Lakeside's Secret Gardens

Lakeside, Ohio has many attractions: the beautiful shores of Lake Erie, fine food and entertainment, friendly people and quaint architecture.  Now it even has a very special park for nature lovers.  It is a botanical "step back in time" featuring the historic flowers of Marblehead.

I'll be leading two walks on Saturday, May 23rd at 3:00 and again at 4:00 pm if you would like to experience this woodland garden in person.  Walk/field trip details can be found here on Lakeside's website.

Woodland Phlox and Mayapple leaves bespeak the richness of this forest floor.

Spring's ephemeral flora is short-lived but spectacular. Like mini-rainbows, the fleeting colors of flowers dance in dappled light, scattered across rich forest floor.  This year the outstanding display of Woodland Phlox, Phlox divaricata is as remarkable as any I have ever seen.

Moss-covered Rock outcropping

 The rocky outcroppings, remnants from Marblehead's rich history of stone quarrying, have an enchanting, verdant covering of moss.  Even winters in this secret garden boast of green.

Large-flowered Trillium, Ohio's state wildflower.

 The last of the Trillium are waning, but their leaves will bear proof of their presence.  A grander wild flower is not known in Ohio than this, Trillium grandiflorum.

Appendaged Waterleaf is now stealing the show.

 The newcomer blooming this week is the Appendaged Waterleaf, Hydrophyllum appendiculatum. It should be putting on an excellent show by Saturday. You'll not want to miss the opportunity to see these unusual flowers and trees growing in a natural habitat near the shores of Lake Erie.

Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum

 We will even discuss some of the local non-native flora, like this winsome gem, Herb Robert.  Some say it works as an insect repellent!

Join our walk to learn more stories of our favorite native plants and gain a greater appreciation for the unique Carolinian Forest flora found in this park. This newly "un"developed park is found at the corner of Sixth Street and Popular Avenue just north of the beautiful Chautauqua Memorial Gardens.

There is also a plant sale being held in Lakeside earlier in the day, and you may sign-up for this field trip at the registration table at the Legacy House at 217 Walnut Street.

Lakeside Daisy, Tetraneuris herbaca

While you are in Lakeside, you'll want to visit another very special "secret" garden on the Lakefront path in Perry Park. The rarest flower in the United States grows on our shores.  The last of this year's Lakeside Daisy blooms should still be evident in the garden maintained especially for their benefit.

Leave a comment below if you'd like help signing up for Saturday's walk. I hope to see you there!

Flora-Quest invades Marblehead

It was a perfect time to pair two of my great interests, Flora-Quest and Marblehead, Ohio.

This was our eighth year for Flora-Quest and it was time to change things up.  Coincidentally, May 13th was also the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Marblehead Lakeside, Daisy Preserve.  Perfect timing for a pairing.

Lakeside Daisy Preserve in full bloom on May 13th, 2014.  Photo by Paula Harper

Back in 1988 the rarest flower in the United States- Lakeside Daisy, Tetraneuris herbacea- acquired its own preserve carved out from quarry land.  This seemingly unpretentious yellow daisy is only found naturally occurring in Marblehead/Lakeside Ohio and in Ontario, Canada.  It is a globally rare flower.

Lakeside Daisy was named for the town of Lakeside on the Marblehead Peninsula. Photo by Paula Harper.

For a few short weeks around Mother's (early May) these daisies turn the preserve's rocky ground into a carpet of gold.  Except for some stunted Red Cedar trees, this gravel lot looks more like a place to park than a habitat for unusual botany.

Dick Moseley tells she history of the Lakeside Daisy Preserve. Photo by Paula Harper.

 Flora-Quest gets the most knowledgeable guides to lead our trips, and this year was no exception.  The daisy preserve had three excellent guides: Dick Moseley, retired Director of Ohio Division of Natural Resources.  Allison Cusick is the retired Ohio Heritage Botanist, and Rick Gardner, the current Ohio Heritage Botanist, led our tour.

Guy Denny was prepared to lead trips into real adventure. Photo by Paula Harper

 Guy Denny, past Chief of Division of Natural Areas and Preserves is also one of our guides.  These leaders have a life-time of experience in interpreting naturals areas.  People love to learn from them.

The Monday morning field trip to Meadowbrook Marsh.  Photo by Kevin Joyce.

 We had a botany/ birding trip to Meadowbrook Marsh.  Jason Larson (yellow shirt) and your blogger (coral shirt on right) had more fun than should be legal.  We both like birds and botany, although he probably missed the other "Sunshine Boy," Pete Whan.  Jason and Pete led the popular Flora-Quests to Adams County for several years.

"Miss Paula" Harper brandishing her umbrella. Photo by Cheryl Harner

 Jason steps up to do his guide duties and tells a bit about the American Bladdernut, Staphylea trifolia  growing along the parking lot at Meadowbrook.  It is one of our under utilized, decorative native shrubs. Paula wasn't actually poking him with that umbrella, although the photo does look incriminating!

Allison Cusick gave an excellent program on  "What is an Alvar?"

 Our lunch time meals were a welcome retreat from Monday's rain and Tuesday's heat.   On Monday, Allison Cusick, the retired Ohio Heritage Botanist kept us enthralled with his story-telling ability and tales from Marblehead's glacial impacted topography. He also gave brief accounts and locations of the very few other alvars in the world. So how do the glacially scraped surfaces of an alvar differ from a parking lot? They are likely to have plants, very rare and stunted plants.

Doty Twyford, long time Questor in front of the Marblehead Lighthouse.  Photo by Paula Harper

 Many of our questers ended the workshop at the most photographed location in Ohio: the Marblehead Lighthouse.  Built in 1821 by the Kelley brothers from Sandusky, our longest operating light on Lake Erie is a popular tourist gathering.

Looking out from the rail surrounding  of the beacon.  Photo by Ian Adams.

It was a special occasion to have the lighthouse open for tours, and Ian Adams participated in Flora-Quest by giving photography tips to the eager questers.  The 80 degree weather and bright sunshine made for a welcome surprise in May.

All in all, the event couldn't have been any more fun or successful, and we thank our partners, sponsors and patrons for making Flora-Quest the place to be in May.

Be A Witness

Nature lovers are experiencing a near winter-Nirvana of  Snowy Owls sightings this year.  The good news has been spread far and wide --and by all means go forth-- and sear the memory of Snowy Owls into your brain.  Commit it to your memory, as these events may not happen again for another 70 years or so.  Or maybe never.

The Snowy Owl's winter visit to Ohio

Most years, Snowy Owl sightings in Ohio are rare. This winter has produced numbers for the record books.

Summer scene on Lake Erie sand bar.

If you admire birds and nature in other forms, please, go forth and fill your heart and soul with nature. Then prepare to be a witness.  Spend this summer luxuriating in those common sightings:  gulls on Lake Erie, great egrets fishing in clean waters.  Our lives are filled with everyday miracles that we take for granted.

Yellow Trout-lily blossoming in mid-Ohio woodland 

Plan your botanical field trips, whether they be across the state, across the county or as near as your local park or nature preserve.  Enjoy the dew sparkling on the spring ephemerals, for like the dew, flowers are soon here- and then gone. If you are one of the fortunate few who have seen the native orchids in southern Ohio, or the rarest of "daisies" in all our land: burn it into your memory bank. 

Monarch Butterfly 

For we know not when the time will come that our common and under appreciated forms of nature will no longer be common.  For years, we considered the monarch as child's play: easily seen and known to all.  But now, we lovers of lepidoptera fear the end of the migrating Monarchs. Last I read, the full number of the wintering flight in Mexico could be contained on a few acres.

If theirs is to be the fate of the passenger pigeons, we will be the ones called upon to retell the glory days of our childhood, when Monarchs were found in every field and ditch.

People in Beijing, China gather to see "sunrise" displayed on a jumbo tron screen.
See this photo and article at World Time

In a world where air pollution is so bad, sunrises are now broadcast on screens, toxic blue-green algae threatens Ohio waters and drought conditions are about to change agriculture as we know it in the U.S.A.  It is not just polar bears (and snowy owls) that will be impacted in the coming years.

John Muir spoke of a "love of wild nature in everybody."  E.O.Wilson similarly tells of "biophylia" or the human tendency to affiliate with life and natural processes.  If you have read this far, certainly you can relate. 

Those of us who love nature, may be called as witnesses.  There are children growing up in a world where they can no longer see a sunrise.  Children in Appalachian Ohio see their streams in shades of orange- the effect of mining run-off.  It is not just West Virginia with environmental problems.

If you love nature, it is time to "own it." Take time to admire natural beauty in whatever form you choose, but also make time to speak out, write a letter, or sign a petition.  Ultimately, if those of us who love nature do not speak up now, we will be called as witnesses to our children and grandchildren. 

This was once a beautiful world, with clear waters, blue skies and butterflies...

  

Picking the Lakeside Daisies

Marblehead, Ohio is home to the rarest of all Ohio's native plant species- the Lakeside Daisy, Hymenoxys herbacea.  Other than here and a small population in Michigan, this plant only occurs in two areas of Ontario, Canada.  There is a special Ohio Division of Natural Areas Preserve set aside for this flower and a special day each May is held in its honor.  

Lakeside Daisy, Hymenoxys herbacea.

 The Lakeside Daisy preserve is easily accessible off of Alexander Pike, but you'll want to wait until next May to visit- as the daisies have long pasted their peak bloom.   These plants are federally protected and you will NOT want to pick or molest any of these plants.

 Our story begins at a Quarry Rd. location in Marblehead.   This is the home site of the LaFarge operation, a humongous limestone quarry that encompasses most of the center of the Marblehead peninsula.

These gigantic trucks are dwarfed only by the scale of the landscape.  Each tire is a tall as a man.

 Marblehead has a long history of quarrying, as many of the original settlers came to Ohio from Europe to work in the quarry.  Limestone has been shipped out of Marblehead by way of Lake Erie since the mid 1800's.  The end result is hundreds of acres of barren ground, unable to sustain most vegetation.  However, the Lakeside Daisy thrives in this moonscape-like habitat.

Our group dons vests of saftey yellow before heading out into the quarry.

 The call came out from the Federal Wildlife agents and along with several of Ohio's Department of Natural Resources employees, we were asked to help rescue daisy seed from areas about to be lost to future quarrying operations.

Guy Denny begins to strip seeds for the future.

 Many hours in the hot sun produces but a quarter- to-half a bag of seed.  With the heat index well into the 90's, we were cautious to keep hydrated while working in the blazing sun.

The daisy seed head.

The extreme heat of spring 2012  brought the daisies to an early bloom. This should be peak time for seed collecting, however, many of the seeds are already past.  We spread out as we searched for collectible seed.

 Often only empty seed heads  remained, and much of the seed had already dispersed before we were able to collect.   This raccoon skull was found bleaching out in the scorching sun next to a clump of spent daisies.

The daisy are so rare because they grow, in fact require, this barren and alkaline habitat.

At the end of the day, Jennifer Windus from Ohio Division of Wildlife inventories our take.  We have gathered 6-8 partial bags of seed to be used in future restoration projects. It was a long hard day, but it gives one a sense of accomplishment to know we were a part of collecting and preserving the rarest of Ohio plants for the future.

Our Lakeside Daisy is protect it for the future.

 Next year when you visit the North Coast of Ohio, schedule a time to visit this unusual preserve.  It is fascinating to see acres and acres of this this little plant blooming away on an otherwise inhospitable habitat.  You'll want to admire its moxie.

 Just don't  pick any, OK?

Bank Swallows!

Yesterday, while on serious business at the Marblehead quarry, we enjoyed the high-flying antics of a population of  Bank Swallows.

Bank Swallow,  Riparia riparia

Although these dapper fellows wear a "bow-tie" (look for the diagnostic brown breast-band) you'll not find them on Wall Street.  Their Latin name gives a hint to their preferred habitat: riparian corridors.

 Bank swallows build their nests inside the banks along rivers, but some have adapted to nesting in sand and slag piles in quarries- like the one in this photo.

A closer view of the bank reveals results of a colony of hole dwellers, the look of Swiss cheese. The Bank Swallows were swarming in and out of these nest sites, but  they were far too fast for my amateur photographic skills.

 As one rests in a nearby tree, several hawk for insects in the background of the photo.

There could hardly be a more handsome swallow.  It was a delightful side attraction at a sight better known for some of the rarest botany in Ohio and in all of the United States.   This quarry is also the home of the famous Lakeside Daisy.  More on that topic to come...