Eastern Light and Eastern Leaves

At Sequoyah State Park near Wagoner OK over the weekend.. early Saturday morning at sunrise I sat and watched the new light playing into the leaves of tall Johnson grass, buttonbush and other low shrubs and thought.. It is this early morning light that should be most valuable. After the night hours, plants leaves will be as fully charged with water as they can be..ready to go to maximum photosynthesis, with open stomata bringing in CO2. Later in the day as water availability lessens, and stomata begin to close, photosynthesis should lessen. Consequently plants, individual trees, shrubs etc.. and groups of plants in a competing cluster, should compete for the valuable eastern light. More of their leaves should be oriented toward the east. More of their branches and crowns should lean to the east. East side plants should grow faster etc.. Wherever water is limiting for growth, plants should show an eastern bias in form and growth.

Phenology March 2011

3 March Thursday

Bradford Pear.. three in Homeland parking lot on Main and half a dozen on Chautauqua just starting to bloom
Lonicera bush honeysuckle in full bloom in our backyard.
Cherry one out in full white bloom
Capsella bursa-pastoris shepherd's purse several up blooming east side of tree block east of Sutton
Weeping willow first green leaves just opening branches visible green tinge all over.. trees west of Bizzell library
Silver maple in my front yard flowers have been open for a week.
Grass beginning to green along perimeter inch of campus sidewalks.
One Senecio groundsel by west end of Sutton Hall up with a dozen early young flowers.
No dandelion blooms or plants.

From OWP 27 Feb:
"Stellaria chickweed, Galium bedstraw, some Geraniaceae thing like Erodium heron's bill with dissected leaves and something like Lamium henbit.. all are just beginning ..not over an inch high. Patches of new Festuca fescue? are growing bright green and somewhat taller along the northern portion of the ragweed delta...

Elm flower buds are breaking open. Tapping the branches I released a small puff of pollen. The Lonicera honeysuckle area west of Hackberry alley is visibly greening with the earliest low leaves."

Wonders never cease

Never seen that before! Out with Sally, the dog, walking the short road through the prairie field west of the airport; there were scores of dragonflies zooming about 30 minutes before sunset, concentrated in a 100 foot section of road and adjacent field.

I sat and watched the display and tried to estimate the number, maybe around 80.. mostly all libellulid skimmers but I couldn't make out the species on the wing. They looked like they were feeding, flying rapidly, diving and abruptly turning. I could hear the rasp of their membranous wings on the asphalt as they dove too low. I could not make out what they were doing.

Then I felt a touch on my wrist and found a winged ant. That was it. The recent rain had driven a mass emergence of mating ants and the dragonflies were there to pick off as many as possible. But the ant looked odd. I pulled out my hand lens and discovered that the ant was missing its abdomen. Wings, head and thorax looked fine and petiole..but then the rest was broken away. I wondered if it was a survivor of attempted predation. Then I saw another winged ant scuttling along the grounds. I picked it up.. and.. no abdomen!
A third, a fourth.. 20 ants or more I collected and put them in my wallet with no where else to store them. All the same missing gaster. I wondered if they could be males that had bred explosively with females, had lost their abdomens and would die within minutes.

But Jon S. says they are females, queen Lasius.. and the very much smaller ants in the same area are Lasius workers. Puzzle.