Overview
Whetstone Park is a large park encompassing many different ecological habitats for plants. There is currently restoration being done on the prairie portion of the park, which will provide an even better habitat for pollinators. Most of the photos I took were near the Olentangy River. The plants and trees near the prairie were not naturally grown there, they were planted by Columbus Parks and Recreation, so I decided to take more pictures near an area that had natural growth. Most of the overstory trees I found were walnut and maple trees, but the park was flourishing with a diversity of plants. There is a lot of open green spaces for large trees to grow, as well as shaded areas near the river for understory plants.
I mostly stayed near the Olentangy Walking Trail from Whetstone Shelter #1 all the way to the connecting Northmoor Park to the south.
Flowers and Inflorescences
This field thistle was located near the edge of the forest almost on the walking trail. Field thistle has a capitulum inflorescence. Field thistle has radial symmetry, 2 fused carpels, an inferior epigynous ovary, and is unicarpellate.
I found this water lily outside of the prairie in a small pond near the walking path. The bond was surrounded by other flora such as ferns and sycamore trees. Atlantic water lilies are also radially symmetric flowers. They have inferior ovaries with 25-40 fused carpels, and are also hypogenous. Water lilies produce a fleshy fruit. (NCBI)
I found this flower near the prairie just off the walking path. This flower was hard to identify to the species, but I believe it is genus Cryptotaenia, in the Apiaceae (carrot) family. This flower is radially symmetric with 5 sepals and 5 stamens all above the inferior ovary. I believe this honewort has a cymose inflorescence. (Gobotany.com)
I found this clover in the ground cover layer below some walnut trees. These guys are just about all over this area, and many other shaded areas I saw in the park. White clover is in the Fabaceae family. This flower has a raceme inflorescence. The fruit they produce is a pod or a legume. The flower has a superior ovary with 10 stamens and bilateral symmetry.(https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/K12/pages/Trifolium%20repens.html)
Invasive Plants
Poison hemlock was first spotted in Ohio in 1860. It prefers open and sunny areas where it can have the most room and sunlight to grow. It is a very hard species to kill, even impossible after it has already started displaying flowers. The best way to eradicate it is with herbicide before it begins flowering. (ODNR).
Amur honeysuckle was introduced into Ohio as recently as the 1950s. This species dominates shady areas and grows rapidly when introduced. Migrating birds eat the fruit the honeysuckle produces, but this fruit lacks the necessary nutrition birds need to migrate. With the plant overtaking the shrub layer, the birds aren’t getting the nutrients they need. There are a number of ways to control it including; mechanical methods (such as mowing, cutting or digging them up), foliar spraying (spraying herbicide directly on the leaves), and basal cutting and spraying (when you cut it down and spray the base with herbicide to prevent regrowth). (OSU).
I do not have a picture of the actual black locust tree, but I do have a picture of the fruit it drops. Black locust have alternately pinnate leaves that resemble that of a walnut tree. They bloom pretty white and pink flowers in the spring as well. Black locust was once native to Southern Appalachia, but now has spread to all parts of the world. It competes with understory brush snuffing them out, and continues to grow taller than the over story trees cutting out sunlight for them (how selfish!). Ohio doesn’t seen to be concerned about removal of this species, but it is something they suggest not to plant.
Woody Plants (Fruits)
Basswood fruit is a schizocarp. I was able to identify this fruit by the shape of the leaflet the fruit was attached to and the way it was hanging off the branch of the adult tree. Basswood fruits have tiny clusters of fruit coming off of one leaflet and when mature, they turn a darker purple/black color. These were not ripe yet, but were unique enough to distinguish from other trees.
Chinese crabapples have a drupe fruit type. The leaflets around the drupe appear in 2s or 3s. The drupe color is a pinkish purple with a yellow undertone. Chinese crabapples belong to the rose family (Rosaceae).
Mulberry has a very distinguishable fleshy berry. Mulberries belong to the family Moraceae. Honestly, at first glance I knew this was a mulberry tree by the clusters of white, light and dark purple berries on the tree itself. The leaflets surround the fruit as well.
This samara belongs to the family Sapindaceae. After examining the leaves, I believe this is a boxelder maple. Maple trees have noticeable samaras, with two seeds being split in half. When I was a kid, we called these “helicopters” due to the way they whirled when falling off of the trees.
Mosses
Mosses and Lichens were hard to find at Whetstone. I was only able to locate one moss on the north side of a shaded forested trees.
This liverwort is from our field trip to Deep Woods Farm.
