The post discusses the Hepatica acutiloba plant, highlighting its characteristics, growth, historical medicinal use, and its natural habitat in central eastern North America. It also includes an observation made in Robert H. Treman Park.
These characteristic leaves are Hepatica plants growing on the sun dappled southern rim of Robert H. Treman Park captured on a bright late September morning.
“Hepatica acutiloba, the sharp-lobed hepatica, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is sometimes considered part of the genus Anemone, as Anemone acutiloba, A. hepatica, or A. nobilis. Also generally known as Liverleaf and Liverwort.”
“The word hepatica derives from the Greek ἡπατικός hēpatikós, from ἧπαρ hêpar ‘liver’, because its three-lobed leaf was thought to resemble the human liver.”
“Each clump-forming plant grows 5 to 19 cm (2.0 to 7.5 in) tall, flowering in the early to mid spring. The flowers are greenish-white, white, purple or pinkish in color, with a rounded shape. After flowering the fruits are produced in small, rounded columned heads, on pedicels 1 to 4 mm long. When the fruits, called achenes, are ripe they are ovoid in shape, 3.5–4.7 mm long and 1.3–1.9 mm wide, slightly winged and tend to lack a beak.”
Hepatica Flowers in early spring on the Rim Trail
“Hepatica acutiloba is native to central eastern North America where it can be found growing in deciduous open woods, most often in calcareous soils. Butterflies, moths, bees, flies and beetles are known pollinators. The leaves are basal, leathery, and usually three-lobed, remaining over winter.”
“Hepatica was once used as a medicinal herb. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was once thought to be an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses, the leaves and flowers may be used as an astringent, as a demulcent for slow-healing injuries, and as a diuretic.”
Ferns and Mosses growing beneath Red Pines
View of the lower falls and swimming hole from the Rim Trail
Returning from a Rim Trail walk one April my boots were yellow from a prolific release of pollen from flowers of these tall trees that develop into the woody cones.
Pinus, the pine, is the largest genus in the family Pinaceae, with around 100 species throughout the northern hemisphere.
Red Pine (Pinus resinosa) is Minnesota’s state tree, known there as the Norway Pine. The use of the name “Norway” may stem from early Scandinavian immigrants who likened the American red pines to the Scots pines back home.
“Red pine is a coniferous evergreen tree characterized by tall, straight growth. It usually ranges from 20–35 meters (66–115 feet) in height and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in trunk diameter, exceptionally reaching 43.77 m (143+1⁄2 ft) tall. The crown is conical, becoming a narrow, rounded dome with age. The bark is thick and gray brown at the base of the tree, but thin, flaky and bright orange red in the upper crown; the tree’s name derives from this distinctive character. Some red color may be seen in the fissures of the bark. The species is self-pruning; there tend not to be dead branches on the trees, and older trees may have very long lengths of branchless trunk below the canopy.”
“It is a long-lived tree, reaching a maximum age of about 500 years. Another member of Pinus, Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey, the intermountain bristlecone pine, is the longest-lived tree in the world; one in the White Mountains of Nevada is estimated to be 5,000 years old, and by matching rhe rings with even older dead trees, a sequence going back 8,500 years has been established.”
“Red pine is notable for its very constant morphology and low genetic variation throughout its range, suggesting it has been through a near extinction in its recent evolutionary history. A genetic study of nuclear microsatellite polymorphisms among populations distributed throughout its natural range found that red pine populations from Newfoundland are genetically distinct from most mainland populations, consistent with dispersal from different glacial refugia in this highly self-pollinating species.”
Solidago flexicaulis, AKA Broadleaf Goldenrod and Ziazag Goldenrod
“Inventor Thomas Edison experimented with goldenrod to produce rubber, which it contains naturally. Edison created a fertilization and cultivation process to maximize the rubber content in each plant. His experiments produced a 12 ft-tall (3.7 m) plant that yielded as much as 12% rubber. The tires on the Model T given to him by his friend Henry Ford were made from goldenrod. Like George Washington Carver, Henry Ford was deeply interested in the regenerative properties of soil and the potential of alternative crops such as peanuts and soybeans to produce plastics, paint, fuel and other products. Ford had long believed that the world would eventually need a substitute for gasoline and supported the production of ethanol (or grain alcohol) as an alternative fuel. In 1942, he would showcase a car with a lightweight plastic body made from soybeans. Ford and Carver began corresponding via letter in 1934, and their mutual admiration deepened after George Washington Carver made a visit to Michigan in 1937.”
“By the time World War II began, Ford had made repeated journeys to Tuskegee to convince George Washington Carver to come to Dearborn and help him develop a synthetic rubber to help compensate for wartime rubber shortages. Carver arrived on July 19, 1942, and set up a laboratory in an old water works building in Dearborn. He and Ford experimented with different crops, including sweet potatoes and dandelions, eventually devising a way to make the rubber substitute from goldenrod, a plant weed commercially viable. Carver died in January 1943, Ford in April 1947, but the relationship between their two institutions continued to flourish: As recently as the late 1990s, Ford awarded grants of $4 million over two years to the George Washington Carver School at Tuskegee.”
“Extensive process development was conducted during World War II to commercialize goldenrod as a source of rubber. The rubber is only contained in the leaves, not the stems or blooms. Typical rubber content of the leaves is 7%. The resulting rubber is of low molecular weight, resulting in an excessively tacky compound with poor tensile properties.”
References: text in italics and quotes is from the Wikipedia,“Solidago.”
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
After crossing the bridge at Swan Road I turned back down the gorge on the Rim Trail, climbing above the gorge where these interesting woodland goldenrod thrive.
“Solidago flexicaulis, the broadleaved goldenrod, or zigzag goldenrod,is a North American species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern and central parts of the United States and Canada, from Nova Scotia west to Ontario and the Dakotas, and south as far as Alabama and Louisiana. It grows in a variety of habitats including mesic upland forests, well drained floodplain forests, seepage swamp hummocks, and rocky woodlands.”
“The plant is called the “zigzag goldenrod” because the thin, wiry stem zigs and zags back and forth, changing direction at each node (leaf attachment point). The plant bears sometimes as many as 250 small yellow flower heads, some at the end of the stem, others in the axils of the leaves. The leaves are very broad, almost round, but with an elongated tip at the end and large teeth along the edges.”
“Goldenrod is considered a keystone species and has been called the single most important plant for North American pollinator biodiversity. Goldenrod species are used as a food source by the larvae of many Lepidoptera species. As many as 104 species of butterflies and moths use it as a host plant for their larvae, and 42 species of bees are goldenrod specialists, visiting only goldenrod for food. Some lepidopteran larvae bore into plant tissues and form a bulbous tissue mass called a gall around it, upon which the larva then feeds. Various parasitoid wasps find these galls and lay eggs in the larvae, penetrating the bulb with their ovipositors. Woodpeckers are known to peck open the galls and eat the insects in the center.”
“Solidago flexicaulis is host to the following insect induced galls: Asteromyia modesta, a species of gall midges in the family Cecidomyiidae. Gnorimoschema gallaesolidaginis also called the solidago gall moth, goldenrod gall moth or goldenrod gallmaker, is a moth in the family Gelechiidae.”
References: text in italics and quotes is from the Wikipedia, “Solidago flexicaulis,” “Solidago,” “Asteromyia modesta,” and “Gnorimoschema gallaesolidaginis.”
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Airport Day was hosted by the East Hill Flying Club, the pancake breakfast was in the hangar.
We learned why a hot air balloon cannot “pop.”
The propane burner announces the approach of every hot air baloon.
The operator kept careful watch over this landing helicopter, Sam was nervous anyway.
While we were aloft the New York State Police helicopter completed landing next to the U.S. Army Helicopter.
U.S. Army Helicopter — Sam was not a fan of the potential firepower, Rory was all in
New York State Police Helicopter
Dryden Volunteer Fire Department Firetruck
The Friendly Clown was excellent!!
The Airport Terminal was not part of the day’s events, I took Sam and Rory there once, to visit the bathroom, and ever since they insist on visiting the play area
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Our grandson’s work on baseball skills is paying off. Here he slugs one to right field where it bounces on the fence for a solid double. He had two doubles that game, driving in a couple of runs, scoring off one himself. Good work!!
“Carl Stotz, a resident of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, founded Little League Baseball in 1939. He began experimenting with his idea in the summer of 1938 when he gathered his nephews, Jimmy and Major Gehron, and their neighborhood friends. They tried different field dimensions over the course of the summer and played several informal games. The following summer, they felt that they were ready to establish what later became Little League Baseball. The first league in Williamsport had just three teams, each sponsored by a different business. The first teams, Jumbo Pretzel, Lycoming Dairy, and Lundy Lumber, were managed by Stotz and brothers George and Bert Bebble. The men, joined by their wives and another couple, formed the first-ever Little League board of directors.”
“The first league game took place on June 6, 1939 when Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy, 23–8. Lycoming Dairy became the champions of the first half of the season and then defeated Lundy Lumber, the second-half champions, in a best-of-three championship series. The following year, a second league was formed in Williamsport, and from there Little League Baseball grew to become an international organization of nearly 200,000 teams in every U.S. state and in more than 80 countries.”
“From 1951 through 1973, Little League was restricted to boys only. In 1974, Little League rules were revised to allow participation by girls in the baseball program following the result of a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women on behalf of Maria Pepe. According to the Little League Baseball and Softball participation statistics following the 2008 season, there were nearly 2.6 million boys and girls in Little League Baseball worldwide. Of these, approximately 400,000 are registered in softball leagues (including both boys and girls). Starting in 2022, For tournament purposes, Little League Baseball is divided into 20 geographic regions: ten national and ten international. Each summer, Little League operates seven World Series tournaments at various locations throughout the U.S. (Little League softball and Junior, Senior, and Big League baseball and softball).”
Reference: text in italics and quotes is from the Wikipedia, “Little League.”
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved.
After living here since 1986 I discovered this Cayuga Heights park on a warm early September day, 2023.
Looking across Cayuga Lake, not visible in the valley, to West Hill.
Plaque inscription: “Here may you too find the love of beauty, goodness, truth. This was the wish of Jane and Jared Newman when they presented Sunset Park to the village of Cayuga Heights in January of 1938.”
Rest on a limestone bench beneath a mature oak tree.
Limestone benches
View across Ithaca towards West Hill and, in the far distance, Connecticut Hill.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
“Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato is a herbaceous, perennial, flowering plant growing from a corm. It typically grows up to two feet tall, but populations in Georgia and Florida are known to reach almost twice that height. It has 1 or 2 leaves, each with three leaflets (triphyllum). Occasionally the lateral leaflets will be two-parted or lobed, giving the appearance of five leaflets per leaf. One species (A. quinatum) typically has five pseudo-leaflets per leaf.”
Those of you who know Georgia O’Keefe may be familiar with the form and coloring of Jack-in-the-pulpit from the series of six oil canvasses from 1930, her time in the east living near a spring. There is a spathe, the pulpit, strongly colored in dramatic vertical, flowing stripes, wrapped around a spandix, the “jack”, being a stem covered with male and female flowers.
Around the time my photography habit started in 2002 I was surprised by the jacks growing from the walls of Fillmore Glen, spying the distinctive forms flowing a bit above eye level under the three large leaves. Seeing them was like recognizing a friend in Halloween disguise, the exotic O’Keefe shapes in a known place.
“The small, inconspicuous flowers of Jack-in-the-pulpit are borne on a fleshy, spike-like inflorescence called a spadix (“Jack”), which is enclosed (or nearly enclosed) by a large, sometimes colorful bract called a spathe (“pulpit”). The flowers are clustered around the base of the spadix inside the spathe. A sterile spadix appendix protrudes from the mouth of the spathe tube. The appendix is covered by the leafy tip of the spathe, referred to as the spathe hood (or spathe lamina). The lip along the mouth of the spathe tube, used as a landing platform for winged insects, is called the spathe flange.”
“The inflorescence can be male (with male flowers only), bisexual (with both male and female flowers), or female (with female flowers only). In a small plant, most if not all of the flowers are male. As the plant matures and grows larger, the spadix produces female flowers as well as male flowers. The transition from male to female continues until eventually the plant produces female flowers only.[6] This is an example of dichogamy, a rare phenomenon in flowering plants. Due to this sex-change lifecycle, this species is sometimes called colloquially as Jack or Jill in the pulpit or Jill-in-the-pulpit.”
“The unripe fruits are smooth, shiny green berries (each 1 cm wide) clustered around the thickened spadix. Fruits ripen in the late summer and early fall, turning a conspicuous bright red color. Each berry typically produces 1–5 seeds, which are white to light tan in color, rounded, often with flattened edges and a short sharp point at the top. If the seeds are freed from the berry, they will germinate the next spring, producing seedlings each with a single rounded leaf. A seedling needs three or more years of growth before it becomes mature enough to flower.”
“The Arisaema triphyllum complex includes four closely-related species: Arisaema pusillum, Arisaema stewardsonii, Arisaema quinatum, and Arisaema triphyllum sensu stricto. A fifth species (Arisaema acuminatum) is sometimes included but its validity is controversial.”
Ecology
“Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato flowers from April to June.[citation needed] Arisaema triphyllum sensu stricto is the first to flower in the spring. In regions where the species are sympatric, Arisaema stewardsonii and Arisaema pusillum begin to flower 1–2 and 2–3 weeks later, respectively. Since an individual flowering period can last 1–3 weeks or more, it is not unusual to find all three species in flower at the same time. In the southeastern United States, Arisaema quinatum is reported to flower later than either A. pusillum or A. triphyllum s.s.”
“Arisaema triphyllum sensu lato is pollinated by fungus gnats, which it attracts by smell and are trapped by the flower. They manage to escape from a hole at the bottom of the male’s pulpit, but cannot do so when they fall inside a female pulpit, which do not have exit holes Thus the Jill-in-the-pulpit is a rare femme fatale in the plant world: luring the gnats in with scent, but ultimately killing the pollinators in a death trap.”
“Other insects are known to visit the flowers as well, such as gall gnats and beetles.[6] The plant is not self-pollinating since the male flowers on a specific plant have already matured and died before the female flowers of that same plant are mature. So the female flowers need to be pollinated by the male flowers of a different plant. This inhibits inbreeding and contributes to the health of the species.”
This year, 2023, an informational sign was installed next to the Charles Atwood memorial at the foot of the stone stairs leading to the Gorge Trail.
Charles Atwood The Father of Fillmore Glen
“From Botanist to Physician and Pharmacist: born in Summerhill, Cayuga Coun ty, New York State, Charles Atwood graduated from Cornell University in 1878 with a degree in Botany. He then obtained a medical degree in 1881 from the University of Iowa. He moved to Moravia, Cayuga County, to set up practice. In addition to being a physician, he was one of the first pharmacists to be licensed in New York State. A Passion for Plants. Although Dr. Atwood worked full time as a pharmacist, he retained his passion for botany. Atwood was very interested in the parcel of land that became Fillmore Glen Park, due to the rich botanic life found there. Atwood worked long and hard to establish Fillmore Glen State Park to preserve not only its plant life, but also the cascading waterfalls and unique geological formations.”
“Atwood’s Quest to Promote Fillmore Glen. June 1919: Dr. Atwood jointed the Moravia Chamber of Commerce and in October became the first representative to the Finger Lakes Association. April 1921: the Moravia Chanbmer of Commerce and the Finger Lakes Association pledged to name the local park after Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States, who was born in Summerhill. They planned a dedication ceremony for July. April, May, June 1921: Businessmen of Moravia organized a volunteer force to clear underbrush, remove dead trees and create walking paths for the July event. July 4, 1921: Ten thousand people came to Moravia to enjoy the dedication ceremony, band concerts, speeches, vaudeville acts, athletic events, dancing, fireworks and a parade. October 1923: With the Moravia Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Atwood submitted a proposal for the glen to become a state park. April 1924: The state legislature created the New York State Council of Parks. Dr. Atwood was appointed a commissioner for the Finger Lakes Region. June 1925: Fillmore Glen officially became a state park with 39 acres. Seven different parcels totaling 144 acres were added in 1926. The park has continued to grow to its current size of almost 1,000 acres. October 1928: After Dr. Atwood’s death in June, several hundred people attended the dedication of a memorial to honor the ‘Father of Fillmore Glen.'”
Reference: text in italics and quotes is from the new Charles Atwood Sign.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 