Overview of Southeastern Ohio
Ohio’s forests are particularly interesting because they differ depending on the location in the state. The Southeastern part of Ohio is unglaciated (CLICKBAIT: glaciers HATED this part of Ohio, click here to find out why!), which means it has a vastly different topography than northern and western Ohio.
Unglaciated Ohio is hilly, with deep ravines and many large rocks since there were no gigantic ice forms to flatten the land and shove the rocks away. This led to sandstone hills with acidic, fast-draining soils — soils that attract different plants than the basic soils abundant with lime and clay found in glaciated Ohio.
Deep Woods Farm
At Deep Woods Farm we were lucky to explore a few different ecosystems found in the Hocking Hills area. We explored trees with species-wide health issues. plants that are acid loving (acidophiles), plants with interesting ways to gain nutrition, invasive plants, ferns, and interesting gametophytes.
Special Deep Woods Gametophyte:
The Appalachian gametophyte, Vittaria appalachiana, is an interesting fern because it doesn’t even look like a fern. It has no fronds (leaves), and only grows as a gametophyte in cool, damp, dark areas. It favors sandstone, which is why it’s found at Deep Woods Farm. Instead of reproducing via sporophytes, it reproduces asexually via gammae, which can be seen above. Gamme are too large to be dispersed by wind in long distances, making them the Appalachian gametophyte unable to spread like most ferns do via their spores. Instead, water, short distance wind dispersal, and even animals are cited as dispersal agents. In 1995, slugs were observed spreading the gammae and in 2005, ants were seen spreading the gammae.
Because this gametophyte is seen in such a large range for its dispersal capabilities, and it is found in such random places (caves) it is thought that there were once mature sporophytes that spread this plant around. This is further proved by the fact that no recently disturbed areas are home to this plant. Because all of the Appalachian gametophyte’s range is unglaciated, it is presumed that the sporophyte disappeared before or during the last ice age’s glaciers changed the earth’s topography.
There are little proven dispersal methods long-distance for the Appalachain gametophyte, even through hybridization, as the genetics and morphology of other closely related plants (Vittaria gramnifolia) simply do not match up. The most likely explanation for the range of the Appalachian gametophyte is a sporophyte once existed, but died out before the ice age was over.
Tree in Trouble!!
Pictured above is a Chestnut tree – either Chinese or American, I can’t remember. It is most likely a Chinese chestnut, though, because American Chestnuts have been having a species wide crisis since the late 1800’s, arriving with the importation of Japanese Chestnuts. This brought the ‘Chestnut Blight,’ the introduction of a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which forms cankers on the woody parts of the tree that grow larger, eventually killing all parts of the tree above ground. By 1940, 3 1/2 billion+ trees had succumbed to the fungal infection. (Conolly, N. B. (2007). Chestnut blight: Cryphonectria parasitica. Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic . http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/chestnutblight.pdf)
What does this mean? It means since the loss of the American Chestnut, a staple food source for forest wildlife was removed. The leaves were favored detritus for soil dwellers, as well as insects that would be eaten by the next trophic level, meaning that the nutrients provided by American Chestnuts would work its way through the whole trophic cascade.
Now, scientists are working on a path to restoring the American Chestnut population using breeding strategies to breed a blight-resistant American Chestnut.
Acidophiles:
Speaking of Chestnuts, is that a big chestnut I see over there? No, it’s a Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana), which has chestnut-like leaves. On closer inspection, though, the chestnut oak has bluntly lobed leaves since it’s in the white oak family, while you usually find sharp teeth on a true chestnut.
Chestnut oaks look a lot like Chinquapin oaks, which are also in the white oak family, but Quercus muehlenbergii prefers basic soils (it’s a calcifile), and would not be found at Deep Woods Farm with it’s acidic soils. Good thing Chestnut oak is an acidophile!
Next up we have Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Eastern hemlocks are acidophiles, and prefer shady, moist areas like ravines and north facing slopes!
I unfortunately did not get a picture of mr. hemlock at Deep Woods Farm, but here’s a picture I found online!
Eastern hemlock has two white strips on the underside of each leaf. These are called stomata, and they’re breathing pores for the plant. If you see white somewhere else on this trees branches though, you’re seeing a Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae), which is causing the hemlock population to decline rapidly 🙁
Luckily our next acidophile doesn’t have a disease associated with it!
WAIT I didn’t get a picture of it either? That’s because I was too busy eating the leaves!
Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) is not necessarily delicious to me. To some the foliage tastes like sour apples, but to me, it just tastes sour (hence the name, but it should be called sourleaf). Fortunately something yummy comes from this acid-loving plant, and that is through the work of our bee friends, that make sourwood honey when the flowers are in bloom! Sourwood honey is much more palatable to me.
You can identify sourwood by its barely-toothed margins, alternate simple foliage, and oblong leaf shape.
Strange nutritive habits…
Sourwood is in the Ericaceae family, and so is this strange plant we discussed on the trip.
Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)
These are ghost pipes, albeit a bit … dead. Here they are below in their former glory!
These may look fungal when passing by them on a trail, and while they are associated with fungi, they’re perennial plants. The reason they can be fully white (no chlorophyll for photosynthesis) is because they feed off of tree roots through mycorrhizal networks that exist in the soil.
Ferns:
Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
What is this above? It’s a sensitive fern! Sensitive ferns are not exactly sensitive, but they are…
- Pinnatiphid: they are not completely pinnate, because of the leaf membrane that connects each lobe, seen running along the leafstalk (frond-stalk?).
- Holodimorphic: they are split into entirely different fronds for reproductive purposes. The green frond is sterile, while the brown frond is fertile and used for reproduction.
What is this? It’s a polypody fern! You can tell because it is the way it is. Just kidding!
- Pinnatifid: once gain, it is not entirely pinnate due to the lobes all connecting with one another by a membrane on the frond-stalk.
- Monomorphic: as seen below, the spores exist on the underside of each frond. This might be a bad picture to showcase that, but the spores can continue down the entire frond.
Christmas tree fern
Wait are there presents under there? NO, there are SPORES under there!
This is the Christmas tree fern.
- It is completely pinnate – there are no membranes attaching leaves (seen below much better).
- It is hemidimorphic – there are smaller leaflets at the terminal end that produce spores, but the entire plant does not produce spores.
GRRRRRRRRRRRR:
We do NOT like this plant. What is it? Look.
Doesn’t it just fill you with annoyance to look at it? Japanese stiltgrass, pictured above and below, is an invasive grass from Asia that has was introduced to Tennessee in 1919, and outcompetes many of the native beneficial grasses in Ohio and throughout the United States.
