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JULY 1999 Editor - Emily NieteringFALL FIELD TRIP SCHEDULE August 21 Field trip to the Allegan Saturday-ALL DAY State Game Area north of Kalamazoo and south of Holland. This trip led by Dr. Tony Reznicek, Univ. of Michigan, features prairies, oak savannas and wetlands. Meet at 8:30am at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 N. Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor, to carpool. Bring a lunch, water & snack. Call Dr. Reznicek for more information at (734) 764-5544. October 2 Field trip to Swift Run Saturday, 2:00pm Prairie, Ann Arbor. Beverly Walters, Univ. of Michigan Herbarium, will lead this trip to an outstanding restored native prairie within the city limits of Ann Arbor. Meet at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 N. Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor at 2:00pm to carpool. PROGRAMS August 28. A Picnic-Potluck and Video program. Saturday, 1:00pm at Kathleen Thomson's home, 5066 Elmhurst, Royal Oak, located 1½ blocks north of 14 Mile between Crooks and Coolidge. Please bring a dish to share. Plates/cups/silverware and beverages will be provided. Afterwards, in air-conditioned comfort we will see the video "Faces of the Rain Forest" by Richard and Margaret Whitten of Costa Rica, who operate a museum there called Jewels of the Rain Forest. On her recent trip to Costa Rica, Kathleen purchased this extraordinary tape. October 3. "A Postcard from India". Sunday, 2:00pm University of Michigan-Dearborn student Stephen Locke will share experiences from his January trip to India. This was no ordinary vacation but a course entitled "Ecology of the Indian Tropics." Stephen was a SEC scholarship recipient to the 1998 Memorial Day Campout. Held at Troy Public Library. Map on back of Newsletter. October 16. Fall Annual MBC Meeting, Saturday Aquinas College, Grand Rapids. The White Pine Chapter will host this year's fall meeting featuring speaker Fred Case, an opportunity to visit the Meijer Botanical Garden, and a meeting of the state Board of Directors. November 7 . Sunday, 2:00 pm. Southeastern Chapter member, Van Klein, recently visited the country of Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) in west Africa, and will tell us of her trip. She traveled to the village where her grand-niece serves as a teacher with the Peace Corps, and to several of the larger cities in her three week trip. Join us for "An Adventure in West Africa." Held at the Troy Public Library. December 5. "Plants and Butterflies of Sleeping Bear Dunes." Sunday, 2:00 pm. Favorite speaker, Wendy Walden, will present at Troy Public Library. LOWER HURON FIELD TRIP REPORT The fifth annual Lower Huron Metro Park floodplain natural area field trip was led by Sylvia Taylor on Saturday, May 8 at 2:00 pm. About 20 people from the Southeastern, Huron Valley and Red Cedar chapters of the Michigan Botanical Club attended. Redbud and paw paw trees were in full bloom as were carpets of wild ginger in overflow channels. Many other familiar wildflowers were in bloom on the riverside natural levee and rich bottomland soils: bank cress, goldenseal, green dragon and cup plant were of special interest. Monarch trees dominated a varied old-growth forest which featured a large number of species at the northern limit of their ranges. Our HCMA host naturalist was rewarded for his time with us by a nice bag of morels found on the slopes of the high banks. Although a light, warm rain developed to encourage our exit, it was difficult to leave such a beautiful place. Sylvia Taylor CONGRATULATIONS KATHLEEN Our Southeastern Chapter President, Kathleen Thomson, recently received the MBC Distinguished Service Award for 1999. The award was presented to her at the Memorial Day Weekend Foray held in Grayling. Kathleen spearheaded the effort over the last several years to recognize the Dwarf Lake Iris as Michigan's official state wildflower. This award is given annually to a person or persons based on nominations from the presidents of the five MBC Chapters. Kathleen was nominated by our vice-president, Emily Nietering, upon recommendation of the SEC Board.
The Executive Board of the Southeastern Chapter will meet on Tuesday, September 14 at 8:00 pm at the home of Margaret Converse, 34084 Dorais, Livonia. Please contact Kathleen Thomson if you are unable to attend.
On Monday evening September 27 at 7:45 pm, the MBC Huron Valley Chapter and the Michigan Mushroom Hunters will team up for a special meeting. The program is entitled "The Endless Mushroom Foray" and will be given by Taylor Lockwood. Join them at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, 1800 N. Dixboro Rd, Ann Arbor. Well-known author and speaker, Fred Case, will present "A Michigan Wildflower Sampler" to the Meadow Brook Hall Garden Club on Friday, November 12. Guests are welcome, but there is a $3.00 fee to attend. The meeting will be held at 10:00 am at Meadow Brook Hall, Courtyard Room. From Adams Rd. turn west at the traffic light onto Oakland University property (south of Walton Blvd. or north of Avon Rd.). Follow signs for Meadow Brook Hall to the marked parking lot. STUDENTS CHOSEN TO ATTEND SPRING CAMPOUT The SEC Chapter is proud to announce the selection of two students to attend the 1999 Spring Campout, held May 28-31 in Grayling, Michigan. Two Oakland University students were chosen, Danial O'Berski of Auburn Hills and Carol Wahl of Oakland. Each of the other chapters were also able to sponsor students this year, and several sponsored students from previous years returned as regular attendees. We have invited our students to briefly speak about their Campout experience at our October meeting. Thank you to the members of our Student Selection Committee: Emily Nietering, Van Klein, Kathleen Thomson and Richard Fowler. We also wish to thank Dr. Orin Gelderloos, professor at University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Dr. Doug Hunter, professor at Oakland University for advertising our scholarship to the students, receiving the applications and making recommendations to the Committee. We anticipate offering one or more scholarships to area students for the 2000 Campout. BELLE ISLE TRIP REPORT Just a note about the field trip to Belle Isle on Saturday June 26, 1999. Suzan Campbell, senior naturalist at the Detroit Recreation Department's Belle Isle Nature Center led about 15 people on the hike; four members from HVC, 3 outsiders from Canada/Oakland Audubon and the rest SEC members. She took us through the Nature Center's little wildflower gardens - one high and dry and the newly planted wetland area. We went tracking through the moist woods by the canal (which was fairly clean) called Nashau Creek right in the center of the island and found all kinds of trees and bushes. There were many kinds of oaks including the shumard oak and a hybrid of white and shumard oak, red oak, pin oak, Chinquapin oak, hickories, maples, hawthorns, dogwood, prickly ash, lots of spicebush and honeysuckle and many varieties of ash including the pumpkin ash. This area used to be much wetter than it is today. The rare shumard oak, a possible National Champion was huge with a large 3 person wide girth. Kathleen Thomson was dwarfed by the trunk. It rose to a great height on a very straight trunk. At ground level it was supported by very large buttresses positioned around its great circumference, similar to rain forest trees. The pumpkin ash wasn't as impressive as the oak. The wet or moist woods didn't have many wildflowers in bloom at this time but spring would be more interesting time of year for them. Paul Desjardins of Windsor, Canada joined us on this trip and called our attention to the many butterflies, dragonflies and other insects such as common whitetailed butterfly, amberwing butterfly, Appalachian brown butterfly, the twelve spotted dragonfly and Eastern pond hawk dragonfly. We watched a wasp catch, dispatch and consume a mayfly caught on Paul's butterfly net - all in a matter of about 5 minutes. The most fun was watching the dragonflies and damselflies flying around the creek. The twelve spotted dragonfly mated over the creek, then while the female dipped her ovipositor in the water to lay eggs the male flew over head guarding her to make sure his sperm was the only ones fertilizing her eggs. The weather was hot, hot, and humid, but the good thing was the bugs didn't bite. I guess we didn't smell too good. Ha! Ha! After lunch close by, several of us went inside the Nature Center to check out their excellent nature displays and to watch a very nice video on wildflowers offered in the air conditioned auditorium. The video was about 45 minutes long but good photography and good narrative on the wildflowers of Eastern United States. If you haven't been there lately, it's worth a visit! By Caryle Spence and Kathleen Thomson
Receipts toward dues supported programs: Dues for 1999 membership year 1,318.00 Interest 466.53 TOTAL 1,784.53 Expenses for dues supported programs: MBC state organization dues 420.00 The Michigan Botanist 856.00 Newsletter and publications 376.32 Programs 130.00 Dues for other organizations 167.50 Spring Foray student scholarships 305.00 Administrative expenses 48.83 Miscellaneous 128.89 TOTAL 2,432.54 For last year's fall campout, income was $2,540 and
expenses were $1,890. General fund 13,071.17 Suter bequest fund 17,309.96 Other Tribute funds 3,329.97 MBC -- SEC Newsletter These pages updated on 06/20/00 |
