Spotted Salamander Sighting

It is salamander breeding time!

We‘re excited to find gelatinous egg masses, and suspecting the eggs are those of the spotted salamander, we sent the photo to Megan Gibbons, Professor of Biology at BSC. We see Megan and her students on the mountain during salamander breeding season and at the Friends of Shades Creek Salamander Festival at the Homewood Forest Preserve.

Megan confirmed, “These are spotted salamander egg masses. Some of them are clear and others are opaque (determined by the genetics of the mother). The individual embryos that look white are not viable; they are either infected by fungus, were frozen, or maybe just not fertilized. The others all look great!”

Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) live in moist forest burrows — beneath leaves, soil, or decaying logs. They come out once a year to mate and lay their eggs in vernal pools, seasonal wetlands that dry up in the summer. 

As you hike the mountain, you’ve surely noticed several depressions and pits not far from the trails. These pits are leftover from the surface mining of iron ore. Around 10 years ago, Ruffner conservationists lined a few of the mining relic pits with flexible pond liners, essentially turning them into breeding habitats for salamanders and frogs. The addition of the liners allows the vernal pools more time to hold water, but the pools are still shallow enough to dry up before allowing fish to establish. Given the chance, fish would be ferocious predators of egg masses, so these vernal pools are most important for supporting amphibian life cycles. Photo of spotted salamander by Vitaly Charny 

Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana)

The next time you take a hike after a good rain, look for lush clumps and cloaks of dark green resurrection fern on trunks and limbs of living and dead trees.

Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana) is a native perennial. Epiphytic in habit, the fern grows on trees and other plants but not as a parasite. The fern also grows on rocks and other structures (epipetric). The fern has long creeping rhizomes that adhere to its host perch, and fronds reproduce by spores. In dry weather, the small and scaly fronds curl up, turn brown, and appear to be dead.

With rain or fog, they unfurl, turn green, and spring back to life. Hence their name: Resurrection fern.

Ruffner Mountain Volunteer - Gottfried Kibelka

Gottfried Kibelka, aka The Privet Warrior, enjoys exploring the wilds of Birmingham, learning about Alabama’s amazing plant diversity, and doing his part in protecting the environment.

He gives back to his community by stoutheartedly slaying invasive species and bestowing the forests back to the regeneration of native plants. He has worked hard along with volunteers to rid the area surrounding crusher #2 of the beastly privet thickets, and the place is looking great. Gottfried’s photos illustrate the progress as well as his best methods for eradicating privet. As a reminder, this section of the mountain is designated for conservation and restoration therefore it is not located on the trail map or open to the public.

Gottfried offers this advice for privet removal:

Cut the privet as close to the ground as feasible and spray the stump surface with a 25% glyphosate solution as soon as possible (less than 1 minute). Don’t cut in rain or when temperatures are below 40 degrees to ensure translocation of the herbicide into the root system.

Check out the Facebook page for Volunteer Preserve Rangers Birmingham — a group of enthusiasts that are committed to helping Ruffner Mountain, Turkey Creek, and Moss Rock Preserves. If you would like to volunteer, please email Jamie Nobles, Conservation Director at jamie@ruffnermountain.org

Let’s discuss MORE Invasive Species, Shall We?

Continuing the theme of invading exotic plants you might find on the mountain, a few more stand out: periwinkle, Italian arum, monkey grass, leatherleaf mahonia, thorny olive, winter honeysuckle, and Japanese honeysuckle.

Jamie Nobles, Conservation Director, describes invasive plants as species that are not naturally occurring (non-native) that also have uncontrollable characteristics (dominate a landscape). They typically grow rapidly and out-compete native species, oftentimes creating major disturbance and harm to the environment. Ruffner Mountain has several invasive species within the preserve, and over the years, we (Jamie, staff, and the volunteer team) have worked to eradicate and reduce their effects on the mountain. Among these efforts, we have made a dent in some areas but there are more to go.

We have 3 aspects to our adaptive invasive plant management plan:

1.) Education — We try to help people learn how to identify invasive plants and better understand why invasive species are a problem.

2.) Monitoring — We take notes on where invasive plants occur and prioritize areas to be worked on. Homeowners can also do this as well to better understand their landscape and environment. Then they can make plans to eradicate invasive plants.

3.) Removal — The best method for eradication is to remove the entire plant, digging up or pulling up the plant from its roots. Some plants have extensive root systems and are large and difficult to remove or we may not want to remove the soil. In these cases, we often use herbicide to assist. The typical applications are foliar spraying, basal spraying, "cut and treat", and stem/root injections. If herbicide is needed, we prefer the cut and treat application for most of our woody invasive species. When done correctly, this method reduces overspray (potential to kill/harm unintended plants), uses less herbicide than foliar spray, and is very effective in eradicating the individual plant. We also use other forms of removal to temporarily reduce the spread of some invasive plants like removing seeds, fruit, flowers or mowing annuals prior to seed production.

For more information about the identification, control, and eradication of invasive plants, Jamie suggests going to https://www.invasive.org/ where you can find the Invasive Plant Atlas and as well as local information from the Alabama Invasive Plant Council.

Invasive Species: English ivy (Hedera helix)

English ivy (Hedera helix)
Photo by Michelle Reynolds

Another invasive plant that is easy to spot during the winter is English ivy (Hedera helix). Forming tightly woven carpets on the forest floor, the ivy twines and twists, strangling limbs of captive trees and choking out native species as it grows and spreads. This aggressive vine is hard to control, and it easily spreads from backyards abutting the nature preserve. We know how this plant escapes cultivation, so it is up to us to make wise choices for our landscapes.

How to help keep English ivy out of the forests:

• 1) Do not grow it in your yard;

• 2) if it is in your yard, you can replace it with native vines (coral honeysuckle, Carolina jessamine, partridgeberry, Virginia creeper, crossvine) and a diversity of easy-to-grow woodland plants (phlox, sedges, woodoats, columbine, ginger, foamflower, alumroot);

• 3) if you want to keep your ivy, work hard to keep it in check so the plants don’t escape to nearby woods.

English ivy is almost impossible to control and can be very difficult to get rid of.

To remove it from trees, clip all of the vines at the bottom of the tree, wait for the ivy to die before pulling the vines down. To get rid of the vines on the ground, continuously pull, pull, and pull. Be sure to bag up the ivy and roots and throw them in the trash.

Be vigilant about pulling any new shoots. In some cases, the application of herbicide may be needed for complete eradication.

English ivy (Hedera helix)
Photo by Michelle Reynolds

Invasive Species: Heavenly Bamboo/Nandina (Nandina domestica)

Heavenly Bamboo/Nandina (Nandina domestica)
Photo by Michelle Reynolds

During the winter, some invasive species are easy to spot.

A common invasive plant we see on the mountain is heavenly bamboo/nandina (Nandina domestica). Its bright red berries may be pretty, but there is nothing heavenly about them. Birds are tempted to eat the fruit, and as the berries travel through a bird’s gut, the seeds are scarified by digestive acids and deposited from the other end along with a little fertilizer package.

These plants are harmful to our ecosystems and a poison apple to birds. The seeds contain small amounts of cyanide, and when consumed by species of birds that gobble up lots of berries (like cedar waxwings or robins), the consequence can be deadly.

We know how this plant escapes cultivation, so it is up to us to make wise choices for our landscapes. You can help keep nandina out of the forests by:

1) Not planting them in your yard.

2) If it is in your yard, replace them with native or well-behaved non-invasive species such as evergreen blueberry (Vaccinium darrowii), wild rosemary (Conradina canescens), or dwarf rhododendron (Rhododendron minus) to name a few.

3) Be sure to clip the berries so the plants don’t escape to nearby woods or kill birds.

What is Marcescence?

During winter hikes, have you noticed trees that are keeping their shimmering bronze and withered leaves instead of dropping them? American beech (Fagus grandifolia) trees are marcescent — meaning plant parts withering without falling off. Sometimes growing in large groves, these beautiful trees with smooth silver bark, can be observed on the eastern end of the mountain, and especially in low drainage depressions and creek banks or on the edges of the forest reaching for the sun.