Plant Guilds

Comment

Comment by Barbara Worth on September 22, 2011 at 11:41pm

I thought maybe the strong smell of the junipers was confusing them.  Your insect eaters idea is certainly plausible.

Comment by Bryce Ruddock on September 22, 2011 at 6:45am

I'm not sure if the junipers themselves have any direct effect on the presence of tent caterpillars on nearby trees. The junipers do have at least 5 species of foliage feeding caterpillars some of which form large colony webs and others which can defoliate the entire juniper. The lessening of tent caterpillars on the persimmons might be due to the increase in fruit and insect eating birds that either nest in the junipers or that at least partially depend upon the juniper fruits for food. Many of these birds such as the common robin are omnivores and will eat both fruits and insects.

Comment by Bill Wilson on September 21, 2011 at 9:46pm

Hummmmm..... That is interesting Barbara.  Thanks for sharing and keep us informed if anything changes, will you?

Comment by Barbara Worth on September 21, 2011 at 3:12pm

Hi, All, this is not exactly a plant guild thing, but in the last month here in my Arkansas Ozark Mountain (1550'+ elev.) Zone 6-7 woods I have noticed that at least half of the wild persimmon trees growing within 10-12' of our native cedars (not true cedars but Juniperus virginia, common name Eastern Red Cedar) have no webworms (Fall Tent Caterpillar, Hyphantria cunea) while almost all of the others I have seen have multiple webs and a lot of dammage. Very interesting....

Comment by Bill Wilson on September 6, 2011 at 3:55pm

Oh... You mean Dan Halsey...  I'll send him a tickler.

 

Comment by David Lea on September 4, 2011 at 11:51pm

I was referring to the other speaker with plant guild knowledge who had worked with Tom Kackman.  He was helping with the construction of a very detailed online database showing all the characteristics of each plant and how it would fit into a guild along with suggested guilds.  He handed out a lot of forms to help in assessing guilds characteristics, etc.  Interested to know how he's doing.

Comment by Bryce Ruddock on September 4, 2011 at 5:05pm

Thanks for the guild sketches being sent to the grads , Bill.

We just got back from La Crosse and our niece's wedding. While there we found all the rain that you and I have not been getting. On the way back we drove through the Kickapoo valley and La Faege/Viola area. Beutiful country and of course we were looking for evidence of plant guild usage locally.

Comment by Bill Wilson on September 4, 2011 at 8:00am

Yo David...

As part of your PDC course, the 9 guild sketches are posted on your "resources' page.  The descriptions are coming soon.... Promise.

Comment by David Lea on September 4, 2011 at 12:28am

I would like to know if the guild website with all the charts, created by the speaker we enjoyed so much (can't remember his name but he had awesome drawings), is up and functioning.  He told us that it was still in the developmental stages but would soon be up and running.

Comment by David Lea on September 4, 2011 at 12:24am

No Bryce.  Just problems finding time to spend on this wonderful site!!!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page