Aquatic and Wetland Flora

Nice Najas!

Hello hello! It's time once again to tune into OSU Nature Gal theater! This time, I'll be here at Gibraltar Island and Stone Lab for a whole month (or so). My class of choice this time os EEOB 611, Higher Aquatic Plants, aka Aquatic and Wetland Flora. My teacher this time around is Dr. David Moore of the Department of Biology, Utica College of Syracuse University. (All the pictures I linked to in this entry are thanks to him, by the way, since I forgot to take my camera with us on the first day.)

So, now that the introductions are out of the way, let's get down to business!

What is different this time than the last two times? Well, this time, I was kindly allowed to leave most of my belongings here because I knew I'd be back in 4 days. That was a relief and a half. That allowed me to bring up a few more items of clothing and shoes and such because I knew that in this class, we'd be getting soaked on a regular basis. Another thing that is different is that I brought my car to the island. You can bring your auto over BUT you can't take it back the same day and there's not much parking over here. I left my car over at the free lots on the mainland the last two trips. Of course, I'll be here for 4 1/2 weeks as compared to one.

Day one (Thursday) I got here and immediately went over to Put-In-Bay to get some lunch (mmmm....fried bologna sandwich and chips!) and do some shopping. I had to get some silly souveniers for Mom, ya know. I even went and got a psychic reading done for fun! I love it when they tell you good stuff. :D

I came back to the island for the information session (even though I'd already been told I didn't have to come) and met my roommate and classmates. It was a small group overall. The only term courses going on were mine and Limnology and two people were taking both. There's a nice intamate group of 9 students this time. It won't be long till I know everyone's name. I like that. We immediately clumped at dinner and it's been that way since (all three days so far).

Our evening intro session with Dr. Moore was simple and straight to the point. Dr. Moore has a silly streak that comes out in the forms of puns (hence the title) and boy can he move. He's always on the move! I love it when I get passionate teachers who love what they teach. It makes all the difference in the world.

Fast forward to Friday, our first full class day (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for this class) and we went over terminology (like Lacustrine and Palustrine and what he wanted us to have in our collections. He showed us some great books that had me drooling and wishing they were still in print. The ones that are still in print will be mine! I learned that Lake Baikal in Russia is the deepest lake in the world holding as much water as all the Great Lakes combined. We also learned the various classification systems used from Linnaeus's time till now.

After lunch, the plant collecting fun began. We went to the docks and learned how to use the grappling hook to bring things in. We began to learn what Najas and Potomogetons and Vallisneria looked like. We learned what the difference between free floating plants, rooted submerged, and rooted emerged plants. We checked out the two different Elodea that live in the bay. We noticed that very small zebra mussels were attached to the plants here and there and Dr. Moore told us that the mussels usually start out by settling on the plants and then move to the lake bed.

We then climbed into the rowboats (I rowed first, it's great excercise!) and headed out into the bay to collect more plants. We got lots of Water Celery (Vallisneria americana) and Coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum). There were other's but the coolest one was finding Long-leaf Pondweed which apparently hasn't been seen in the bay since 1941. I'd like to proudly claim that MY boat found that! Woohoo!

We went from there to Terwilliger's Pond. We had to pull ourselves under the bridge that leads to it because the water was too high for us to sit up in the boat and row. (To give you a reference on how things change over the years up here, here's a picture of Terwilliger's Pond in October 2001 and now. Here's a link to a site about seiche that explains the phenomena.) There was so much algea and water plants that sometimes the oar would collect a pile of green stuff and I coudln't lift it out of the water. Not only did we have the coontail and the water celery but we also had a mass amount of White Water Lilies (Nymphea odorata var. tuberosa) and two types of duckweed, Lemna minor with all green leaves and two roots and Spirodella polyrhiza with red undersides on the leaves and many roots. We also found Blue Flag of the Iris family and some Button Bush.

We returned from a hot afternoon on the lake to a great dinner of BBQ chicken and corn on the cob (they feed us VERY well) and I went over with a prior class mate from Local Flora to our teacher's house (Lisa Brohl, not Dr. Moore) to visit and head out to Put-In-Bay for some socializing. Note: if you're relying on the water taxi to take you back to the island, make sure you leave on time. That way you're not running and thinking of how far the swim is.

Today has been a lovely day of sleeping in, snarling at the weather (it's too windy to fish in the row boats today), and typing on my blogs. Tonight, my fellow classmates and I are heading over to Put-In-Bay to enjoy the Christmas in July festivities. This time, my camera is coming with me!

posted by OSU Nature Gal @ 8:25 AM