Species Updates

After a long summer we needed to make some updates to our species lists.  With the addition of many new bird sightings and new plantings like the chokeberry, Swamp Milkweed, Cardinal Flower, and other, the list was becoming a bit outdated.  Unfortunately, we here at DomEc didn't have the availability to make these updates incrementally over the summer as we would have liked.

We logged our first reptile at DomEc this summer--a young Black Rat Snake.  We don't have a category in the sidebar for reptiles because they are so rare here.  The same is true for amphibians; none of which have yet been logged.  Hopefully that will change.  Birds are now up to 106 species with Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Cape May Warbler added in just the last few days.

Sadly some of the native plants didn't survive the heat wave and lack of rain that has afflicted the Domicile Ecophile property this August.  The American Chestnut seedling was one of the victims.  Many years ago a fallen tree created a hole in the canopy along the eastern edge of the property.  The chestnut had been planted in that hole in hopes of one day replacing the missing tree.  There are Eastern Poplar seedlings around the property.  One of them might get transferred in as substitute.

Butterfly Weed, a milkweed species, is now finally reproducing on its own.  About half-a-dozen seedlings have come up around the small hillside patch that was planted in the summer of 2014.  I suspect that since it is a temperate species the seeds may require a form of stratification (temperature changes to break down growth inhibitors in the seed).  Temperate plants often employ growth inhibitors to prevent them from germinating late in fall and dying in winter.  I suspect our new recruits are born of the 2014 seeds, not the plentiful 2015 crop that is blowing around the property now.

The Dappled Willow that was part of the horrendous (but typical) exotic-based landscape installation present when we took over the property has been pulled.  Many of the exotics are now being removed in conjunction with the vinyl siding project that is ongoing.  Two Burning Bush, two huge Japanese Barberry, and the willow have been removed so far.  In time these will all be replaced with natives or (human) food-producing plants.  More updates to come...

Foiling a Common Problem

If you have ever grown plants indoors you have probably dealt with the problem of plants bending towards a window.  Plants in these circumstances often become very thin and tall.  They rely on light for their metabolism and have very intricate internal mechanisms for maximizing light exposure. In short, they can sense the directionality of light and grow their green parts towards it.  This response is called phototropism; in this case positive phototropism because the plants grow towards the light source.

The obvious problem here is that your plant is going to grow in a lop-sided fashion and may eventually break or fall over under it's own weight.  To compound the problem, these window-fed plants are often also exposed to too little light, resulting in thin, weak stems that will break even more easily.  If the plants eventually go outside they often topple or break due to mechanical stress from wind or increased growth that results in a top-heavy body on a stem too weak.

These problems were affecting a Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) that I recently allowed to re-emerge from winter dormancy.  I decided to try a little camping trick I developed. When camping in some stone shelters at a local state park we often use tea lights (candles) to provide light.  Unfortunately, they provide little light. (Perhaps one candlepower?)  One provision often present, even as a waste item, is aluminum foil.  If smoothed and bent around the back of the candle the reflection can appreciably increase the light in the shelter, especially if several candles are being used.

I applied the same method to the Butterfly Weed and noticed immediate results.  The plant has remained nearly vertical for over a week now, whereas before I was rotating the plant twice a day.  It was reaching an angle near 45 degrees in just a few hours.  I can't guarantee that this method will completely prevent the symptoms associated with low light levels, but it certainly has improved the situation.  Give it a try and see what kind of result it produces for you.