DEVIL'S WALKING STICK (= HERCULES' CLUB)

DEVIL’S WALKING STICK (= HERCULES’ CLUB) IN NORTH NORWICH

Donald A. Windsor

Devil’s Walking Stick, also known as Hercules’ Club (Aralia spinosa), was found by Pete Bida on Thursday afternoon 9 November 2017 on our Bullthistle hike in the Whaupaunaucau State Forest in North Norwich, growing in a small grove along Trail 13. This member of the Araliacae (Ginseng) Family is native to southern New York State, down to Florida and west to Texas (Symonds).

It has been reported as vouchered (specimens in herbarium collection) from 11 counties in NYS on the New York Flora Association website. The closest are Delaware, Madison, and Oneida.

It grows as a tree or shrub and can attain a height of 35 feet. It is sold for horticultural purposes and the ones Pete found may be escapes.

Now that I have seen this plant I will be more alert for it in the future.

The flower display can be very impressive, as per a photo in Leopold’s book. It blooms in August, so I look forward to seeing it then.

Petrides lists (page 197) a close relative called “Devil’s Club” but in a separate genus and species, Oplopanax horridus, a northwestern plant with simple leaves and slender thorns. The leaf that Pete is holdinging the above photo has doubly compound leaves.

References consulted:

Leopold, Donald J. Aralia spinosa. In: Native Plants of the Northeast. Portland, OR: Timber Press. 2005. Pages 216-217.

New York Flora Association (NYFA) www.nyflora.org

Petrides, George A. Aralia spinosa Hercules-Club. In: A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs. 2^nd Edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. 1972. Pages 128, 152-153.

Symonds, George W.D. ; Merwin, A.W. Hercules’ Club. In: The Shrub Identification Book. New York, NY: William Morrow & Co. 1963. Main Plates 92-94, Pages 258-260.

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SLUGS AS CARNIVORES

SLUGS AS CARNIVORES

Donald A. Windsor

As you watch slugs voraciously devour your garden plants, you probably regard them as herbivores. However, they do have a carnivorous side.

Slugs in the species Limax marginata are occasionally seen feasting on road-killed frogs and toads. On our Bullthistle hike Sunday morning 3 September 2017, we encountered this fest of slugs dining on a road-killed Red Eft (larval stage of the Red-spotted Newt).

The photo was snapped by Maryann Weiss on the Truck Trail through the Whaupaunaucau State Forest in North Norwich.

I have heard of using beer to attract slugs, but perhaps road-kill might work better.

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CLOSED GENTIAN

Donald A. Windsor

Closed (=Bottle) Gentian (Gentiana clausa) is a flower that, as the name implies, remains closed.  When in full bloom, it still looks like a bud.  It is pollinated by bumblebees that are strong enough to open the flowers (Cox, page 217).

Two similar species of Closed Gentian exist.  They must be differentiated by opening the flower and seeing if the membranes between the petals are longer than the petals (G. andrewsii) or even (G. clausa).  Newcomb & Morrison have a good illustration on page 253.  Peterson & McKenny, page 321, do not.  Niering & Olmstead have a good photo on Plate 650 showing the longer white-tipped membrane protruding from the top of the closed G. andrewsii flower.  Cox has it backwards.  I will go with Newcomb & Morrison, who call G. andrewsii Fringed-tip Closed Gentian.

On Sunday 2 September 2012, Carol Smith found a few plants blooming in the drainage ditch along Mud Lane in the Town of Otselic.  I took the photo shown here on 12 September 2012 along the Truck Trail in the Whaupaunaucau State Forest in the Town of North Norwich.  I had seen some near Clement's lean-to back in the early 1990s, but then they disappeared, apparently from the increasing shade.  This clump was discovered by John Carhart last year (2011).  The plants look as if they had been growing here for several years.

References cited:

Cox, Donald D. et alia. Common flowering plants of the Northeast. Their Natural History and Uses.  Albany, NY: State University Press.  1985.  420 pages. 

Newcomb, Lawrence ; Morrison, Gordon.  Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown. 1977.  490 pages.

Niering, William A. ; Olmstead, Nancy C. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.  1979.  888 pages.

Peterson, Roger Tory ; McKenny, Margaret.  A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and Northcentral North America.  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  1968.  420 pages.

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