Several CAMN alumni—Martha Bowden, Brenda O’Reilly and Cathy Porter joined walk leader Eric Sundell for an Arkansas Native Plant Society-sponsored botanical walk through Allsopp Park in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock. Off the beaten path, the wooded slope from Kavanaugh to Cantrell supports a mixed pine-oak-hickory forest, dominated by shortleaf pine, mockernut and black hickories, and post, white, southern red, and northern red oaks. Lovely late asters and goldenrods were still in bloom. Allsopp Park is also Ground Zero for alien invasives, especially along the paved pedestrian/bicycle path that links the Kavanaugh Promenade to the recreation area off Cantrell. Was there even one alien invasive species missing? We saw tree-of-heaven, chinaberry, Chinese parasol tree, Chinese privet, Taiwan privet, winter honeysuckle, nandina, Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, white mulberry, and several more, including a European contribution, English ivy. One participant, Bill Shepherd, thanked the group for an informative botanical tour of China.
A mysterious fern—nobody recognized it—was spotted growing beside a small creek at the bottom of the slope. Martha’s digital photo was sent to Don Crank of Hot Springs, probably Arkansas’ most knowledgeable amateur pteridologists (fern man). He tentatively identified it as “Simpler East Indian Holly Fern” [sic] (I am not making this up), Arachniodes simplicior. Eric returned with Theo Witsell, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission botanist, to collect a few fronds for identification, and Don Crank’s ID was confirmed. The single plant represented a new species record for Arkansas—though widely cultivated, it had never been found growing spontaneously in the wild in our state. And in fact, the plant represented only the second “population” of SEIHF recorded in North America—the only other wild plants occurring in South Carolina. A neat find—and unlike a lot of exotics, seems to pose no threat to native populations.
Written by Eric Sundell Picture by Martha Bowden
