Nabokov's Blue

The McNair site was a pretty cool place. I drove the 40 miles or so in search of the Nabokov's blue (Plebejus idas ssp. nabokovi). This is the subspecies of the northern blue that is found in MN. It uses dwarf bilberry (Vaccinium caespitosum) as its larval host. Like most blueberries, dwarf bilberry is a fire dependent species, it can persist in the understory but really does best in the openings provided by burns, or blowdowns. That is the exact habitat that you'll find Nabokov's blue in. This site is quite special, it is the type location for the subspecies. Although it might seem quite ordinary to the unknowing eye. It's just a forest opening right next to some railroad tracks, some of the spots were open and a little drier with aspens and serviceberries, some more closed with an understory of dogwoods and willows, and some a little moister with bog labrador tea. But pretty much wherever you looked really low was an amazing amount of bilberry! After a few minutes of waiting around some blooming yarrow, I saw my first butterfly, followed by many more. 

Nabokov's blue (Plebejus idas ssp. nabokovi)

dwarf bilberry (Vaccinium caespitosum) 

The next day I stopped near the phone tower by the Bean and Bear trailhead, the only other spot I've seen bilberry growing. That population is much smaller, and mostly growing in the shade. At the McNair site there was a massive amount of fruit just starting to ripen. Here I did not see a single berry and never have in the past 2 years of checking on this population. I'm guessing it is manily a lack of sunlight that prevents fruiting, but who knows for sure. 

Healthy looking plants in the shade, but no fruit





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sap is Flowing

Image
Today David, Brie, Logan and I drove to the end of the driveway and snowshoed around for a while, collecting birch bark for winter survival class. From a distance I noticed one of the large maple trees had a streak of darker bark running up and down it. As I walked closer, I saw it was because that part of the trunk was wet. I gave it a little taste and it was nice and sweet. Yep, the sap of at least a few of the sugar maples is flowing, in January! Quite a surprise, usually in this area the maple tapping season begins in early April and lasts for a couple of weeks. But, with such warm weather today and the past week or so, I guess it isn't so surprising.  Sap flowing down a sugar maple (Acer saccharum) trunk This is quite the phenological event. So far it's been an exceptionally warm winter with little snow, lots of things seem to be happening "out of season" this year. Snowshoe hares had white coats with no snow to camouflage them for quite a while, (each day there...
Read more

Lichenicolous Fungi at Goldeneye Lake

Image
Ever since I first ran into Abrothallus peyritschii a few moths ago, I have been obsessively searching for more lichenicolous fungi. They are quite an interesting group of organisms; being so understudied, along with being rather small and indistinct always makes them fun to stumble across. I had been researching some species to go and try to find in the field. One of the species that I read about was Abrothallus halei; the holotype for which was collected by Cliff Wetmore just east of Hare Lake back in 1999, but wasn't described until 2010. Apparently there have only been collections from MN, WV,  ME, and Norway, so I figured it would be worth the effort to go and look for. Little did I know the adventures that that would bring about! The first trip out to Goldeneye Lake was on Jan. 4. I had been there a couple of months before on a natural history hike with Charlie. From that I knew that there were quite a few older maple trees absolutely covered with tree lungwort, I figure...
Read more

Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi of Grand Marais

Image
 I spent most of the day out looking for lichen in and around Grand Marais. There were a few things that I observed earlier in the year that I was curious how distributed they are in the area, today seemed like a good day for an adventure up north.  The first and most interesting stop was of course at Artists' Point. It is a tied island connected to the mainland by a tombolo. This is quite a unique feature along the shoreline, the only other example that I've noticed is at Sugarloaf Cove. Both places are small islands by most standards, but they are quite large when compared to other islands along Superior's North Shore. Both places house some extremely rare plants and lichens. They also provide an absolutely breathtaking view of Superior. Sadly, these locations (especially Artists' Point) are favorites of tourists and these rare communities get quite trampled. Historically, there was a population of the endangered Scottish asphodel (Tofieldia pusilla) at this location....
Read more