Green-and-Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)

Living in southeastern Ohio for the last handful of years has really allowed your blogger the opportunity to explore and familiarize himself with a landscape quite different from his childhood base of west-central Ohio.  As an adopted son of the hills and hollers, I feel just as at home immersed in the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau as I do back on the Wisconsin till plains.  The scenery and flora/fauna has yet to grow old or stale and still has plenty of surprises and welcome discoveries to share.

Hillside patch of green-and-gold in full bloom

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of finally making the acquaintance of a southeast Ohio exclusive that has sat unchecked on the life list since my initial move to the region.  Green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is also known by the common names of golden knees or goldenstar and is one of the most striking yellow wildflowers I've had the pleasure of seeing with my own eyes.

Green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)

Green-and-gold is a state-threatened species here in Ohio and is only known from extant populations in Athens and Washington counties.  This particular population was located in rural Washington county near the Ohio River on a steep roadside embankment under a canopy of white oak, red oak, sugar maple, yellow buckeye, white ash, flowering dogwood, and redbud with a scattering of your typical spring ephemerals.

Closer look at the green-and-gold's flowers

If you take a close look at the center of the "flower" expecting to see a pistil and flurry of stamens, you will actually see a composite flower head with numerous disc flowers exerting their own individual stigmas and anthers. Despite appearing as a marsh marigold-like plant from a distance, green-and-gold is actually a spring-blooming member of the aster or composite family (Asteraceae).  It also happens to be the only Ohio composite containing (typically) five yellow ray flowers.

Green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)

Some may recognize this as a plant they have in their landscaping or wildflower garden as it is a popular and frequently used ground-cover for its ability to spread rather quickly by rhizomes.  It does best when you can imitate its favored conditions in the wild of moist, rich, and acidic soils in partial to full shade.

Chrysogonum virginianum North American distribution (courtesy BONAP)

Looking at a map of its natural distribution throughout eastern North America, you can see it just barely makes it into our state via the southeast.  It occurs predominately east of the Appalachians in the Piedmont and along the coastal plains of the Atlantic and Gulf states.  The species has been assigned two varieties split by a more northern or southern distribution.  Following this treatment, Ohio's material belongs to var. virginianum while the southern Piedmont and coastal plains belongs to var. australe.

Zoomed in view of receptacle and disc flowers

View of the attractive, hairy green foliage

A macro shot shows the details of the aster family's characteristic receptacle and numerous disc flowers in the photograph above left.  What look like petals on a composite flower are actually called ray flowers and bear fertile reproductive parts as well. The basal leaves of green-and-gold have an aesthetic appeal of their own with densely fuzzy petioles and crinkled margins.  I can easily see and understand why this plant would be a welcome addition in anyone's landscaping and hope to utilize it someday in the future myself.

Hillside patch of green-and-gold in full bloom

While photographing and admiring the golden-knees, I found myself frequently pausing to close my eyes and soak in the surrounding sounds of the back country road's environment.  The swift sounds of rushing water in a nearby rain-swollen stream were intermittently interrupted with the sweet calls of dueling cerulean warblers overhead accented with American redstarts, hooded warblers, and wood thrush as well.  I even managed to get my year's first ruby-throated hummingbird as two tiny blurs gave an unmistakable chitter as they buzzed by.

Hillside patch of green-and-gold in full bloom

While many plants may find a roadside existence to be stressful and worrisome, I believe it may be a saving grace for this specific population.  Competition from surrounding/taller vegetation and natural succession can choke out this species quite easily or at least reduce it to non-flowering vegetative material due to too much shade but seasonal cutting and mowing by the township or perhaps a local resident seems to keep this embankment relatively free and clear of encroaching woody vegetation.

The hillside of flowering green-and-gold proved to be worth the wait as I would be hard pressed to find another spring wildflower graced with such a rich golden color.  It's my hope this site will continue to see good fortune and be something I can return to in future springs to enjoy their enlightening charm.

A Special Day in the Field

Field botanists live for the rare and unusual.  At least I do and would be the first to admit it to anyone who asks what my favorite part of the job is.  It's a real natural high when serendipitously coming across something that makes you do a double take and furrow your brow in thought.  You just never know what you're going to come across when you put that first boot out the door in the morning.

*Being at work, I can't very well have my camera equipment with me in the field so all the photos from this post were snapped with my iPhone.  It did its job well but I'm looking forward to getting back out there with the 'real' stuff to better capture the site and plants.*

This morning found your blogger working in northwestern Miami county at the Stillwater River prairie nature preserve monitoring and updating some rare plant records from the area.  I wrote about the place in an earlier post mentioning how "lacking" my home county seemed to be of the botanically rare and extraordinary.  I had my eyes peeled for my target species of timid sedge (Carex timida) and Wood's hellebore (Veratrum woodii) among the thick carpet of spring ephemerals in peak bloom all throughout the pristine riparian woodland.  Large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), shooting star (Dodecatheon media), wild hyacinth (Cammasia scilloides), and wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) numbered in the hundreds, sitting under the gloomy shadows of the leafed out canopy and drizzly skies above.

Clump of the state-threatened Sprengel's sedge (Carex sprengelii)

As I carefully waded through the sea of flowers my eyes managed to catch a clump of a suspicious looking sedge not twenty feet from the river's banks.  I sat my materials down and took a closer look at the fruiting culms but could not pinpoint the species off the top of my head despite it being quite conspicuous and unique-looking for a sedge.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

The drooping fruit clusters had perigynia with very long beaks that gave it a prickly appearance.  It was unlike any other species of sedge I'd ever come across before so it was off to my trusty Illustrated Flora of Illinois: Carex book to see if its identity lay within.  After running it through the key and taking a gander at some of the line drawings, I came to the conclusion of Carex sprengelii.  But that just didn't seem to make much sense given its known range and rarity in our state.

North American distribution of Carex sprengelii  (courtesy BONAP)

Carex sprengelii is a state-threatened species that until now had only ever been collected and known to occur in a handful of northeastern and northwestern counties.  Looking at the natural distribution map above it's not hard to notice Miami county in the west-central part of the state to be quite disjunct from its two population centers in Ohio.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

I ran it by the description in the book one last time: drooping fruit spikes; round and nerveless perigynia with a long beak; culm bases very fibrous with last year's leaf growth...all there!  I called up Rick Gardner who is my boss, good friend, and the state's chief botanist who's well-known specialty is the Carex genus.  If anyone could confirm my finding it was him. After describing it and looking over the photos I emailed he confirmed it was indeed Carex sprengelii!  He even mentioned that his first rare plant find when he started with the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves (DNAP) was this very sedge in eastern Ohio.  Funny how it ended up being my first (and hopefully not last!) rare plant find after starting with DNAP.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

I surveyed the site for more but the one square yard patch of it was all I could find.  It was in excellent shape and looked very healthy with over 50 flowering culms.  I read where it can occur in a variety of habitats and stream terraces in riparian woodlands was one of them; especially when associated with limestone bedrock/soils.  I took a lot of joy in writing down and recording the information for the population and habitat.  As a proud native son of Miami county it felt great to have it and my love for botany come together in such a nice way.  Personally adding to the recognized diversity of Miami county's vascular flora is something I didn't expect to do but sure glad I could! Here's hoping this is a sign of fun times and things to come this summer!

Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)

Ohio is home to just under 1,800 native species of vascular plants according to the latest published list of the flora.  I've seen my fair share of those on that list; some are rather forgettable and not very showy, while some are 'in your face' gorgeous and are impossible to ignore.  This is the latter.

Purple Passionflower  ~  Passiflora incarnata

Few wildflowers can draw the eyes of even the most unobservant or uninterested as easily as the purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata).  You wouldn't be wrong to assume its home is the steamy tropics near the equator; most members of the Passiflora  genus are native to tropical areas and have an equatorial distribution.  However, this species is right at home in the southeastern section of the country and even makes it into extreme southern Ohio.  Many are probably most familiar with this passionflower in the garden and/or cultivation scene but it does exist within the state naturally, albeit quite infrequently.

Purple Passionflower  ~  Passiflora incarnata

Passiflora incarnata is a threatened species in our state, where indigenous populations have almost entirely been recorded in the southernmost counties along the Ohio River.  Despite being a 'weed' in the south, the extended frost/freeze windows to the north help limit it at its northern distribution terminus.  This past weekend while botanizing Hamilton county and feasting on the paw paw's I posted about recently, I came across an entanglement of this enchanting vine along the side of the road.  This species thrives in disturbed areas with full sun such as; fields, thickets, and roadsides.

Purple Passionflower  ~  Passiflora incarnata

Although a vine, the plants themselves are herbaceous, not woody, and all above-ground growth is killed back each year after the first freeze but will return from the underground perennial root stock come spring.  The side profile photo above really exhibits this plant's remarkably unique architecture and composition.  There truly is nothing else outside another Passiflora that comes close to its intoxicating beauty.  Come fall the plant is dotted with large, edible fruit pods know as 'passion fruit'.  I've never had it but many find the sweet, gummy flesh surrounding the seeds to be delicious.

You may be interested to know that there's a second species of passionflower native to Ohio's soils and is more common and wide-spread than the former but not nearly as large or noticeable.

Yellow Passionflower  ~  Passiflora lutea

The yellow passionflower (P. lutea) is structurally more-or-less the same as the purple taxa above and is instantly recognized as a member of Passiflora.  They are about one-third the size of the purple passionflower but still show off their charm and beauty when the environmental conditions allow.  Ohio still lies at the northern fringe of its range but the yellow passionflower can be found in thickets, rocky woods, and even low, rich woods throughout the southern half of the state.