Natural Notes: Wetland Graminoids

On May 9, 2015 I went out with Dan Spencer, a resource ecologist from the Forest Preserves of Cook County to examine wetland graminoids in a marsh at Sand Ridge Nature Center in South Holland, Illinois.  The preserve protects over 75 acres of wetlands in various conditions.  Graminoids are grasses and grass-like plants.  We were particularly interested in sedges and rushes that were growing in a wetland area on the property.

Sand Ridge Nature Center is situated in the lake plain, a former lake bottom of the ancestral Lake Michigan.  Over the past 6,000 years, Lake Michigan has been receding, and as it has done this it has left behind old sand deposits interspersed with wetland areas.  The low-lying topography of the area as well as urbanization of the surrounding landscape has left much of the property of Sand Ridge Nature Center partially underwater for most or all of the year (figure 1).

Figure 1:  Wetland area dominated by graminoids (grass-like plants) on either side of the Lost Beach Trail at Sand Ridge Nature Center.  
We traveled primarily along the elevated boardwalk portion of the Lost Beach Trail (figure 1).  One of the first graminoids that poked our interest was Carex stipida, a sedge growing in shallow water right beside the boardwalk.  C. stipida has a triangular shaped stem that is winged at the edges and has a spongy texture.  The stem is also somewhat hollow, and the leaf sheafth (covering) is flat on the top and has a folded appearance.  C. stipida likes to grow in recently disturbed habitats, and it made sense that it was growing along the boardwalk which was installed only 2 years ago.

Eliocharis, the genus for the spikerushes, was our next plant of interest and a species of it was growing in abundance along the boardwalk.  Spikerushes have a fine and grass-like form and are round in cross-section (figure 2).  Identifying spikerushes down to species can be very difficult and must often be done in a laboratory.
Figure 2:  The form (habit) of a typical spikerush
Another plant we encountered (which was also hard to identify with certainty) was Swamp Cress (Cardamine bulifera).  We found it growing in very shallow water, and it has very finely divided leaves (figure 3).
Figure 3:  Swamp cress habit

Swamp cress will produce a four-petaled white flower similar to a mustard.  Hopefully, seeing the flowers will make it easier to identify.

Tussock sedge (C. stricta) was also growing in abundance in shallow water, although again there was some uncertainty on its identification because another similar species of Carex also grows in the lake plain, C. aquatis.  Generally, C. stricta would have a reddish tinge on the culm, and C. aquatis would have separate organs for the sexes exceot for one of the spikes.   Both species have rather showy yellow flowers (figures 4 and 5).  
Figure 4:  Habit of Tussock Sedge showing male and female spikes.  

Figure 5:  Sedges in bloom in a wet area off of the Lost Beach Trail boardwalk.  May 9, 2015.  Sand Ridge Nature Center, Forest Preserves of Cook County.  Note small but showy yellow flowers.  

I will be keeping my eye out for other types of wetland plants that emerge as the season progresses, but identifying graminoids will be an interesting challenge.





















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windy City Cactus: Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus

Image
When you think of Chicago, you probably don't think of sand dunes, prairies, or large oak trees.  Yet despite Chicago being the third largest city in the United States and heavily impacted by urban sprawl and industrial blight, there remains thousands of acres of greenspace with wetlands, open woods, sandy beaches...and some rather surprising flora. The pictures below were not shot in Arizona nor in Southwest California, but were in fact taken at the 63rd street beach on a recently restored sand dune near Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois.  They are the eastern prickly pear cactus ( Opuntia humifusa ) . Figure 1:  Eastern prickly pear cactus, a native plant to the Chicago region and the only native cactus to the Great Lakes area.   The genus Opuntia is much more common out west where they have many different species, but in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions, the eastern prickly pear is the only native cactus.  It tends to be a little bit smaller than its western counterp
Read more

Natural Notes: Animals of the Night

Image
Are you a night owl?  If you're an Illinois wildlife species, than chances are, yes!  However, many animals besides owls are active at night.  In fact, the majority of wildlife species in Illinois are hunting, gathering mates, establishing territories, and moving about during the nighttime hours! A daytime walk on a trail through a forest preserve might yield some common wildlife sightings such as gray squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) or sparrows.  Most animals that people see around Illinois are active during the day, or   diurnal.   Humans are a great example of a diurnal animal.   Other animals though are most active active at different times of the day (figure 1).  Late in the afternoon or early in the day, many folks encounter white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ).  Deer are a great example of a wildlife species that is crepuscular , or active at dawn or dusk. Figure 1:  In Illinois, most wildlife species are more active at certain times of the day.  For thos
Read more

Virginia Pineapple? The fascinating family of Bromeliaceae

Image
Who hasn't tried pineapple before?  It always seems to end up in fruit salads at family reunions, there's always someone in the crowed ordering "Hawain pizza", and the grocery stores always seem stocked full with showy pineapples displaying their rough-textured, compartmentalized skin with bizarre green leaves on top (Photo A).  To most people living in temperate regions such as most of the lower 48 United States, pineapples are nothing short of exotic and unusual - and not like anything we have growing in the wild on our landscape...or do we? Photo A:  A pineapple grows wild along a woodland edge in a tropical park in  Ecuador, South America. Pineapples are in the family Bromeliacea, which includes a large group of mostly tropical plants that are primarily  epiphytes - plants that grow on top of other plants (see photo B). Photo B: Bromiliads, shown in the center of this photo, are a common group of tropical epiphytes throughout rain forests and
Read more