Grand old American Elm

 

A massive American Elm (Ulmus americana), in post-dawn fog, yesterday. This tree is along State Route 104 in Pickaway County, Ohio. It is isolated from other trees in a cornfield; thus, the Dutch Elm Disease has not yet been able to find it. I rue the day it does. For years, I admired an even larger elm 15 miles to the south, but DED finally found it about a decade ago and quickly killed the behemoth.

While Dutch Elm Disease largely kills off elms before they achieve old-growth status (a very few seem to have natural resistance), the tree remains very common. Younger plants are plentiful in bottomland and other moist habitats, but DED invades most of them within a few decades. The days of grand old American Elms lining boulevards and forming sylvan pergolas over the street are long gone. But the young wild plants continue on with at least some of elms' long-evolved duties. Many of them still attain fruiting age, and their samaras are avidly consumed by a variety of songbirds. A large number of insects evolved specialized associations with elm bark, wood, and foliage, perhaps most notably some moth species such as Double-toothed Prominent (Nerice bidentata) and Elm Sphinx (Ceratomia amyntor).

One animal that has been largely shut out by the loss of ancient old elms is the Baltimore Oriole. The colorful blackbirds were quite fond of weaving their ornate nests into the lax outer branches of mature elms. They still do, if a specimen can be found. I would not be surprised if a pair of orioles is using the tree in my photo as a home site. It's a relatively short flight to other large trees across the road, and for the orioles it might be worth the travel to utilize an all too rare opportunity to use an ancestral nest tree.

PHOTO NOTE: I always look forward to driving by this tree on southbound commutes, and yesterday dawned mostly clear, but with thick fog in places, especially as I drove south. I figured there might be dramatic lighting and mist by the time that I reached the elm, which was a bit after 6:30 am (the early bird often gets the worm, in photography). Sure enough, light veils of mist enshrouded the tree, and the barely arisen sun cast interesting colors in the sky. I pulled off and clipped the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II to my R5 and set out on foot looking for angles. A 70-200mm lens is a staple for many photographers due to its useful versatility and I have had mine for many years now and use it a lot. Mostly for landscapes, and also botanical photography of a wide array of subjects. I'll often put a 25mm extension tube on to enable closer focusing and shoot all manner of small plants. No extension tube necessary for this elm, nor tripod. While I generally prefer prime lenses over zooms, in cases like this it is nice to have the ability to fine-tune the composition with just a twist of the wrist. This image is uncropped. Settings were f/8, ISO 200, 1/100, at 105mm, with in-lens image stabilization turned on.

A brief essay on hummingbird moths

A Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) approaches Wild Bergamot flowers

A brief essay on hummingbird moths

Columbus Dispatch
July 30, 2023

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Many a person has marveled over tiny “hummingbirds” visiting their flowers but hit a brick wall when trying to identify them. Leafing through a bird field guide won’t help. One needs a moth guide to put a name to these “hummers.”

The source of their fascination – and confusion – are hummingbird clearwing moths. These insects represent a fascinating case of convergent evolution. Just as real hummingbirds do, these lepidopteran speedsters specialize in extracting nectar from flowers while on the wing. Thus, they have developed many of the characteristics of real hummingbirds and look much like them.

In Ohio, there are two species: hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) and snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis). Both are common and found statewide. The former is slightly larger, suffused with reddish on the wings and body, and has yellowish legs. Snowberry clearwings are blacker with dark legs. They belong to the sphinx moth family, which includes about 53 species in Ohio.

I recently visited Kamama Prairie in Adams County, a gorgeous property owned by the Arc of Appalachia. It is floristically diverse and contains many rare plant species. My aim this trip was to photograph botanical gems like scaly blazing-star, false aloe and grooved flax.

A big patch of wild bergamot near the parking lot caught my eye. This common mint is a magnet for pollinators, and these plants had attracted the usual complement of bumblebees, myriad smaller native bees and others. But what stopped me in my tracks were hummingbird moths. Up to a dozen were in view simultaneously.

Not one to miss good photo ops, my focus shifted from plants to moths. Both hummingbird clearwing and snowberry clearwing moths were present, although the former outnumbered the latter. They’re surprisingly difficult to photograph well. To say hummingbird moths are fleet of wing would be an understatement. They seldom tarry long, and at full whirl can beat their wings a remarkable 85 times a second. In comparison, a ruby-throated hummingbird normally generates about 55 flaps per second. Fast camera work is required to freeze the action, and I worked at shutter speeds ranging from 1/4000 to 1/8000 of a second.

I knew a big patch of the rare (in Ohio) tall larkspur grew in the prairie, and before long, I headed that way. The statuesque larkspur can grow to 5 feet or more in height and are crowned with elongate racemes containing dozens of beautiful flowers.

Hummingbird moths are also smitten with larkspur, and I didn’t have long to wait for opportunities to photograph them visiting the flowers. It’s amazing to watch a moth approach a flower, unfurl its amazingly long proboscis, and deftly plumb the depths of the corolla, rapidly locating the nectar reward.

One need not visit a remote Adams County prairie to see hummingbird moths. It’s easy to entice them to your own property, even in urban and suburban environments. All that’s needed is a bit of botanical magic.

The caterpillars of hummingbird moths feed mostly on members of the honeysuckle family, but not nasty non-native invasives such as Amur or Japanese honeysuckles. Good natives that are easy to find in the nursery trade include various viburnums, and my favorite is arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum). A particularly showy option is trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), a vining plant with stunning orange-red flowers that also lure real hummingbirds. Coralberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and dwarf honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) are also great host plants.

Once appropriate host plants are established, all one needs are good nectar plants for the moths. In addition to the aforementioned wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), others include bee-balm (Monarda didyma), various native phloxes (spotted phlox, also known as Phlox maculata, is a great one) and wood mints in the genus Blephilia.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

A Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis) taps bergamot nectar

 

Tall Larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum), with Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

 

Tall Larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum)

Last Thursday, July 20, I had the chance to commune with hummingbird clearwing moths in a beautiful Adams County, Ohio, prairie. A botanical highlight was dozens of elegant Tall Larkspurs (Delphinium exaltatum). The hummingbird clearwing moths love Tall Larkspur, and it didn't take long for action to occur. I was able to get lots of images of both Hummingbird Clearwing Moths (Hemaris thysbe) and Snowberry Clearwing Moths (H. diffinis) at the larkspur, and also Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).

As always, click the image to enlarge

A Hummingbird Clearwing Moth works the flowering raceme of a larkspur. The amazing little moths love this plant, and so does this photographer. Tall Larkspur is a rarity in Ohio, and always a treat to see. The speedy hummingbird moths just up the ante, making for wonderful photo ops.

While photographing the plant is not such hard work, shooting the moths is. At full tilt, hummingbird clearwing moths can beat their wings 85 times a second! That's faster than a Ruby-throated Hummingbird normally flaps its appendages. To make this image - and nearly all others that I took this day - I used a Gitzo tripod, just as I would for birds. My artillery was the amazing Canon R5 mounted to the Canon 400mm f/2.8II. The settings for this shot were f/7.1, 1/4000 shutter speed, and ISO 6400. The latter parameter is most bothersome to me, as I normally do everything possible to shoot at much lower ISO ranges. However, I did not use flash for this shot, and such blazingly fast shutter speeds necessitates much higher ISO settings. 

I did play around with flash, using a Better Beamer with its fresnel lens to throw light much farther afield. That worked pretty well, too, but I probably prefer the flashless look. Also, as it takes a second or so for the flash to recycle for the next shot, I couldn't shoot in high-speed burst mode. Without flash I could machine gun fire at up to 20 frames a second, offering a much greater chance of capturing a particularly pleasing wing position and overall posture.

Fortunately, cameras are getting much better at dealing with the noise caused by high ISO, and programs like Topaz Denoise do an amazing job in reducing ISO noise in post-processing.

Fall Nature Safari: Exploring the Hills of Southern Ohio

The above-titled conference takes place from September 8 - 10, and the venue is the fabulous Shawnee Lodge and Conference Center. The lodge and its complement of cabins will be freshly remodeled, as a bonus. But the real bonus is our proximity to the largest contiguous woodland in Ohio, the 70,000-acre Shawnee State Forest.

There will be speakers on bees, goldenrods, and more. But as with any conference put on by the Midwest Native Plant Society, field trips are on the slate. Daytime trips on Saturday are sure to see lots of STUFF. There might be 1,000 species of native plants in Shawnee, and such rich flora fosters all manner of animal life. Our dates coincide with the major southward migration of warblers, and butterflies can still be interesting. Special perks are Friday and Saturday night field trips. Early September is prime time for finding LOTS of caterpillars, and the last time we did this, a mammoth Hickory Horned Devil turned up.

We'd love to have you join us. All of the details are RIGHT HERE.

A storm rolls in

An impressive summer storm rolls through the Paint Creek Valley. The equally impressive wildflower display is at the Arc of Appalachia's Steel Preserve, which is part of their Junction Earthworks Preserve. The field before you were croplands in the very recent past. Now, inestimable tens of thousands of bumblebees and other pollinators, scores of other insects, and meadow birds such as Henslow's Sparrows make their home here. Along with Kelly Capuzzi and Phil Mellilo, I stopped here yesterday on the return from Mothapalooza to see this amazing place. The storm was a major bonus. Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio.
 

Ragged fringed orchids are botanical works of art

 

A flowering spike of Ragged Fringed Orchid/Jim McCormac

Ragged fringed orchids are botanical works of art

Columbus Dispatch

July 16, 2023

NATURE

Jim McCormac

An orchid in a deep forest sends out its fragrance even if no one is around to appreciate it. — Confucius

The Chinese sage and philosopher perhaps waxed egocentric in that quote. Orchids couldn't care less if people are around to appreciate their aroma, beauty or charisma. They’ve done just fine without us, far predating Homo sapiens and evolving into the world’s second-largest family of flowering plants. Only the sunflower family (Asteraceae) eclipses the Orchidaceae, and not by much.

As for orchids that produce a fragrance, the scent is there to attract moths, a particularly important pollinator group for many species. Moth-pollinated orchids often have an elongate nectar spur. This flower appendage is a tube that contains nectar at its base. Only moths with very long proboscides can plumb the spur’s depths for the sweet reward, and in the process transfer pollen.

Although an estimated 28,000 orchid species grow on the globe, their centers of chief abundance are in tropical regions. Diversity plummets northward and southward. An orchidophile seeking quarry in Ohio has only 46 native species (and one nonnative) to pursue. Colombia, on the other hand, hosts nearly 4,500 species (with more to be discovered).

While Ohio boasts a scant four dozen orchid species, most of them are quite flashy. And some of them can turn up in the darnedest places.

I got a text from Josh McElhaney this spring, alerting me that some orchids had popped up in his suburban Columbus yard. I wrote a column about Josh and his amazing property in August 2022. He has done incredible work in transforming his acre lot into a showcase of native plants.

But he did not plant the orchids. The species in question is ragged fringed orchid (Platanthera lacera), and it is well-known for growing in urban and suburban areas, and often in rather weedy sites. About 17 orchids arose in Josh’s yard this year, and they are in one of the few semi-weedy sites in the yard. Several species of Eurasian grasses are their bedmates.

Josh lives only 15 minutes from me, and smitten with orchid fever, I visited on June 23, jumping the gun a bit. Ragged fringed orchids have elongate flower spikes, and they begin flowering at the base. Only a smattering of flowers were yet open.

My return trip was June 28, and just five days later, most of the orchids were in their showy glory, spikes bedecked with outlandish flowers. The accompanying photo is from that day. A ragged fringed orchid flower is a botanical work of art. The long petals are lacerated into filamentous strips, as if some anti-orchid demon had attacked the flowers with a machete.

Moths play a critical role in ragged fringed orchid pollination, and the flowers are equipped with the obligatory nectar spur. The blooms emit a fragrance towards dusk, which lures a small suite of moth species, including some common looper moths that do well in suburbia. Day-flying hummingbird moths are also known pollinators, and photographically, capturing one of those beauties at the orchid flowers would be the Holy Grail shot.

Ragged fringed orchid is not rare, but it is easily overlooked. Even though big plants can tower to two feet or more, their overall greenish tone helps them blend well with the surroundings. The species occurs throughout eastern North America, from the Gulf Coast to southern Canada. It’s turned up in about half of Ohio’s 88 counties, but might be found in any of them.

The protagonists of this column have certainly found a safe haven.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature atjimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Ragged Fringed Orchid, closeup of flower/Jim McCormac

Wild Indigo Duskywing in the yard

I was pleased to see a Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae) in my front garden the other day. Better yet, at least two females have been laying eggs on my Wild Blue Indigo (Baptisia australis). I hope to find caterpillars later. Long ago, this skipper was much scarcer in Ohio, as it only used indigos in the genus Baptisia. We have but three species, and all are rare and local. After the nonnative Crown Vetch (Securigera varia) began to be planted for erosion control, the duskywing numbers skyrocketed as it will use the vetch as a host plant. It's far more satisfying to see Wild Indigo Duskywings associated with their namesake plant, though.

This indigo photo is of the same plant that the duskywings are laying eggs on. I took the image two springs ago, when the plant was in peak bloom. Now it is heavily laden with fruit pods. It has grown into a shrub, and is stunning when in flower, and looks quite good even when not in bloom. Highly recommended for the gardenscape.