Botanizing on Long Island

In my neighbor's yard.

Red Buckeye

Aesculus pavia is a small tree or shrub, native to the Southeastern U.S. It is planted around buildings at Fanning Springs Park in Florida.

 

So I was amazed to see this beautiful specimen, in full flower in an open field at Thatch Meadow Farm, St. James, Long Island.

 

 

Stretchberry, aka Smilax

If you find Smilax (catbriar) berries this summer, take a moment to have some fun with them. Inside the berry are 1 to 3 seeds, each encased in an elastic, transparent "seed sac" which you can easily stretch with your fingers!!

Little is written about this botanical oddity, and no photos are available on the web (yet), but I found a couple of relevant articles:

See this one from the 1888 Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. and a shorter article here.

 ALSO--

I had read that Smilax rhizomes were used by the native Americans as a source of carbohydrates. Apparently this was first recorded by early American botanist, Wm. Bartram. Here is a wonderful project that recreate Bartram's experience, with humor! 

Ghetto Palms of Detroit

Tree of Heaven grows here. In fact, I think the largest specimen in the U.S. may be found in St. James.

But these folks in Detroit, have turned this invasive species into an art project!

Plant growing in a toilet drain

I'm saving this link for future reference. In case it happens to me!

Invasive Plant Resources

Here's a 6 page handout from Cornell Cooperative Extension, listing all the species on the "Do not sell" and "Manage" lists in Suffolk and Nassau County: FAQ-on-Invasives-Brochure

Here's a 1 page list of the invasive plants found at the Frank Melville Park. Download Invasives

The Life of a Plant- circa 1930s?

Herbaria

New York State has 28 herbaria and some of these, like NYBG and BBG, are world class.

Long Island has only 2 of these: Planting Fields and Southampton College (the fate of which is unknown.)

Eight of the herbaria belong to colleges or universities within the SUNY system: Binghamton, Geneseo, Fredonia, etc. Stony Brook's herbarium should belong to this consortium.

Endoptychum agaricoides

It has no common name.

Found this morning, abundant, ringing the mound of aged mulberry wood chips in our front lawn. It smelled good, but when I went to cut it open, it was hard, and filled with black spores.

It took my only 5 minutes to find it in "Millers Mushrooms" . It's one of the secotioid fungi, which seem to be a polyphyletic group related to our edible grocery store mushrooms.

This recent taxonomic treatment seems to be a major reclassification of this and similar species.

Phylogeny and taxonomy of Macrolepiota (Agaricaceae) -- Vellinga et al. 95 (3): 442 -- Mycologia.

Henry David Thoreau

August 20, 1851

How copious and precise the botanical language to describe the leaves, as well as the other parts of a plant! Botany is worth studying if only for the precision of its terms, - to learn the value of words and of system. It is wonderful how much pains has been taken to describe a flower’s leaf, compared for instance with the care that is taken in describing a psychological fact. Suppose as much ingenuity (perhaps it would be needless) in making a language to express the sentiments! We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf in the field, or at least to distinguish it from each other, but not to describe a human character. With equally wonderful indistinctness and confusion we describe men. The precision and copiousness of botanical language applied to the description of moral qualities!

How copious and precise the botanical language to describe the leaves, as well as the other parts of a plant! Botany is worth studying if only for the precision of its terms, - to learn the value of words and of system. It is wonderful how much pains has been taken to describe a flower’s leaf, compared for instance with the care that is taken in describing a psychological fact. Suppose as much ingenuity (perhaps it would be needless) in making a language to express the sentiments! We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf in the field, or at least to distinguish it from each other, but not to describe a human character. With equally wonderful indistinctness and confusion we describe men. The precision and copiousness of botanical language applied to the description of moral qualities!