Diario de trscavo

Stoddard Swamp was described by Hub Vogelmann in part 1 of Natural areas of Vermont [1964] as a “beautiful cedar bog…located in the famous bog country near Peacham, Vermont”. Today Stoddard Swamp is part of the Lucy Mallary Bugbee Natural Area, a designated 12-acre natural area in the towns of Peacham and Danville in Caledonia County.

Vogelmann reportedly found four species of lady’s slipper, calypso, and other orchids in Stoddard Swamp. In 2014, the Vermont Botanical and Bird Club published a list of 26 plant species observed in the Lucy Mallary Bugbee Natural Area. As of this writing, iNat users have observed 48 species in the area, including 43 plant species.

I visited the Lucy Mallary Bugbee Natural Area on May 21, 2023. I spent the day roaming through the cedar swamp, listening to bird sounds, and taking photos of plants. I found one orchid but I'll have to go back to identify it further. Note: the natural area has no designated parking and no trails, so a GPS-enabled map of the area is essential.

On May 21, 2023, while exploring the Lucy Mallary Bugbee Natural Area (aka Stoddard Swamp), I lost my phone. It must have fallen out of my pocket, probably when I stepped over a downed tree. I spent the rest of the day trying to retrace my steps (which was difficult since there are no trails in this natural area). I never did find my phone on that day so I drove home (70 miles) without it.

The next day I decided to drive back to the natural area and look for my phone again. I wasn't expecting to find it, but I got lucky. After an hour of searching, I found it lying on some moss, no worse for wear. I was relieved, like a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Apart from not losing my phone in the first place, I don't know what I could have done differently. When I lost my phone, it was on airplane mode to conserve battery. Even if it had not been on airplane mode, there was little to no service in the area (which is typical of places I frequent) so I'm not sure how the Find My app (on iPhone) might have helped. Comments and suggestions welcome.

In New England, genus Cardamine breaks into two distinct groups, the bittercresses and the toothworts. There are three species of toothworts in Vermont:

1. Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)
2. Two-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine diphylla)
3. Large Toothwort (Cardamine maxima)

This article is about the latter two species, which are difficult to distinguish. Consider the following key characters from the indicated flora:

New Flora of Vermont [2015]:

• Cardamine diphylla: Leaves normally 2, opposite or subopposite; margins of leaflets with appressed cilia
• Cardamine maxima: Leaves normally 3, alternate; margins of leaflets with spreading cilia

Flora Novae Angliae [2011]:

• Cardamine diphylla: Cilia on leaf margin mostly 0.1 mm long, ascending or appressed; rhizome continuous (i.e., of uniform diameter)
• Cardamine maxima: Cilia on leaf margin mostly 0.2–0.3 mm long, spreading; rhizome alternately enlarged and constricted

Flora of North America (FNA) [2010]:

• Cardamine diphylla: Rhizomes somewhat uniform in diameter; cauline leaves (sub) opposite
• Cardamine maxima: Rhizomes not uniform in diameter (distinctly constricted at intervals); cauline leaves usually alternate, rarely subopposite

Since Go Botany is essentially the online version of Flora Novae Angliae, its online key is nearly identical to the printed key.

As far as I can tell, all of the above keys refer to stem leaves (not basal leaves, or rhizomal leaves, as FNA calls them). This implies that all keys require a flowering stem, that is, it may not be possible to distinguish the two species based on basal leaves alone (unless you're willing to dig up the plant in question).

DISCUSSION

The keys in the three flora overlap but there is no agreement: two of the flora include the arrangement of leaves on the flowering stem, two of them mention cilia along the stem leaf margins, and two them refer to the shape of the rhizome. The latter character is not very useful for identifying iNaturalist observations since observers rarely dig up their specimens (for obvious reasons).

Go Botany contrasts Cardamine diphylla with Cardamine maxima as follows:

• Cardamine diphylla: with rhizome of nearly uniform diameter, leaves usually opposite, and cilia of leaf margin appressed to ascending
• Cardamine maxima: rhizome alternately enlarged and constricted, leaves usually alternate, and cilia of leaf margin spreading

Although the stem leaves of the two species are usually opposite or alternate (resp.), the arrangement of leaves along the flowering stem is not sufficient. For a positive ID, the other two characters (rhizome morphology and leaf cilia) should also be considered. [Arthur Haines, personal communication]

For the sake of discussion, let's ignore Flora of North America for a moment. Both New Flora of Vermont and Flora Novae Angliae mention cilia on the margins of stem leaves, so that might be a good place to start. However, the cilia are very short, and so most of the photographs taken by iNaturalist observers will not show them.

Conclusion: The best above-ground character used to distinguish Cardamine diphylla from Cardamine maxima is the length and orientation of cilia on the leaf margins. The orientation of the leaves along the flowering stem, and the shape of the leaves themselves, are suggestive but not diagnostic.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

RESOURCES

• Cardamine (FNA, Wikipedia, BONAP, iNaturalist, Go Botany)
• Cardamine diphylla (FNA, Wikipedia, BONAP, iNaturalist, Go Botany)
• Cardamine maxima (FNA, Wikipedia, BONAP, iNaturalist, Go Botany)

Here are some notes on Appalachian Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium vanbruntiae), also known as Van Brunt's Jacob's-ladder or Bog Jacob's-ladder.

In June 2023, I found Polemonium vanbruntiae in the vicinity of Abbey Pond in the Green Mountain National Forest in the town of Ripton (Addison County), Vermont. The plants were growing in an open area between the pond's edge and the surrounding forest where the soil was moist but not wet. I observed two clusters of plants about 700 feet apart (but no plants were found in the intervening space). Each cluster consisted of more than 20 stems, all of which had flower buds. The plants were healthy and thriving.

About a week later, I found Polemonium vanbruntiae in two separate areas off Duclos Road (Forest Road 298) in the Green Mountain National Forest in the town of Lincoln (also in Addison County). The first area was a wetland dominated by sensitive ferns (Onoclea), marsh marigolds (Caltha), and a tall horsetail species. The second area was a moist (not wet) meadow near a small beaver pond. There were more than 100 stems in the meadow. The plants in both areas had begun to flower.

The populations of Polemonium vanbruntiae at Abbey Pond and Duclos Road are well known. Besides Ripton and Lincoln, the species is also known to occur in the towns of Leicester and Cornwall in Addison County.

The global conservation status of Polemonium vanbruntiae is Vulnerable (G3G4). In Vermont, it is Imperiled (S2) and Threatened (T), and therefore protected by law.

RESOURCES

• Polemonium vanbruntiae: Wikipedia, NatureServe, BONAP, iNaturalist
• Rare and Uncommon Native Vascular Plants of Vermont (Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, 04 May 2022)
• My observations of Polemonium vanbruntiae