Jack or Jill in the pulpit?

A brief and comforting glimpse into our snowless future, from Bill Dunson:

I imagine most of you are familiar with the Jack-in-the-pulpit which is a not uncommon wildflower in wet woods of eastern North America. However I doubt if any of you have encountered this interesting member of the arum family on Feb. 7 in bloom as I did today at Lemon Bay Park in Sarasota County, FL. Taylor lists it as missing from Sarasota County which indicates how special this fresh water swamp is on the shore of Lemon Bay.

The pulpit or spathe surrounds the spadix (Jack and/or Jill - let us not be male chauvinists!) which holds the flowers. They are fertilized by flies attracted to the odor and heat of the flowers. Remember that their cousin skunk cabbage (also an arum) has a similar means of attracting pollinators. Young plants tend to have all male flowers; there are more female flowers as they age. Indeed some studies have shown that the predominant sex of the flowers is determined by the condition of the plant. If it has been a good year and the plant is healthy and has a good supply of nutrients in its bulb, it becomes female. In a bad year it produces male flowers. Why do you suppose this could be a good strategy for reproduction? Consider that it is "cheaper" to be a male and produce a lot of pollen to fertilize other plants. Producing fruits with seeds is a lot more expensive in terms of energy and a poor year could result in very few prospects for reproduction in female mode.

Pulpits (Indian turnip) can be eaten if properly prepared, but contain calcium oxalate crystals and other toxins that are poisonous. Fruits are bright red and are presumably eaten by birds and dispersed.

So watch out for the marvelous if somewhat sexually confusing Jack/Jill in the Pulpit in early Spring in your area.

Bill Dunson

Englewood, FL & Galax, VA

Mockingbird and Cardinals: Behaviors in Snow Time

Yesterday (6 February 2010) was another day of snow, and shoveling snow. My son and I cleared sidewalk and driveway and even part of our street here in Radford. Each time I took a short break, I would look around to see what birds might be in the trees of our yard or near by.

A couple of times I noticed a mockingbird flying into the holly shrubs beside our house. I figured it was visiting the hollies to eat the bright red berries--there are plenty of them right now--but the mocker it turned out was not doing that at all. While I was resting in the house about 1 p.m. I looked out the window and witnessed the mockingbird fluttering up under icicles that were hanging from holly leaves. It was sipping water drops at the tips of the icicles. It visited many icicles, sometimes fluttering under the icicles as if gleaning insects from the leaves, and drank water from the ice. Other times it simply perched on twigs and stretched its body, and neck way up and drank. One time I saw its mouth open and a cold water droplet fell right inside.

Yeah, I know nothing profound, but it fascinated me anyway. I had not seen a mockingbird do that before.

During another round of snow shoveling yesterday, I heard two cardinals singing near me. I saw them perched about midway in our tall sweet gum tree. It was a pair of cardinals singing to each other, both singing from what I could tell, identical snippets of song---one would sing then the other. The pair sang for about two minutes before they flew away. I am thinking now that spring might not be so far away, though my sore arms and back are arguing about all that snow I shoveled.