Red Berries

nature Earl Plato

No sooner into Marcy Woods and we saw them. Shining red berries resting close to the ground beneath the tree covered sand dunes. The clusters of shiny red berries that my Bert Miller Junior Naturalists found on that Saturday morning were numerous. The fruit of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit was on vivid display. What do you know about this plant? Have you been to Algonquin Park and read the article Sex in the Pulpit? I did years ago but not until I saw Dr. Wayne Gall’s slides at the Nature Club at Stevensville Conservation Centre and heard what he had to say about our “Jack” was I really informed.
Keep your eyes open for the red berries this fall for next spring there should be little “Jacks.”
Most of us have grown up with this undeniably interesting forest plant. It’s a perennial that grows in rich hardwoods such as Marcy Woods. It consists of one or two three big parted leaves plus the flower (or pulpit) on a separate stalk. Take a close look at the pulpit. Dr. Gall told us that it is a graceful modified leaf. His slides showed ranges in colour from solid green to green with white or purplish-brown stripes. The pulpit encloses and shelters a fleshy spike whose base is covered with dozens of tiny flowers. The Gall slides showed all male (they produce pollen only) or all female (they produce only ovules or potential seeds.) So what’s unusual?
The special thing in this case unlike other plants is that individual Jack-in-the pulpits change sex from one year to the next. This year’s female plant may well be next year’s male or vice-versa. Believe it?
Dr. Wayne Gall of the Buffalo Museum of Science told us why. Curious? Do a little research if you don’t believe us.
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Where were they? Halloween has come and gone and where were the countless Orb spider webs at Marcy Woods? Now don’t let me lead you astray. There are those spiders and their intricate webs on the Upper Trail at Marcy’s but no where is there the density of past years. In walking the trail in past years you carried your hiking stick or a branch held high as you navigated the path. You couldn’t avoid the myriad of webs.
I asked my Junior Naturalists on a recent outing at Marcy Woods the question about one giant web across the trail. How did the spider make this web? They don’t fly or glide. How was it accomplished?
All spiders have silk glands, although not all use silk in spinning webs, When drawn and stretched from the Orb spiders spinnerets, located at the rear of the abdomen the liquid silk solidifies into tiny strands that are both strong and elastic. So our Orb spider releases silk threads and the wind carries them across the path until the sticky thread(s) become attached to branches on the other side. Next the spider travels across the strand and back reinforcing the important connection. Soon other guide lines are released from the spinnerets and after strengthening the strands the wonderful shape of a web takes form. Soon the spider has created a trap for flying insects. No spiders don’t fly but their silk thread floats. Nature is always interesting.