Marion County Parks Naturalist Report - Common Blue Violets Are in Bloom!

Marion County Naturalist James Anderson joined the show to talk about the Common Blue Violets we're seeing all around Marion County this spring. james also talked about our polluniators and how you can do your part to preseve them in our area. James went over the calendar of events at the Marion County Parks for May.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Joan, I mean studio today isJames Anderson, the naturalist for the Marion
County Park District. James always apleasure to see in my friend, How
are you, oh peachy? Howare you falling? Good? Yeah?
Good? I just hope we getwe get spring back. I mean we
kin. We kind of had aweek of almost summer, and I think
people got used to it, andthen we got back to normal April where
one day it's beautiful, the nextday not so much. And I think

(00:22):
people were like, hey, weweren't gonna have April this year, but
by golly, it's here and we'removing into May, which means we do
have better weather on the horizon,which means all of the Marion County Parks
will be open and ready for peopleto come in and experience. And one
of the things they're going to seethis time of year is emerging plants,
flowers, trees, snakes and frogsand things like that. But today you

(00:46):
wanted to talk a little bit abouta flower that people will encounter around the
area, right, Yes, Ibrought the common blue violet, which is
a very common species. You canfind it in your yard. You don't
have to travel very far, andthey're about eight hundred different species of violets
across the world, but here inOhio we have about thirty species. Most

(01:07):
of the violet species are found inforested environments wetland environments, but of course
you have ones like this that cangrow in somebody's yard. Now, these
guys are edible and there are somemedicinal properties with them. For the edible
side of things, you can eatthe petals in the leaves, I'll admit.
If you eat the young leaves,they're a little bit sweeter. The
bigger they get, the bitter theyare. But you can put them in

(01:30):
salads. It's kind of like me, yeah, yeah, I used to
be pretty sweet in my twenties,not anymore. But the leaves too,
you can put it in soups andstews and make it like a thickening angel.
So yeah, also too, withthe petals, you can do several
things. You can eat it raw, but you can make a lemonade from

(01:51):
it if you steep it in hotwater. And then if you get kind
of like a French press. Youdon't need one, but it kind of
helps out and kind of strain itout. And also to adding sugar,
you can actually do like a scienceexperiment because the water at first will be
like kind of a tealish color,but then you add the lemon juice in
it and it actually turns pink.So really, if you got kids,

(02:12):
it's really cool experiments. Is itdelicious? Oh yeah, yeah it is.
It is also too with the petals, and I know this isn't very
healthy, but you can get maplesyrup. And when you do maple syrup,
do the real stuff, but thecorn syrup brand. But do that
and dip it in white sugar andyou can make a little candy from it.
Really yeah, yeah, So,and they do have some nutritional value.

(02:35):
I mean they do. They arein high end vitamin A and vitamin
C, so they'll help you alittle bit. But obviously putting a little
sugar kind of will defeat that purpose. But you can't make a jam.
Whip it. After you steep it. You can put some pectine in it.
And I have had violet jelly.It is very good. That's really
cool. So does the wildlife eatthe violets? Oh yeah, deer,

(02:58):
turkeys, rabbit, I mean,all kinds of wildlife. Pollinators really depend
on this plant. Because when wethink of the pretty flowers in our yard.
We think of dana lions, right, Don't get me wrong. Guess
dandelions are great, But danda lionsare not native to North America. They
originate from Europe but then were broughtover here unintentionally and have spread all over.

(03:19):
But things like violets and spring beauties. I know last year I talked
about that on your show. Theseare the plants that are the pollinators need
in the early spring, because that'swhat's really going to be most beneficial.
So mason bees and some sweat beesare going to pollinate them, but ants
actually help with their seed dispersal.Really, so yes, this plant,
how they spread it through seed orthrough their rhiosomes or the roots. That's

(03:42):
why you may see in little giantclumps because the roots are spreading, right.
But you may have a case whereyou have a little patch and then
a couple feet away you have anotherpattern. You're like, well, how
how did it spread you know inthat distance? Well, what it is,
And it's not just violets or otherwildflowers are like this, like trilliums.
But ants will go up and theywill grab the seed because the seed

(04:03):
will have kind of like an outercoating that produces this really sweet pheromone,
and the ants are, oh,that's delicious, So they take it back
to their colony. They'll eat thatouter layer and then once they're done,
they kind of throw it out andthe next thing, you know, they
plan it. So ants are avery vital component for the filets with seed
dispersals. So when we think ofpollinators, I know, we think of

(04:26):
bees and butterflies, which, don'tget me wrong, they are but you
know, in a way, Imean, ants are very important for the
life cycle of this plant. Butsome of the medicinal properties. Some of
the Native Americans, the Cherokee,the Shawnee tribes, they used to make
a skin ointment also too, theyused to make a tea with any type
of respiratory issues. Early settlers kindof discover, hey, well the Native

(04:48):
Americans are doing that, well weshould try it out too. Don't do
that much in today's medicine, butI know in the past, you know,
we used to use all kinds ofplants for our medicine. So yeah,
it's it's just really need how thislittle plant has so much value not
just for wildlife, but for peopleas well. Right, see I don't.

(05:09):
I don't put weed killer. Idon't. I don't do any of
that stuff in my yard. I'mI've never been a fan of that,
As you know. I like goingout to the parks and stuff. We
did scouts and everything like that.You know, to me, the beauty
of your yard is when you seeall that. And I tell people all
the time. It's interesting because alot of people, I'm sure, look
at a common blue violet as aweed. In my world. In my

(05:31):
world, I tell people all thetime, weeds are just flowers. People
don't lie. I mean, yes, they can be invasive, yes,
whatever. You could go on andon. But but dandelions we need,
we need these violets. We needto keep the pollinators going. And I
literally will be sitting on my deckand see a patch of violets in the
backyard and go, oh, that'sreally cool. And then the next time

(05:53):
you turn around on a bright sunnyday, there's four or five bees on
there. And to me, that'sthe way it should be. Right.
Absolutely, you did mention one thingabout spray. Now, I tell people
that yes, they are edible,medicinal, but if you or if you
have a neighbor, especially if youlive in downtown Marion that does a lot
of spraying rather for herbicides or pesticience, I mean that can transfer over to

(06:14):
your property. So always tell peoplebe very cautious. Yeah, and I
always hit that hard with my ediblemedicinal plant program. Yeah. No,
I think that's that's great advice.But they're just they really are. They're
they're really neat. I enjoy havingthem in my yard, and well they
get the conversation about dandylions. Tome, I kind of know in my
yard, I've got a little dandylion season. They'll come up, but

(06:39):
within a couple of weeks they're prettymuch gone, and I don't do anything.
I don't know if people's keep comingback or not, but mine seemed
to nod. It's like, ohhere we got the dandylions. And then
a couple of weeks later, Inoticed, after mowing and everything like that,
that they've they've moved on to somethingelse. But they don't bother me
at all. Good. I'm gladyou helped your local pollinators out. Well.
I try to be that way,just because you know, once again,

(07:00):
my gyuard is not a thing ofbeauty, nor do I want to
put all the effort into making ita thing of beauty. And number three,
you know, I enjoy being ableto know that all of that's happening.
I like the birds. I likethe bees flying around, and you
know, my wife's not a fanof those carpenter bees like my deck.
But but we make sure that wekeep it stained and that kind of helps
it a little bit. But we'vegot so many different violets, but everybody

(07:25):
sees the common blue violets right ifyou go out to the Teridized Nature Preserve,
which is our one park outside ofCaledonia, we have three species,
so we have the common blue,the cream violet, and the yellow violets.
Okay, so if you want tosee some of the different diversity,
definitely check out that park. Butif you want to see a lot of
different diversity of violets, definitely insouthern Ohio like Hawking Hills Mohegan area,

(07:46):
they have a lot more different typesand they look very similar to the common
blue violet. The really big differencesis habitat also to their seed pods look
three different. But when you're lookingat just the petals the leaves, a
lot of times I look very similar, so filets can be very hard to
distinguish between one species to another.Yeah, now, of course, like

(08:07):
a tarot ice. I mean one'sblue and one's white and one's yellow,
So that's really easy to determine,right, No, that's some really good
stuff. Anything else we need toknow about the common blue violets, you
know, like you were just mentioning, you know, if you can,
you know, leave them in youryard because you know these local pollinators they
need them. And you know,pollinators I mean, and I mean all
while life in general, but definitelypollinators are really hurting here recently because you

(08:31):
know, we're not doing the besttowards our environment. So just small things
you can do to help nature out. Well, I've noticed, and maybe
it's just the age that I amand the people that I'm friends with,
it seems that more and more peoplethat I am being connected with are trying
to help and do some things withbees and things like that. I've seen
more beekeeper friends than ever. Now. Like I said, we're getting a

(08:54):
little older and we're moving on toother things in our world, and a
lot of guys are picking up thathobby of doing bees. And if you
do end up with bees on yourproperty. The best thing to do is
make a phone call and get themremoved and put into a hive somewhere so
they can thrive. Yes, yes, I know there was. There was
a local guy. Um it wasTrevor's dad. Yeah, yeah, Don

(09:16):
Jones. Don had a bunch ofthem back. Yes, yeah, he
used to come out to tall GrassTrail and he used to do programs in
but I know he would on aside hobby. He would he would get
bees in people's property. I stillhave some of his honey. God rest
his soul. And you know it'sthe only food that doesn't spoil. I
understand, so we I still havesome of his honey. I'm a big
fan of it. But that's beenyears ago. But I know there are

(09:39):
others that are doing that, andum, there are guys that will come
and take those bees. And ifyou do have a situation with him,
because that does happen, you'll get, you know, you'll get especially if
a tree comes down. I cansee in a storm, they'll end up
finding a way to get in andfind you know, find a way into
a tree and all of a suddenthat becomes their home, which is wonderful,

(10:00):
but you may not want it onyour property. Move them out the
right way. Yes, yes,absolutely, as you need to find somebody
come out and do some more bprograms. Those are always good. Don
did a great job. Yeah,and I was loved because he had samples
and let kids try and people try, and of course he brought his own
personal fives and he would show andhe did. He did a fabulous job.
Well. He made the Kay madecandy all sorts of stuff, and

(10:22):
he he had one of those bighuge copper kettles and he would do the
maple syrup and all that stuff.Don was fantastic. God bless him.
So some good stuff with a commonblue blue violets. I was telling you
recently, we've had a lot ofconversation again about chronic wasting disease. And
I know it's not something that youspend a lot of time in because ODNR

(10:43):
and their wildlife officers are very concernedhere in the Wyandot, Marion and Harden
County area. But we do havea meeting coming up on Wednesday, May
the third, six thirty at theSheriff's Department that you can get information and
learn more about chronic wasting his ease, and that's going on in one of
the best wildlife areas that we havereally in the state. When you look

(11:05):
at killed are and what goes onout there. Yeah, yeah, killed
are in Big Island, those arereally special places. And I mean,
especially with bird diversity, there's alot of unique birds out there. But
yeah, I'm hoping in the chronicswaste disease doesn't get too out of control
level. It looks like now wehave two confirmed cases based on heads being
sent into taxidermist and going from there. So if you live in those areas,

(11:28):
you're hunting those areas, you needto be familiar with the rules and
the laws that we now have withchronic wasting disease in order to keep it
contained. They believe that it camefrom the west, the western United States
to get here in Marion County,and at this point they believe that it
is not of any issue to youand me and meat and things like that,

(11:50):
But definitely you want to know what'swhat's happening there. But they certainly
don't want it to spread from deerto deer if they can, if they
can stop that or contain that,Yes, I know there's a potential threat
I when I was in school thatit could transfer to livestock, right,
right. Of course the next issueis well, course of humans ingests that
then you know, is that goingto be an issue. So there's not

(12:11):
been any confirmed cases, but ourprofessor just that there's always the possibility because
it's very like mad cow disease,correct similar, Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
So it is obviously something of concern, not anything to worry about,
but definitely something to keep an eyeAnd if you're interested, you can go
to our website and get information onthat. It's right there the meeting and
links and all sorts of stuff tolearn a little bit. Talk a little

(12:33):
bit about your calendar. You guyshave some things going on. You've already
done some things that you wanted totalk a little bit about. Go ahead.
Yeah. So the two big thingsthat we had for the month of
April we had our sand hill CraneSurvey, which we worked with the Ohio
Division of Wildlife and the Ohio BirdConservation Initiative. And what this project was
to help the biologist for those twodepartments and say, hey, what's going

(12:56):
on with sand hill cranes Because ifyou're not familiar sand hill cranes are a
threatened species in the state of Ohio. So it means their population isn't doing
the greatest, and you know,of their population keeps declining, then eventually
they'll become endangered and they don't wantthat to happen. Yeah. So luckily
here in Marin County, especially onthe west side of the county, Big
On Wildlife Area Kuiltier, like,we've been mentioning those who are really really

(13:18):
great areas to find to stay insandhill Crane. So if you are a
photographer and do grab pictures, sendit to the High Division Wildlife. Now,
they do not advertise it and theydon't say, oh, hey,
someone's so and so found this.They do keep it, you know,
hidden from the public because you know, species like that, they don't want

(13:39):
a whole bunch of people gathering.Because even here in Marion County, we
do have pairs that do have chicks. One of our local photographers, Amy
Holloway, several years ago she grabssome pictures run Big Island of them having
chicks. Have you ever seen apicture of a sandhill crane chick? They
look like chickens with very long legs. They're really weird looking, but they're
cute at the same time. Yeah, eglitts are that way too, and

(14:01):
you'll see a picture or two ofthose. And once again, if you
do happen to see a picture ofan eagle eglot whatever, do not tell
anyone where you found that app Pleasedo not. Yeah, absolutely, but
yeah, yeah eglitts are kind ofthe ugly ducking ducklings when they're very young,
aren't they. Yes, yes,So within that survey and my particular
block, which was Tallgrass Trail andthe Quarry Park, actually had three cranes,

(14:24):
so I was very happy. Andthen my friend who was in the
block right next to me, shewas in her road area and south of
her road she had two cranes.So as of down we have five cranes
that were documented in Marion County.There could be more. So that's very
exciting because last year it was coldand snowing, so we only had two
that called. So the de FisionWildlife would be making a map here in

(14:45):
the next few months and be showinghate what's going on with the population.
So I'm very excited to be partof that program. Good stuff. My
wife likes to follow all of yourbirding stuff that you do. Yeah,
she's like James is really into thebirding things. Oh yeah, and we're
not. We're not really bird enthusiasts, but we love them. We had
a we had a Cooper's hawk inour yard. Again. Yeah, it's
been to get a neigh We couldsee no, but it was definitely in

(15:07):
the yard, so we knew itwas hunting, right, he was going
after something we do have. Wedo have some bunnies in the neighborhood,
so we were of concern along thatway. My wife likes the bunnies.
But yeah, So with that beingsaid, you've got some things happening coming
up here in May, right,yes, yes, so our programs for
the month of May. On Maysecond, at five o'clock PM, we
have our fernal Pool program at ParadiseNature Preserve. Fernal pools are just temporary

(15:30):
wetlands, so I won't go intoo much deep detail, but please make
sure to wear clothes you don't mindgetting a wet or dirty or muddy,
because yes, we will be goingin the fernal pool. On the eighth
at four o'clock PM, we're doinganother looking for Wildflowers program at Tallgrass Trail,
but we'll be starting at the deCliffs section, which is at the
eighth mile marker of the trail,because there's some unique wildflowers in that area.

(15:50):
On the sixteenth, at five o'clock, we're doing a trash pickup program
at Marion Tallgrass Trail at the trailhead, so we will profive bags. Just
please bring gloves and water so youdon't make sure you don't go thirsty.
We'll be part of the Downtown ThirdThursday event on the eighteen from four to
seven, so come see us.On the twenty third at five o'clock,

(16:11):
we'll be doing a life under aLog program at the Myers Woods Nature Preserve.
On the twenty six, will beat the Senior Expo from eleven to
two at the Kingston Residence of Marion. So if you're a senior or no
any seniors, tell them to comeout and check us out. And then
our last program on the thirty ftfive o'clock we have the hike up the
Naturalists at the Greenspur Nature Preserve.There you go. I'll be at the

(16:33):
Boomer Senior Expo two. Just foundout I think Tuesday that we're going to
be out there again this year,so looking forward to being there was a
lot of fun last year. Yeah, we did really well and literally five
minutes after we tore down, wehad a thunderstorm if you remember. I
mean it was literally everybody got intotheir vehicles and then we did that pretty
well because that's one of those daysyou can get those that crop up.

(16:55):
So no, that was a goodday. It was. It was very
much enjoyed. So Jonah joined youagain this summer. Yes, yep,
he'll be starting I assume late May, early June ish summer around that time.
So we'll be advertising when he willbe joined on board because he'll be
graduating from his associate's degree because he'sa part of that program with Pleasant so

(17:15):
we're really excited to have him onboard. Yeah, that that is a
great program. So I'm glad tohave him back. And you'll also be
doing kiddos at the park again thissummer. Well, we're hoping. The
thing is the nature center. We'resupposed to be building a new nature center.
It's said anytime the spring, whichcould be now, it could be
a week or two, so we'rejust gonna have to see where where time

(17:37):
goes. Yeah, absolutely, andonce we get that started, we'll talk
a little bit more about that.I think some people may have forgotten the
reason why we need a new naturecenter out there, but that has everything
to do with rd on correct.Yeah, with the methane. Yeah that
is traveling. Yeah, absolutely,So we'll talk a little bit about that.
I'm sure down the road. Sogood. So one thing I forgot
to mention that a new thing themary In Public Library and maryon Osu made

(18:02):
the new book walk. Oh cool, all right, I should say the
install day new book. Yeah.So what's very special about this is it's
bilingual. So there's a QR codeand you have your smartphone and if you
if you have someone who's Spanish speakingand you scan the code, it will
read it to you in Spanish.That is really cool. Yeah, and
I will tell you that the Internetworks really good out of Tall Grass Trail.
I you know, the amount oftimes that I'm out there and I'm

(18:25):
streaming music or whatever. When I'mout that way, I don't have hardly
any issues. So you should reallybe able to enjoy that out there.
That's cool. Yeah, they justdid that on Monday, So I love
that. Some neat stuff. Checkout that bookwalk. It is now a
permanent book walk. What they changeis what the actual book is. But
all the stanchions and everything are permanent. And that's a really nice piece.

(18:45):
Yes, And it starts right thereon the shoe head and ends at right
there by her road. So you'regonna get a little walk. It's gonna
be a mile. So yeah,it's all good. You get to see
some cool stuff. You check outFoundation Lake and all of that as well,
James, anything else, good stuff. Man. We've just been mentioning
just about the wildlife. You know, Yes, wildlife are going to use
our trail, like we've talked aboutbefore. Dogs, yes, and frogs.
So I just posted a foot videoyesterday. You know, if you

(19:07):
see a snake, just walk aroundit, leave it alone. They'll leave
you alone. He's not gonna hurtyou. And of course if you're if
you're see the right log down atFoundation Lake or on the back side of
it, you're gonna see some beautifulturtles, box turtles a little bit.
Everyone's up there had some paintings andsnapping turtles. They'll be coming out laying
eggs here. Yeah. I loveit. I love seeing the turtles out

(19:29):
there. Stuff. James Anderson thenaturalists for the Marion County Park District.
If you're catching this podcast wherever you'regetting it, hit follow, because every
time we post a new one,you'll get a notification on your phone.
And of course, if you're catchingus on Sunday morning on News Center at
Large. Remember that all of theseare on the podcast called the maryon Now
podcast channel and the Marion County ParkDistrict podcast channel. You'll find both of

(19:52):
which on the iHeart app