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LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER November - December 1995 Vol. 5, No. 6 This Issue PITCH PINE In ON EASTERN Larry Penny has written a timely article about the Pitch Pine on Eastern Long Island. Many ofus watched LONG ISLAND news coverage as pines burned this summer. It is good to have news about the status ofthis important plant on Long Island. Summer is winding down, the drought continues. The horse chestnut leaves have browned to a near crisp. Mindy Block, a student at SUNY Stony Brook has Tupelo leaves are already reddening in the swamps, and written about Observations on Upland Plant Associations many other deciduous trees are less than green. in the Pine Barrens of Long Island. She records 8 One tree stands out among the rest because its distinct plant associations and there relative frequency. foliage is still green and full. You might say it’s the Long Island tree - it’s got to be one ofthe most Back by popular demand, Eric Lament will present prevalent species, and there are large tracts of land his talk on Roy Latham at the Southold Indian where it out numbers the other trees ten to one. Museum, see page 38 for more info. However, it cannot be called the Long Island tree because it’s a relative newcomer, and although it’s New Editor widespread here - there are few places where it is missing - it has yet to arrive there. The tree we’re talking With this issue I turn over the editorship ofthe LIBS newsletter to Eric Lament. I have enjoyed the apibnoeu,t,Piorfmcsourrisgei,da.is tIhte’sptihtech opportunity to create, edit and read this newsletter over perfect tree for dry weather the last four years. I want to thank the many authors and poor soils. It’s the for their v-ontributions without which none ofthis would linchpine" ofthe newly be possible. I want to thank particularly Eric Lament created Long Island Forest who did a greatjob of getting authors and articles to me Preserve, which covers each month. Thanks-Steve Clemants. thousands of acres in Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton Towns, and, PROGRAMS although the Father ofour Country' once called it "ill 14 November 1995 - 7:30 pm, Dr. KumKum thriven," the pitch pine, ofall Prabhakar, "An introduction to embryo our species, is the Long Island development in flowering plants." Uplands Farm tree voted most likely to Nature Center, Cold Spring Harbor. (For succeed. directions to Uplands Farm call 516/367-3225). It’s the perfect tree. Not only does it do well on sandy soils poor in minerals and 12 December 1995 - 7:30 pm, John Heidecker, nutrients, it is an evergreen, is exceedingly drought "Wildflowers and other wildlife ofLong Island." resistant, is nearly insect and disease-proof, is a quick Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences, SUNY grower, gets tall, is tolerant ofother woody species, at Stony Brook (for directions to MOLINS call provides food for wildlife, and is resistant to fire. 516/632-8230). It’s a perfect tree, yes, but outside of the wild, it’s almost impossible to get. It’s one ofthe few Long Long Island November - December 1995 Page 35 Botanical Society Island natives that you can’t find in a nursery or garden Greenport. It has yet to get across the causeway into shop on Long Island. In fact, to get it, one has to go all Orient in any big way. the way to southern New Jersey. It is also very scarce or completely missing from And even in the Garden State - perhaps the one the eastern islands and peninsulas, including Robins richest in pitch pines of all - only a few tree farms carry Island, Shelter Island, North Haven, Gardiner’s Island, it. Thus we find a puzzling duality: the pitch pine is Plum Island, and Fishers Island. It has yet to occupy regal in nature, but lowly in American landscape circles. Montauk, except for the extreme western part known as It is so lowly that for more than a century now, all the Walking Dunes. matter of foreign pines have been imported and promoted No wonder tum-of-the-century Montaukers planted by government entities to fill the so-called void. First it exotic pines. Montauk was pineless! was the Scots pine and Austrian black pine. In the last Why did the pitch pine do so well on Long Island? 40 years, it’s been the Japanese black pine. It wasn’t so much that it came to an empty land ripe for Among these government entities, the New York insemination. Quite the contrary. When the pitch pine State Department ofEnvironmental Conservation comes arrived here from the South and West, probably by way to mind. Up until a few years ago, it was not only of Staten Island and the expansive coastal plain linking promoting the species but selling it at cost, a few New Jersey and Long Island that existed 5,000 to 8,000 pennies for each seedling. The Japanese black pine was years ago, it found a place completely grown over - if highly touted as a tree to be planted on waste ground not by oaks and other hardwoods, then by white pines, and on maritime dunes. shrubs, grasses, and forbs. None ofthese foreign pines has lived up to It may have been in the expectations. The Oriental species has turned out to be grasslands, not the woodlands, an absolute disaster. It was widely planted here on where the first pine nuts Long Island in every conceivable habitat, notjust on blown here or dropped by dunes and seashores but in back yards, in fields, on birds got started. The toehold estates, along major highways. may have been on soil in The black pine had several Achilles heels. It was what is now called Brooklyn. readily stressed and weakened by northeasters and (Queens is dominated by hurricanes. It was attacked by nematodes below the hardwood species from ground, tip moths and turpentine beetles above it. Appalachia). One only has to drive along the Long Island Once started here, Expressway or County Road 105 to see how poorly these however, it would spread fast, trees are faring now. Very few are still healthy; most because the pitch pines came are browned or needleless. Many dead ones have _with an extra-special quality already been removed. to an area where this quality was lacking or in short More locally, the Beach Hampton community of supply. They had the gift of being fire-resistant. They Amagansett and Napeague has been the hardest hit. survived wildfires, while the broad-leaved trees around Forty years ago the former spot was covered with pitch them were killed or severely stunted by them. pines. Most were cleared off for development, then Not only did the pitch pine survive the great replaced with Japanese pines. For a while the Japanese holocausts that swept Long Island not infrequently, they black pine thrived, and even made inroads into the thrived on them. After the fire, these pines were able to native pitch pine stands ofNapeague. sprout needles from their trunks, from top to bottom. Over the years one could easily follow this spread They used these new needles to step up photosynthetic by visual inspection: the exotic is dark green to bluish- output, in response to the greater amount of light that green, the native is light green and yellowish-green. At the burnt-over forest now let through. the moment, the dead and dying black pines stand out Some ofthese sprouts went on to become new among the pitch pines like sore thumbs. branches. Once the fire had passed, these pines dropped The pitch pine ofNapeague, having survived this seeds that had been tightly locked in resin-sealed cones. inroad by an introduced competitor, is making an inroad The intense heat melted the resin and the seeds dropped itself Napeague is the jumping-offpoint for the final on the newly naked ground, where they would germinate invasion objective. Extreme eastern Long Island is and grow rapidly in the absence of competing growth. mostly free ofthese species. This scenario is still being played out. There’s a On the North Fork, the pitch pine is relatively rare, spot in Wainscott along Daniel’s Hole Road south ofthe but it has settled the lands around Mattituck Creek and railroad track that was hit hard by a May 1986 fire, some ofthose along the Peconics, all the way to presumably started by a passing train. (It occurred on Long Island November - December 1995 Page 36 Botanical Society the same day that Hither Woods in Montauk caught In other words, on these sand-based dwarfish pitch fire.) The only big trees in this tract of land are pitch pines, the canopies are inverted; they’re almost at pines. ground level. The ground-hugging branches not only The oaks and hickories were destroyed by the fire; grab light and make food, they provide a kind ofmulch their scions, growing up from stump shoots, have that cuts down on the loss ofsoil moisture. produced a thickety understory. The lower trunks of the The expansion ofthe pitch pine on to the Napeague stately pitch pines here are still covered with a glaze of isthmus and across must be fairly recent. There is an charcoal that adheres to any fingers touching it. 1846 U.S. Coast Service (later the Coast and Geodetic Ifyou look at an overhead color photograph ofthis Service) map that shows some small pine stands, mostly bum area, taken recently, at a time when the deciduous in the Promised Land-Lazy Point parts ofNapeague. trees were bare, you see nothing but the solid green of Presently, about one-third (the western third) of intermingling pitch pine canopies. The adjacent areas Napeague is covered in pitch pine forest. There are no immediately north ofthe tracks and south ofRoute 27 pitch pines on Hicks Island at the north end of have correspondingly small amounts ofthis green, but Napeague Harbor, nor are they on any ofthe wooded large amounts ofwintery brown and gray. hummocks in Accabonac Harbor. In plant ecology terms, we call the pitch pine a fire Pitch pines are almost lacking from the eastern two- climax species. It is the one that most benefits from thirds (the part ofNapeague historically most frequently fires, and remains when the others have fallen. inundated by coastal flooding), but pick up again on the The dwarfpines comprising the pygmy pine plains east side ofNapeague Harbor. (The pines that we see ofWesthampton are the most fire-resistant ofall. They on the south side ofeastern Napeague, growing up in have the tightest cones ofall, and seem to need fire the the dunes south ofthe highway, are volunteer Japanese most in order to do well over time. black pines.) It has been argued for New Jersey pinelands that Further east pitch pines again become frequent in pitch pine barrens need to bum over at least every 20 or the Walking Dunes, where they form thick stands, 30 years to maintain a favorable balance ofpitch pines intermediate in height between mature Wainscott pitch to oaks, and that dwarfpine plains should bum over two pines and those of south Amagansett. From these dense to three times more frequently than barrens, as often as stands, outliers have sprouted up in Hither Woods. once every eight years on average. Pitch pine forests After the May 1986 fire which incinerated about 90 that have experienced bumovers at a rate less than once per cent ofthe woods, these outliers were obvious. One every 40 years become dominated by oaks. might have imagined that they would have taken The size ofthe pygmy pines is probably as much advantage ofthe great fire to make a run for downtown determined by genetics as by fxre and soil and water Montauk and the downs and moorlands beyond, but they factors. Side by side experiments indicate that seeds haven’t. gleaned from the smaller pines grow considerably An examination of Hither Woods now in the throes slower than ones taken from taller ones. ofreforestation gives no indication that the pitch pines We know that the pine plains of Westhampton are are any more common now than before the fire. Just quite old, at least 200 years old; Timothy Dwight wrote about every pine between Hither Woods and Montauk about them in the first decade ofthe 1800’s. The pine Point is a black pine. plains ofNew Jersey and upstate New York are, no While the islands ofthe Long Island archipelago - doubt, at least as old. Montauk and Block Island should be considered among The pitch pines ofEast Hampton also seem to be of them - wait for their pitch pines, the species has two kinds. The ones in Wainscott, Northwest, and managed to pull a flanking movement and pass right on Springs are typically tall and large ofbole, while those by to populate New England, including Rhode Island in Amagansett, particularly those on dunelands, are and coastal Massachusetts to the north. much shorter. The former lose most oftheir lateral Whether itjumped Long Island Sound or went by branches as they grow higher; the ones on the dunes way ofManhattan, the Bronx, and Connecticut to do so tend'to retain them. is still in question. It may be that Montauk Point and Indeed, on the duniest spots, the lowest branches Block Island will ultimately be settled by pitch pines are often retained. These often are so low that they germinated from seed borne from Cape Cod and sometimes drag on the ground and become covered with Martha’s Vineyard, and not from Hither Woods stock. drifting sand; in such cases they are the longest branches Whichever the scenario, the pitch pine is on the on the tree, extending out as much as 10 to 15 feet from move. There will come a day in the 21st century when the tmnk, about the same distance as the canopies of60- it is in every quarter ofthe East End, including the foot-tall pitch pines. nurseries and the garden shops.—Larry Penny LongIsland November - December 1995 Page 37 Botanical Society OBSERVATIONS ON 1. Forest community dominated by a tree canopy of pitch pine, occasional black oak, scarlet oak, and UPLAND PLANT post oak. Understory: scrub oak and to a lesser ASSOCIATIONS THE extent blueberry, bayberry, sheep laurel, IN wintergreen and huckleberry. Scattered patches of PINE BARRENS OF reindeer moss, lichens, bearberry, and Pennsylvania sedge. White oak and bracken fern noticeably LONG ISLAND absent. [Frequent] 2. Forest community dominated by a tree canopy of black oak, scarlet oak with some white oak and Last year, for a graduate field ecology course at pitch pine. Low understory ofblueberry and SUNY Stony Brook, I recorded the presence ofvarious huckleberry and to a lesser extent staggerbush, herbaceous species along roadsides and other disturbed scrub oak, bracken fern, sheep laurel. In some areas in the central pine barrens ofLong Island, New places white oak and bracken fern is missing, with York. I discovered that some ofthese areas contained a sheep laurel occurring and wintergreen. [Frequent] very high diversity ofnative grasses and wildflowers 3. Forest community dominated by a pitch pine with few or no weeds. canopy and a ground cover ofPennsylvania sedge, This led me to speculate on the occurrence ofthese hair grass, heather, reindeer moss. [Occasional] native species prior to contemporary disturbances. 4. Barrens community dominated by scrub oak with Referenced speculation includes: they never occurred in Pennsylvania sedge understory. [Occasional] such abundance in the central pine barrens, they 5. Barrens or woodland community dominated by occurred primarily in transition areas between pine young pitch pine with a grassy understory of barrens and beach, salt marsh, or prairies, or they Indian, poverty, little bluestem grasses, and occurred more frequently where Native Americans colicroot, stiffaster, thoroughwort, goafs rue, bush regularly managed areas with fire. clover, trailing clover, sickle leaved golden aster, My realization was that historic and contemporary lichens and some bearberry and blueberry. [Rare] human influences have made the pine barrens notjust an 6. Shrubby barrens community dominated by scrub ecological landscape. It is also a cultural landscape. oak, dwarfoak, sweet fern, staggerbush, And thus the question in my mind becomes how do huckleberry codominant, only a few pitch pine, nature and culture intertwine to sustain the diversity of white oak, and scarlet oak. [Rare] each? A question whose answer would have far 7. Open upland community dominated by grasses and reaching consequences to other ecosystems as well. herbs: poverty grass, Pennsylvania sedge, purple Besides my concerns as to whether shrubs have love grass, lichens, bird’s foot violet, wild lupine, overdominated herbaceous understory, other goafs rue, wild indigo, flat-topped white aster, investigators question whether the canopy should be sickle leaved golden aster, gerardia, slender fragrant pine or oak dominated. goldenrod, fern leaved false foxglove, pinweed, To improve my understanding ofthe pine barrens, I bluecurls, butterfly weed. [Rare] have for the moment disregarded such disturbance 8. Open upland community dominated by black oat processes as fire, mowing, clearing, and grazing, and grass, Pennsylvania sedge, wild lupine, goat’s rue, instead have asked: What are the upland pine barrens’ stiffaster, trailing clover, frostweed, and plant associations, including any weedy ones, and their thoroughwort. [Rare] —Mindy Block frequencies ofoccurrence? Hopefully this detailed knowledge could be matched against benefits (i.e., maintaining biodiversity, reducing fragmentation, Roy Latham Talk wildlife enhancement), justifying management objectives. Several LIBS members were unable to attend last Preliminary observations include the following year’s program on the life and work ofRoy Latham. upland pine barrens associations and their occurrence Eric Lament will once again present the program on frequencies - Frequent (25-100), Occasional (10-25), Sunday, 19 November 1995, 2:30 pm, at the Southold Rare (1-10): Indian Museum. For more information and directions to SIM please call 516-765-5577. Long Island November - December 1995 Page 38 Botanical Society Society News mowing ofthe highways in Easthampton. American Chestnut Foundation September 12 Meeting The American Chestnut Foundation is currently Skip Blanchard found Euphorbia ipecacuanha researching and developing cures to combat the blight that near Brookhaven. Ray Welch said he had found it in has ravaged the American chestnut, Castanea dentata. Suffolk. Betty Lotowyczand Barbara Conolly had found Among the techniques being explored are selective it in the Dwarf Pine Barrens near the Westhampton Air hybridization, genetic engineering, and immunological Base. control. The ACF is very interested in knowing the Eric Lamont found Althaea officinalis on Gardners locations offlowering and fruiting American chestnuts on Island. Barbara Conolly found it as a volunteer in her Long Island; ifyou have information please contact LIBS garden this summer and Skip Blanchard had found it at member Dr. John Potente at 516/232-1566 or 361-2102, Kings Point and at Third Pond at Cold Spring Harbor. or write to John at 659 Wheeler Road, Hauppauge, N.Y. Bob Laskowski announced that the Islip Town Nature 11788. Center wants to plant a Butterfly Garden. Any help we Large old trees ofchestnut occurring in our are usually could give would be welcome. either Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) or Japanese Ray Welch said he had been in the DwarfPine chestnut (Castanea crenata) which are blight-resistant, the Barrens after the fire recently, and watched Mourning former very much so. When not in leaf(when the glands Doves consuming the seeds ofserotinous cones which were on the under side ofthe Japanese chestnut readily all over the ground. Eric Lamont commented that it was distinguish it) the twig characters are a ready means of too bad that the entire DwarfPine Barrens wasn’t burnt, as distinction: the Chinese chestnut having shoots ofthe year it needs it. buffyellow and more or less downy, while the Japanese Eric Lamont reported that the Coastal Plains Ponds chestnut has a brown or red-brown twig, usually glabrous are at there lowest level since 1987. Peasey Pond, which (sometimes with a few hairs). The European or Spanish has the rare sedge Psilocaryascirpoides, now has P. nitens chestnut (Castanea saliva), the nut now sold in the as well. Gary Kenner added that amphibians and reptiles markets, also known as the Italian chestnut, is not usually are starving in the Coastal Plains Ponds. hardy in our area, and also very susceptible to blight.- Ann Johnson, formerly ofLI, but now with the John Potente Florida Natural Heritage Program in Tallahassee, compared ofthe species in certain genera between Appalachicola Executive BoardMeeting State Forest near Tallahassee and the east end ofLong Island. Not too surprisingly, Appalachicola won with A meeting ofthe LIBS Executive Board will be held about twice as many species as Long Island. on 28 November 1995 at 7:15 pm (before the Flora Committee meeting), at Planting Fields Arboretum Librar>'. Oct 10 Meeting All members are welcome to attend. Tom Meoli has seen two large flowering chestnut Field Trip Reports trees but is unsure whether they are the correct species. Eric Lamont will investigate. 16 September 1995-Breezy Point. Led by Bob Cook - Jack Finkenberg ofGreat South Bay Audubon An abundance ofPurple Gerardia was seen. Society spoke about the Endangered Species Act, and 24 September 1995-Sandy Hook, New Jersey. More than asked us to phone or write our Congressmen to urge them 140 plant species were recorded on this field trip; to renew it without weakening it. highlights included Prairie Sunflower (Helianthus Eric Lamont has received calls concerning a proposed petiolaris). Nodding Smartweed (Polygonum public golfcourse at Camp Hero in Montauk. The lapathifolium), Camphorweed (Heterotheca proposal is spearheaded by Bernadette Castro (NYS OPR) subcDcillaris), White-bracted Boneset (Eupatorium and the Concerned Citizens ofMontauk are album). Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum). Small it. This area is important for migrating birds, contains a White aster (Aster racemosus). Fragrant Sumac (Rhus rare Holly-Oak Maritime Forest and is home to the rare aromatica), American Bittersweet (Celastrus Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor). scandens). Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium Eric Lamont found Clammy Locust (Robinia viscosa) platyneuron), and Japanese Sedge (Carex kobomiigi). in Shinnecock Hills. Leader, Karl Anderson; recorders, Barbara Conolly Sherman Wolfson showed slides ofLong Island Patrick Cooney. Orchids. Ofthe 35 species oforchids which were 30 September 1995-Jamaica Bay. Donald House has a identified on LI, only 24 are still around. He deplored the checklist ofplants. Long Island November - December 1995 Page 39 Botanical Society 1 LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY Founded: 1986; Incorporated: 1989. The Long Island Botanical Society is dedicated to the promotion offield botany and agreater understanding of the plants thatgrowwild on Long Island, New York, President Eric Lamont .... Vice President Steven Clemants . . Treasurer Carol Johnston . . . Rec’rd Sec’y Barbara Conolly . . Cor’sp Sec’y Jane Blanchard . . . Local Flora Skip Blanchard . . Field Trip Glenn Richard . . . Allan Lindberg , . . Membership Lois Lindberg . . . Conservation Louise Harrison . . John Turner Education Mary Laura Lamont Tom Stock Hospitality Nancy Smith .... Betty Lotowycz . . Program Eric Lamont .... Editor Steven Clemants . . Membership Membership is open to all, andwe welcome new members. Annual dues are $10. For membership, make your check payable to LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY and mail to; Lois Lindberg, Membership Chairperson, 45 Sandy Hill Rd., Oyster Bay, NY 11771-311 LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY c/o Muttontown Preserve Muttontown Lane East Norwich, NY 11732 Long Island November - December 1995 Page 40 Botanical Society