2023 Annual Meeting Report
The 123rd Josselyn Botanical Society Summer Meeting
Hyde School, Bath, Maine, June 26-30, 2023. We had a good meeting and largely managed to avoid the heavy rains that plagued the rest of the summer! We would like to thank Monday evening speaker Melissa Cullina, Director of Plant Science and Collections at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, who spoke about projects at CMBG, including the MidCoast Flora project. Thanks to all the volunteer drivers, as we carpooled to sites this year. Thanks also to our hosts, the staff of Hyde School.
Tuesday morning we split into two groups. One group headed to The Basin Preserve and Sprague Pond Trail in Phippsburg, a Nature Conservancy property that supports excellent examples of pitch pine woodland communities, dominated by pitch pine (Pinus rigida), with an understory of ericaceous shrubs, including large patches of broom-crowberry (Corema conradii). Many small woodland openings and ridgetops had no or sparse tree cover and were excellent for keying out macrolichens and rosette panic-grasses (genus Dichanthelium). We spent a lot of the time exploring the aquatic and emergent diversity along the edge of Sprague Pond, with at least a dozen sedges (Carex spp.), excellent overall tracheophyte diversity, and opportunities for JBS members to key out vegetative Polygonaceae.
The second group, led by Jordan Chalfant, spent the day at Giant's Stairs in Harpswell (Bailey Island). Jordan led the group in seaweed collecting and identification, and this continued with an afternoon workshop-style identification session back at Hyde School. Jordan covered current taxonomy and nomenclature of seaweeds, terminology, and microscopy techniques such as cross-sectioning, and measuring cells. Participants made beautiful seaweed specimens and learned how to create a voucher specimen for herbaria.
Tuesday night workshops were “Using Photogrammetry across New England's Alpine Zone” with Andrea Tirrell, “Botanical Inventories with Collection for Herbaria in Massachusetts and Maine” with Louise Barteau, and “Poa-ring over Poaceae” with Chris Schorn. Many thanks to the Tuesday evening workshop presenters!
Wednesday was an all-day field trip to Reid State Park in Georgetown. Many members botanized the rocky shoreline, extending and building upon their seaweed knowledge from the previous day. Others engaged in a mosquito feeding program, otherwise known as exploring the salt marsh. The mosquito species, Aedes sollicitans, lived up to its epithet of “vexing”. Despite this, members explored graminoid species, including very young Distichlis spicata, Puccinellia (alkali grass), all three Spartina species (alterniflora, patens, and pectinata; note there are some taxonomic changes in these names not presented here), and Juncus balticus ssp. littoralis in peak flower. Just north of the beach/toll booth area is a small pond with a peatland fringe. Members botanized this in the light drizzle, keying out sedges, appreciating Vaccinium macrocarpon (large cranberry), and trying to capture perfect photos of Drosera rotundifolia (round-leaved sundew) flowers. Wednesday evening concluded with JBS songs, led by Alison Dibble’s guitar and songwriting magic!
Thursday morning we explored the Bald Head uplands, salt marsh, and black gum pocket swamp in Arrowsic. Dry, ericaceous, shrub-dominated uplands alternate with Carex lucorum dominated balds in most of the interior. Of interest along the forest trail was Scrophularia lanceolata (lance-leaved figwort) in flower. The highlight of the trip was a small pocket swamp with mature, large black gum (Nyssa sylvatica, an uncommon species in Maine). We didn’t observe any remaining flowers on these large specimens, but we did see some on a small individual that was growing right above the salt marsh. Salt marshes contained abundant Spartina beds, Bolboschoenus maritimus ssp. paludosus (saltmarsh tuber-bulrush), Argentina egedii (Pacific silverweed; a native despite the common name!), and in the mucky pool edges of the trail, Eleocharis parvula (little-headed spikesedge).
Thursday afternoon, we explored part of the Sandplain Grasslands adjacent to the Brunswick Executive Airport and the Brunswick Landing Trails. At this site, sandplains grade into pitch pine woodland/forest. Amelanchier stolonifera grows alongside A. nantucketensis (S2), with Carex pensylvanica, Carex siccata (S2), Comandra umbellata ssp. umbellata (bastard-toadflax), Polygala polygama (racemed milkwort), Gypsophila muralis (low baby’s-breath), lots of Dichanthelium depauperatum (starved rosette-panicgrass), and abundant Rubus recurvicaulis (arching blackberry).
