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Aug. 21, 2007 - This evening I took in one of the last remaining evening ³NATURE COUNTS² walks at the Irving Centre at Acadia University. Tonightıs walk, led by Suman Gupta, a graduate student, was particularly on invasive alien plants. Next weekıs walk at 6:30 p.m., at the main entrance to the Botanical Gardens, is the last one of this yearıs series. This evening there were perhaps 10 people of all ages and experience, and we had a pleasant stroll mostly along the Woodland Trails, which connect with the Gardens trails. We needed some reference books, in order to look up for each plant species which ones were introduced/alien vs. native. I will just list a few of my own selected highlights here in this journal. At one point on the trail I HEARD a singing EASTERN WOOD PEWEE, and it called loudly directly above us several times; this is notable because I havenıt heard a pewee call in perhaps ten or more years!! Maybe my expensive hearing aids are helping me after all! JEWELWEED or TOUCH-ME-NOT was conspicuously in bloom, and we found quite a few GALLED FLOWERS; I cut a couple open to show that each gall contained a few chambers, each with an orange-coloured maggot, probably of a GALL MIDGE (tiny fly that causes the gall). Other plants that were flowering included: TALL RATTLESNAKE ROOT (Prenanthes trifolia?), RED BARTSIA? (Odontites serotina)(lots in an open cleared path for power line), MONEYWORT (few), NIPPLEWORT (few), PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (small colony close to HWY. 101, found by Bernard Forsythe), BLUE VETCH (few), MANY-FLOWERED ASTER, WOODLAND ASTER, SMALL-FLOWERED? ASTER, GARDEN HELIOTROPE (few), etc. Just north of the planted Scotch pines is a jungle of vines of CLIMBING BITTERSWEET (Celastrus scandens)(not in bloom). On a wound on a white pine tree-trunk, the site of a past obvious infection of white pine blister rust, and a site of copious ³bleeding² of resin/sap, were lots of tiny brown apparent fruiting bodies of a SLIME MOLD?? Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
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