The
Oklahoma Academy of Science had its spring field meeting this past weekend at
Sequoyah State Park near Muskogee. If you missed it, this essay will help you regret it. Fortunately we missed the torrential rains
that started falling today. It was gently cool, and softly overcast—which made
the green of the new leaves very intense. On Saturday morning and afternoon we
had field trips. I accompanied Gloria Caddell for the botany hikes.
We
saw beautiful and interesting plants. Examples include the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum in the
Berberidaceae):
And
spiderwort (Tradescantia ernestiana in
the Commelinaceae):
We
also saw the mycotrophic orchid Corallorhiza
wisteriana. It does not have chlorophyll. It gets its nutrition from
decaying wood. But not directly. It is mycotrophic rather than saprophytic
because mutualistic fungi absorb the nutrients from rotting wood and provide
them to the orchid.
On
one of our hikes we visited a nearby Boy Scout camp owned and operated by the
family of Andrea Blair, a graduate student at Oklahoma State University Tulsa
campus. Here, Andrea is talking with Ken Hobson, former president of OAS and
professor of biology at OU.
We
saw a magnificently blooming buckeye (Aesculus
glabra in the Hippocastanaceae). But it was on the other side of the creek
so I had to wade across to get photos of it. This would have been a simple
matter except that the rocks were just the right size to hurt my tender old
feet.
Among
the student participants was John Williams and his sons and nephew from
Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Mia Revels of Northeastern Oklahoma State
University and Gloria Caddell of University of Central Oklahoma brought their
classes (ornithology and systematic botany, respectively). The photo shows John's young son soaking up the wonders of the forest.
Especially
in the afternoon, the field trips combined forces to gain a multi-disciplinary
view of nature. Liz Bergey of OU found a slime mold. And we all wished for a
competent paleontologist when we found abundant fossils near the lake shore. In
this photo, you can see many crinoids (a kind of echinoderm, with stalks that look
like stacks of coins), corals, and bryozoans (now known as ecoprocts). The
bryozoans were of the genus Archimedes
and looked more like a fish backbone. That’s what I thought they were at first,
but I never saw any “fish ribs” with the “backbones,” which meant I had to be
wrong.
On
Friday and Saturday evenings, guest speakers provided fascinating
presentations. On Friday, Charles Brown of University of Tulsa told us about his
over three decades of research into the costs, benefits, and evolution of
colony behavior in cliff swallows. You think you’ve had bedbugs? But a single
little swallow nest can have hundreds of them. On Saturday, Ron Bonett of
University of Tulsa told us about salamanders in Oklahoma, and about the
repeated evolution of species in which juveniles become sexually reproductive.
In the photo, field meeting organizer Connie Murray (of Tulsa Community College
Metro campus) talks with Charles Brown.
Every
spring and fall, OAS has wonderful field meetings. There are always lots of
interesting things to see, and wonderful people to explore with. My thanks to
everyone who made the meeting a success, including our Executive Director David
Bass who had to make sure everything happened.
Stan Rice, president
Stan Rice, president
