Nature photojournal #1

Part of being a naturalist is curiosity. When you look around the forest, field, pond, etc, you don't just take in the view. You let your eyes drift to interesting shapes, colors, animals, or plants. Then you ask, "What is that?" or "Why is that?" Prior to the advent of cameras, naturalists had to be fairly good at drawing the items they wanted to catalog or identify. Some of these sketches have helped natural historians try to figure out what animals and plants are native to a specific area. Take a look at this one:

 

It may be difficult to see the details, due to its small size, but the life-likeness is incredible. Every vein, root, and leaf on the plant is drawn with precision. Some of the pictures give a sense of the objects in 3D. This careful drawing leads to a study of the anatomy, biology, and ecology of the plant or animal being drawn. It really forces you to LOOK and truly see the item for what it is, and leads you to start to wonder about more than just, "What is it?"

Of course, modern advances have led us to the invention of the digital camera, which allows for easy photographing of subjects, yet detaches one from them at the same time. My goal is to get better at sketching nature items, but in the meantime, I will be posting photos of the flora and fauna I find in the areas around me.

Plants are easy to photograph; animals, not so much. So below are two plants and a little bit about their natural history.

American Beech

This tree is fairly common east of the Mississippi, all the way from Canada down to northern Florida. It is easy to spot in the winter because it tends to keep some of its leaves. The leaves are oval-shaped and toothed at the edges. The winter buds look like waxy cigars (that really is the best way to describe it, though I do not advocate and indeed despise smoking). The bark is, for the most part, smooth and sort of gray-white. People often carve their initials into beech trees because of this smooth surface.

 When I lived in New York, beeches were always quite small because of a disease called Beech Bark Disease. It is spread by an insect called a scale. Originally, the scales were thought to be the origin of the tree deaths, but then researchers found that the scales were infested by a fungi. This fungi, Nectria coccinea, is responsible for killing the trees. If you'd like to know more about the details of the infestation, this is a good web site: http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/beechbark/fidl-beech.htm.

Beech trees are used for rough lumber, flooring, plywood, and railroad ties. Beech wood is also used to make tool handles, baskets, and veneer.

Resurrection Fern
I first learned about these neat ferns when I worked in Alabama. We were doing a learning hike, where I taught each student about a part of the forest and then they would teach the others (each one, teach one). At the end of the hike, I always liked to do a learning quiz. I asked them what they remembered. One student raised his hand and said, "I learned about the erection ferns!" I about died laughing.


As their name suggests, these ferns can survive periods of drought by curling up and appearing dead. When it rains, however, the ferns uncurl and become green and lush again.


After doing a little research, I discovered that these ferns are air plants. What this means is that the ferns attach themselves to other plants (like trees or moss) and get their nutrients from the air and water that collect on the surface they are attached to. How cool!

 You can see the shape of the sori (the reproductive parts) on the top part of the leaf. When you flip the leaf over (and use a magnifying glass), you can see that they are indents. This is where the spores will form and mature, to be carried by the wind to another suitable spot.


A little more research revealed that the plant synthesizes dehydrins (those scientists, how clever to name a protein after what it does- dehydrates!), which allows the cell walls of the fern to fold in such a manner as to be easy to unfold when water does arrive. These ferns can lose up to 76% of their water and still survive. Amazing! If we lost that much water, we'd certainly perish.


Well, that's all for today. I have more to share, and I'll try to keep this blog updated more frequently in the new year.

Until then, get out and enjoy nature!