March 2006 Vol.
III No. 8
Ruth Loper, Director Lynn Sherrod, Director 3312 Gail
Tyler, TX 75701 jimshowen@aol.com Roberta Gustafson, VP Programs Sonnia Hill, Secretary/Treasurer Elizabeth Parks, VP Field Trips Jane Washburn, VP Membership 
Directors &
Officers
Jim Showen, President
Kay Fleming, Newsletter Editor
FROM
THE PRESIDENT
On
February 11 at the Tyler Rose Garden, our Chapter of the NPSOT manned a booth
at the Master Gardeners Landscape and Garden Conference. Sonnia Hill asked
several local nurseries to donate plants to help us raise some funds for our
Chapter and the following were quite generous: Harris Nursery, Lone Star
Nursery, Breedlove Nursery & Landscape, and Ingram Nursery. In addition to
the donated plants we had a few seeds left over from fall and Roberta
Gustafson provided a large selection of wildflower prints for sale on
consignment. She split the $3 price for all prints sold. We took in a
little more than $120 for the day. The Lopers, Showens, Sherrods and
Sonnia Hill were all at our booth to answer questions about the
Native Plant Society. Thirty-three people signed up to receive our
newsletter. The Conference was of particular interest to native plant
enthusiasts because some of the topics included water saving gardening
techniques and environmentally friendly bug control. Jim Showen
MARCH PROGRAM
Our speaker for the March 6th Tyler Chapter of the NPSOT meeting will be Belinda McCoy McLaughlin. The title of her talk is “Butterflies Love Natives.” She will explain how to create butterfly habitat in a home landscape, using native Northeast Texas plants.
Belinda is a
member of the Northeast Texas chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. In
1995, she was co-founder of the chapter, has been chapter president twice, and
served as state president of NPSOT for 2004-05.
A native and resident of Daingerfield, Belinda also is a member of the Gregg County Master Gardeners in Longview. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in journalism and is a freelance editor and garden writer.
We will once again treat our speaker to dinner prior to the meeting. The March 6th dinner will be 5:15 PM at Hickory Fare Barbecue located at 2333 Loop 323 ESE. If you plan to attend (and we hope you do) call or email Sonnia Hill before noon on March 6th so she can make reservations. Kay Fleming
FIELD
TRIPS
Our next field trip is
scheduled for March 11th at Elizabeth and Bart Soutendijk's Place. Their
property is located near Quitman and has many rare and unusual native plants as
well as a pitcher plant bog. If you remember, our March meeting has
usually been at Ron & Ruth Loper's house with a covered dish brunch and a
trip to their bog to see the white trilliums. This year, at Ruth's
suggestion, we will go instead to the Soutendijk's bog to see what's blooming
there. We will have a potluck brunch as we have in the past, with each
family bringing a dish of their choice. The Soutendijks are looking forward to
our visit.
If you would like to carpool
with us, we plan to carpool at 8:30 AM on March 11th from the Super
1 Food Store in Tyler, located on WNW Loop 323 near Highway 69. If you need
help or you are going to be late, please call me on my cell:
903/521-0814. Hope to see you there!
Driving
directions to Soutendijk's if you are not carpooling with the group (It takes
about a hour to drive from Tyler): Take Hwy 69 North through Mineola. When Hwy 69N
splits to the left stay straight - taking Hwy 37 N to Quitman. At
the County Courthouse, turn right onto Hwy 154 East toward Gilmer.
About 5 miles out of town take a right onto CR 3230 (there is a sign on the
right for Lake Lydia). Take your first left onto CR 3234, and then take
your second right onto CR 3245. Go less than a mile and on the
right you will see a mailbox with "SOUTENDIJK" on it. Take a
right just before the mailbox into their dirt driveway. There is a
sign with the address number 650 CR3245 on their fence post. They
live about 1,200 feet back from the road and they ask that we park to the right
of the house in the coastal Bermuda field.
Elizabeth Parks
TEXAS
TRILLIUM VISIT
- For those who haven't seen the Loper’s rare Texas Trilliums or want to see
them again (without a breakfast), the Lopers are scheduling another walk down
to their bog on Saturday, March 25, at 2:00 PM. According to Ruth, “The
rare plants are not even up yet, but since they always have been up by the
middle of March, I feel that this will be a good time. It's possible that
they will have turned pink by then. Other things to see will be Southern
Twayblade Orchids, Violets and pink May Apples. You may have to wade in
shallow water to get to them.”
To
get to the Loper’s, you take Hwy 110S (Troup Hwy) from Tyler through
Whitehouse. About 4 miles south of
Whitehouse, take CR2235 to the left, (opposite Hwy 344 going to the
right). Take the left hand fork to the
end of the road and come through the gate by their mailbox. When the pavement ends - that’s the
Loper’s!
Ruth Loper
NEW MEMBERS
We
want to welcome new members to the Tyler Chapter of the Native Plant Society of
Texas. Its great to have you with us!
If you haven’t come to one of our meetings or our field trips you are
missing out. Also, if you have recently
joined our chapter and are not listed below, let our Chapter President Jim
Showen know. There’s always a possibility that our State office has failed to
get the information to us on your membership.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS
HAS YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
CHANGED?
Just a reminder – If you have changed your Email
address please let our newsletter editor know as soon as possible. Email Kay
at kfleming@mycvc.net
and let him know of the change. We
don’t want anyone to miss out on any information or changes in an event. It also saves our chapter money if we can
Email you instead of sending your newsletter by postal service.
PONDERERINGS
GRASSES, SEDGES, AND RUSHES
By Lynn Sherrod
There are three families of
plants which have some superficial resemblances to each other but which are
classified in separate families. They
are all monocots and have long, parallel veined leaves. In spite of this superficial resemblance,
they are probably only distantly related and should be looked at separately.
POACEAE – The grass family
is very large with over 700 genera and as many as 10,000 species. Examples may be found from Polar Regions to
tropical rainforests. They range in size
from tiny annuals to giant bamboo and are the dominant plants over extensive
areas of the earth. In fact, major
biomes of earth are distinguished based on their dominance by grasses. For example, the prairies of North America,
the steppes of Asia, the pampas of South America, and the veldt of Africa are
all grasslands. Typically, grasslands
are inhabited by a variety of grazing mammals.
The huge herds of buffalo that once dominated the North American prairie
and the numerous species of gazelles, antelopes, and other grazing mammals of
East and South Africa are examples.
Interestingly, the pampas of South America has no large grazing mammals
but that niche is filled by a variety of grass-eating rodents.
Because of the variety and
numbers of species, most taxonomists (including yours truly) tend to avoid
grasses like the plague. The study of grass is done by specialists called
agrostologists, who are usually oriented toward applied uses of grasses for
pastures or crops. However, because of
the importance and widespread distribution of grasses, even amateurs need to
know some of the basics of this family.Grasses are often used as examples of
monocots because they have parallel-veined leaves, flower parts in 3’s, and no
woody growth. In fact, they are not
very typical of this group because they are highly modified from the typical
monocot. The flowers are so different
from other families that a completely different set of terms has been developed
to describe the “floret.” There are no
sepals or petals. The bracts are
modified into structures called the lemma and palea, which enclose the stamens
and pistil. The calyx is modified into
a “pappus” which may be either small scales or hairs. Typically, there are three stamens and one pistil. The stigma is bi-lobed and
feather-like. This adaptation insures
more effective trapping of wind-borne pollen.
When the floret is mature, the lemma and palea open up, exposing the
reproductive parts to the wind. After fertilization,
the ovary develops into a single-seeded fruit called a grain or caryopsis. (A grass “seed” is really a fruit with the
ovary wall tightly fused to the seed coat.)
From a practical standpoint,
grasses are unquestionably the most important family in the plant kingdom. Humans gain most of their carbohydrates and
vegetable protein from some member of this family. Consider the importance to humankind of: rice (Oryza
sativa), corn (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum vulgare), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), barley (Hordeum vulgare), rye (Secale cereale), and sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum). Without these plants, the human race would
have long since ceased to exist.
In addition, the grass
family is the source of most of the animal protein for a large segment of the
world’s population. Rangeland grasses, hay, and grains are the principle food
source for domesticated animals. Wild
animals from mice to elephants depend on grasses for a large portion of their
diet.
Bamboo, which is the largest
member of this family, has a variety of uses in tropical countries. It is used for construction, scaffolding,
and actually serves as an alternative to steel for many applications. Grass thatch is used as a roofing material
in tropical regions. Grasses are also
valued for their ornamental use, especially as lawn turf.
On the negative side,
windborne pollen of grasses is a major cause of allergies. Also, grasses have the tendency to become
noxious weeds through aggressive growth and competition. They have become some of the most serious
invasive plants worldwide.
RUSHES AND SEDGES – Plants
in these two families are found in semi aquatic habitats. They both have long, parallel-veined leaves
but that is about the only similarity with grasses. They can be distinguished from each other by the nature of the
stem. Rushes have stems that are flat
or round while those of sedges are triangular.
This can be determined by rolling a stem between thumb and
forefinger. Use this hint to remember
this: “Sedges have edges.”
JUNCACEAE – The flowers of
rushes are distinctly different from those of grasses and sedges. They are either solitary or arranged in
heads or panicles but never spikelets.
There are three distinct sepals and three distinct petals (actually
tepals) on each flower.
There are eight or nine
genera of rushes worldwide but only two are found in North America. These are Juncus and Luzula. The greatest variety of rushes is found in
South America, especially in the Andes Mountains. Rushes are of little economic or biological importance. Stems are woven to make baskets or mats or
even simple boats. They provide some
wildlife habitat, especially in wet areas.
CYPERACEAE – The sedges are
a very large and diverse family with 70-100 genera and as many as 9000 species
worldwide. They are cosmopolitan but
are especially numerous in wetlands of temperate and polar regions. The family is much more important than
rushes. Cyperus papyrus was used in ancient Egypt to make a kind of
paper. The stems of this and other
large sedges have been bound together to make rafts or boats. The stems are also used for thatching,
baskets, hats, and mats. C. esculentus (chufa) produces edible
tubers as does Chinese water-chestnut (Eleocharis
tuberosa). A familiar East Texas
species is Cyperus rotundus
(nutgrass), which is a pernicious and invasive weed. The small tubers are edible if you can dig deep enough. Sedges offer critical wetland habitat and
food for a variety of birds and wildlife.
Note--The taxonomy of this family is in dire need of
study. Identification of the family is
easy, the genus difficult, and the species almost impossible. As with the grasses, most taxonomists tend
to avoid this family because of its size and complexity.
(Graphics courtesy of Texas
Parks & Wildlife Dept.)
Contributions to Newsletter
The newsletter is normally
printed monthly, September through May. Members are encouraged to submit
articles for publication in the 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 and announcements to the editor at kfleming@mycvc.net or mail
to Kay Fleming, 809 E. Clinton, Athens TX 75751. If you are able to receive your newsletter by Email, please send Kay
your Email address. This will save the Chapter mailing expenses.
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.
We have a good time! Our meetings are normally held at the Walter Fair United
Methodist Church in Tyler on the first Monday of each month, September through
May. Walter Fair United Methodist
Church is located just off 5th Street (Highway 64) at 1712 Old Omen Road, east of Loop 323.
NPSOT, Tyler Chapter
c/o: Kay Fleming
809 E. Clinton
Athens, TX 75751