Botanical Survey

Part 1: Introduction

Overbrook Ravine is located in Clintonville, Ohio and is situated east of High Street. It has a number of trees, shrubs, plants and mosses which are common throughout the Clintonville parks. The Adena Brook runs though the middle of it, and leads to Whetstone Park of Roses. It is a moist environment with a lot of tree cover, very little shrubbery, but plenty of ground cover.

 

One thing to watch out for there is poison ivy. You can recognize it by its trifoliate leaves (meaning it has leaflets of three), it is a vine that resembles a hairy rope, it has adventitious rootless that come off the vine to attach it to trees, and it has white drupes.

Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)

 

Part 2: Flowers and Inflorescences

Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

Ground Ivy is recognizable by being zygomorphic, 5 fused sepals, 2 sets of fused petals, 1 set of individual petals, many stamen, and 2 pistils. It is perigynous and syncarpous. It was found on a bank near the Adena Brook. It has axillary inflorescence, It has small nutlets as fruit.

 

Clustered Black Snakeroot (Sanicula odorata)

Clustered Black Snakeroot has radial symmetry. It has 5 fused sepals, 5 fused petals, 5 long stamens, and 1 pistil. It is perigynous, and unicarpellate. It was found on the ground floor amongst vines. It has umbel inflorescence, and a seed without a plume.

 

Canadian Honewart (Cryptotaenia canadensis)

Canadian Honewart is radially symmetric, The flower has 5 to no sepals, 5 petals, 5 stamens and 2 pistils. It is perigynous and unicarpellate. It has terminal and axillary inflorescence and has 2 sectioned ribbed seeds.

 

Butterweed (Packera glabella)

Butterweed is radially symmetric. It has many fused sepals, 5-15 petals, 5 stamen, and 1 pistil. It is epigynous and syncarpous. It has terminal inflorescence, and achenes as fruit.

 

Part 3: Invasive Plants

Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)

This invasive species comes from eastern Asia, specifically Korea and Japan, and used for erosion control. It is a problem in many woody ecosystems, as it prevents native plant diversity and shades tree seedlings. The main way its managed is herbicides, but smaller plants can be pulled from the ground.

 

 

Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei)

This invasive species comes from China and was used as a ground cover plant. It grows in undisturbed forests and depletes nutrients from native plants. Management can be manually removing or herbicides.

 

Ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva)

This invasive plant is native to Asia, with China and Japan included. They’re tolerant to poor soils and they form hard clumps of clay. You can manage them by mowing them and putting sod over them, or using herbicides.

 

Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus)

Burning Bush is an invasive species that originates from eastern Asia. The berries cause the growth of more burning bushes, and their fruit are not nutritious for other animals. The seedlings can be pulled by hand, the shrubs can be cut to the ground and treated with herbicides.

 

Part 4: Woody Plant Fruits

Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)

Black walnuts have drupes that are dark in color. It is identifiable by having a yellowish-green husk, and when it ripens it turns soft and dark.

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Eastern Redbuds have many legumes which hang from the branches. The fruit is dry and flat, in a pod shape, and 2-4 inches in length. Inside the pod are flat brown seeds.

American Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia)

This tree has many capsules which hang from the branches. The capsules are inflated, resembling of a bladder, egg shaped and papery. They are light green in color.

Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra)

This tree has many capsules which hold its seeds. The outside is spiked and brown in color, while the seed on the inside is dark brown with a light spot, resembling the eye of a deer.

 

Part 5: Mosses

Silvergreen Bryum Moss (Bryum argenteum)

Toothed Plagiomnium Moss (Plagiomnium cuspidatum)

Broom Forkmoss (Dicranum scoparium)

Red-stemmed Feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi)