Spotted Salamanders

          A friend and I recently took a walk in the woods to look for salamander eggs in the vernal pools.  In one pool we hit the jackpot...69 spotted salamander egg masses!

          Vernal pools are important habitats for various frogs, toads, salamanders and plants. You can often find a vernal pool by following the early spring sounds of frogs. These sites are unique in that they are seasonal.  They dry up after spring time.  Because they are seasonal, there are no fish in vernal pools, making them ideal nurseries for creatures that rely on them for breeding. 

          Salamanders return to the same pool where their life began when it is time to breed and reproduce.  Adults can live up to twenty or more years, usually close to the vernal pool they came from. In summer adults are usually hidden under leaf litter or logs, where they eat centipedes, worms, spiders, crickets and slugs. In winter they live underground.

Vernal pools are shallow and dry up by summer time. 

An egg mass contains about 100 eggs

 

An adult spotted salamander can reach  6 to 10 inches in length.  The spotted salamander is the official state amphibian in South Carolina and Ohio. Photo courtesy of Diane Girgente.

Spring Ephemerals

 

 

 

 

          Spring ephemerals are the early wildflowers with a short life cycle.  They must emerge from the ground in their woodland habitat, bloom quickly and then set seed before the tree leaves emerge in the canopy above and block their access to sunlight.

          Here are a few ephemerals I found today.

 

 

 

 

Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica


 

Hepatica, Hepatic acutiloba
 

Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, just  emerging. In a few weeks the nodding white flower will appear beneath its leaves.

Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis.  The red sap in the roots was used as paint and dye by Native Americans.

Toothwort, Dentaria laciniata.  The leaves are edible.

  

A Comma butterfly is nectaring on this Saxifrage, Saxifraga virginiensis

Common Blue Violet, Viola sorois.  The seed coat contains a bit of food so ants carry the seeds to their colony, eat the food and discard the intact seed, thereby planting it.  Think "ant farming!"

Woodland Violet, Viola pubescens.