Spring Walk At Fort Yargo State Park: Shelter A To The Old Fort, May 26th, 2015 (Part 1)

May 26th. I started to walk again at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, Georgia. One of my favorite walks is from the Group Shelter A to the Old Fort and back.This is a rewarding walk for viewing wildflowers and I’ve been trying to walk it weekly and document the wildflowers I see.

The route, which I described here, here, and here.

It had been raining and was still cloudy and gray. Not a good day for a walk and I wasn’t optimistic. But my spirits were lifted immediately when I reached the trail at lake level. I’d been watching the Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata) flower buds for weeks and now…

the flowers had opened. The day was suddenly starting to look up.

I negotiated the roots on the trail and found a…

New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus) plant in bloom.

A small insect landed on my arm. Turns out, thanks to Bug Guide, it was a Diamondback Spittlebug (Lepyronia quadrangularis). I’d seen plenty of evidence of spittlebugs but I’d never seen a spittlebug until then.

Littleleaf Sensitive Briar (Mimosa microphylla) plants were beginning to set flower buds at ground level.

Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) plants were still blooming.

The Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus) seed capsules were still little more than about one-quarter inch in diameter.

Another insect, much larger than the spittlebug, was hovering around at ground level and landing occasionally. It looks like a wasp-hornet but it was a harmless Yellowjacket Hover Fly (Milesia virginiensis). (Don’t assume that similar insects are always hover flies; I saw a Yellowjacket behaving in the same manner a few days earlier). 

As I headed over to check on the asclepias plants, I brushed against some small plants at the edge of the trail and noticed that one was blooming – a loosestrife. 

The flowers…

 face down and blend into the green leaves of the plant. These flowers had…

opened but the anthers hadn’t started to release pollen. This is the Lanceleaf Loosestrife (Lysimachia lanceolata).

The Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata) plants had finished blooming. Although the flowers had dried up, some were still attached to the plant stalk with healthy green pedicels. If an asclepias flower is fertilized the stalk will remain attached to the stem and would swell to support a developing seed follicle. Sadly, these flowers had fallen before my next walk; these plants would not be developing seedpods this year. 

I detoured from the main trail out to the bench in the open a little further north.

The Helmet Flowers (Scutellaria integrifolia) plants were still blooming and were already…

starting to develop seeds. Technically, the fruits of this plant are ‘schizocarps of mericarps’ in which fruits develop from a compound ovary where the carpels  

break apart into separate single-seeded, achene-like, fruit units called mericarps. I’m going to have to look at these more closely. 

I moved on towards the first bridge, checking the…

Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) plants on the way. The berries are still developing.

Beyond the first bridge, the Deerberry (Vaccinium staminium) bushes are still full of berries. It’s intersting that nothing has eaten these berries; maybe they aren’t ripe yet. I did read that these berries are very tart when ripe so they are probably not high on the menu while other food sources are abundant.

The Eastern Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus) fruit – a pseudocarp – is noticably larger than it was a week earlier. 

The developing capsules on the witch hazel are a highlight of this walk.

The capsules were still developing nicely. Previously, many of the unfertilized flower stalks from last year were still attached to the stem, indicating how profusely this plant had bloomed. Now, however, most of these stalks had fallen. In their absence, it would be impossible to appreciate how many flowers had been on this bush.

The second remaining Eastern Sweetshrub bush fruit, at the top of the cliff, was still healthy and gaining in size. 

Just over the bridge into the Fishing Area, and to the left,…

flower buds were developing on a Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis.

One of the Elliott’s Blueberry (Vaccinium elliottii) plants that had many berries now had only one or two. These must be tasty.

The Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum) was in full bloom. These are dainty flowers. 

I made my way around the shore to look for more flowers on the Green Arrow Arum (Peltandra virginica) plants.

A plant in bloom in the open on the edge of the lake.

A close view of a flower spike. The small flowers develop at the…

the top of the yellow scale-like structures. I’ve still to find a spike with flowers. 

I walked along the shore towards the ‘Rock Garden’ and made a wonderful discovery.

(To be continued…)

Related posts: 

- Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata)
- Spring Walk At Fort Yargo State Park: Shelter A To The Old Fort, May 18th, 2015 (Part 2)
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