More Plant ID Fun! (Solved)

[Dodgy Loner]

A few pictures from my hike through Providence Canyon:

#1


#2


#3


#4

[Tom]

1:  black gum?   naw, the leaves don't have any tips!
2:  Bigleaf Magnolia maybe Magnolia macrophylla)?
3:  Chickasaw plums? Prunus angustifolia   mmmm:
4:  Trumpet vine?:  Bignoniaceae Campsis

[SwampDonkey]

#1 looks like wild-raisin, probably southern Viburnum nudum.  Our northern variety seems to thrive in red clay soil. Don't have either in my local area, but up along the Tobique River watershed has both.

# 2 bigleaf if stems pubescent, or earleaf magnolia if without.

# 3 and # 4 Tom's suggestions sound good to me.

[Dodgy Loner]

#1: SD is on the right track, but hasn't nailed down the species.
#2: Yup, Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla)
#3: Tom got the genus, but this is a different species with broader leaves.
#4: Correct, Trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans)

[Tom]

It does have a broader leaf, doesn't it.  I'm having to hunt because I've not eaten a wild plumb in these parts other than a Chickasaw.  Guessing accurately to the Genus is kinda like saying that the leaves of the tree are green. 

There is a pacific wild plum that looks like that, subcordata Bentham, but it apparently only grows in a small area of N. Cal., S. Oregon and N.W. Nevada.  The fruit hangs like cherries, just as yours.

Eureka!  ....Prunus americana    Marsh ??

Having not seen one and known it, I'm guessing.

[Dodgy Loner]

Well, you are quickly narrowing it down, Tom.  There's only one more native plum in Georgia

I doubt if anyone could tell this from P. americana by the picture I posted, though.

[Tom]

maybe a Goose Plum?
Prunus munsoniana

I've only suspected that I've identified them from the foliage on rare occassion.  I don't think I've ever seen a plant with a fruit.

[SwampDonkey]

#1 must be close because of those winged petioles and the way the fruit hangs. 


Can't be nannyberry can it? Because the leaf apex ain't pointed. V. lentago

[SwampDonkey]

Only one wild plum up this way and that's P. nigra, Canada Plum, and it's not too common any more.

[Dodgy Loner]

Tom, I bet these plums would go great with pork.

SD, still haven't figured out #1?  You must be getting rusty.

Those are the best hints I can give

[Tom]

On #1, are the leaves tips rounded or is the point turned under?

[SwampDonkey]

Must be one of those dang cross over species, can't make up it's mind where it belongs.

Rusty blackhaw? V. rufidulum

Now don't tell me it ain't that!!

[Tom]

Hog Plum??
Prunus umbellata

that was quite a hint if it is.  

I've heard of Hog plum and Goose plum but probably wouldn't know one if it swiped me in face.  Americana was a guess.  My folks had always told me that chickasaw was the only wild plum in S. Georgia and Fl.  I guess we didn't get far enough north.  

Hmmmmmmmm   ....even a hog finds a.............

[beenthere]

Victoria plum

[Tom]

I need a bigger shotgun.  I'm running out of pellets. 

[WDH]

Man, the stories I could tell you about hog plums . 

[Tom]

I'd sure like to hear some. 

In my life, I've probably eaten a mess of all of them and just thought I was eating Chickasaw.   Ignorance is bliss. 

A friend of mine and I took of through the Oconee River Swamp one Sunday for an afternoon of adventure.  I wrote about it in a story called AWOL to Mrs. Pennington's.   It's on my website.....Oh heck, I'll just copy it over here on this post.

Kent, my good friend from Sparks, Ga., and I were bored one stormy weekend in high school and decided to take an exploratory trip through the woods. This was forbidden, to leave campus in the military school, but we risked it anyway.

Leaving the campus to the east down a red clay road that dropped drastically toward the Oconee River, we were soon out of sight of any campus cadre.

Off to the south we traipsed through the woods and arrived at a one-hundred-foot-wide, flood-swollen tributary. The water was rushing in torrents and the stream had waves in it.

The tributary was obviously too swift to swim but there was a tree that had fallen from our side and it lay in the water nearly reaching each side. We found a long grape vine and, because Kent was the smaller, tied it around his waist and I held the end to keep him from being swept down to the river if he missed the tree.

Starting upstream a little, Kent jumped into the water and was immediately swept past the tree, which was ten feet or so from our bank. He tried to swim but couldn't fight the current and was slammed into the bank as the grape vine swung him in a fast arc. My hands hurt from gripping the vine.

It was then decided that I would be the one to reach the tree. I was a good swimmer but, unlike Kent, heavy for my size. Tying the vine around my waist, Kent placed himself upstream and braced himself for the expected tug.

I leapt headfirst in a belly flop, similar to a racing dive, and with my head held up, stroked with all my worth toward the tree. I found that I had made the distance but when trying to hold the tree trunk, the current parted in sheets around and over my head. It was all I could do to hang on. Getting my balance, I carefully and slowly got my legs onto the trunk and crawled atop of it.

Kent, with the grape vine tied to his waist, jumped in again and with me pulling, arrived at the tree too.

We walked across the log and found that the current on the other side was not as swift as the one from which we had just come, so we jumped in and swam to the other bank.

A hike of a couple of miles led us to a large opening in the forest. It was Mrs. Pennington's ranch. There was a large hill in front of us and boulders projected from the hill at intervals all the way to the top. The grass was short and obviously eaten by cattle. Along the perimeter of the field were Chickasaw plums. They are borne on a small tree or shrub and are yellow and sometimes red when ripe. We feasted.

Then, with our stomachs full, we climbed the hill and played on the rocks. It was neat to look all around the countryside and observe not one animal or house. We were alone.

Again we visited the plums and ate until we could eat no more. They were delicious and hunger was no reason to continue. One plum after the other we ate hoping that the next would be sweeter than the last.

Finally we realized that we needed to get back or we would be missed. Hiking back through the woods in anticipation of the swollen creek was no fun. We weren't sure how we were to navigate the stream from this side. Much to our happiness we found a stream that had subsided to a mild, gently flowing current. There was a family there playing in the water and they were only knee deep. The turbulence of the flood had stirred the red clay until it looked as if the bottom were only three inches below the surface of a clear stream. That was not the case because we submerged in the thick suspension as we progressed to the other side. Only a deep channel about fifteen feet wide had to be swam and we were safe on the other side.

Returning to the barracks with our shorts and skin stained brilliant red from the Georgia clay, we were early enough to take a long hot shower and play in the shower room.

No one was ever the wiser and it was one of my life's thrills.

[SwampDonkey]

Well, a fellow needs as many of those thrills in life as he can stand. 

[Dodgy Loner]

All of the plants have been correctly ID'ed. 
#1 is rusty blackhaw (Viburnum rufidulum) and #3 is hog plum (Prunus umbellata)

Tom, that was quite a story.  My parents have a big patch of Chickasaw plums on their property that I have feasted on each spring since they bought the place, but I did't have to brave any flooded rivers to get to them.

Here is last year's bounty:

[Lanier_Lurker]

Yep, I grew up with Chickasaw plums down in Dawson, GA. 

We had some thickets that were so tall and vast that we could build forts inside of them.

I'll bet if I were to drive back through my old neighborhood those thickets are probably not there any more.