Maple Ash Ecosystem

Woodland Agrimony Species: Agrimonia striata
Family: Rosaceae Order - Rosales

Leaves: Grow on slender stems up to 3 feet tall but they are usually 2 feet tall or less. Each leaf contains 3-9 leaflets, which are thin and oblong with large coarse teeth. They have conspicuous glands on the underside but are otherwise without hairs or with short hairs on the veins beneath.

Flower: The yellow flowering and fruiting stem has glands on the surface and sometimes also a few straight bristles. The bottom half of the bell-shaped fruit is about 1/4" long and covered with glands but not hairy. The roots are sometimes tuberous and thickened but not fibrous.

Starry Campion Species: Silene stellata

Order: Caryophyllales Family: Caryophyllaceae

Genus: Silene (belongs to a large genus that is related to carnations).

Leaves: on both ends of the often-unbranched round central stem are usually opposite, with the middle leaves in whorls of four.

Flowers: Five-petaled white flowers are enclosed at their base by a bell-shaped light green calyx with five teeth along its upper rim. Frilled petals have 8-12 intricate narrow lobes but no scent. Starry Campion should not be confused with the similar-looking naturalized weed, Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris) which features the most inflated calyx pouch. Pollination is mainly by moths.

Soil: This hardy, drought-tolerant plant prefer Wet Mesic , Mesic , Dry Mesic

Broadleaved Water Leaf Species Hydrophyllum canadense L. – bluntleaf

Order: Solanales

Family Hydrophyllaceae – Waterleaf family

Genus Hydrophyllum L.

Flowers: white to pale violet, delicate, with 5 petals and a series of long, projecting stamens. The hairy filaments give the blossom cluster a fuzzy appearance. Arranged in a loose cluster arising on a long flower stem from below a leaf, but not exceeding the leaf in length. Leaves without separate lobes, maplelike, with sharply projecting lobes. Plant 6 to 20 inches in height.

Young leaves and top stems are edible –raw or cooked.

Stem: somewhat hairy

Hawthorn Species: Crataegus

Order: Rosales Family: Rosaceae Genus: Crataegus

Leaves: of the many species and hybrids of Hawthorns vary greatly in shape. Those of Dotted Hawthorn (Crataegus punctata) are distinctive in that they are narrow and obovate, with prominent veins.

Soil: adaptable to a wide range of growing conditions. Most species perform best in average soils of good drainage with an alkaline or neutral pH, but most adapt to soils of an acidic pH.

Flower: clusters of white blossoms from early spring through late spring that vary from being mildly fragrant to extremely malodorous.

Fruit: Green fruits that result from the perfect flowers may be pendulous or upright, of yellow, orange, or red coloration when ripe.

Bark: The mature barks of the native Hawthorns are usually scaly to platy, and colored various shades of gray and brown, often with orange or red interior barks. Hawthorns are so named by a combination of an alternative name for the fruits (haws) and the plentiful thorns. The thorns are often found singly on the twigs and branchlets, and may be thick or thin, straight or curved.

Special Adaptations: When an abandoned agricultural field transitions back to forest, sun-tolerant weeds and herbs appear first, followed by dense shrubs like hawthorn and blackberry. After about a decade, birches and other small fast-growing trees move in, sprouting wherever the wind blows their lightweight seeds. In 30 to 40 years, slower-spreading trees like ash, red maple, and oak take root, followed by shade-tolerant trees such as beech and hemlock.

A common observation is that as ecosystems mature through successional stages, they tend to become more diverse and complex. The number of organisms and species increases and niches become narrower as competition for resources increases.

White Ash Species: Fraxinus americana

Order: Lamiales Family: Olive (Oleaceae) Genus: Fraxinus

Leaves: opposite, pinnately compound, and have 5 to 9 dark green leaflets (usually seven or nine) with white-green undersides. The leaflets are smooth or only sparsely serrated on their margins, with short stalks that attach to the central rachis. One of the first trees to change color in autumn, its leaves often go through shades of yellow, orange, red, and purple. Its stems are thicker than those of Green Ash and Blue Ash, giving it a more bold texture in winter.

Fruits: (known as samaras) hang in clusters from female trees of White Ash, with each fruit being composed of a plump anchoring seed attached to a wing (for a thinner version, see Green Ash). The mature fruits of the ashes separate and spin downward like helicopter blades in autumn.

Flowers: Male flowers and female flowers occur on separate trees of White Ash in late winter or early spring, and thus the male and female trees are termed "dioecious". Both types of flowers occur before the leaves emerge and often go unnoticed, since they are relatively small and do not have petals.

Bark: Young smooth bark does not become flaky like that of Green Ash, but eventually forms interlacing ridges and furrows, yielding mature bark which is identical in appearance to that of Green Ash.

Special Adaptations:

It is found naturally on fertile river flood plains where there is ample supply of flowing water and well-drained soil with plenty of minerals. It also likes a lot of sun, and grows best in clearings where there are few trees of other species to compete with it for light.

When the leaves of White Ash drop in autumn, they leave behind U-shaped leaf scars on the twigs, like a wide horseshoe. A small lateral bud rests within the curved portion of the "U". The stout, ascending twigs of White Ash are thicker than those of Green Ash and Blue Ash, and give this tree a bolder texture in winter.

Soil: Rich, moist, well-drained soils of acidic to neutral pH are ideal for growing White Ash. It is not quite as stress-tolerant as Green Ash or Blue Ash, especially to prolonged drought, occasional flooding, or very alkaline (high pH) soils. It grows in full sun to partial sun. A native of eastern North America, White Ash is found mostly in cut-over forests, open fields, and fencerows. Under ideal conditions in the open, it grows to 70 feet tall by 50 feet wide, with a medium to rapid growth rate. Its shape is upright oval when young, becoming upright spreading to rounded with maturity. As a member of the Olive Family, White Ash is related to the Fringe Trees, Forsythias, Privets, and Lilacs, as well as other species of Ash.

American Basswood Species: Tilia Americana L.

Order: Malvales

Family: Tiliaceae (Linden )

Genus: Tilia

Leaf: Alternate, simple, ovate leaves that are about as wide as long, with a truncate (flattened) or heart-shaped base, finely serrated margins, and a short tip at the apex of the leaf .
Flower: has perfect, small, creamy flowers that open in early summer. These are noted for both their fragrance and for their nectar, which is a favorite of bees in the production of honey. Flowering is obvious from a distance - not because of the actual flowers, but due to the showy, lime-colored, curving bracts that contrast agains the background of dark-green foliage.
Fruit: A round, unribbed nutlet (1/4 inch) that is covered with gray-brown hair; occur in a hanging cluster with a curving, leafy bract acting as wing on top of the cluster, ripening in the fall.
Twig: Moderately stout, zigzag, green (summer) or red (winter); Buds are each very plump with one side bulging out disproportionately. Buds are edible but very mucilaginous.
Bark: At first smooth and gray-green, later turning gray-brown and becoming ridged with long, shallow furrows and flat topped ridges. The bark is very fibrous.

Soil: prefers moist, drained, deep, rich soils of variable pH, adapts to average that are seasonally dry. It thrives in full sun to partial sun. Grows as a principal species in only two forest types: the sugar maple-basswood type in western Wisconsin and central Minnesota, the northern red oak-basswood-white ash type common to parts of New England, NY, PN, and the southern Appalachians. The weak wood of this tree is both lightweight and odorless, making it the wood of choice for packing food into boxes and crates. However, the inner bark of this and other Basswoods is very tough, and the Native Americans cut it into thin strips and used it for rope, mats, and even bandages. Japanese Beetle, which can skeletonize large sectors of the leaf canopy of this species (as well as other Lindens) in a few days.

Tall Bellflower /Campanula americana
Order: Asterales Family:Campanulaceae Genus:Campanula

Characteristics:
Tall Bellflower/American Bellflower, reaches from three to more than six feet in height, its blue-violet blooms providing a bright late-summer accent to savanna or woodland plantings.

-Self-seeding, it is either annual or biennial by habit, seemingly depending on when germination occurs. First-year plants are tight rosettes of triangular leaves that bolt the following spring to form tall stems, which exude milky sap if broken or cut. Because Campanula americana is the only bellflower with wide-spread petals, a petal tube that elongates with age and stamens that extend over the petals, it often is assigned the special designation Campanulastrum americanum.

Kentucky Coffee Tree /G. dioicus

Order:Fabales Family: Fabaceae Genus: Gymnocladus


Characteristics:
A relatively fast-growing tree and generally grows in parks and along city streets for ornamental purposes. The tree is typically long-lived however often appears dead for the first six months of its growth. This is because the Kentucky Coffee tree sheds its leaves early during the late spring and therefore appears bare for up to 6 months.

-Largest leaves of any tree found in eastern North America, with each being up to three feet long and composed of many leaflets. The leaflets attach in alternate fashion to a rachilla, and several rachilla attach in opposite fashion to the central rachis.

-Twigs: have huge leaf scars with one or two small lateral buds that are barely visible just above the leaf scars. Like its close relative Honeylocust, a terminal bud is absent from the ends of its twigs.
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Special Adaptations:
Thick fruit pods containing large seeds (or beans) are found only on female trees, and often hang on during winter. Pioneers in Kentucky and elsewhere used the beans as a coffee substitute (hence the common name), and Native Americans roasted the beans for food.