July 28th. Most of our trips over to Wilkes County, Georgia,
have coincided with frog surveillance trips; these trips were finished for the year
but we decided to make a trip just to look at wildflowers.
The first part of
the trip was from GA-77 in Oglethorpe County to GA-17 in Wilkes County on the
Saxon Mattox (Oglethorpe County) – CR113 (Wilkes County) road. This is an
unpaved road that may be slippery after rain. Since it had been dry for a
while, we thought it would be interesting to take this route, rather than the
main highway, to Wilkes County.
In the past, we’ve found a variety of wildflowers along this
road including many Carolina Milkvines (Matelea
carolinensis) vines. Unfortunately, contractors had been clearing under the power
lines along this road so many of the wildflowers we expected to see, including the Carolina Milkvines, were not
blooming. We did, however, see a number of
wildflowers or fruits of interest.
The first sighting was a Partidge Pea (Chamaecrista
fasciculata) plant growing at the edge of the
road. It was one of the few of these plants we saw. Usually the roadside is
lined with these plants.
We did find matelea vines; the tell-tale pairs of
large, heart-shaped leaves gave them away. But they were…
the Angularfruit MIlkvine (Matelea gonocarpos). The amazing finding was a cluster of three
large seedpods from one cluster of flowers. I’m used to seeing one pod on a vine
but to find three was outstanding.
As I was making my way along the embankment to check another
vine (that didn’t have any pods), I had to step over a vine and there, at knee
height, was a…
small, cute pod. I wonder if it will develop to maturity; it
was way behind the others in development.
Across the road, I spotted a leaf that I recognized
immediately. A…
Yellow Passionflower (Passiflora
lutea). Unfortunately, the vine wasn’t blooming, but it was healthy. It
will be interesting to check this vine out earlier in the season. These are
beautiful little flowers and worthwhile searching out.
Below it was a Dodder (Cuscuta sp.) plant in bloom.
A little further along the road, I spotted a few...
Allegheny
Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens)
flowers. The plants were growing in a roadside ditch and were only a couple of
feet high – small compared with the six-foot high plants near our creek.
A
Spurred Butterflypea (Centrosema virginianum)
vine had climbed up a tree beside the road and was blooming profusely. Many of
the flowers were above head height.
Skippers
were enjoying feeding on the flowers.
I
was delighted to find an…
Eastern
Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
blooming at the side of the road.
One of the most exciting sightings along this road was a…
Smallflower Pawpaw (Asimina
parviflora) growing on the roadside embankment. I spotted it and asked W to
back up to take a closer look. When we stopped, I could see the…
fruit before I got out of the car.
This plant had quite a number of fruit; five alone on one
branch. They weren’t ripe and I expect the local wildlife will get to the fruit
first when they do ripen.
I’ve seen Rosepink (Sabatia
angularis) in several locations but this was the first time I had seen
them…
developing seed capsules.
Toward the end of this section of road, we passed a field
with some sheep. At first, it looked they had been shorn but then I noticed
that…
some of them still had wool attached. These sheep were
‘self-shearing’ sheep that were shedding their wool naturally.
The final sighting on this section of road was…
Perennial Wildbean (Strophostyles umbellata) that were
blooming in the hedgerows by the road.
In spite of the clearing of the
roadside, we had some nice spottings on this road. From here, we continued onto
our ‘regular’ route in Wilkes County.
(To be continued…)
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