Road Trip: Oglethorpe –Wilkes Counties, July 28th, 2015 (Part 2)

July 28th. Most of our trips over to Wilkes County, Georgia, have coincided with frog surveillance trips; they 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 Wilkes County on the Saxon Mattox (Oglethorpe County) – CR113 (Wilkes County) road. From this road, we made our way over to Enoch John Rd (off GA-44) where we began our…

‘regular’ route in Wilkes County. 

On our drive down to the Anderson Mill Creek swamp, I spotted…

seed capsules on a False Aloe (Manfreda virginica) plant. I had never noticed them here before. There were several plants but only this one had fruit.

A close view of the developing seed capsules. I hope I see them when they ripen. 

At the east swamp, again we spotted the…

tell-tale pairs of heart-shaped leaves indicative of a milkvine. A single flower peaking out from under the right-hand leaf gave it away as the Angularfruit MIlkvine (Matelea gonocarpos). 

I poked around under the leaves and found …

a cluster of flowers. There were more vines on the other side of the road and I found a…

fruit. It was lying on the ground out of sight. 

Further up the road…

a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) was feeding on flowers.

An Eastern Milkpea (Galactia volubilis) vine was climbing up a sapling nearby. 

Near the east end of Enoch John Road, we spotted several…

Bushy Seedbox (Lugwigia alternifolia) plants that had finished blooming. There were some…

flowers with withered petals and many…

seed capsules were developing.

Over at the Fishing Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA), we found…

Clasping Milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis) follicles releasing seeds. It had rained just prior to our arrival and the silks looked somewhat bedraggled. When I picked a couple of seeds and let them go, they floated off on the light breeze as if they were dry. Interestingly, milkweed silks are so bouyant, they were used, during World War II, in life jackets. 

At the second site, the Clasping Milkweeds has already released all of their seeds…

 leaving intriguing sculpures atop the stalks.

Our final stop was at the Broad River WMA where we looked at the clematis seed heads that we’d seen on our previous trip in late June.

Many of the seed heads were still not ripe while…

others had ripened. I think these are from one of the small unassuming native Clematis species. Now we know where the vines are, we’ll have to figure out when they’ll be blooming and return to identify it. 

Compared with most trips that focus on flowering wildflowers, this trip was a mix of flowers and fruit. Finding the fruit can be as interesting as seeing the flowers.

Related posts:

- Road Trip: Oglethorpe –Wilkes Counties, July 28th,2015 (Part 1) 

- Road Trip: Wilkes – McDuffie Counties, June 26th, 2015 (Part 2)

- Road Trip: Wilkes – McDuffie Counties, June 26th, 2015 (Part 1)