Bkejwanong Botany

On Saturday I had the chance to visit Walpole Island First Nation.  The island is a massive delta feature within the St. Clair River, Bkejwanong translating to 'where the waters divide'.  For years people have told me about Walpole Island in terms of it's incredible biodiversity and notable concentrations of rare species.  Back in 2009 I took the RX-100 prescribed burn course on the island, but my time was limited to the arena and a patch of grass near the bridge crossing to Wallaceburg.  During the course I did take a drive around the island each of the two days, I could appreciate the oak savannahs and prairies but didn't get an in depth look.  Anyways, Saturday was about as good as it gets and the sites Clint Jacobs took us to left me like a kid in a candy store.

A short drive from the Heritage Centre took us past a few planted Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra), there are potentially naturally occurring trees on the island but we didn't get to those areas.  An article published in the Canadian Field-Naturalist highlights this population with mention of the nearest populations, one disjunct 60km to the west in Michigan, and the continuous range of the species about 80km to the south west.  Interesting to ponder how the large fruits of this tree made their way to the island.

Stepping out of the car, I was greeted by a wall of flowering Culver's Root, Late and Giant Goldenrod, Missouri Ironweed and, as seen in the photo below, the remains of Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohioensis) flowers.  Occuring in Essex and Lambton counties, this species of wet prairies has beautiful 3-petalled blue flowers throughout early summer.

The hundreds of flowering stems of Missouri Ironweed (Vernonia missurica) make my standalone plant in the front garden look a little lonely.  A second species in the genus also exists, V. altissima, which I have generally distinuished as having more or less glaucous leaf undersides versus the pubescent undersides of Missouri.  There are other traits, but the two species by and large look the same.

Having not even left the roadside yet, I spotted Tall Coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris), which is locally common in the wet prairies here, but certainly rare on a broader scale.  As a fourth year project at the University of Waterloo I designed and installed a tallgrass prairie garden.  It's 90% Grand River Plains prairie, but a handful of Missouri Ironweed, Tall Coreopsis, Nodding Onion, Dense Blazingstar and two Silphium species have made their way in to help brighten things up and quell (fuel? haha) the "what a bunch of weeds" comments I get.

Surprises around every corner!  Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria).  This is one of the host plants of the Frosted Elfin butterfly, the other being Wild Lupine which we also saw in some of the sandy openings.. 

What a refreshing sight!

Smooth False Foxglove (Aureolaria flava), a parasite on oak roots which is distinguished from two other Aureolaria's by it's glaucous stems.  This species is a stewardship target at a savannah site I work on near Cambridge and had noted in a post a while back.  Some fo the flowering stalks at Walpole approach 1.25m!  I've never seen them so large.

Purple Joe-pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum).  Yep, apparently the Joe-pye's are no longer Eupatoriums.

Fronds of Hairy Bush-clover (Lespedeza hirta).  Distinguished from the slightly more common Round-headed Bush-clover (L. capitata) by it's more rounded (versus elliptical) leaflets.

Intermediate Bush-clover (Lespedeza violacea).

A few stems of Prairie Willow (Salix humilis) occur along the path we walked.

 

Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera) should be at peak bloom (here at least) in about a week.  I saw a single flower on a single stalk open on Saturday

I'm reserving my excitement as I only see pinweeds from time to time and am not overly familiar with them, but looking at the capsules/stem pubescence/leaves I think this could be Leggett's Pinweed (Lechea pulchellus), a super rare S1-ranked species.  I don't think it fits the bill for L. intermedia or L. mucronata.  Knowing some followers of this blog have a better knowledge of Lecheas and Walpole Island I'd appreciate thoughts.

Cylindrical Blazingstar (Liatris cylindracea) growing in a sandy opening in the savannah canopy.

Can't forget about the birds!  A Red-headed Woodpecker was spotted flitting from branch to branch.

What can you say?  I didn't say a whole lot, mostly just spun in circles in awe.  That's a whole-lotta Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum)

Giant Swallowtail on Prairie Dock.

 

Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) in every direction.

A monster Swamp Lousewort (Pedicularis lanceolata), at maybe 80cm tall, it's size kind of threw me off, but I'm fairly sure that's what we're looking at here.

This photo shows the opposite leaves and leaf margins with teeth less than halfway to the midrib, diagnostic for Swamp Lousewort.  Wood Betony (P. canadensis) has largely alternate leaves and deeper teeth, it also tends to be found in drier habitats.

Two-flowered Cynthia (Krigia biflora), another savannah specialist and a new species for me.

Wow, what a great day!