Going Down for Nettles

Going Down for Nettles

July 8, 2019

Through the heat and humidity, the density, the buggy-ness of summer, I ventured down to the Cottonwood Pond area, in the bottom of the woods, to gather some nettles.

In a garden in town (a new community project), which is extremely lush, bean plants were looking overall pale. Another member of the project, who teaches Horticulture at the local college, said it looked like iron deficiency. I got to thinking of how many dark greens are high in iron (one reason they are so good for us, too). And, I remembered that nettles are especially good sources. One often hears of Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica), but our woods is full of Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis) – which, fortunately, has the same qualities as Stinging Nettles (including the stingers!).

I would collect fresh nettles, soak them in a bucket of water for a couple of days or so to make a "tea", strain that into another bucket, toss the solids into the compost pile, and funnel some of the "tea" into a spray bottle. Then I would spray the leaves of the bean plants and see if it would help them.

So, I took a five gallon bucket, a pair of pruners, and a pair of thick-enough gloves, and went on down.

You can see that the woodland slope is pretty bare at this time of year. That's because the full tree canopy blocks most of the sunlight, so the bulk of the flowering plants do not flourish this time of year. Their season was early spring, when this slope was covered in them.

The slope is practically bare, but for a few clumps of Fragile Fern and grasses, some spent Trillium here and there, etc.

Woodland slope to the southeast

A little further down the slope, heading into the bottom land

Further into the bottoms

Here you can see the sparse slope compared to the woods bottom. The bottom land has few trees and is very sunny. For plants that inhabit this area (which is also always wet to some degree) – this is their time! The bottom is as full now as the woodland was in early spring – but with different plants.

Looking up the creek from the Cottonwood Pond area

Looking down the Creek from the Cottonwood Pond area

The Swampy Spot area near Cottonwood Pond

The Root Ball of the fallen Cottonwood, as well as Cottonwood Pond and it immediate area, were also lush with plant life. The Root Ball had been shrinking over the years, having been subjected to rains, freezes, thaws, gravity, and the action of animals burrowing into it. Chunks of Cottonwood roots gradually rotted and fell off. The whole Root Ball became a haven for tree saplings, vines, and many other kinds of plants.

The north/northwest edge of the Cottonwood Root Ball, with the Mud Pile below on the bottom side

The bottom side of the Cottonwood Root Ball

The bottom side of the Root Ball, above "little pond"

Before turning left into the expanse of nettles to do my task, I took time to look around.

Mireille at the Creek, with Raccoon tracks

Looking over the Inlet/Barkless Log at Cottonwood Pond (or, Puddle)

Raccoon tracks in the mud of Cottonwood Pond - front and back feet

A bottle just outside the Inlet, pushed there by various episodes of rushing water - who knows how old the bottle is and how long it took to get here, but it may have started way, way back where the Creek enters our woods from under the road.

Canopy over Cottonwood Pond - the fallen Cottonwood tree was once part of this

Elderberry in bloom next to Cottonwood Pond. The plants here are very tall, stretching up from the bottom land toward the light. Elderberry plants in the higher parts of the woods are much smaller.

The airy flower clusters of Honewort, next to Cottonwood Pond

Then, it was into the nettles (long pants are a must, too) with my bucket.

The start of Temporary Creek #2, through the Wood Nettles

(in the last post, Tracking Deer, this was full of animal tracks!)

The bottom/wetland area northwest of Cottonwood Pond

Wood Nettles

And, then, back up the slope to the well house pump, where I ran water into the bucket, enough to cover the nettles.

Out popped a small being! It landed on my glove.

What was this odd little creature that had just escaped drowning? This tiny, pale thing with the incredibly long antennae?

I found out that it is a Carolina Leaf-Roller Cricket (Camptonotus carolinensis). It had probably been sheltering in the nettle patch, where I had so rudely disturbed it. I let it onto a nearby plant and hoped it would do fine.

Here are some things I found out about it:

• It belongs to: Order Orthoptera (those insects with the big, strong, jumping back legs, like grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, etc.); Suborder Ensifera (Long-Horned Orthopterans); Infraorder Tettigoniidea (Katydids, Camel Crickets, and their relatives) Family Gryllacrididae (Raspy Crickets).
• It runs rapidly (I didn't get to see this)
• It hunts at night – and it hunts (gardeners, you'll love this) – aphids!
• Nymphs are about in July and August, adults in September and October (though, I really don't know how one would tell the difference, since it's so pale and wingless as an adult)
• The antennae are about five times the length of the body
• The one I found is a female. How do I know this? Look at the photo – see that thing at the rear end, held over its back? That's the ovipositor, which is sometimes held straight out, and sometimes over the back.
• It shelters during the day in a rolled up leaf (except when people like me disturb it), and here's how it does this: bites through the leaf to form a flap, folds over the flap, pulling down the edge with its legs, glues the edges together with “silk” from glands on its mouth. Voila!
• Sometimes is uses pods of the Bladdernut shrub (Staphylea trifolia) as shelter (we don't have Bladdernut in our woods, but there are many in some other woods in this county).
• The major predator threatening the Caroline Leaf-Roller Cricket is the Katydid Wasp (Sphex nudus), which paralyzes it and takes it to its nest to feed its young. This wasp also hunts other Raspy Crickets and Katydids.

Kinda cute, isn't it?

Sometimes we don't see the things living around us. In fact, there are tons of things going on in the woods that we never see. If I hadn't harvested nettles, I may have never met the Caroline Leaf-Roller Cricket.

Now, if I can only get past the intensely busy period I have been in so I can spend more time just hanging out at Cottonwood Pond, and in the woods in general, watching, listening, maybe finding some more unusual beings.

(By the way, I had no idea there was such a thing as an “Infraorder”.)