Buffalo nut, Pyrularia pubera, is an unusual species that I first saw one summer
shortly after the Little River National Preserve was opened.The first thing I noticed were the fruits,
which looked like a green fig, Ficus, but with a blossom scar.The resource
manager, whose best guess was silverbell, Halesia
spp., except that buffalo nut fruits are fleshy and lack wings, took the
sample to be identified because we both needed to know what is was.I couldn’t wait to see one in bloom considering
the relative size blossom scar and lack of guidebooks with any drawing or
pictures.The only thing I learned about
it was that it was very poisonous and that it was probably parasitic like a
couple other shrubs in the same family, piratebush, Buckleya distichopylla, and leechbush, Nestronia umbellula, all of which are in montypic genera.I was rather disappointed when I finally saw
buffalo nut in bloom at DeSotoState Park, because the
flowers are a green spike that resemble a catkin similar to the flowers of
ragweed, Ambrosia spp.Regardless of the disappointment about the
flower I wondered what else might be found in that area that I similarly didn’t
know about so I jumped at the chance to take the Little River Canyon Field
School workshop in Trees and Shrubs of Little River Canyon.Due to an omission in a news release nearly a dozen people
showed up without knowing of the requirement for
preregistration in the workshop, and since nobody had registered the workshop was canceled that year.At least the DeSoto State Park Naturalist, at
the time considering that the position has turned over a handful of times since
then, was leading a hike that started only a half hour after the workshop was
supposed to start so nobody wasted a trip.The hike led by the
naturalist was defiantly worth it because we got to see Piedmont rhododendron, Rhododendron minus, even though it was
not in bloom at that time of year.The
naturalist also informed us that state park had also just recently been ranked
as the number one state park in the nation due to a combination of floral
diversity and very friendly staff to which her father retorted, “When do we get
to meet them?”I think he has been
grounded ever since.I made
sure I was registered for the Trees and Shrubs of Little River Canyon workshop
the next year, which was fortunately held even though I was the only one
registered, because not only did I learn about another species, black
chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa, which
was new to me even though the only recorded occurrence for Alabama at the time was a few miles from me in Jackson County,.Then a few minutes later I actually found black chokeberry
in the park thus doubling the number of counties in Alabama now that a population from DeKalb County was recorded.
