another brief hiatus
So, we're in our last week of the term so I'm going to be a responisble student and focus on my collection and my tests this week. When I get home, I'll finish telling you about all the great stuff we learned and did. Hint: Amber, Stephanie and I
walked across Put-In-Bay
and I have photographic proof! Maybe if you come here next summer, you too can learn the secret...
Long time
I'm back! Sorry about the delay. Taking exams, practicals and fighting colds is rough work. (Not to mention swimming, volleyball, and rowing.)
So, where did I leave off? Oh! Our next stop was Kelly's Island! Now, I'd already been there thanks to my
Local Flora for Teacher's class. But why not have an excuse to go back? I LOVE the terrain there! And, of course the plant community there is really different.
We were stopping in several places. First that I'll talk about is the
East Quarry. The
East Quarry is a very cool, almost alien looking, place. If you ever go to Kelly's, I highly recommend checking it out in person. It's a great place to hike and check out some very cool plants (of course) but do it in the morning. That place gets HOT fast. They stopped mining limestone there (they still work the West Quarry) quite awhile ago obviously. (Trivia: Kelly's Island bedrock is
Limestone whereas the Bass Islands are
Dolomite.)
The habitiat down there is very rocky and, unless you're right by the lake, quite dry. We'd just gone through quite a bit of rain so the water levels were up from the last time I was there. When you look at the ground, you see what one would think is scrub grass but it's actually a crazy amount of
rushes and
sedges. It was a perfect place to go after our prior lecture on those plant types. The
habitat is so extreme there that a lot of the plants in general were stunted. That's a good thing when you're looking for a plant that will fit on one sheet of paper. My favourite sedge we got there was
Eleocharis ovata (Spike-Rush)because they were so cute at only 2-3 inches tall!
From there, we headed over to the North Quarry to check out some other stuff. It was much different in that there wasn't as much
standing water and the shrubs and sedges and rushes were more proliferate there. In some places it's like walking through a
jungle of
Soft-Stemmed Bulrushes (
Shoenoplectus taberaemontani) and
Narrow-Leaf Cattail (
Typha angustifolia, the invasive cattail). We found some great plants including the
Red Willow, or Silky Dogwood, (
Cornus amumum)and, everyone's favourtie,
Marsh Mallow (
Hibiscus moscheutos var. paulustris). I didn't grab a specimin of that but I'm regretting that now. I hope to come across one of those on Friday.
After lunch, we headed to
North Pond, aka Carp Pond. This is a wetland that is often open to the lake which lets in the carp so they can swim around your feet I guess. The past two years, however, it's been closed off by a sand bar. In the years it's open, I have heard that it's a lovey marsh with lots of lilies and other such plants. Lately, it's becoming quite overtaken by
Phragmites australis, or Reed Grass.
We trudged down the beach (a nice sandy one that we all eyeballed jealously as it was hot) and came to the
tannin-stained ditch that lead to the pond. I'm telling you, it felt like we were walking down a
stream in the Amazon. You couldn't see you feet, there were these bizarre snails floating all over the place and randomly attaching to you, we had to walk around all these fallen trees. It was like we were in a movie. Once we got back to where the actual "pond" is we discovered
Broad-Leaf Arrowhead (
Saggitaria latifolia). Apparantely ducks really like the tubers that grow from the roots so some call it Duck Potato. We also encountered
Rice Cut-Grass (
Leersia oryzoides)and my legs are still showing marks from that. We also found the
River Bulrush (
Scheonoplectus fluviatilis) which is taller than I am.
After a few imagined panics over leeches and snakes, we headed back only to find the
Star Duckweed or
Lemna trisulca and an
Aquatic Liverwort or
Ricca fluitans.
To say the least, we were all
very tired on the way back. I would have napped too but I was too busy taking pictures. ;)
OH! I almost forgot! We made a side trip to the
Butterfly House on Kellys Island because we really needed some air conditioning and it was also a good chance to talk about pollentation adaptations. I got to stop at the one here on South Bass Island when I was taking
EEOB 694 just a few weeks ago.
So, talk about a busy day! We were right tired when we got back. And it didn't stop there last week. Just wait till I tell you about our Field Trip/Lab Practical exam to
East Harbor. Oh, people, the beach. I wish I'd thought to take a picture but I was too obsessed with the water. Perhaps I can nab another pic from Dr. Moore. And then I can tell you about
Resthaven and the
Blue Hole at the
Castalia Fish Hatchery. Anyway, that's a whole 'nother entry. Later!
I haven't forgotten
I've just been busy because this week was our midterm practical and exam. Here's a preview of things that have been happening. I'll give y'all the dirt this weekend. :)
