Dewberry

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Rubus

Species: R. flagellaris

Identifying Characteristics:

- This native woody vine produces stems up to 15' long that trail along the ground; some of the flowering stems are more erect and up to 4' tall. Old stems are brown and woody with scattered hooked prickles. Young stems are green with scattered hooked prickles; they are also more or less hairy.

-Alternate compound leaves occur at intervals along the stems. They are usually trifoliate with 3 leaflets; less often, compound leaves with 5 leaflets occur. These leaflets are up to 3" long and 1" across; they are ovate, doubly serrate along the margins, and mostly hairless. The underside of each leaflet is pale green, rather than white or velvety. Most leaflets have wedge-shaped bottoms and tips that taper gradually.

-Young stems often terminate in a corymb of 1-5 flowers. Each flower is about 1" across when fully open; it consists of 5 white petals, 5 lanceolate green sepals, and numerous stamens that surround a green cluster of carpels. The petals are longer than the sepals and they often have a somewhat wrinkled appearance. The blooming period occurs from mid-spring to early summer and lasts about 2 months.

-Each fertilized flower is replaced by a compound drupe up to 1" long that is longer than it is broad. A fully ripened drupe becomes purple-black or black and has a tart-sweet flavor. This drupe does not detach from its receptacle easily.

Special Adaptations:

-This plant typically grows in partial sun and mesic to dry conditions.

- it tolerates different kinds of soil, including those containing loam, clay-loam, sand, or rocky material. Full sun is also toleratedThe flowers attract both long-tongued and short-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, Mason bees, Leaf-Cutting bees, Cuckoo bees (Nomadine), and Miner bees (Eucerine). These insects suck nectar or collect pollen. The flowers also attract butterflies, skippers, and various flies. Insects that feed on various parts of Common Dewberry

- The drupes of Common Dewberry and other Rubus spp. are an important source of summer food to many upland gamebirds and songbirds

-The Raccoon, Fox Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk, White-Footed Mouse, and other mammals also eat the fruits, while the Cottontail Rabbit and White-Tailed Deer browse on the leaves and stems.

Black Swallowtail

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Papilionidae

Genus: Papilio

Species: P. polyxenes

Identifying Characteristics:

-The black swallowtail is a black butterfly with yellow markings near the margins of the forewings and hindwings and more limited blue and red markings on the hindwings

-Its wing span can reach 4 ½ inches

-Full grown caterpillars can reach 2 inches in length and are smooth and green, marked with black bands and yellow spots.

Special Adaptations:

- the black swallowtail mimics the bad tasting pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor (Linnaeus), which is all metallic black-blue on the upper surface of the wings, lacking the yellow and blue markings. Caterpillars feed on pipevines, Dutchman’s-pipe and Virginia snakeroot

-Winter is spent in the chrysalis (pupa) stage. Adults emerge in the spring and seek host plants. Females lay round, yellow to cream colored eggs on the leaves. Caterpillars hatching from eggs are initially black with a white saddle. After molting several times, each larvae transforms into a pale green chrysalis that is suspended from a plant stem by a thread.

-Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts. Adults have siphoning mouths. Host plants of the caterpillar include members of the parsley family (Umbelliferae) including carrot, parsley, dill, fennel and Queen Anne's lace and some members of the Rutaceae

Eastern Wood Peewee

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Tyrannidae

Genus: Contopus

Species: C. virens

Identifying Characteristics:

-Medium-sized flycatcher

-Adults are grey-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars, and the primary remiges are long, giving the wingtip a slim and very pointed appearance. The upper part of the bill is dark, the lower part is yellowish

-The songs are basically a mournful whistled pee-a'wee given in a series, which gave this bird its name, and a "we-aww" with a rising note at the end

- Juvenile similar to adult, but wingbars buffier

Special Adaptations:

-Eastern Wood-Pewee: Breeds from eastern Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from southern Canada (Saskatchewan to the Maritime Provinces) to northern Florida, the Gulf coast and central Texas. Spends winters in the tropics.

-Preferred habitats include northern hardwood, pine-oak, oak-hickory, bottomland hardwood, southern pine savannah, and midwestern forests; also found in orchards, parks, roadsides, and suburban areas.

-One potential cause of their decline is the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the Eastern forests. In areas with high deer density, the intermediate canopy is disturbed by browsing, affecting the foraging space of the flycatcher

Soft Arrow - Wood

Order: Dipsacales

Family: Caprifoliaceae

Genus: Viburnum

Species: V. dentatum

Identifying Characteristics:

- arrow- wood is a deciduous shrub (potentially a small tree) with slender trunk(s) and arching branches

- gets no more 6-10 ft (1.8-3 m) tall

- Arrow-wood usually has multiple trunks and expands its domain by sending up new shoots from underground runners

- dark green leaves are opposite, a little sandpapery to the touch, and coarsely toothed along the margins. A prominent lateral vein terminates at the tip of each marginal tooth. The leaves are oval and usually 2-3 in (5-7.7 cm) long.

- Arrow-wood blooms in mid-spring with showy flat topped clusters of little creamy white flowers. The flowers are about an eighth-inch across and the clusters are 3-4 in (7.7-10 cm) across.

- The bluish black fruits (1-seeded drupes) are ovoid in shape, a little less than a half-inch long, and the clusters can be quite showy. They are bitter to the taste.

Special Adaptations:

- The viburnums are similar to the dogwoods (Cornus) in that most members of both genera are deciduous shrubs with opposite leaves and tiny whitish flowers in rounded, flat-topped clusters.

- It occurs in mesic woods, usually growing in the understory of mixed hardwood forests of oaks, magnolias, maples, hickories, American beech and the like. Arrow-wood grows on both poorly drained and well drained soils.

- Arrow-wood thrives in partial shade and in full sun

- Arrow-wood is able to tolerate drought once it is established

- Viburnum seeds are difficult to germinate because they have a required period of dormancy and hard seed coats. Under the best of conditions, arrow-wood seeds will take a year to germinate.

Abbot's Sphinx

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Sphingidea

Genus: Sphecodina

Species: S. abbottii

Identifying Characteristics:

- The young larva is white; The mature larva has two different color forms: tan or brown with greenish saddles on each segment or cream or brownish with darker strips along the back and sides.

- it lacks a horn but has an eyelid bump on its last segment

Special Adaptations:

- When disturbed the sphinx trashes its head and for-body from side to side as a protective measure.

- They feed on grape, Virginia creeper, and anpelopsis. It feeds at night.

- During the day, when it is still, the larva's coloration allows it to blend in with bark and vines near the ground.

Northern bugleweed

Order: Lamiales

Family: Lamiaceae

Genus: Lycopus

Species: L. uniflorus

Identifying Characteristics:

- height: 5-30 in

- Flower: 1/8 in long, white, out during July-october, native, axillary whorls; at the base of each flower are two small, subulate bracts-a smooth, straight, obtusely four-angled stem, with the sides concave, producing slender runners from the base

-leaves are opposite, toothed, entire toward the base, with glandular dots underneath

Special Adaptations:

- Habitat: Sun to partly shade; moist soil, along shores

- Bloom season: summer

- life cycle: perennial

Crane Fly

Order: Diptera

Family: Tipulidae

Identifying Characteristics:

-Crane flies are large tan-colored fragile flies with long legs

-Larval forms of crane flies are grey-brown cylindrical larvae which may bear fleshy lobes on the (posterior) end. Occasionally, the segments towards the end of the body can be greatly expanded.

- Adults are very slender, long-legged flies that may vary in length from 2–60 millimetres (0.079–2.4 in)

Special Adaptations:

-Larvae are often encountered under layers of decomposing leaves in wet locations such as ditch banks in December and January. Adults emerge in February and March.

- Larvae have chewing mouthparts. Crane fly larvae feed primarily on decomposing organic matter. Adults do not feed.

-They commonly occur in moist environments such as woodlands, streams and flood plains although some species inhabit open fields, dry rangeland and even desert environments

-In compost piles, they often occur on the soil surface below the pile of decaying vegetation. Some species have been reported to feed on roots of forage crops, turf grasses and seedling field crops.

-Despite their common names, as adults, crane flies do not prey on mosquitoes, nor do they bite humans

-Adult crane flies feed on nectar or they do not feed at all; once they become adults, most crane fly species exist as adults only to mate and die.