Murder and Mystery (St. Louis Canyon): The Starved Rock Expedition of March 2016 : Part One of Three (Hemlocks Solved!)

Well,  I finally did it.  I returned to Starved Rock after finding Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) in Starved Rock State Park last November.   I had a brief series of emails with an Illinois plant expert who runs illinoiswildflowers.info.  Apparently, I needed to find saplings/ trees of differing ages to prove that it is a population or at least not planted.  So, as I entered St. Louis Canyon trail, excitement was high.   It had snowed a few days before, and the thin layer of partially melted snow  contrasted well against the bright mosses and ferns covering the rocks.

I don't recognize any of these ferns or mosses, sadly, except for in the third picture.  That fern is a Polypodium fern, a common species in this park.  All of these grew directly along the edge of the trail.

Of course, we spotted the hemlock soon enough, about ten of them in the ravine in total.  If you look carefully in the above photo, there are three trees, all of differing heights.  Also, looking at the slope, these are definitely natural specimens.  It's about a 35 degree slope, and trust me, it isn't exactly easy to walk up, let alone plant a tree, at that height, especially with all the rocks about.

One of the largest white pines (Pinus strobus)  I have ever seen also grows in this canyon.  Mind you, I'm not a person who has seen many large pine trees in generally.

If you need any particular evidence that this is in fact a hemlock tree, I found a few needles broken off under a 40' specimen.  Here's the bark and foliage together.

I took this opportunity to get a picture under the tree.  The straight branches made for a unique symmetry.

Here you can see the canyon from under the shadow of a hemlock tree.  In 1960, this spot was the sight of a brutal triple murder.  Likely, the hemlocks were there then, too, shading the criminal from view.  Of course, a suspect was caught, and is currently serving life in a nearby prison.

One of the small holes or caves nearby was used to hide the bodies from view, quite possibly the one in the background above.

The high walls of the canyon and the grey sky lend the spot a bit of sinister beauty.  The dark bark and needles of the hemlock tree always makes me think it's a bit Gothic, something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story.

The waterfall at the back of the canyon was partially frozen over, with large icicles dangling along the back of the waterfall.

Here you can see all three notable winter features of St. Louis Canyon- the frozen waterfall, the cave where the bodies were most likely found, and the hemlock trees.  Speaking of those hemlock trees, I found a small branch that had snapped off, likely in the snowstorm and used the snow as a perfect backdrop.

I'm uncertain what the small growths are on the needles.  I'm just hoping they are not overwintering pests, especially not Hemlock Wooly Adelgids.  The size of this population is small enough that protecting it from harm is a critical responsibility.  This is likely one of the rarest trees in the state. I Below, you can see that the needles at their longest are about half an inch.

One of the shortest of the hemlock trees was about nineteen feet tall, based on the fact that the man in the picture below is 6'4''.  He and I later asked the resident IDNR naturalist about the trees, and she specifically stated that this is a natural population.  She also provided us with a flyer for the tree species of the park, which included hemlocks as a wild and not introduced species.

So, in summary, the ten hemlocks in St. Louis Canyon are known about by the state of Illinois, they are not protected, they are a natural population with no visible seedlings but definitely differently-aged trees, and they appear to have some sort of growth or parasite on the branches.  This is a great combination for this species to be extirpated from Illinois in the next fifty years or so.  If this is the sole Illinois natural population, and it could very well be considering the scarcity of records, then it needs significant conservation measures to be taken.  ( For all recorded Illinois specimens, there is a record from the Illinois State Museum's herbarium here.  The La Salle county record is proven,  and it's likely the Ogle county record was true at the time and may be still true now.  The Mason and Fayette county records need to be examined.  I have strong doubts, based on what I know of this species' preferred habitat, that those two records are of natural specimens.)

To transition onward towards happier matters, underneath a nearby tree was an almost florescent population of moss.  Starved Rock is one of the best areas I have ever seen for a bryologist (moss scientist).

It's easy to tell where certain seeps are in Starved Rock based on how much ice has formed at those spots in the winter. (Seeps, for the unaware, are areas where water comes out of the ground, but does not have a current like a spring does.)

One of our party was rather interested in fungi, and the shelf fungi were rather spectacular.

As we trudged back up the hill to our car on our way to Starved Rock, the feature for which the park is named, we saw a large insect nest in a nearby tree.  I don't know whether this is a bee nest or a wasp nest.  (Addendum:  see Steve Willson's comment below.)

Anyway, after this, we got into our car and drove to Starved Rock itself.  That is the subject of the next post, however.  I'm glad to get one step of the hemlocks solved.  The next is to get them listed on the state-endangered list as soon as Illinois gets a budget and IDNR gets a wee bit of funds. Furthermore, I made a discovery later, in Kaskaskia Canyon, that not even the local naturalist knew about.  Stay tuned for more  Starved Rock posts coming up the rest of this week!