Introduction to Lobdell Reserve
The Lobdell reserve is a 210-acre park in the northeast of Licking County. The reserve has 8 miles of trails for hiking, horseback riding, and a disc golf course on the eastern half of the trails (Licking Park District). There are three main plant habitats present: prairie/wetland prairie, mesic/riverside forest, and upland forest. The prairie is home to many plant species we saw in the restored prairie at Battelle Darby, such as Indiangrass, Big Bluestem, and Tall Goldenrod. In the wetter, low-lying areas of the prairie, Pilewort, Narrow-Leaved Cattail, and American Sycamore. Part of the mesic forest is secondary growth, regrowing from what used to be another patch of prairie. This area is home to Tuliptree, Sassafras, Broad-Leaved Dock, and American Pokeweed, among others. Deeper into the woods, near the Lobdell Creek that wanders through the reserve, is older, mature mesic forest. While many of the leaves on the trees are too high up to get a good look at, here we find Pawpaw, Scouring Rush, Japanese Stiltgrass, and Downy Lobelia. Finally, in the upland forest, high above the river-carved valleys of the mesic forest, we find American Beech, Common Spicebush, and Virginia Creeper.
Also found in the upland forest is Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy is an extremely common plant in Ohio, found as a groundcover or tree-climbing vine in just about any woodland area. Poison Ivy is fairly distinct, and can be differentiated from other plants in a variety of different ways. First, their trifoliolate leaves. Poison Ivy leaves have three leaflets per leaf, which may sometimes be lobed. However, there are other plants in Ohio that are trifoliolate. Due to this, sometimes it is necessary to resort to other features of the plant. Specifically, Poison Ivy vines utilize hairy roots to grab onto whatever they are climbing, unlike other vines which use small, twisting stems or stems that have small suction cup-like appendages. Poison Ivy can also be identified by its fruit, which is a small, white drupe.
5 New Plants From Lobdell
At Lobdell Reserve, I found many plants which we haven’t discussed in detail before. Two new trees that I saw at Lobdell Reserve are the Pawpaw and the Tuliptree. Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are small, fruit-producing trees found in the eastern US, with a CC of 6. They’re the largest native fruit in North America, and they’re the only US representative of a typically tropical plant family (National Park Service). They’re also a very common food for foragers to seek out, both human and wildlife, and Pawpaw stands are often picked clean soon after fruit matures. Unlike many other plants, deer avoid feeding on young Pawpaw trees, which may be a factor in their documented habitat expansion into upland areas, due to deer overconsumption of competing young trees (National Park Service). Next up, the Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera). Tuliptrees have a CC of 6, and are large, fast growing trees with flowers that resemble their namesake, tulips. Upon fertilization, they form a group of samaras which each have keel-like bases (Ohio Plants). Tuliptrees love wet, mesic forests, and are also
found as conspicuous residents of the swamp forest at Cedar Bog! The trees grow large, straight trunks, and have been harvested for many different uses, from canoes to crates to musical instruments (Wildflower Center).
I also saw some new shrubs/woody vines. One of these was Autumn Olive, which is an invasive, so it does not have a CC score. Autumn Olive was originally brought to the US from China and Japan in the 1800’s for use as an ornamental shrub and windbreak, but it quickly spread into the wild and became invasive (OIPC). Interestingly, Autumn Olive is also an edible plant, and is sometimes foraged to be added to foods or used in jams (Learn Your Land). Unfortunately the other new shrub I saw was also an invasive, Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii). I did see Spicebush and Virginia Creeper, but I never grabbed a photo of either!
Amur Honeysuckle shares a similar story to Autumn Olive. It was introduced in the 1800’s as… (drumroll please)… an ornamental shrub (MDA). Like Autumn
Olive and other invasives, Amur Honeysuckle doesn’t have a CC score. It does have edible uses, but unlike Autumn Olive, those aren’t in the berries, which are poisonous. Instead, it’s the flowers of Amur Honeysuckle that are eaten (Courier & Press).
Last on the list of new plants, two flowering or fruiting plants! I had a lot of options for this one, but ended up going with Downy Lobelia and New England Aster. New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) is a native prairie plant with large purple ray flowers. It has a CC of 2, and has a very wide native range which covers a large portion of the US and Canada. Reflective of its CC score, New England Aster is a very common plant and easy to grow. Due to this, it is common to find in nurseries and gardens (Forest Service). Downy Lobelia is a small mesic forest/riverbank plant with a CC of 5. Like other more well known Lobelia sp., Downy Lobelia is host to lots of pollinators like butterflies and hummingbirds (VNPS).
4 Invasive Plants at Lobdell
As I touched on some earlier, not all of the plants that I saw at Lobdell Reserve were natives. In total, I saw 4 invasive plant species, two of which were the new shrubs I saw, Autumn Olive and Amur Honeysuckle. As the photos are already above, there’s no need to post them again. Autumn Olive is a large shrub that was originally introduced from China and Japan as an ornamental bush and windbreak (OIPC). It is extremely hardy and capable of surviving in a wide variety of habitats, and since it fixes nitrogen into the soil, Autumn Olive is an especially large threat to habitats that are lacking in nitrogen, where specialist plants grow in areas that many other plants cannot (MSU). Autumn Olive moves in, adds nitrogen to the soil, and opportunistic plants follow, choking out the vulnerable specialist plants. Unfortunately, removing this species is very difficult, and requires a variety of methods to be effective. Manually removing small plants can prevent spread, while larger shrubs will resprout from any roots left behind. Goats are effective at defoliating and killing bushes up to 5ft tall, but this may take a few years of repeated grazing (MSU).
Amur Honeysuckle was also introduced to the US from China and Japan as an ornamental bush in the 1800’s (MDA). Like Autumn Olive, it is able to grow in a variety of habitats, and it will grow in disturbed areas and forest understories alike. Since Amur Honeysuckle leaves appear earlier in the spring than those of natives, it has a growth advantage, and its dense thickets crowd out other plants (Invasive). Additionally, the makeup of Honeysuckle fruits is inferior to that of natives, so it leaves birds with less energy than other foods. Amur Honeysuckle can be controlled by pulling young shoots, and cutting larger shrubs with the application of herbicide to the cut stem afterwards (Invasive).
The third invasive I saw at Lobdell was Narrow Leaved Cattail. Narrow Leaved Cattail has uncertain origins, but was thought to be introduced to the US in the 1800’s from Europe. Interestingly, there is a lot of conflicting information about this species. Some sources claim that only the hybrid (Narrow and Broad Leaved Cattail) is invasive (NPS), while others claim that the Narrow Leaved Cattail forms monocultures and crowds out native wetland species. Even identification is a hotly contested topic (I used the commonly cited leaf-width method). There’s even a few sources I found that insist it’s actually a native species! Whatever the case, the prevailing theory seems to be that Narrow Leaved Cattail is an invasive species, can be identified in the field, and should be removed. According to the USDA, pesticides are entirely unnecessary for removal, and manual
cutting of stems at the base, followed by prolonged flooding of 3″ above cut stems, is effective to remove this species.
The last invasive I saw at Lobdell was Japanese Stiltgrass, which is unfortunately a common sighting in Ohio. First introduced in 1919, Japanese Stiltgrass invades mesic forest ecosystems, reducing native diversity and stopping important ecosystem functions. The plant is considered such a large problem that it is one of the most damaging invasive plants in North America (Invasive Species Info). Unfortunately, removing Japanese Stiltgrass is difficult. Penn State recommends a few methods to get rid of it, such as cutting at the surface with a string trimmer in June and August, as well as preemergence herbicides to stop their seeds from germinating (Japanese Stiltgrass seeds are still viable in soil for up to 5 years), or post emergence herbicides to kill adult plants.
Woody Plant Fruit Identification
While I couldn’t grab fruits to identify from my site, I did grab some from my backyard! The first is a Common Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). Common Persimmon fruit are identifiable by being a large, orange-red berry (Morton Arb.). In fact, it’s the largest native berry in the US! Another helpful feature to recognize Common Persimmon is that the fruits remain on their trees after the leaves have dropped (Eat the Weeds). The next tree-identified-by-fruit is an American Crabapple (Malus coronaria). While many people mistake small, wild-growing apples for crabapples, they are actually a fruit of their own! The fruit of American Crabapple is a small pome, which appears on the end of long stalks hanging in groups of two or three. Like apples, crabapples are affected by Cedar-Apple Rust, a fungus that uses Apple and Eastern Red-Cedar trees as its hosts (Ohio DNR). Third on the list is a Black Walnut fruit. The fruits of Black Walnut trees are some of the most distinctive in Ohio, due to their large size and tough green skin that turns black over time. If you work with Black Walnuts after the fruit has turned black, make sure to wear gloves, as the natural dye from the black areas will stain skin (Ohio DNR2). Finally, the
last fruit I saw was the fruit of Amur Honeysuckle. The fruits of invasive honeysuckle species are all very similar and can be hard to separate from each other. Luckily, Amur Honeysuckle fruit is slightly smaller, with its fruit 1/4″ in diameter, while the fruits of other honeysuckle can get up to 1/3 of an inch (Minnesota Wildflowers).
Mosses and Lichens!
While looking for fruits, I also found a few different species of mosses and Lichens. Here’s some photos of them below. While there’s very limited information out there about many moss species, Ohio’s Lichen Field Guide has lots of useful information about them. For example, Common Greenshield Lichen is very susceptible to air pollution, so its existence in my yard is a good sign that the area is not heavily polluted!
References:
Licking Park District – https://lickingparkdistrict.com/lobdell-reserve/
National Park Service – https://www.nps.gov/articles/pawpaw.htm
Ohio Plants – https://ohioplants.org/fruits-to-know/
Wildflower Center – https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LITU
OIPC – https://www.oipc.info/uploads/5/8/6/5/58652481/7factsheetautumn-oliverussian-olive.pdf
Learn Your Land – https://learnyourland.com/foraging-autumn-olive-elaeagnus-umbellata-identification-medicinal-benefits-more/
Courier & Press – https://www.courierpress.com/story/life/columnists/sharon-sorenson/2017/07/22/birds-add-bird-friendly-plants-your-yard/103814388/
MDA – https://www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/weedcontrol/noxiouslist/amurhoneysuckle
Forest Service – https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/symphyotrichum_novae-angliae.shtml
VNPS – https://vnps.org/downy-lobelia-an-overlooked-garden-native/
MSU – https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/AutumnOliveBCP.pdf
Invasive – https://www.invasive.org/alien/pubs/midatlantic/loma.htm
NPS – https://www.nps.gov/rlc/greatlakes/cattail-page.htm
USDA – https://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/wow/narrow-leaved-cattail.pdf
Invasive Species Info – https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/japanese-stiltgrass
Penn State – https://extension.psu.edu/japanese-stiltgrass
Morton Arb. – https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/persimmon/
Eat The Weeds – https://www.eattheweeds.com/persimmons-pure-pucker-power-2/
Ohio DNR – https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/plants-trees/broad-leaf-trees/american-crabapple-malus-coronaria
Ohio DNR2 – https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/plants-trees/broad-leaf-trees/black-walnut-juglans-nigra
Minnesota Wildflowers – https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/amur-honeysuckle