The Tuliptree

The Tuliptree grows to have one of the widest trunks and be one of the tallest trees in the East. 

     Tuliptrees (Liriodendron tulipifera) have numerous common names and are among the most common trees in our region. These names include Tulip Poplar, Yellow Poplar, White Poplar, Whitewood, Canoewood, Fiddle-tree, and Saddle-leaf Tree. Although the leaves do tremble and shake like true poplars and they have light colored wood, they are actually in the more primitive magnolia family, and the term "poplar" is often frowned upon by botanists. Their scientific name translates to "lily tree bearing tulips" and refers to the flower shape and to the leaves which look like a tulip in profile. 

     Tuliptrees are extremely fast growing and are often considered to be the tallest deciduous trees in the East, potentially getting over 180' tall. They also have very wide trunks (30' +), perhaps the 3rd widest in the East after Bald Cypress and American Sycamores. I have a (fairly poor quality) picture of my family standing in front of a particularly large Tuliptree in the Smokies with room to spare on the sides. 

Tuliptree flowers are not easily seen because they are so high in the canopy until they start dropping.

     The flowers are large and fairly showy, but are rarely seen until they have fallen from their lofty perches. They are a mix of yellow, orange, and and green. Some people float them decoratively in water bowls. Although mostly scentless, the bloom are extremely rich in nectar. This makes them a favorite of several pollinators such as bees. Tuliptree honey is considered a favorite (at least for baking) and, in some areas, 30% of the forage for honeybees is made up of this tree. 

Tuliptree flowers are very rich in nectar and favorite of several animals with sweet tooths. 

     Indeed, the nectar is so plentiful that other creatures such as hummingbirds and orioles visit them. I've seen raccoons feasting on the blooms. Even people can taste them if they find one growing low enough. It takes about 10 years before they are old enough to bloom, and I know a few places that I can reach them in season. You just have to be careful to beat the critters and ants to them...

I enjoy a sweet sip of nectar from one of the few low growing flowers I could reach. 

     I mentioned how fast growing Tuliptrees are. This makes for relatively soft wood, but it does have some very appealing properties. For one, it does not absorb steam very well, making it a favorite for hat blocks. Because the Native American Indians in our region did not have metal tools, this tree was very valuable for making dugout canoes (and giving it one of its names of Canoewood). It could be worked with stone tools and strategic burning. Moreover, it grew very straight, tall and wide. Captain John Smith reported seeing some capable of carrying 40 warriors at a time. Lore has it that Daniel Boone led a group in a 60' dugout holding 35 people.

Canoewood trunks can be wide, tall, and very straight.

     The tree also tends to "self prune" dropping its lower branches in shady situations. This made for less branches to cut off. The wood also does not split very easily. All good traits for a dugout canoe, even if the wood was not especially durable against rot. 

Lower branches often "self-prune" in the shade leaving distinctive scars where they grew.

     Tuliptree has been used by people for many more applications however. The Cherokee used it to treat pinworm, dysentery, rheumatism, boils, fever, and coughing. During the Civil War, Dr. Francis Porcher was tasked with finding alternative uses for plants in the embargoed South. His treatise listed numerous uses for this particular tree. He considered it one of the best substitutes for "Peruvian bark" (Cinchona used for quinine) to treat malaria for instance. He suggested that its seeds could be used as a laxative and to treat dysentery. The leaves he reported could be applied to the forehead to relieve headaches. 

     Francis Porcher also recorded that a respected Doctor Young wrote in a letter about Tuliptree usefulness to Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton, claiming: "He has never known it to fail in a single case of worms." In Virginia, Tuliptree bark was mixed with Flowering Dogwood and Black Alder in horses troughs to treat them for bot flies.

Tuliptree seed cone.

     During Fall, the leaves turn a brilliant yellow color. In winter, the seed heads are quite distinctive and long lasting. They look like candelabras up high in the canopy. This along with their tall straight trunks, with noticeable branch scars for where they dropped their lower branches, make the trees fairly easy to recognize. 

A Tuliptree seed head consists of seeds (samaras) arranged around a central spike and shedding from the inside out.

     The seed heads consist of the seeds arranged around a central spike. They drop starting from the inside out, but can endure the whole winter. The seeds are a type of "samara" similar in function to the maple "helicopters" many people are familiar with. They can float for quite a distance with any breeze. This makes them particularly good pioneer tree species, sometimes dominating in forming wood lots, especially since they are not a favorite of too many animals as a food source, can remain viable for 4-7 years, and are produced in large numbers. 

A Tuliptree seed (samara) separated from the rest after helicoptering away from parent plant.

     Tuliptrees are not favored as deer browse, though they will eat them. Having broken off stems and smelled them, they do appear to have a fairly distinctive odor, though I wouldn't call it a bad smell. It seems like deer and other browsers don't care for them, at first anyways. This allows them a competitive edge over such forest staples as oaks in establishing themselves. Since they also can grow so quickly, they can dominate young woods, but are generally not tolerant of shade. They can live up to 500 years. 

Saplings grow very quickly as pioneer species after being spread by the wind, and are not a favorite browse of deer. 

     Although not a favorite for mammalian browsers, at least 21 caterpillar species use it as a host plant to feed on. This includes our largest Geometrid (inchworm) moth, the Tuliptree Beauty. 

The "candelabras" of seeds hang well into the winter

     The hanging candelabras of seed heads, tall straight trunks, and branch scars make the older trees rather easy to pick out in a winter woods, but the buds are also distinctive. They are said to look like duck bills. 

The "duck bill" end buds of Tuliptrees are distinctive.

     Though common, these are beautiful native trees with unique features, well deserving of being the state trees of Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Regardless of season, they are fairly easy to distinguish from other trees. As one last thing to mention, the trees may be well known for their tulip-like shape, but they make nice cat masks during the Fall for kids. For those of you who work with kids, this is my favorite way to end a field trip during the Halloween season. I find a location at the end of the walk with lots of Tuliptree leaves (I often place a bunch of nice ones there to use). I tell the group that I would like to show them the costume I intend to wear. Choosing the large shade leaves (the lower and larger leaves that young trees sometimes produce to capture the diminished sunlight filtering through the canopy), fold one in half, poke holes, and you have a cat mask. Everyone thus can take a memoir of their visit (and of the Tuliptree) home. 

Although tulip-shaped, the shade leaves make great cat masks!

American Bullfrog

A large male American Bullfrog floats, calling in a pond. Note that the dorsolateral skin fold goes around the eardrum (tympanum) rather than going down the back.

     The American Bull Frog (Lithobates (formerly Rana) catesbeianus) is the largest native frog in North America. It can grow to 8" (203mm) and has traits that make it quite different from our other frogs besides its size. It is quite variable in color, particularly when young. It is often confused with its smaller and much more common cousin, the Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans). The skin fold that begins behind its eye (the dorsolateral fold) however goes around the eye rather than down the back as in the Green Frog. More on the Green Frog from a previous post:  http://capitalnaturalist.blogspot.com/2014/08/green-frog.html

A male Green Frog floats on a pond. Note that the dorsolateral fold of skin goes part way down the back. 

     Unlike other North American frogs where the female, in order to be able to carry more eggs, is larger than the male, just the opposite is true of Bull Frogs. The males are bigger due to having territorial disputes where the larger males force or bully the smaller ones away. The larger males have thus been selected for and have greater mating success.
     Males are quite easy to tell from females once they are adults. Not only are they bigger and have a yellowish throat during the breeding season, but their tympanum (ear drum) is larger than their eye. Female have eyes that are about the same size as their tympanums. These are all sexual differences their smaller Green Frog cousins also have.

The larger male Bullfrog with its eardrum (tympanum) larger than its eye courts the smaller female who's tympanum is about the same size as the eye. 

     Males are now giving their now giving their "jug-o-rum" calls in our permanent ponds. You can hear and see them do this in this video clip from the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9qbapiHF6E
     Also unusual in frogs, the females will sometimes also call, though this is normally the scream both sexes may give if they are caught by a predator. Some suspect that this release call attracts an even larger predator that might break up the attack and allow the frog to escape in the scuffle. Indeed, I've several times heard the screaming and gone to investigate, interrupting a feeding snake in the process. In most species of frog or toads, only the males vocalize.

A Bull Frog tadpole already developing its back legs.

     Once a female has chosen her suitor, she will lay a large floating mass of eggs numbering between 3,000-50,000 eggs. In less than 3 weeks, the tadpoles emerge. These tadpoles take 2 and sometimes 3 (up North) years to metamorphose into an adult. This again differs from most of our frogs which change over in a single growing season. The olive colored tadpoles can also grow to be our biggest. Some polliwogs can be up to 6" long. Although they typically eat algae or detritus just like other polliwogs, they are also unusual once again in occasionally scavenging meat and eating other tadpoles. They are distasteful to some fish as well which allows them to live in permanent ponds with them.

Bull Frog tadpoles are the largest in North America and take the longest to develop (2-3 years) of all our native tadpoles.

     Bull frogs are notorious for eating anything smaller than themselves, including each other. I've seen them eat small mice, frogs, and even small snakes. I once was leading a group of kids and watching a Red-winged Blackbird land next to the water, when a large Bull Frog grabbed it. They struggled for a while before the ruffled bird got away. This voracious trait has resulted in some local extinctions of animals. These are the most commercially available frog tadpoles because they take so long to change over and can be kept with small fish in aquarium pet stores. For this reason, they are the ones most bought for release into home ponds.
     Bull Frogs will eat any smaller species there however. They have been outlawed for sale in some countries like England where they have become an invasive predator of small ponds. They have even been implicated in the demise of California's Red-legged Frog. Bull Frogs from Maryland were taken to California for their edible legs and for frog jumping contests like that at the famous Calaveras Fair. Now they pose a threat to the smaller Red-legged Frogs who were already in trouble due to habitat destruction. It is important to realize that being native does not mean they belong everywhere, as that can upset the natural balance.
   

A female Bull Frog.

     Bull Frogs, if they survive being eaten by each other, snakes, humans, or the numerous other creatures who consume them, can live 15 or so years. It takes a male 1-2 years to reach sexual maturity (2-3 for a female). Their Latin name was given to them in honor of the great American naturalist Mark Catesby. 

     I truly appreciate these large frogs and their calls. Many times I've put aside my fishing rod or stopped what I was doing to try and sneak up on them and see what they were doing. I've been rewarded by many observations of them eating or being eaten. Luckily, these are tough amphibians who can survive in less than ideal conditions including farm ponds and park lakes. But they do not belong in every body of water because of their great size and appetites. Now that you know a bit more about them, you hopefully can appreciate them more as well.  

Oil Beetles

Oil Beetles mating.

      Oil Beetles (Meloe spp.) are unusual beetles with a fascinating life cycle. Like their Rove Beetle cousins, the typical hardened wing covers (elytra) in beetles are very short, not covering the abdomen. Their names are derived from their habit of exuding a noxious oily substance from the joints of their legs when disturbed. This substance (including a chemical called canthardin) can cause chemical burns and can protect certain species of beetles such as Blister, Soldier, and of course Oil Beetles. The Meloe males are smaller than the females and some of the 22 or so species in our region have a bend to their antennae. The females attract their mates using pheromones this time of year. Adults feed mostly on plants, but the larvae have a very specialized diet and host.
     After hatching, the new born larvae in some species climb atop foliage and exude a pheromone attractive to certain bee species. Some even aggregate together so they look like a female bee. The male bees then arrive and the Oil Beetle larvae cling to their hair before they fly off. When the male finds a real female bee, the Oil Beetle young transfer over. The female bee then constructs her nest and the larval Oil Beetles eat the eggs and pollen stores. The cycle then starts all over again.
     I recently came across several mating Oil Beetles and noticed some much smaller beetles that seemed to be feeding on their larger cousins. What I had stumbled upon were Fire Colored Beetles from the family Pyrochroidae harvesting that blistering agent called canthardin from the Oil Beetles. The males of certain species of these Fire Colored Beetles detect the canthardin using their combed antennae and find it irresistible.

Fire Colored Beetles (Pyrochroidae family) obtaining canthardin from Oil Beetles.

     Some Pyrochronidae males seek out Blister and Oil Beetles to collect the cathardin they exude. Those who collect the most are also the most attractive to females of their own species. When mating with them, the males transfer cathardin along with the sperm packet to the females who chose them. The females then coat the eggs they lay with the blistering agent, thus hopefully protecting them from many predators.

Three male Fire Colored Beetles harvesting cathardin from the much larger Oil Beetles. 

     These beetles display just some examples of the remarkable use of chemicals and pheromones in the animal world. These are not just used for attracting mates, but in Oil Beetles to attract bees to act as hosts. In Fire Colored Beetles, they steal these chemicals from their larger relatives to be more attractive to their own females and then protect their eggs. There are numerous other examples such as these taking place daily in the world around us.
     Here's a video showing the Fire Colored Beetles attached to an Oil Beetle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3U9tFmrVeM&t=8s

Callery Pear and Its Cultivars

A cultivar of Callery Pear in bloom.

     This time of year, the presence of Callery Pear becomes quite evident. Overshadowing the magnolias and foreign cherries also in bloom, these invasive plants really dominate the landscape, particularly along edges and old fields. They are quite beautiful actually, despite the flowers' smell that some people dislike. This along with their quick and compact growth, "pest free" nature, and tolerance for such a wide array of soil and environmental conditions, make it an extremely popular landscape plant. That it was also self-incompatible, so would not produce messy fruits, was also considered a plus. 

Bradford Pear, a Callery Pear cultivar, with its flowers.

     However, most of these traits also make for an invasive species. This would not have been an issue if they did not reproduce, but that particular trait failed. Although the various cultivars, especially the popular Bradford Pear, could not reproduce with their own type of cultivar, so many different cultivars were planted that they indeed do cross pollinate each other. So these have now become an invasive tree species.

Callery Pear fruits and leaves.

Callery Pear escapees invading a forest edge.

     You can really see how invasive they are this time of year when the white blooms make these plants evident all over our countrysides. They are pioneering species in fields and meadows, sometimes forming monoculture forests. Trying to manage and control their numbers costs natural resource agencies a fortune, but is necessary to preserve habitats. You can do your part to eliminate seedlings, supporting local management efforts, and of course not planting any of the cultivars of Callery Pear. Be observant next time you're out and see for yourself just how dominant they are.
     There are so many reasons not to plant this tree besides besides their invasive tendencies that out compete native plants and crowd them out. Their pest free nature actually means that they do not support much in the way of native wildlife, no where near what native flora can support. The woody fruits (pears) are eaten by birds once frost softens them, that is how these are spread. But by my own personal observations, it seems that European Starlings are among the birds who do this the most. They do not provide as much as native plants, but often are one the few options left. The wood is also fairly weak and prone to breaking and dropping branches. All in all, there are much better native landscaping options available.

Spring Peepers

A Northern Spring Peeper

      Northern Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer formerly Hyla crucifer) are among our smallest frogs. These tiny treefrogs only get to 1.5 inches when full grown. The males are even smaller, not even making it to that size. They may be small, but they sure do make some loud calls. Some say they're all "peep" and many consider their calls synonymous with Spring.
     Like most frogs, only the males call, forming a large chorus who's sound can carry for quite a distance. I recall one particular night long ago (one of the legendary "big nights" that herpetology fanatics always talk about when all the environmental conditions are perfect resulting in huge numbers of amphibians coming out to breed) quite well. The Peepers were so loud that I had to yell in order for my future wife to hear me, though we were barely twenty feet apart. When we left that night, the sound had been so deafening that our ears rang for an hour after leaving the swamp. Unfortunately, though I've seen some other "big nights," I've never heard that many treefrogs (and toads and even wood frogs that evening) calling at once again.
     Outside the breeding season though, Peepers are rarely seen or heard. They have excellent camouflage and can actually change color to some degree. This makes the often cited "X" field mark on their backs sometimes difficult to discern. Since they can climb into low foliage as well as hide under the leaves, they have numerous places to hide their small selves.

A pair of Spring Peepers in amplexus.

      Mating takes place in typical frog fashion: with the smaller male on top of the female in a mating position termed "amplexus." The females usually lay their eggs singly or in small batches attached to underwater objects. The eggs are tiny (though they can lay 22-1200 eggs per female) and so the resulting tadpoles are small as well. They metamorphose 45-90 days later and leave the pond or vernal pool they were using, sometimes traveling a fair distance from water.

Peepers normally lay a single egg or a small batch, but this one laid several of them together because it was in captivity with limited options on where to lay them. 

Spring Peeper tadpoles are small indeed.

     Spring Peepers are also remarkably cold tolerant, being able to survive even if portions of their bodies freeze due to production of high glucose levels in their blood system. These treefrogs often will overwinter under leaf cover, but usually above the frost line. Though known for calling in the early Spring, males sometimes get confused by the similar length days and temperatures of the Fall and will occasionally call then as well. This is sometimes referred to as the "fall echo."

A male Northern Spring Peeper calling.

     To me, the sound of a Spring Peeper chorus is one of the true signs of spring. Though I enjoy spring wild flowers and creatures, these tiny frogs embody the essence of spring for me. They will soon be quiet however, so get out to enjoy them now while you still can. Just in case though, I have a short video of a male Peeper calling from the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel. Check it out at:
                                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAZUDU8MCKo

Pepper-and-Salt is a Harbinger-of-Spring

Harbinger-of-Spring is also called Pepper-and-Salt.

     One of the earliest of our native native wildflowers to bloom is the tiny spring ephemeral called Harbinger-of-Spring, or Pepper-and-Salt (Erigenia bulbosa). It often blooms as early as February, sending up a small umbel of white flowers with red anthers that soon turn black (and giving the pepper and salt appearance). It is one of the few native plants with no known symbiotic fungal (mycorrhyzal) associations, though it does host a type of rust Puccinia erigeniae. This fleeting wildflower is actually in the carrot family and its bulbous minuscule root is edible. The Cherokee also used the plant as a treatment for toothaches. Although it is easy to overlook, it is none-the-less not considered common in most locations, and since eating its root kills the plant, that is strongly discouraged. A certain mining bee, Andrena erigeniae, is said to need this plant's pollen in order to reproduce (an oligilectic relationship) and includes the plant's name in its own due to thie perceived relationship, but now many believe that though this bee likes to visit visit its flowers, it actually requires Spring Beauty (Claytonia spp.) pollen in order to reproduce. Here's a short video of this spring flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFOh6LI4YtI .  

     Instead, enjoy this early spring wildflower, knowing that it is among the first of many other spring ephemeral flowers soon to appear in our rich, dark, often moist, woods, a true Harbinger of Spring. 

Harbinger of Spring is one of the first flowers available to early pollinators like this solitary bee.

     

Vernal Pools

A vernal pool full of life and water.



A close-up of the same pond now drying out in summer after all the amphibians have metamorphosed or gone dormant.

 

   Vernal pools are temporary wetlands, ponds that form from melting snow/ice or early spring rains, but dry up during the hot summer. Some folks may wonder why these glorified puddles are so special, but they are actually a very unique type of habitat which support a whole array of specially evolved creatures. It is often the only place these animals can survive.
     What makes these ponds so special is that they are relatively safe, sheltered, and lack many predators. Large aquatic turtles, snakes, frogs and especially fish cannot permanently live there. Some may discover them and visit, but it is a safe haven for whatever smaller creatures can take advantage of the temporary water. The biggest danger though is that most of these creatures have to be able to complete their life cycles before the pools dry up. Some years, many may make it, other drier years, none may survive. Since many vernal pool creatures are both long lived and reproduce prolifically, there are enough good years to make up for the bad years.
     So what are these vernal pool creatures? Well, the most often noted ones are certain species of amphibians, mole salamanders and wood frogs for example, but there are many others as well. Take for instance such tiny creatures and crustaceans as Water Fleas (Daphnia mostly), Springtails, and Cyclops. To most people these are just specks swimming in (or in the case of Springtails, on top) of the water. But these are favorite foods for other creatures. They escape most of these enemies by living in vernal pools, but they support other predators there.
     Just a bit larger are the Fingernail Clams. As you may guess, they are rarely the size of even a fingernail. They are adapted to surviving buried in the mud when the pond dries. All of these are mostly detritivores and scavengers, feeding off the fallen leaves and other things rotting in the water.

My son shows an aptly named Fingernail Clam.

     What vernal pools are most well known for are certain amphibians however. These have adapted to metamorphosing quickly into air breathing adults before the pond dries up (at least most years). They also require for the most part an undisturbed woodland very near by to provide food and shelter for the adults. Without both elements, these animals cannot survive.

     One such amphibian and the most typical in our parts for vernal pools is the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus). As the name suggests, these black masked frogs live most of their lives in the woods, hiding under leaves or in other animals burrows. They are the most cold tolerant amphibian in North America, being the only New World frog found North of the Arctic Circle. They can tolerate extreme cold, capable of having sizable proportions of their bodies frozen with no ill effect. This is a necessary adaptation. Wood Frogs are the first frogs to emerge from winter dormancy (brumation), trying to get to the vernal pools early enough to give their young the best chance of long lasting water. They come out with the first relatively warm rains in spring, typically early March, but I've recorded them arriving as early as January 31. Being "cold blooded" (ectothermic), most frogs would die if the weather changed colder suddenly, as often happens in March, but not Wood Frogs.



A pair of Wood Frogs in amplexus (mating position).



     The smaller males arrive first, forming a breeding chorus with their duck-like calls. The larger females arrive soon after and they pair up to lay their loose, jelly-like egg masses that can number up to 3,000 eggs each. The dark tadpoles metamorphose a couple of months later, the speed of development dictated by the water temperature, food availability, and water supply. They can speed up development, but only to a certain point. Other frogs such as Spring Peepers, Chorus Frogs, and Toads also make use of vernal pools, but none to the extent of Wood Frogs. Although primarily herbivores, wood frog tadpoles have been known to eat other tadpoles, especially toads. For more on Wood Frogs, check here: http://capitalnaturalist.blogspot.com/2016/02/wood-frog.html.



An aggregation od Wood Frog egg masses in a shallow vernal pool.

 

    Another group of amphibians that requires vernal pools to survive are mole salamanders. This family is termed this due to their living underground in other animals' holes for most of their adult lives, rarely seen above the surface. The various species need to find fishless pools to reproduce however and are out at the same time or just after the Wood Frogs become active. The most common ones locally are Spotted and Marbeled Salamanders.



A Spotted Salamander being helped along its way to its natal vernal pool.

 

     Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) are aptly named, being large, dark salamanders with various spots on their backs. Males arrive to the pools first and wait for the females, presenting them with white sperm packets called spermataphores that may litter pond bottoms. Females lay firm, globular masses of up to 200 or so eggs, usually attached to a submerged branch or plant. These can be either white or clear, but soon turn green due to hosting a particular symbiotic algae species (Oophila amblystomatis) that may provide oxygen or camouflage for the eggs. The emerging larvae have mane-like gills and are extremely predatory. They not only eat small organisms such as water fleas and tadpoles, but anything smaller than themselves, including each other. In confined or crowded conditions, this cannibalism leads to only the largest ones surviving and few being found with out pieces or limbs missing. Salamanders display remarkable regenerative abilities however, so even missing limbs can be re-grown. If lucky, the adults can then live over 25 years. For more on theme: http://capitalnaturalist.blogspot.com/2014/03/spotted-salamandersa.html.

A Spotted Salamander egg mass with developing embryos.

     The last vernal pool species I will discuss is the Marbeled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum). These are smaller than Spotted Salamanders and this would be a huge or even fatal flaw if they had not evolved a unique survival strategy. As you recall, salamanders are predatory and big salamanders eat smaller ones, so Marbled Salamanders would appear to be evolutionary losers. Marbeled Salamanders however get a competitive edge by laying their eggs first so their larvae are bigger at the onset and can even eat the others. How do they manage this when Spotted Salamanders come out so early and sometimes even in the snow? They actually lay their eggs not in the ponds, but where the ponds will be, utilizing dry vernal pools.

Marbled Salamanders

     Marbeled Salamanders lay their eggs in the Fall or Winter. seeking their dry natal pools and laying their egg masses about half way up the banks. When the rains and melting snows (hopefully) fill the pools, their eggs are already there and they can emerge first. They then have a brief time when they can eat anything else smaller than them born in the water. By the time the Spotted Salamanders begin to out grow them, most have metamorphosed into air-breathing adults and have returned to the woods.
    

Vernal pools can be created in the right habitat. Here you see us using quick dams to build temporary vernal pools specifically to serve as breeding pools for amphibians.

A newly completed vernal pool, partially stalling water that drains from 2 locations to form a shallow temporary pool.

     Vernal pools are very specialized habitats with their own collection of organisms that depend on them. These are indeed the only places these animals can survive. They may be temporary, but vernal pools are the only place these animals can survive and need to preserved rather than belittled because of their ephemeral nature. If you get a chance, visit one of these special places and wonder at the amazing world they can contain. Until then, here's a video of a vernal pool in action on the Capital Naturalist YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCo_J1__Qxo