Lespedeza Bush Clovers

Sometimes I hesitate to put up posts on topics where I don't illustrate every single species. This is especially true with the insects. If I waited till I had photos of every species of a genus, I'd never post anything. I also worry about posting out of season material. Based on all the verbal comments I've received lately from people I run into, they like my format. So I'll go out there and do, continue to do, the voodoo that I do so well.

Lespedeza are members of the Fabaceae family, or the pea and bean family. The common names are listed either as Bush Clovers, Bushclover, or Bush-clover, depending on who you read. I tend to hyphenate them. Some are native to dry soils and prairies, but many species have been introduced for gardening, forage crops, or as wildlife food plants.

Bush-clovers all have leaflets in threes. This is one of the prairie species, Round-headed Bush-clover, Lespedeza capitata.  The leaves often have a shine like these above. Multiple flowers are clustered in large round heads, primarily at the top of the plant, giving it a spike like form.

Flowers are white, with a pinkish-red spot on the larger petal. If you are doing prairie restoration, this is an easy plant to establish.

Another white and pink species is Lespedeza hirta, the Hairy Bush-clover. It's common in open fields and along oak woods. All parts of the plant are covered in soft white hairs. Round-headed (above) has all the flowers clustered in tightly packed heads. Hairy Bush-clover has the flowers on long stems or peduncles, giving the appearance of more spread out flowers.

This is one of the larger species that grows as a shrub.  I have found this on wildlife areas as a planted crop. The flowers are almost completely pink. They occur throughout the plant on long racemes. Leaves are green on top and paler below. So what is this? I believe it to be Lespedeza bicolor, the Japanese Bush-clover. Obviously an introduced species.

For the longest time I thought it was L. thunbergii, the Pink Bush-clover. The two are very similar. Japanese Bush-clover has rounded leaves, and flowers that grow erect on ascending stalks. Thunberg Clover has narrower leaves and flower heads that droop. Published floras from this exact location list only bicolor. These are popular ornamentals, and there are many varieties of each.

This is Lespedeza stipulacea, the Korean Bush-clover. Like many bush-clovers, the leaves are short, round, and end in a pointed or mucronate tip. The large petal is pink to purple-red, and the smaller 3 lobes are white, tipped in maroon. Without the flower, these small species could be mistaken for Medic or Hop-clovers.

Korean is a small but showy plant. It is sometimes known as Kummerowia. A distinguishing feature are the long fine hairs on the stem and the leaf edge (a ciliate margin). On the nearly identical looking L. striata, another Japanese species, the hairs are appressed up against the leaf margin and they point downward on the stem.

I was stumped for awhile. Checking a lot of references, I finally came up with a name. Just a few hours later, Scott Namestnik sent me his determination, and the name was the same. This is Lespedeza cuneata, the Sericea or Chinese Bush-clover. It is one of the white flowering species. The colored blotch is purple not pink. The leaves are wedge shaped and end in a fine tip.

So is this another one of those posts, the more you read, the more you get confused? Don't worry, it gets worse. Here is a pink species whose red spot 'bleeds' through the entire flower. Could this be the Wand-like Bush-clover, if so, which. I narrowed it down to either Lespedeza intermedia or L. violacea.

In the older keys it says violacea has loose flower heads that spread way out past the leaves. With intermedia, the flower heads are more compact, and don't extend much past the leaves. Well, what do updated sources on the internet have to say? Apparently they are now *sigh* synonymous! Look at the bright side, it's native. It's common on the edge of our prairie in the thick clay waste soils.

Oh no, more? But it looks just like the last one. Ah, check out the leaves. They are not short and round, but long and thin. To me they look more Desmodium like. This is Lespedeza virginica, the Narrow-leaved or Slender Bush Clover. It's native. All of these species are nitrogen fixers. The introduced species have also been used for soil erosion, mine reclamation, and hay production. The non-natives have invasive tendencies. As always, corrections and discussion on ID's are welcome.

Short-headed Garter Snake in Ohio

Bald Eagles are good enough, but finding a very rare snake for Ohio is even better. I had the opportunity to check out Thamnophis brachystoma, the Short-headed Garter Snake with Ray Novotny, who seems to be the only person interested in their status for Ohio. Ray surveys the population of these snakes in the Youngstown area of Mahoning County. He has also discovered a population just north in Trumbull County.  As promised, I will not disclose the exact locations they are found.

These snakes, like many other species, like to hide under boards in open fields. After checking under the first board, all we found was this American Toad, Anaxyrus (Bufo) americanus. One must be patient and keep trying.

Upon lifting the second board, a pair of surprised and confused Meadow Voles Microtus pennsylvanicus  were the only thing found. Boy, I was hoping we wouldn't strike out today.

Third time is a charm. Finally, Ray lifted a board and there it was. It's tough to squeeze on down and get a shot before it slithers away. We found several that day, some more skittish than others.

My first impressions were mixed. In one sense it just looked like a regular baby garter snake. On the other, the color reminded me more of Dekay's Brown Snake. That idea quickly disappeared when we found a Brown Snake sitting right next to one of these.

Short-headed Garters are small snakes, averaging a little over a foot in length. The largest recorded is around 22 inches. They live in grassy fields, often in urbanized settings, and feed strictly on worms.

Simply put, Short-headed Garters have a smaller, more blunt face and head. More importantly, they seem to lack a neck. It looks like there is no clear dividing area between the head and body. If you don't look at snakes on a regular basis, this description probably doesn't tell you much.

The overall color is brown. Like other garters, it does show the light colored side and dorsal stripes. Black stitch marks scattered along the body is also typical for a garter.

Click on the photo if you can't see it, but the end of its tongue is sticking out. The only other place this snake is found is south-west New York and north-west Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania counties bordering Ohio all have populations. So the question remains, are these snakes introduced or do they occur here naturally? This is the age of genetic studies, so there is a nice thesis waiting for someone here.

I included a couple of stock photos below of our common Eastern Garter Snake that everybody has seen. Notice the head is much bigger, and that there is a narrowing into a neck region. This is what is absent on the Small-headed.

Spring Springs Twice

It is interesting to go out in the field here in southern Ohio and watch things come and go. It's another to drive to northern Ohio and watch it happen all over again.

Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, has pretty much finished flowering in southern Ohio, but not so in the northern part of the state. I spent the week in Mahoning County looking for early spring bloomers. While the leaves are starting to pop up, the flowers are still hanging on.

Skunk Cabbage is known to produce heat inside the flower, even when outside temperatures are freezing. Carrion is known to generate heat as it decomposes, so besides the nasty smell and appearance of the plant, the heat may also serve as an attractant to pollinators.

The inside of Skunk Cabbage even has the look of rotting flesh. The green-maroon hood is known as a spathe, not true leaves, but modified leaves that surround the flower.

The hood protects the round, golfball like flower structure inside. Bustling among the yellow pollen is a small gnat. Flies are some of the most common insects drawn to Skunk Cabbage.

Growing in a large area with the Skunk Cabbage was this plant I had never seen in flower. I had come across the leaves before, but didn't recognize the bloom. This is Butterbur Petasites hybridus, a member of the Aster family.

Before getting too excited, I had forgotten this was a non-native. Butterbur has large round basal leaves similar to Coltsfoot, of which it is a distant relative.

Butterbur gets its name from older times when people churned their own butter and would wrap it and store it in the leaves of this plant.

Figuring where there's one exotic, there is probably more. Sure enough, the Myrtle or Periwinkle Vinca minor was everywhere. Myrtle is a common ornamental used as a ground cover plant. The flowers are showy, but it does have a tendency to escape and spread if unchecked.

Growing mixed with the Myrtle was this attractive plant. It's Scilla sibirica, the Siberian Squill. A very early bloomer, it was introduced into the country as a showy garden plant. Like Myrtle, it has the potential of being invasive.

Another sure sign of spring, all the woody plants are busting their buds open. This is Staghorn Sumac, Rhus typhina, and yes it's native.

It may be spring, but there are plenty of signs remaining from the previous season. This is Basswood fruit, Tilia americana. The nutlets dangle from a leafy like bract that acts as a hang glider to help spread the seeds.

Besides the woodlands, I got out into some nice wetlands. These areas were dominated by Silky Dogwood, Pin Oak, and the scraggly looking Swamp White Oak, Quercus bicolor.

Swamp White Oak twigs are light brown and the buds are small and blunt. This species often shows hair-like stipules sticking out between the buds.

This mysterious picture is not a hairy caterpillar. It is a willow in flower. The following is just a collection of various species of Willow I found in bloom. Willows have either male or female sexed trees. The first couple of pictures are female flowers followed by the males.

Waterfowl migration is beginning to peak also at this time. With limited telephoto ability, I was 'somewhat' able to sneak up on these mated pairs of Ring-neck Ducks.

And what am I suppose to make of this? Why a flock of Shovelers of course. You can always click on the photos to be sure.

Just because I could hide in the brush along a dike, didn't mean I could get very close. Here's a series of shots of Blue-wing Teal taking flight.

What did you expect, eyeball shots?

I was getting ready to leave when I noticed something way off in the distance grab my attention. Could this be an Osprey nest, seemed too big. Wait a minute, eagle?

Sure enough, as I got closer, it turned out to be a pair of Bald Eagles nesting. It's only my third visit to this site, but I had no idea this nest was even here. Now I've seen my share of eagles and nests before, but never with a camera in hand. Good news, Bald eagle sightings continue to increase in Ohio. In the last couple years at least 200 nests have been recorded with over 150 of them being active.

I also know better than to walk out in the open in front of a nesting pair. I was lucky to have a large series of dikes in this wetland to hide behind. These aren't fantastic closeups like other people may capture. My old 400mm telephoto doesn't work with my current camera, but I shot with the largest files possible, then cropped repeatedly. So it looks closer than I actually was. Neither bird ever flew or moved, but I still got out of the area as quick as possible.

Also, this area is not open to the general public. I acquired a permit that allows me access to the grounds, so I will not disclose the location. Regardless, it was a nice way to end the week.