February 2009 Vol.
VI No. 6
Ruth Loper, Director Lynn Sherrod, Director 903-967-3998 Ron Loper, VP-Field Trips Marjorie Sherrod, VP-Membership Liz Soutendijk, VP-Programs Elizabeth Parks, Sec/Treasurer 903-986-2332
Directors &
Officers
Clyde
Herb Jarrell, Newsletter Editor
FROM
THE PRESIDENT
Greetings! Gloria Rognlie will be our speaker this month
and chooses Posados Café for dinner, so let’s meet there at 5:30 PM prior to
the Chapter Meeting. Everyone is
invited! Posados Cafe is west of
Ron and Ruth Loper and I recently
attended the first Quarterly NPSOT State Board Meeting of the year in
The highlights of the meeting included the introduction of Pam Middleton as our new NPSOT State Coordinator. My impression is that she is up to speed and we will enjoy having her. I visited the state headquarters for the first time and found a nice botanical library for member’s use. Stop in when you are in the area and say hi to Pam.
The board approved a budget for the year of approximately $57,000. A new website design is being created. You can preview a sample of it at www.go9production.com/npsot .
Ron Loper is in charge of the
2009 Annual Conference in
We discussed the new Strategic
Plan. The consensus was that the
chapters did not have enough time to review the plan and comment on it. It was noted that the plan as it stands is
considered the starting point or a work-in-progress, not the final
product. We agreed to ask each chapter
to obtain feedback from its members about the plan. A copy of the executive sum
As a follow-up to my article last
month, on January 8th while kayaking around
Clyde
NEW
MEMBERS—none
FEBRUARY
PROGRAM
The ETMN Herbarium Project
by Gloria Rognlie
Gloria
Rognlie is a member of the East Texas Master Naturalists and liaison for their Herbarium
Project. Master Naturalist members working
in the herbarium collect, preserve and identify plants from local and nearby
counties. Gloria will talk about how the herbarium got started;
collecting specimens; identifying plants; pressing, drying, mounting and storing
the plants. Gloria will also show a variety of plant specimens and the
tools the members used in the process.
Gloria
said, "A herbarium collection ensures that present and future generations
have a viable plant library for teaching, learning and research. A herbarium literally allows us to travel
back in time and identify the geography, food sources, and animals of a period
of history."
Gloria joined the East Texas Master Naturalist in 2001. Her interest in plant identification led her
to devote many hours to this project. The Herbarium Project won the East
Texas Chapter a first place Exemplary Project Award from the Texas Master
Naturalists.
Liz
Soutendijk
FIELD
TRIPS
We have tentatively set the following field trips: to Athens Arboretum on February 23, and to Ivy's Preserve in April. These sites and dates are not completely finalized, so if anyone has other suggestions for times and places, please let me know. If anyone has a thought for where we could go in March, please speak up.
Ron Loper
PONDERINGS
What’s In a Name?—Part II
by Dr. Herb Jarrell
As promised in Part I of this series, we will next ponder the characteristics of good plant names, regardless of the conventions developed to form them. Would any characteristic of a good name be more important than being memorable? And would any choice of words be more effective than those which use mnemonic devices—terms chosen to reflect the plant’s most recognizable feature(s)?
Now, since there are so many features from which to choose, capturing the most prominent features in a plant’s name still requires choices. So, where possible, why not choose the features most often highlighted in the plant’s most common name? Well, since the most common names often occur in regions other than one in which your native tongue is spoken, you might object to this line of thinking. But, alas—the establishment long ago of the convention for all plant admirers to adhere to the use of terms from primarily only two languages (Greek and Latin) to canonize these features into unique formal names has freed us from having to familiarize ourselves with the botanical terms of virtually every language spoken where plants grow!
As a direct application of these
considerations, I personally try to take advantage of them by memorizing only the common name which corresponds most to the meaning of the
parts in each plant’s formal name. In this way, each name in a pair of names
reinforces my ability to remember the other.
For example, Acer grandidentatum
was created from the Latin terms acer
= maple tree (since acer = sharp, hardwoods
have sharp edges and maples have hard
wood), grandi = big, dentat = toothed, and um is the ending required to Latinize
(formalize) the name. At least three
common names made from a total of five different words—plateau, big-tooth,
Uvalde, limerock and maple—exist where this species of tree grows in
And now I need to highlight the bonuses I received for learning each part of the formal name of the “big-tooth maple.” First and foremost, I don’t have to deal with the confusion I may get from all the common tree names in use in various areas. Any other species with “big-tooth maple” as its common name will inevitably have a different formal name, and, if and when I encounter such a name, I merely have to parse the Latinized terms in the new name to create my own common name that will distinguish it from all my other common names for trees!
Secondly, every time I parse a formal name into its Latinized constituent parts, I get to enjoy the benefits of having increased my vocabulary by two or more new (albeit usually Greek or Latin) words! Think of it—in the example given, I will recognize the words acer, grandi, and dentat. And, finally, when in the future I find another terminal um in new formal name, I will know why it is there and not confused it with the parts that indicate the plant’s features!
FINAL NOTE: sadly, when proper names (rather than features of the plant) are Latinized into a formal name, all of these advantages of parsing Latinized names are negated. For example, the Latinization of Houstoun (the surname of a tropical American botanist) into the genus Houstonia and the Latinization of Nuttall (the surname of a North American botanist) into the species epithet nuttalliana gives us the name Houstonia nuttalliana which is devoid of any botanical features by which to distinguish this species or to remember its name.
OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS
The Soutendijk Bog is Official! After five years of negotiations, the fifteen acres known as the Soutendijk Bog officially became a wildlife easement in January. The bog—including a bottomland hardwood area that may contain Texas trilliums; a small lake where yellow-eyed grass has been found; a hillside seepage area that grows pitcher plants, sundews, and orchids; a small marsh housing rough-stemmed asters; and other areas hosting a number of interesting plants and animals—sits in the middle of land owned by Bart and Elizabeth Soutendijk of Quitman, TX.
Besides the usual wildlife—coyotes, bobcats, bats, roadrunners, owls, otters, flying squirrels, etc.—the bog is home to a family of beavers and, it is rumored, an American alligator. "We intend to complete a walking trail around the lake and up to the upper marsh," Liz Soutendijk said about plans to make the bog more accessible to visitors. There are also plans to build a floating observation platform and a boardwalk through the pitcher plants.
The easement, purchased
as part of a settlement for a 5,680-gallon crude oil spill that destroyed
a wetland elsewhere in
Birding Trip to Hagerman NWR west of
2009 East Texas Spring Landscape &
Gardening Conference, Saturday, February 14–Tyler Rose Garden Center.
Please see flyer printed as an addendum to this newsletter.
Contributions to the Newsletter
This newsletter is normally published monthly, September through May. Members are especially encouraged to submit articles for publication in this newsletter. Contributions will be considered on the basis of interest, suitability, and available space. Grammar and spelling corrections will be made at the discretion of the editor. Email your articles, announcements, etc. to the editor at herbjarrell@letu.edu.
If you have never attended one of our meetings, and
you are interested in learning more about native plants and their habitats, we
invite you to give us a visit. Our
meetings are held at the
Please note: if you want to forward this
newsletter to someone via snail-mail, simply fold it with another blank sheet
of paper so that the blank page is available for addresses and postage, and staple
or tape the two sides and the bottom together.
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2009 East Texas Spring Landscape & |
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Gardening Conference |
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Saturday, February 14 – |
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12:00 Lunch/ /Continue Observing
Air Spade Demo Afternoon Sessions |
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7:30 Registration
Begins, visit exhibits |
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8:30 Welcome and
Introductions ...........................................................
Keith Hansen |
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8:40 “Landscape Design
– Practical Ideas for Your Yard”............ Neil Odenwald |
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9:40 “Great
Plants for |
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10:00 Break –
refreshments & view exhibits |
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10:30 “Tree
Planting Tips (or, How to Avoid Tree Burials)” .......... Daniel
Duncum |
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11:10 “Air Spade –
New Technology to Help Trees” ........................ Tyson Woods |
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11:40 Door Prizes,
Exhibits & “Air Spade Demo” ................................... Tyson
Woods |
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1:00 “Rainwater
Harvesting” ...........................................................
Dotty Woodson |
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2:00 Break – view exhibits |
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2:20 “Small
Space Landscaping” ......................................................
Neil Odenwald |
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3:20 Door prizes & adjourn - -Cost: $15
(includes lunch) - - |
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Brought to you by: the
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Morning Sessions