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Botany Ramblings:
Mostly from
1 Jan. to 15 April, 2002
James P. Goltz
Reprinted from the N.B. Naturalist
Species New For New Brunswick
Sean Blaney discovered Smooth Rupturewort (Herniaria glabra) in a gravelly parking lot at Spednic Lake Provincial Park in late June 2001. This small-flowered European weed is prostrate and easily overlooked, and is not illustrated or described in commonly used field guides or in the Flora of New Brunswick. Congratulations, Sean, on adding another new species to the New Brunswick flora!
Rare Plants
The province's only known plant of Round-headed Bush-clover (Lespedeza capitata) was still extant at Grand Lake in 2001 (VC).
Early Bloomers
Congratulations to Cecil Johnston and Ethel Bosence for finding the first flower of spring (well, late winter, really). On March 4, they saw a single plant of Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) sporting two flowering stems at Chance Harbour, at a secret site that is as treasured by Cecil as one's favourite berry patch. Although Gart Bishop had hoped to win the race for the first spring flower in New Brunswick, the blooms of Whitlow Grass (Erophila verna) that he found on February 23 were south of the border in Maine, near Freeport. Other New Brunswick reports of Coltsfoot in bloom included 20 blossoms at Bancroft Point on Grand Manan Island on March 26 (BDa), 4 blooms on a south-facing slope at Harvey Dam on March 31 (DSC, MM), about 250 flowers at Bancroft Point on Grand Manan Island on April 2 (BDa), Alots at Rockwood Park in Saint John on April 4 (EP), along the Sand Cove Road at Saint John on April 4 (BS), 6 blooms on an east-facing embankment at Fredericton on April 5 (JPG), on an embankment near Hammond River on April 8 (GB), along the road at St.-Gabriel on April 10 (ML, BL), at Edmundston on April 11 (PM), near Lepreau on April 11 (BS). and at Penniac on April 13 (BDe). Brian Dalzell paid tribute to his patch of Coltsfoot with the following prose, ASuch a stark (but very welcome) contrast at this time of year, to see a riot of yellow in a sea of brown.
A single bloom of Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) was seen along a basement wall at St.-Gabriel on April 10 (ML, BL), and another was found at Edmundston on April 11 (PM).
Blooms of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) were already open near Hammond River on April 8 (GB), while the hundreds of plants seen at Upper Cape on April 11 still had unopened spathes (NP).
Woody Plants
The furry 'pussy willow-like' unexpanded catkins of Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) were seen at the English Settlement Road, near Taymouth, on March 1 (JS), at Deer Island on March 2 (JPG, SS), and at Trout Creek near Sussex on April 8 (GB). On April 12, the fluffy seeds of Trembling Aspen Afilled the air at Taymouth (JS). Their close relatives, Pussy Willows (Salix discolor), in the pussy willow stage of their floral development, were reported at on March 1 at Deer Island (JPG, SS), on March 1 on the Tantramar Marsh (RM, KP), on March 2 along the Bancroft Point Road on Grand Manan (LDM), by late March at St.-Gabriel (ML) and on April 8 at Trout Creek near Sussex (GB).
Male flowers of Speckled Alder (Alnus incana) had already elongated at Fredericton by April 2 but did not start to shed pollen there until April 11 (JPG).
A few Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) were in bloom in the Jemseg area on April 7, but many were in full bloom in river floodplains between Maugerville and Jemseg on April 13 (JPG, SS).
A Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta) with at least six lovely burgundy-coloured female flowers was seen at Cambridge-Narrows on April 13 (JPG, SS).
Lichens
Patches of Pink Earth Lichen (Dibaeis baeomyces) were found along the steep shale cut banks bordering the English Settlement Road on about March 9 (JS, RW).
Fungi
Noella Gagnon reported that an empty robin's nest in a fir tree on her property on the old Shediac Road was filled to the brim with 53 round objects resembling Truffles. On April 13, Nelson Poirier visited the site and confirmed that Noella had correctly identified the objects as truffles (Elaphomyces sp.) The specimens have been forwarded to Oregon for identification. This was undoubtedly the most exciting and noteworthy botanical find of the season. From telltale tooth marks on some of the specimens, Nelson surmised that the truffles had likely been cached there by a squirrel. All species of Elaphomyces truffles are supposed to be edible, but this premise has not been verified for our New Brunswick truffles.
Abbreviations:
BDa Brian Dalzell, BDe Bonnie Deveau, BL Bernadette LeBlanc, BS Bev Schneider, DSC David Christie, EP Eileen Pike, GB Gart Bishop, JPG James Goltz, JS Julie Singleton, KP Kathy Popma, LDM Laurie Murison, ML Mike LeBlanc, MM Mary Majka, NP Nelson Poirier, PM Pierrette Mercier, RM Ruth Miller, RW Robert Whitney, SS Shirley Sloat, VC Von Connolly
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