With social distancing in place, and most of us working from home, we cannot get together for the Urban Nature Walks this summer. So, instead we plan to issue a series of challenges to get you outside the house and moving on your lunch breaks. The goal is to get outside, get some exercise, and explore nature in your neighborhood!
The first challenge is to notice your local urban street trees and to record them on iNaturalist.ca. We challenge you to record all the trees on one or both sides of your street block, or at minimum to record at least three different city trees. Remember to stay safe and keep to the sidewalks while you’re making your observations! In this short video Sue explains why it is important to have trees in an urban area, and introduces you to a few trees that you might encounter.
Urban Nature Walks: Tree Challenge Introduction
Now that you want to get out there, you should:
Create an account with iNaturalist.ca
Join the project ‘Dalhousie Workplace Wellness Urban Nature Walks’
Make an observation of a local tree and add it to the project.
Before you can add the observation to the project you need to join the project. After the login screen you should see a button that says projects in the menu bar along the bottom, and here you can search for ‘Dalhousie Workplace Wellness Urban Nature Walks’.
Then when you make an observation you will see one of the fields is ‘project’. Clicking on that will allow you to choose the project and include your observation.
The tree challenge will last from today, June 24th to July 8th, when we will issue a new challenge. The best picture posted will be highlighted through our social media channels and highlighted on our blog!
On Wednesday, July 10th we offered the third Urban Nature Walk on the Dalhousie Studley campus led by Su Donovaro of The Loaded Ladle. Many people joined the walk on the beautiful sunny Wednesday, which allowed for peak enjoyment over the lunchtime hour spent outdoors around campus. This walk series is funded by a grant from Dalhousie Universities Workplace Wellness Initiative.
Su provided information on how the plants can be used which I’ve summarized for you below, I have also included some links to websites and articles with further information.
The group with Su Donovaro leading the walk. Photo by L. Barraclough.
This post will detail a selection of the the edible plants we found, and taste-tested around campus. BUT, keep in mind that some of the plants were difficult to distinguish from non-edible plants! Before eating you need to be sure of what you’re looking at, and be aware of look-alike species. If you are new to edible plants, then we recommend that you go out with an expert, and if you can’t do that, then consult multiple field guides, or smart phone apps and taste at your own risk. https://www.usefulnovascotiaplants.com/
One of the first plants Su introduced was chickweed.
Chickweed (Stellaria media) thrive in highly compacted soil and they
have small white flowers.
Chickweed leavescan be eaten raw and are often
used in salads (Edible Wild Food 2019). Chickweed can also be used to create a
salve for itchy skin and wounds. To make a chickweed salve, you dry the leaves
for a night before you make the salve (Forêt Rde la
2016). You chop the chickweed finely before allowing it to dry overnight, then,
after it has wilted and dried out a bit, you mix the chickweed with olive oil,
blend them together and boil the mixture until all the plant material has been
extracted (Forêt Rde la 2016). For more detailed
instructions on making the salve you can check out this webpage: https://learningherbs.com/remedies-recipes/chickweed-salve/.
Chickweed at the base of a tree. Photo by L. Barraclough
The Hop Clover (Trifolium aureum) was
another edible plant that we encountered on Studley campus. The Hop Clover is
similar to white clovers but has leaves that are more heart shaped with a
crease down the middle and have a lemon taste. The flowers, leaves, and seeds
of this clover are usually eaten raw, and their seeds can be ground into flour
(Edible Wild Food 2019).
Another very common edible plant (tree actually!) on
campus is the Linden Tree (Tilia sp.), which can be commonly spotted
around Halifax. The Linden Tree flowers can be made into tea, which is often
used to relieve anxiety and act as a mild sedative. The leaves of a Linden Tree
are edible and can be used like lettuce in salads in the spring, summer, and
fall (Eat the Planet 2013).
Linden tree on Dalhousie Campus. Photo by L. Barraclough.
We also encountered St. John’s Wort (Hypericum
perforatum) which has tiny yellow flowers with five petals and has
medicinal properties that make is suitable for treating anxiety and depression.
However, it cannot be taken at the same time as pharmaceutical depression drugs
as they will cancel each other out. You should consult a doctor before using
it! For more detailed analysis of the medicinal properties of St. John’s Wort
you can check out https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/st-johns-wort#1
St. John’s Wort. Photo by L. Barraclough.
We were introduced to so many different edible plants
on the Studley campus, too many to describe here, but one of the final ones I’m
going to highlight is Plantain (Plantago major). Plantain is often
viewed as a weed found in your garden, but it can be used in salads and
cooking, and as a poultice for healing. The leaves of plantain can be harvested
from when it starts growing in the spring until the frost hits in the winter
(Wild Edible 2019). The smaller leaves can be eaten raw, whereas larger leaves
usually need to be cooked.
Last, but not least, you can check out the Dalhousie
Urban Garden behind the Rowe Management building on the Studley campus and find
many more edible plants!
This walk was led by Su from the Loaded Ladle. The
Loaded Ladle is a levied society at both Dalhousie and King’s that provides
free vegan food Tuesday-Friday in the Student Union Building of Dalhousie to
the Dal community. They also run food sovereignty and justice workshops as part
of their To the Root Workshop series. You can check out their website for more
information https://loadedladle.com/?fbclid=IwAR1wdjoByl77Bc3Ys-kvb0OwiDRxONl7QuJ_FfOBi1U6-cB7AizBG_1sdPI and
check them out on facebook https://www.facebook.com/theloadedladle/
Slime mold, Dalhousie Studley Campus. Photo by Lara Gibson
Yesterday morning on my way to Dalplex I noticed a weird orange- brown mass on the lawn. The mass had a dense structure, made up of small connected lobes, and on one side had fine white hairs extending outwards from the base. Closer inspection showed that both the white filaments at the base and the brown lobes were made up of interconnected fibers. All of this made me think it was some type of fungi. I was wrong!
Individual blades of grass emerged from one half the mass. This could suggest that the mass had grown around the blades of grass and possibly fairly quickly (although I do not actually know this to be the case)
Close up of slime mold, showing gelatinous mass in blue. Photo by Lara Gibson
Towards the top of the mass there was a yellow, gelatinous structure forming (highlighted in blue above). When I scrapped the side of the mass, the interior was bright yellow. The interior did not have a fibrous texture but was more like a gelatinous liquid. Also the mass was not solid but had air pockets embedded in it.
Interior of the slime mold. Photo by Lara Gibson
While I was taking pictures and collecting a small sample to look at under the microscope, a passer-by stopped and asked in a concerned voice if I was ok. They had assumed that I was hunched over and had just puked.
The iNaturalist.ca algorithm suggested this was a member of the plasmodial slime mold genus Fuligo and likely Fuligo septica, commonly known as dog vomit slime mold. Apparently what I found was the fruiting body called the aethalium (Mahr 2015). The slime mold will take this state when it has used the available food in the area or it has become too dry (Mahr 2015).
When not reproducing, plasmodial slime molds exist as a large multinucleated cell, surrounded only by a cell membrane. In this state they will move around by extending multiple lobes away from the main mass of the cell in many directions, and then having the main mass of the cell flow towards the lobe with the most promising food signal (Volk 1999). To eat, the large cell surrounds its prey, or engulfing it, and pulls the prey into its body to digests it. If this sounds horrifying to you, you need not worry. They only eat decaying plant matter (Mahr 2015).
The next step for this slime mold is to produce spores. To do this, the yellow gelatinous mass will turn black and the outer brown crust will harden (Mahr 2015). Once the spores have developed, they will disperse when the crust is broken, potentially by being stepped on.
I checked on this slime mold after lunch and you can see the yellow interior turning black where it was disturbed this morning.
Slime mold interior, four hours after being disturbed. Photo by Lara Gibson
I’m looking forward to following the development of this slime mold over the next few days!
The group learning about the plants in the Bill Freedman Native Plant Collection, photo by L. Barraclough.
The second urban nature walk on the Dalhousie Studley campus took place on Wednesday, June 26th with PhD student Georgia Denbigh exploring the gardens on the campus grounds. About twenty staff, students, faculty, and community members joined us for a tour of: the gardens by the Henry Hicks building, the gardens by the Chemistry building, and the Bill Freedman Native Plant Collection (more information here https://www.dal.ca/faculty/science/alumni-friends/bill-freedman-plant-collection.html). This walk series is funded by a grant from Dalhousie Universities Workplace Wellness Initiative.
Georgia took the group through tips and tricks for gardening in Nova Scotia, as well as a focus on all of the pollinator friendly plants in the Dalhousie gardens. She pointed out that a lot of soil in Nova Scotia is poor quality and in many of the sloped and hilly areas that we want plants that will hold together and prevent erosion. Many cover plants tend to have fibrous root systems which are shallow rooting and more tolerant to soil and weather changes (DJ MacNeil, DP Steele, W McMahon, & DR Carder, 2001). Most soil in Nova Scotia is naturally acidic with very little organic matter, making them quite infertile, which increases the demand for highly tolerant plant species (Sangster & Singh, 2013). One of the most tolerant plant species that we saw in the gardens were ferns which prefer to grow in areas with shade cover and thrive in moist and acidic soil like the soil here in Halifax, they are also low-maintenance (“Ferns”, 2019).
Ferns, photo Lara Gibson.
Creating a garden where both honey bees and native pollinators will thrive is a combination of the plants that you plant in the garden, water availability, and the types of maintenance on the garden (“Planting forage for honey bees in Canada”, 2017). Some of the gardening techniques to make your garden more welcoming to pollinators is to consider weeding and mowing less often, use less pesticides, have containers that can act as nesting sites for bees, and provide some access to water (“Planting forage for honey bees in Canada”, 2017). We learned during the walk that bees tend to like flowers with one ring of petals, and brighter colours, whereas butterflies prefer clusters of flowers together. Some flowers that we saw in the Dalhousie gardens that would attract pollinators are: daisies, which are native flowers and attract bees due to their bright colour and one ring of flowers and hostas which grow well in shade, attract hummingbirds, and are easy to grow for the “gardener who doesn’t garden”.
This walk was a lovely introduction to Nova Scotia plants, we look forward to our next walk coming up on July 10th from 12:15-1pm on edible plants, a nice follow up.
Walking around campus this week, you might notice bushes blooming with delicate white flowers. These are Serviceberries, part of the rose family and in the Amelanchier genus. Serviceberries grow upwards with clumps of branches emerging from the ground and with only a few side branches. Branches end in sparse droopy green- tinged with red leaves and a few white blooms. Nothing on the bush looks crowded. White flowers have five spread out petals surrounding a cluster of male and female flower parts.
Serviceberry bush. Photo L. GibsonServiceberry flower. Photo L. Gibson
Rolands Flora of Nova Scotia (Zinck 1998) lists about 20 species found in Nova Scotia, but the sexual habits of these plants can make distinguishing or characterizing species difficult. The plants hybridize easily, meaning individuals of different species can have viable offspring together (Evert & Eichhorn 2013),and they can produce viable seeds without sexual reproduction (Zinck 1998).
Many of the genera that iNaturalist lists as ones that serviceberry could be easily confused with all belong to the same family Rosaceae (https://inaturalist.ca/taxa/49230-Amelanchier). Confusing genera include Prunus (cherries), Malus (apples), Rubus (brambles) and Crataegus (hawthorns). Flowers in this family tend to have parts in multiple of five; five petals, five sepals, and five stamens. To distinguish serviceberries from similar genera, look for a bush instead of a tree, branches which are smooth without prickles or thorns (Zinck 1998), and leaves with teeth along the edges (Boland 2012). .
Later in the year when the fruit are produced, plants will produce a small pome, meaning the flesh of the fruit is made from the receptacle, or the tissue that connects the flower to the stem (Zinck 1998; Evert & Eichhorn 2013). The fruit will ripen at the end of July, or early August and will be a deep purple (Boland 2012). Most species are edible (Boland 2012), although the fruit of the common serviceberry (Amelanchier arbotea) is described as mealy (Newcomb 1977). The berries are also popular with birds and insects, so you have to be quick to harvest them (Simpson 2018). A colleague has fond memories of her grandmother sending her out to collect shadberries to bake into pancakes.
Shadberries is one of several common names associated with this plant, and links the time the bush is flowering with the time when the Shad, several genera of fish in the herring family, are migrating (McCloskey & Kennedy 2012). Other common names include Juneberry for the time of year the bush flowers, and Saskatoon berry named for a western species (McCloskey & Kennedy 1012; Zinck 1998).
For now we can enjoy the blossoms on campus and dream of the time we can eat the berries.
References:
Boland T. 2012. Trees and Shrubs of the Maritimes. Newfoundland and Labrador: Boulder Publishing. Pg. 90-92.
Evert R.F. & Eichhorn S.E. 2013. Raven Biology of Plants. 8thed. USA: W.H. Freeman and Company.
McCloskey E. & Kennedy G. 2012. Nature Guide to Atlantic Canada. Edmonton: Lone Pine Publishing. Pg. 162
Newcomb L. 1977. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. New York: Little Brown. Pg. 314.
Simpson J. 2018. Eating Wild in Eastern Canada. A guide to foraging the forests, fields, and shorelines. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing. Pg. 46.
Zinck M. 1998. Roland’s Flora of Nova Scotia. Vol 1. Nova Scotia; Nimbus Publishing & Nova Scotia Museum. Pg 445.
First Report from the Studley Campus Urban Nature Walk: Birds. On Wednesday, May 22nd, Dr. Andy Horn guided a group of about twenty staff, faculty, and students on a bird-watching walk around Studley campus. This was the first in a series of seven walks that will occur over the next year to help shake the mid-week slump, get some light exercise, explore urban nature, and learn something new. The walk series is funded by a grant from Dalhousie Universities Workplace Wellness Initiative.
Picture credit L. Barraclough
Despite the cold and windy weather, we saw
seven different species of bird on the walk: Song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), Pigeons (Columba livia), a Herring Gull (Larus argentatus), and an American
Goldfinch (Spinus tristis). We also
spotted a crow’s nest in the conifer trees outside the back of the Killam
Library, and heard baby starlings in a nest tucked into a human made structure
by one of the buildings.
Crow’s Nest. Photo credit L. Barraclough
During the bird walk we learned a lot about the European Starlings that are present here in Nova Scotia. Although one of the most common bird species in North America, they are actually invaders from Europe. They were introduced into Central Park in New York City in 1890, and once firmly established there, starlings spread rapidly throughout the United States, Canada, and South America (Nature Publishing Group, 1929).
European Starling, Ryan Schain/Macaulay Library at the Cornell lab of Ornithology (ML39278701)
The European Starling has been
named one of the “100 world’s worst” invaders by the Invasive Species
Specialist Group (Linz et al., 2007). Starlings have had major economic,
ecologic, and health impacts since their introduction to North America. They
compete aggressively with many other native cavity-nesting birds for nest sites
(Linz et al., 2007). There has been little evidence to suggest, however, that
starlings have outcompeted native cavity-nesting birds and caused negative
impacts on their populations (Koenig, 2003). In a survey of 27 species of
cavity-nesting birds, only ten were found to have experienced impacts that
could be attributed to starling competition, and of those ten, only a portion
of them were negative (Koenig, 2003). Starlings also carry many diseases that
affect other birds, humans, and many other native animals to North America
including horses, ducks, humans, chickens, turkeys, geese, rabbits, sheep, and
cattle (Linz et al., 2007).
Starlings will find interesting and perhaps unexpected locations on campus to nest. We found a starling nest in an air vent covered with netting that was unsuccessfully trying to prevent nesting. Starlings tend to nest in cavities (often a hole in a tree, a birdhouse, or a hole in a cactus), and vents, like the one on campus can act as an artificial cavity (Audubon, 2019). Starlings will often start breeding early in the year and need to ensure that the cavity protects their eggs from natural forces, such as rain and wind, and they will often have at least two broods a year (Audubon, 2019). While listening to the baby starlings calling out to their mother from the vent, Andy Horn commented that the babies will often call out to the mother bird incessantly for food, and that research suggests the babies aren’t always as hungry as they make out to be, but are over stating their hunger to hurry their parents back to nest for comfort.
This walk was just the first of many to come! We hope that you will join us for our next walk in June (stay tuned for more details! Topic to be announced soon!), our edible plant walk in July, and our intertidal walk in August!
Koenig, W. (2003). European
starlings and their effect on native cavity-nesting birds. Conservation Biology 17(4): 1134-1140.
Linz, G., Homan, J., Gaukler, S., Penry, L., & Bleier, W. (2007). European starlings: A review of an invasive species with far-reaching impacts. Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species: proceedings of an International Symposium, National Wildlife Research Centre.
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