Plant Skeletons Shrivel in the Sandy Hook Scrub

"Most plants die back to the ground ... but some leave behind a skeleton."

"Did you know that when the temperatures cool in the fall and the leaves are busy falling off the trees those beautiful field flowers are shriveling up and turning into plant skeletons? This is actually a term used by botanists. How about that? Even nature dresses up for Halloween. Meadows and open fields are crawling with skeletons in the fall” (page 20).

You can still have fun identifying plants after Labor Day during your nature walks at Sandy Hook. This is a guide to some of the more common plant skeletons you might notice.

The scientific plant names above the photos are linked to a great website for identifying plants in maritime habitats like Sandy Hook, “Cape May Plants – An Identification Guide” by CapeMayWildlife.

Since you are staring at the raw anatomy of a plant without its bloom to distract you, this post includes the names of the parts of the plants. Except where noted, all of the technical descriptions of the skeletons are taken almost verbatim from Carol Levine's 1995 book, “A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter”.

One-third to one-half of the plants at the Gateway National Recreation Area aren't native. If the plant skeleton is “invasive” there will be a link next to the scientific name to its page in the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States. (Invasive plants are empty calories to the local, native food web, and many are introduced by what we plant in our yards . This is insightfully explained by Dr. Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware during his testimony on October 2, 2018 to a subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (1:09 – 27:30). His “Native Plant Finder” and Audubon's “Plants For Birds” webpages offer native alternatives, by zip code, to the junk ornamentals that are transforming our landscape.)

BAY/OCEAN

White Campion (Silene latifolia) Invasive.

My favorite because it looks like Peashooter in Plants vs. Zombies. The capsule is “shiny, smooth, oval, and one-chambered”. Peashooter's mouth is plain, while the capsule opening on the white campion is surrounded by “8-10 spreading teeth”.

Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Plant skeleton has flower racemes “at the terminal ends of branching stems”. Capsules are “4-chambered and cylindrical, splitting along the middle of the chambers”. Seed pod turns woody on larger plants in the winter.

Beach Wormwood (Artemisia campestris ssp. caudata)

The central stem terminates in a panicle of flower heads that are small beads of achenes. Sandy Hook has the largest known population of this state-listed plant in NJ (S2 - Imperiled), according to a 2012 report by the NJDEP. The second largest is also in Monmouth County, in the dunes west of the Keansburg boardwalk.

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Skeleton follicles are “warty, hairy, round at the bottom and pointy at the top, erect on deflexed stems”. Monarch butterfly populations have declined by 90% in the last 20 years, so the National Wildlife Federation has been promoting milkweed-planting throughout the monarch's migratory paths, that include Sandy Hook. Monarchs will only lay their oval, off-white eggs (scroll down) on the underside of the milkweed leaf.

Queen Annes Lace (Daucus carota) Invasive.

Many-rayed compound umbels at the end of the stems. Also known as the wild carrot – its root smells like one. (Bloom picture from USDA plant database.)

Knapweed (Centaurea sp.) Invasive.

Spotted knapweed bloom on left, tyrol knapweed skeleton on right. “Scraggly, much branched. Fruits are achenes widest at the apex, tapered at base. Pappus has two rows of bristles.”

Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) Invasive.

Skeleton has capsules “crowded on a prolonged spikelike raceme. Capsules are round, 2-parted, splitting along the septum, with 2 sides or more cleft.” (Bloom picture from USDA plant database.)

Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) Invasive.

Skeleton has “straight brown stalks dense clusters of dried 3-winged heart-shaped sepals hanging from stems, with a shiny, 3-angled fruit between each sepal wing.”

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) Invasive.

Capsules are “dehiscent, 4-toothed, 1-chambered, elliptic to oblong, surrounded by rugged calyx”.

Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) Invasive.

"Stems are conspicuously spiny. Achenes are elongated, with a pappus of numerous feathery white hairs”.

Virginia Pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum) Invasive.

"Single stalk or bushy branching, numerous and persistent fruit septa. Silvery central septum remaining on stem after chambers open.”

Saltwort (Salsola kali) Invasive.

"Exceedingly spiny plant of sandy beaches. One-seeded bladdery fruit (utricle) enclosed in a 5-lobed calyx.”

Devils Head (Trapa natans) Invasive.

A seed not a skeleton, with “four curved, spike-like “horns” projecting from a knobby hub.” The picture on the left was taken at Shadow Lake in Middletown of the “circular cluster or rosette of leaves, each equipped with an air bladder along the stem.” “Distinctive four-pointed seedpods … sink to the bottom of a waterway” and eventually get washed out into downstream watersheds. The picture on the left are the seedpods collected from an ocean beach at Sandy Hook after a Nor'easter.

FRESHWATER WETLANDS

Spanish Needles (Bidens bipinnata) Invasive.

“Numerous achenes with barbed teeth or awns.”

Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)

"Upward branches few, terminating in 5-chambered capsules that are round at the summit, sometimes with a short beak.”

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) Invasive.

"Four to six feet high with candelabra branching. Stems terminate in long fruited spikes. Small, 2-chambered capsules split along the septum in whorls. Capsules enclosed by persistent hypanthium. Fruits disintegrate early, leaving stubs and stalks.” (Skeleton picture from here)

Seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia)

"Fruit capsules are square boxes with persistent sepals.” One siting at Sandy Hook, in the freshwater wetlands across from Guardian Park.

FORT HANCOCK

Yucca (Yucca filamentosa)

"Fruit remnants are in branched racemes raised far above leaves on tall stems. Basal leaves are thick, rigid and ascending (spreading horizontally, then becoming erect), with loose twisting threads on margins.”

Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) Invasive.

"Grows in large, dense clumps. Stems arch out while fruit stalks zig-zag upward. Fruit falls early and leaves small stems.” This paper from Pennsylvania shows just how thoroughly Japanese Knotweed takes out native species: “Our results suggest that F. japonica has reduced the diversity and abundance of native understory riparian plant species. The species also appears to have suppressed long-term tree recruitment, setting up a trajectory whereby the eventual decline of trees currently in the canopy could shift this community from a tree-dominated riparian forest to a knotweed-dominated herbaceous shrubland.”

Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) Invasive.

"Fruits are erect, spiny capsules on short stems in branching axils. Fruits are 4-chambered, opening in 4 parts longitudinally by the valves (part of the fruit wall). The calyx leaves a collar under the fruit.”

False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) Invasive.

"Pods are black oval-elliptic, ascending (spreading horizontally, then becoming erect) or divergent (spreading in different directions), and narrowed below a thick stem and above to a curved beak.” Small, "warty, kidney-shaped pod is persistent into winter”.

Common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) Invasive.

Skeletons have “dense terminal panicles, with loose clusters of smooth, brown, flattened, dehiscent seed capsules.”

NEXT STEPS

You can zoom-in to Sandy Hook to see a map of these pictures –as well as over 14 million observations worldwide - that have been geolocated and posted at iNaturalist.org.

If you are into winter ID here are 2 excellent references:

Levine, Carol. 1995. A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter: Herbaceous Plants of Northeastern America. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.

Wojtech, Michael, 2011. Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH.

Why Can't the Nuclear Bailout Bills Expand Radiological Preparedness in NJ?

Based on the latest article at NJSpotlight.com, it looks like the vote for the nuclear bailout is going to be a done deal with the Senate, Assembly, and Governor.

If the nuclear bailout bill (presently S2313/A3724, I think) is a fait accompli then the Murphy administration may want to consider requiring PSEG (and Excelon?) to increase the radius of their Emergency Planning Zones in NJ from the NRC-mandated 10 miles to 50 miles.

Some of the reasons why we need a 50-mile EPZ were explained back in 2015 in NJSpotlight.

Another reason: a substantive mandate for radiological terrorism preparedness throughout the state is still missing from the NJ Radiological Emergency Response Plan.

N.J.S.A. 26:2D-37, and other sections of the Radiation Accident Response Act, specifically limit the definition of an emergency response to a radiation accident to one that occurs (1) at a nuclear facility or (2) during a transportation accident. There is no specific mandate to develop  specific plans for responding to a nuclear disaster if it is caused by an act of terrorism and it happens outside a 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone. That's nuts.

The generous funding in these bills is more than enough to fund the mandated drills, equipment and training within a 50-mile EPZ – like it presently does within the current 10-mile EPZ. This would effectively expand the requirement for nuclear preparedness planning beyond two or three 10-mile zones into much of NJ.

If this suggestion is not included in the final bills that end up on the Governor's desk, then his  NJDEP should at least consider funding a pilot program for counties that are within the hypothetical 20-mile Dangerous Fallout Zone surrounding major urban centers within or proximate to NJ (1). The radiological planning documents already developed for the 10-mile EPZ could be provided to communities within the 20-mile DFZ in order to cost-effectively kick-start this planning.

The US GAO has been warning for years in multiple reports that the “government isn't fully prepared to handle a nuclear terrorist attack or a large-scale natural catastrophe, lacks effective coordination, and in some cases is years away from ensuring adequate emergency shelter and medical treatment”.

The US DHHS Office of Inspector General has also warned: “Although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires nuclear power plants to have emergency plans for their facilities and the immediate surrounding area, no Federal entity requires States or localities to have public health emergency plans for nonpowerplant radiological and/or nuclear (RN) incidents, such as a terrorist attack.”

This administration has walked into an opportunity to start fixing this. Batter up.

(1) The Dangerous Fallout Zone (DFZ) from a 10 kt bomb temporarily peaks at 10,000 mille Roentgens/hour, or about a million times ambient background radiation (in coastal NJ) at twenty miles from ground zero. Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation (2nd Ed. p.32) (NSSOSTP, 2010) http://www.remm.nlm.gov/PlanningGuidanceNuclearDetonation.pdf

Partial Plant List for Horseshoe Cove at Sandy Hook

White Campion, June and September

This is an initial list of plants at Horseshoe Cove, Sandy Hook NJ.

These pictures – and over 6 million observations worldwide - have been geolocated and posted at iNaturalist.org. You can zoom-in to Horseshoe Cove to see a map of icons representing groups of species, like plants, birds, fish, shells, etc.

All the plant names in this post are linked to a great website for identifying plants in maritime habitats like Sandy Hook, “Cape May Plants – An Identification Guide” by CapeMayWildlife.

TREES/SHRUBS

Autumn Olive, Hackberry (winter), Groundsel

Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)

Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) Pictures at previous blog A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

Common Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)

Groundsel Tree (Baccharis halimifolia)

Marsh Elder (Iva frutescens) Picture below.

Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica) Pictures at previous blog A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

GRASS

Salt Marsh Cord Grass, Marsh Elder, Salt-meadow Cord-grass at HSC

Salt Marsh Cord Grass (Spartina alterniflora)

Salt-meadow Cord-grass (Spartina patens)

Bitter panic grass, Little bluestem, Purpletop

Bitter Panic-grass (Panicum amarum var. amarulum)

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) Pictures at previous blog A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

Purpletop (Tridens flavus)

IVY

Poison ivy, honeysuckle, fuzzy-bean

Eastern Poison-ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)

Trailing fuzzy-bean (Strophostyles helvola)

FLOWERS

White

5 petals

Soapwort. Multiflora rose (fruit only) in April, and May flowers

Common soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) (also pink)

Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)

White campion (Silene latifolia) Picture at the beginning of this post.

Many-flowered Heads

Queen Ann's lace, pepperweed, sweetclover

Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota)

Virginia pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum)

White sweetclover (Melilotus albus)

Yellow

4 Petals

Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis) Pictures in a previous blog, A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

Great mullein (before flowered stalk), Land cress, Black medick

5 Petals

Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Many-flowered Heads

Black medick (Medicago lupulina)

Land cress (Barbarea verna)

Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) Pictures in a previous blog, A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

More Than 6 Petals

Eastern Prickly-pear (Opuntia humifusa) Pictures in a previous blog, A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook .

Red/Pink

5 Petals

Stork's-bill and Herb Robert

Common stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium)

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Rugosa (flowers & unripened fruit, June), Swamp Rose (fruit only, Apr), & Sp. Knapweed (June)

Rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) (also white)

Swamp rose (Rosa palustris)

Many-flowered Heads

Spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe)

Purple

Alfalfa (without flower), Scorpion Grass

Many-flowered Heads

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

Blue

5 Petals

Blue scorpion grass (Myosotis stricta)

Green

Mugwort (Aug.), Dock (Sept.), wild garlic (with flower, June)

Many-flowered Heads

Common mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Curled Dock (Rumex crispus)

Wild garlic (Allium vineale)

The Amaranths and related species with green flowers at Horseshoe Cove (and Plum Island) are discussed in a previous blog, Salt Marsh Scrub At Sandy Hook NJ .

Followup

Common names vary, so use the Latin scientific name to Google more images.

NY-NJ-CT Botany Online has biota lists for many of the parks in our area, including a plant list for Sandy Hook.

A Dune Garden at Sandy Hook

There is an observation deck over the pavillion at the North Beach at Sandy Hook, and the view of Manhattan is spectacular.

Turn around. That's the Sandy Hook lighthouse gleaming over the treeline of one of the largest maritime forests in NJ. The lighthouse was only 500 feet from the shoreline when it was built in 1764; now it's about a mile and half away.

It's hard to believe all that land came from grains of sand that washed up the coast from Manasquan, blew onshore, and was trapped by tiny plants then bigger ones as it gradually built up into a dune.

Later, you can read about Littoral Drift, the Nearshore, Foreshore, and Backshore zones of the beach, and Primary and Secondary dunes; this blog is about the plants. The NPS built a boardwalk from the deck so you can walk down through the dunes and take a look at them on your way to the beach.

1. The Classics

American Beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata)

Beachgrass is a pioneer species that promotes the continual growth of the dunes because it grows back after it's been buried by sand. Its roots (rhizomes) trap and stabilize sand (the roots are exposed at the bottom of the picture on the right). It's highly resistant to salt spray, but is vulnerable to trampling. It is commonly used when planting dune grass for Coastal resiliency.

Asiatic Sand Sedge (Carex kobomugi)

This invasive nemesis of American Beachgrass out-competes it by forming a monoculture that is less damaged by trampling. There is some evidence it may be effective at preventing erosion during large storms like Superstorm Sandy. The “large, club-shaped flowerhead and broad, strongly recurved leaves are distinctive”. The picture on the right was taken in January.

Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens)

This flower starts lighting up Sandy Hook in late summer and attracts migrating Monarch butterflies during the fall. It prefers sandy, salty soil and has fleshy leaves for storing water. Its heavy pollen doesn't cause hay fever. The middle picture was taken at Horseshoe Cove at Sandy Hook, and the picture on the right was taken in April of a sprout growing by a dead goldenrod, probably from a shared “short, stocky”rhizome.

Beach Plum (Prunus maritima)

The beach plum is native to the northeast coast from Newfoundland to North Carolina, with most found from northern Massachusetts to southern NJ. Because it is salt tolerant and deep rooted, it is one of the dominant shrubs on coastal dunes. In spring it produces showy white blossoms so prominent they can be tracked with arial surveys. Berries ripen red and purple and can be harvested for jams in the late summer and fall. Henry Hudson noted the thickets of blue plums along the banks of the Hudson River in 1609 that Giovanni de Verrazano had called “damsel trees” in 1524. From left to right the pictures show early spring flowers, unripened berries and egg-shaped (ovate) leaves, ripening berries, and withered winter berries. (A picture of a beach plum is also at the beginning of this post.)

Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica)

This other prominent coastal dune shrub looks a little like the beach plum at first. The bayberry has an oblong (specifically oblanceolate, oblong, obovate) leaf shape that is narrower than the more egg-shaped (ovate or obovate) leaf of the beach plum. (It has yellow resin dots on the underside of the leaf, while the southern variety, the wax myrtle, has them on both sides.) The fragrant wax from the bayberry fruit is used to make candles. The blue-grey fruit is at the bottom of the picture on the left.

Eastern Prickly-pear (Opuntia humifusa)

The only native cactus in NJ. By June its yellow flowers gleam throughout the Park's scrub and waysides, briefly, then are replaced with a red fleshy fruit. Its flat, bristly stems are called paddles, and are “used in the South in breakfast omelets”. Hmm.

Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana)

This conifer is common to coastal dunes, as well as being a pioneer species of disturbed ground. Prickly needle-shaped leaves on young plants become overlapping scales on mature trees that provide shelter for birds. The color of its waxy fruit changes from pale-green to dark blue by mid fall. The berries are an important source of food for birds during the winter (it is where the cedar waxwing, which is common to Sandy Hook, gets its name). Redcedars were used by colonists to flavor gin; gin is either from the "French genièvre or the Dutch jenever, which both mean juniper”. The Army used to guard the redcedar and holly trees from being chopped down for Christmas decorations. The picture on the right, taken during a ranger-led walk through the Holly Forest, shows why this juniper is mistakenly called a cedar.

2. Deeper Dive

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)

A very common field weed . The distinctive, fluffy white seed heads start blooming in mid summer and continue through the fall. Seed heads are purple when emerging. Very similar to Broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicus) except:

“Little Bluestem has flower or seed stalks that extend out beyond any leaves on the stem. [ Andropogon virginicus] flowerheads or seedstalks are tucked into enclosing leafy bracts. In the non-seeding seasons, Little Bluestem can often be identified by plucking off a central stem at the base, at the soil level. Little Bluestem stem bases tend to be reddish, while [Andropogon virginicus] stem bases are white.”

And it's also similar to Coast Beard-grass (Schizachyrium littorale)! (Grass identification can be a heavy lift.)

Beach Wormwood (Artemisia campestris ssp. caudata)

Sandy Hook has the largest known population of this state-listed plant in NJ (S2 - Imperiled), according to a 2012 report by the NJDEP. The second largest is also in Monmouth County, in the dunes west of the Keansburg boardwalk. In the picture on the left, you can see the two distinctly different-looking growth stages. It begins with narrowly oblong basal leaves, and matures into "paniculiform arrays" of flowerheads (this website has pictures of both stages as well). The picture on the right was taken in January at the sand fence near the beginning of the beach path from the pavilion. Another species of wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is used as an ingredient in absinthe, bitters, and vermouth. 

Winged Pigweed (Cycloloma atriplicifolium)

That name. Pigweed can mean several members of the Amaranthus family that were used as pig fodder. “Surrounding each group of sepals and the seed, there is a pale membranous wing (wider than 0.5 mm.) that is circular and slightly fringed along its outer margin.” The wings are the dots along the stems in the picture on the left. The picture on the right is an alien landscape of pigweed covering a dune next to Waackaack Creek in Keansburg. Pigweed becomes a tumbleweed when it dries up in the fall.

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Several have been planted in a corner near the end of the wooden ramp. Monarch butterfly populations have declined by 90% in the last 20 years, so the National Wildlife Federation has been promoting milkweed-planting throughout the monarch's migratory paths, that include Sandy Hook. Monarchs will only lay their oval, off-white eggs (scroll down) on the underside of the milkweed leaf. The picture on the right is of the seed husks in January. Last summer there was a single orange Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) blooming in the scrub on the bayside dune across from Parking Lot A (just past the toll-booths at the entrance).

Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Common and widespread, flowering from June to October. It has four yellow petals and a distinctive seed pod that turns woody on larger plants in the winter. Seeds contain gamma linolenic acid, an anti-inflammatory compound. In its first year this biennial typically produces a leafy basal rosette with a white mid-vein but no flowers. That's the picture on the left. The two on the right were taken in January at the sand fence near the beginning of the beach path from the pavilion.

Sandspur (Cenchrus sp.)

Stickers. “Nature's hitchhikers”. Two species common to both the primary and secondary dunes are Dune Sandspur (Cenchrus tribuloides) and Mat Sandspur (Cenchrus longispinus). Here's how to tell the difference: tribuloides is hairier between the spines, and has less than 43 spines; longispinus has 45 or more (enjoy!). The picture on the right was taken in January. There are some nice off-season pictures on the Maryland Biodiversity Project (MBP) website of tribuloides and longispinus.

These pictures – and over 6 million observations worldwide - have been geolocated and posted at iNaturalist.org. You can zoom-in to Horseshoe Cove to see a map of icons representing groups of species, like plants, birds, fish, shells, etc.

A great website for identifying plants in maritime habitats like Sandy Hook is “Cape May Plants – An Identification Guide” by CapeMayWildlife (most of the plant names are linked to it). Another site, “NY-NJ-CT Botany Online” has biota lists for many of the parks in our area, including a plant list for Sandy Hook.