Honey Locust to Stinkhorn.....native plant highlights

A couple of posts ago, I gave a summary of some of the interesting species of fauna I came across while conducting a flora and fauna survey of a decommissioned railroad in Chatham-Kent. This post will focus on some of the highlights of the native flora. A future post may describe some of the many non-native species of plants.

Such railroad corridors are largely unexplored, since they frequently have 'No Trespassing' signs at the typical access points. When the railroads are in operation, if you are not paying attention trains can sneak up on you in a hurry! (Don't ask...... :-).

Typical scene along one section of this rail corridor

 Obviously there isn't much, if any, pristine natural area habitat along these corridors, but it is surprising how much native flora and fauna use what habitat there sometimes is. For example when doing a survey on a corridor in 2012, I discovered a provincially rare plant that had never before been seen in Chatham-Kent and a butterfly that had very limited records in C-K.

In such wide open sections as shown in the image above, there is always the hope that some prairie vegetation may be found, maybe even a patch of prairie. Such was the case in 2012.

Most obvious prairie vegetation becomes more visible from mid-summer to late summer. I'm hoping that my future visits to this corridor in the next few weeks will enable me to find more prairie species along here. Historically areas not far from this corridor had some of the largest extent and best quality tallgrass prairie in Ontario!

Some of the prairie associates that I have found so far, include:

Canada Anemone

 Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis) is certainly not limited to prairies, as it is frequently found along the sunny edges of woodlands. Prairie is where this plant really does well.

Prairie Milkweed

 Prairie Milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii) is rare in Ontario, limited mainly to the extreme southwest. It is just coming into peak flowering condition now, slightly later than the similar looking Common Milkweed. Butterflies and other pollinators love it!

Yarrow

 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is often found in disturbed old field, but is definitely a prairie associate, and numerous pollinators can be found using it.

Climbing Prairie Rose

Climbing Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera) is rare in Ontario, being officially designated as "Special Concern', and is largely limited to Essex, Chatham-Kent and Lambton, although small populations do occur beyond those areas.

Some sections of this corridor are adjacent to bits of woodland, and there the diversity of flora changes.

Some species occurring there are likely remnants of the forest habitat that was there prior to the railroad being constructed.

Honey-Locust

Honey-Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is unofficially rare in Ontario, being most common in the extreme southwest.

Wild Yam

Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa) is a climbing vine which is uncommon in Ontario. It doesn't have showy flowers......they don't get much showier than those tiny little balls on the slender branches shown here, but their leaves are distinctively heart-shaped.

Michigan Lily

Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense) is a tall, brightly coloured flowering plant. It is widespread in southern Ontario but never seems to be abundant. It often occurs in woodland openings, and its bright orange flowers are pleasing to the eye.

Along the sides of the corridor are wet areas, prime habitat for plants such as this Southern Blue Flag (Iris virginica).

Southern Blue Flag

Another 'plant' that I came across, although not everyone would initially identify it as being a plant, is this unusual fungus:

Dog Stinkhorn

Dog Stinkhorn (Mutinus ravenelii) is, as its name suggests, a stinky fungus. I usually encounter them in the late summer or early fall, but for some reason, this one was evident in late June. One can usually smell them before seeing them, depending on which way the wind is blowing. It is this feature than enables them to spread their spores. Flies are attracted to the odour thinking it is a rotting bit of flesh and are looking for a place to lay their eggs, which fly larvae (maggots) will hatch out from and consume the rotting material. The flies crawl over the gelatinous tip of the fungus from where the odour emanates, searching for a place to lay their eggs, and this is where the spores are located. The spores then stick to the flies feet and are transferred to the next place the fly is inspecting. Just another one of the many wonders of nature!

Rondeau, end of spring

It is that time of year again when in less than 48 hours, the days will start to be shorter. Not that anyone will really notice for a few weeks, fortunately.

I've been out in the field a fair bit (more on that in a future post), but only at Rondeau on fewer occasions than normal. Nonetheless, there is always lots to see there!

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird is nesting in a quite accessible location along the South Point Trail. After checking her a couple of times, I think she is still incubating, but that may soon change, and hopefully I will be able to catch some of the feeding action.

There are a lot of butterflies along this trail, using the combination of woodland edge adjacent to an extended shrubby habitat, which results in lots of sunny areas. It is always a good strategy to keep an eye on animal poop on the trail, and not just so that you don't step in it. Butterflies are attracted to it! In the following photos, Northern Crescents are sipping away at this delicacy...judging by the amount of what appeared to be deer hair in it, it was likely the scat of a coyote. At times these attractions can be quite busy, with at least 4 crescents in the one photo, and a Question Mark is approaching this buffet in the third photo.

There are often swallowtail butterflies along this trail.

Giant Swallowtail

One seldom gets a chance to capture more than one species side by side, but on one occasion recently two species obliged. There was no special choreographic effort to get them so synchronized...it was simply a matter of waiting until the wind either subsided or blew them over simultaneously.

Eastern Tiger (l) and Giant (r)

Along the woodland edges, Canada Anemone is often prolific.

A brief stop at the Visitor Centre resulted in an encounter with three freshly emerged Red-spotted Purple butterflies. For some reason they were more interested in the boardwalk behind the VC than the surrounding vegetation.

The sloughs along the Tuliptree Trail were a good spot to see dragonflies. A large number of Blue Dashers had recently emerged and were fighting for their territories. They are medium sized dragonflies that have the characteristic pose showing their wings angled forward.

Blue Dasher female

Blue Dasher male

Common Whitetail female

On occasion, Blanding's Turtles can be seen basking in the bigger sloughs. 

Also on the boardwalk over the slough one often sees these Six-spotted Tiger Beetles, which interestingly enough often have more than six spots!

At another trail parking area, I noted a lot of bees buzzing and cruising just above the vegetation. It turns out that it was a colony of Digger Bees. They are often found in drier sandy soil with low, patchy vegetation, where the females dig into the sand so they can lay an egg. Fortunately they seldom sting, although like most bees, will do so if they feel threatened or provoked. Note the one bee right at the entrance while another hovers slightly above and to the right of the sandy mound.

Towards the north end of the park, several of us have been hearing and watching a pair of Acadian Flycatchers. This species is endangered in Canada and Ontario. Rondeau has long been known as a stronghold for them. There are usually at least a couple of nests noted along accessible trails each year, so given the amount of unexplored good habitat elsewhere in the park there are likely several more pairs nesting annually. Fortunately efforts in recent decades have shown that they are more widely scattered across southern Ontario than they were once thought to be. They almost always nest in an American Beech tree, often over the edge of a slough. For some reason one of the pairs decided that the edge of the road was appropriate. Note the location of the nest as indicated by the white arrow. It is easily identified by nesting material hanging well below the actual nest.

Here's hoping that they produce some young Acadians, rather than cowbirds!