 57 Mountain Ave.

Upcoming talks I'm aware of are by Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, speaking this Monday at 4:30pm at Princeton University on Sustainability and the Future, and a talk by Richard Louv at the Princeton High School on Nov. 6 at 7:30. Louv is best known for his very influencial and timely book, Last Child in the Woods: Combatting Nature Deficit Disorder.

Recent wildlife sightings: a flying squirrel gliding between trees in my backyard and a hatching of thousands of craneflies that have been incongrously hanging out on the JW middle school athletic field. And of course it's a good time of year to fill your memory banks with vivid fall colors, the better to hold you over through the muted visual fare of winter.

Rogers Refuge in the Fall

It was a good year for wild rice at Rogers Refuge, down next to the Stony Brook in Princeton. This broad marsh, seen from the observation deck, looks monochromatic this time of year, but actually harbors a great diversity of native wetland species.

The second photo shows the seeds maturing a few at a time, soon to fall off or be grabbed by birds.


Like corn, wild rice is an annual grass that in just a few months can grow twelve feet high from a small seed that sprouts in the mud in shallow water.

The third photo shows towering wild rice stalks, already stripped of seed. Some years are better than others for the wild rice, though 2008 was a banner year, aided by the removal of an acre or two of Phragmitis by the Partners for Fish and Wildlife in 2006.

Providing some bright color at the refuge is Virginia Creeper. Like many other vines, it only blooms and bears seeds when it climbs up a tree.

Water Watch Cleans Up Along the Canal

On September 20, twenty Princeton University students gathered at Turning Basin Park to clean up litter and remove invasive species. Megan Prier of Princeton's Water Watch organized the event. Half the crew took to the canal in canoes, in search of floating debris, while the rest of us took on a grove of Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) growing on a slope overlooking the D&R canal.

The Ailanthus, like porcelain berry, purple loosestrife, lesser celandine and other exotics, uses the canal as an avenue for spread. Water lettuce, shown in the photo, may be another one to add to that list.

The Ailanthus was competing with some ornamental cherry trees growing next to the towpath, and was also blocking the view of the bench. For many of the students, it was a first encounter with the art of canoe paddling, the citrony fragrance of native spicebush leaves, and the satisfaction of completely clearing an embankment of an invasive weed. Thanks to Water Watch and the university students for helping tend to this popular trail corridor and entryway into town.

Free Invasive Plant Identification Workshop

Below is some info on a free invasive plant identification workshop.

Central Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team Plant ID Workshop

D&R Greenway - Johnson Education Center, Princeton, NJ

Tuesday, October 14

9:30 am - 12:00 pm

D&R Greenway Plant Sale Thursday

The D&R Greenway is having an exhibit opening tomorrow that will include the first selling of native plants from the nursery they're developing. The plants have been propagated from local genotypes, meaning that these plants carry genetic material from plants that have grown in the Princeton area for millenia. Some characteristics of a native species can vary across its range. Selling local genotypes preserves these special characteristics.
Below is information on the event, and also a list of plants being sold. Most are trees, but there are a couple wildflowers, most notably boneset (see recent posts).


From http://www.drgreenway.org/:

"The Land That Feeds You, Celebrating Farms and Farmers"
- a mixed media art exhibition celebrating agriculture in the Garden State

Join us for the Opening Reception on Thursday, September 25th, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
featuring art, local foods and wines.
Featured Speakers: Charles Kuperus, Secretary, NJ Dept. of Agriculture, "Import of Agriculture to the Garden State" and Michelle Mulder, Counsel to Congressman Rush Holt, on the Congressman's New Community Supported Agriculture Bill.

Purchase the first specimens from D&R Greenway's Native Plant Nursery! This event is free, but reservations are requested. Music by Bill Flemer Riverside Bluegrass Band. Art is available for purchase, 35% of the purchase price is a tax-deductible contribution to D&R Greenway's land preservation mission.
RSVP requested: 609-924-4646

Plant List for the plant sale:

Spicebush

Arrowwood

Winterberry

Serviceberry (A. Laevis)

Persimmon

Shagbark Hickory, White Oak, Chestnut Oak, N. Red Oak (all one-year old as they are deep tap-rooters)

Black Birch

Tuliptree

Boneset

Golden Ragwort

FOPOS Intern Par Excellence

This summer, the Friends of Princeton Open Space had an intern for the first time. Sarah Chambliss, a Princeton University junior, came to us through the Princeton Internships for Civic Service program. Over a period of ten weeks, she contributed tremendously to various projects, cutting down invasive shrubs at Mountain Lakes Preserve, planting native species, creating a structure and attractive banners for a new website, mapping management units, and serving as faithful scribe during the weekly plant inventory walks in various preserves around town. Here she is shown with the many native plants she cared for in the greenhouse.

The second photo is of me, Sarah, and FOPOS president Wendy Mager, in front of Mountain Lakes House, home base for FOPOS.

A great big THANK YOU! goes to Sarah, and the PICS program that made her internship possible.

Below is Sarah's writeup about her summer's work and insights.

My FOPOS Internship

(or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Rose)

In many ways, my internship with Friends of Princeton Open Spaces was unique. There are not many summer jobs that allow you the freedom to choose your daily schedule to such a degree, but on any given day I could opt to spend my time nursing the plants in the greenhouse, working actively out in the park, or, for the rainy days and hot afternoons, working in the air-conditioned office. There are not many summer jobs that give you so much freedom to choose which project you want to work on, whether it be redesigning a website or taking inventory of all the plants in the local preserves, and run with it, but the work I did for FOPOS will certainly add some variety to my résumé. And there are not many summer jobs that leave you with a deep, seething hatred of a few certain plants. But oh, I will remember barberry. I will remember all of the invasive shrubs, vines, and grasses that I fought with my loppers, clippers, and sweat: the common privet; honeysuckle, in the form of both vines and shrubs; Japanese stiltgrass and bindweed. And I will remember multiflora rose, in it's full malevolent ferocity.

There are few ways I can think of to better understand the goal of conservation and park management, and the scale of work needed, than to see a grove of forest that have long been protected and largely undisturbed, then to be brought to another, less lucky patch of forest and be told "We need to make this one look like that other one." Seeing the great variety of plants and hearing the animal activity in a preserved forest is both peaceful and stimulating, and becomes a fitting inspiration when facing a massive, sprawling bramble of multiflora rose that is doing its best to shut out the rest of the ecosystem.

I was already interested in environmentalism before I started the internship, but I always thought of it with a more exotic connotation: save the rainforest in Brazil, protect the endangered pandas in China, help African nations develop sustainably and preserve their natural riches. Here in New Jersey, I thought, the only environmentalism left was to recycle and ride a bike instead of a car. New Jersey is hardly known for its natural riches. What is there to save? But being in the Mountain Lakes Preserve every day, seeing both the bad and the good, the incursion of invasives and the resurgence of natives (with a bit of help from park management), I was surprised to find a whole lot to save, protect and fight for, just 15 minutes from my dorm.

So, thank you, FOPOS, for what you do, helping to set aside land to be restored and protected. And thank you for letting me help out for the summer. I learned a lot on many levels, and I really enjoyed my time working here. In closing, I would just like to say that I claim no responsibility for the future stealth-cutting of exotic invasives decorating the lawns and yards around Princeton Township, or the greater Mercer County Area.

--Sarah Chambliss, PICS Intern for FOPOS, Summer '08

PDS 9th Graders Restore Habitat

For the third straight year, 9th graders from Princeton Day School helped the Friends of Princeton Open Space restore habitat as part of the school's Sept. 5 Community Day activities. This time, the 100+ students and 9 faculty took to the weed-infested woods of the township's Community Park North, and proceeded to cut and pile unprecedented amounts of invasive shrubs.

The students took to the intimidating task with impressive spirit, perseverance and teamwork. Along the way, they learned to identify some of the native and exotic plants in the forest, and gained some expertise in the safe use of loppers and garden rakes. Each of the PDS staff members led a work group, while FOPOS volunteer Kim Frances and I helped with plant ID.


With so many exotic shrubs cut down, visitors can now see farther into the forest, and native species have a better chance to grow. One unexpected bonus was that many of the participants discovered the existence of Pettoranello Gardens, home to landscaped walkways and summer concerts--a spot many longtime Princeton residents are unaware of.

Thanks to PDS and the class of 2012! And thanks to Kim Frances and Clark Lennon for helping out on short notice.

Getting Close to the Madding Crowd

The party's over. The artesian well of nectar that for weeks on end fed all who made the journey to a batch of backyard boneset is now finally running dry. As can be seen from the crowd in this photo, and the nearly 50 different species shown in the seven previous posts, the plants generated phenomenal buzz in the insect community. It was an extraordinarily diverse gathering, and peaceful. True, a few insects became meals for spiders, but the vegetarian bees, wasps, moths, flies, butterflies and bugs grazed in harmony like herds of megafauna on the great plains of Africa.

You have to admire the ambition of a flower that tries to be, and succeeds in being, all things to all bees. The plant is like a miniature town, its stems and leaves providing cover, and avenues for ladybugs to patrol like Pacmen in an old video game. Bumble bees slept under its blossoms at night, like drunks who can't quite make it home from the local saloon.

Now the deed is done, the nectar drained, the pollen carted off and stowed. Flowers fade and seeds ripen. This Fly-By-Day operation, after mesmerizing the insect world for many weeks, finally closes down, making room for other, later flowering species to step forward and garner attention. As it happens, Late-Flowering Boneset--a different species of Eupatorium scattered here and there across the Princeton landscape--is just opening for business.

Boneset Ants

This seventh post cataloging creatures attracted to flowering boneset shows a couple kinds of ants. The second one was probably part of a nearby hatching.

One insect I didn't get a photo of--the "weird one that got away"--was seen only once, and looked like a cross between an oversized mosquito and an undersized, white and black crane fly.

Add these three and we're up to 48 distinct species on seven boneset plants in one Princeton backyard.

My apologies, by the way, to any and all who actually know anything about insects and spiders, for the questionable way I bunched these bugs in rough categories. Names will be attached to photos as this botany-type blogger becomes enlightened about the bewildering variety of insects and spiders out there.

Boneset Butterflies and Moths

The sixth in a series of posts cataloging all the varied life attracted to a backyard boneset plant. The last two are probably the same, but one was bluer than the other, so both are included.

The kind of butterfly in the fourth photo was by far the most common--essentially present all day long.

These five beauties, plus one I haven't tracked down a photo of, bring the count to 45.

Boneset Spiders

Not all the life drawn to boneset is looking for nectar. Nature being what it is, it's only natural that a few predators would show up, lurking just under the blossoms, or building miniature webs. Some are better disguised than others. (It may take awhile for you to find the spider in the first photo.)

Most seem content to sit still, even if a potential prey comes nearby. Maybe they already had a meal before I happened along. Collectively, they extend the food chain at this backyard oasis to three (plant nectar -- pollinator -- spider).

Seven kinds of spiders or spider-like creatures raises the total count to 39.


















The creature in this last photo is who knows what, but doesn't appear to be an insect.

Bees On Boneset

The most numerous insects crowding the boneset flowers for weeks on end during this unusually cool August were bumble bees and honeybees. There were also lots of tinier bee-like creatures zigzagging across the plant or landing to feast at length. With those, it was very hard to tell if they were all the same kind or could be distinguished one from another in some way. Note the sacs of pollen on the legs of the honey bees and bumble bees.

These three bees raise the total count to 32.

Flies On Boneset

This is the third post documenting and roughly grouping nearly 50 species of insects and spiders that have been visiting a cluster of seven boneset plants in my backyard.

No other wildflower in my backyard, with the possible exception of the meadow rue that bloomed earlier in the season, has attracted anywhere near the variety and sheer numbers of species that this unassuming boneset has.

Again, the grouping of all these insects together is based on a guess as to what constitutes a fly. If all of these nine photos are of different species, then the species count rises to 29.

Update, August 30, 2009: Thanks to Keith Bayless, who provided latin names for many of these insects (see comment section)
First photo: Tachinidae: Trichopoda pennipes?
(Tachina Fly)

2 Calliphoridae: Lucilia? sp.

3 Muscidae: Coenosia?

5 Tachinidae

6 Dolichopodidae: Condylostylus

7 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini

8 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini

9 Calliphoridae: Pollenia?