Spring Foray to Caesar Creek, Warren County
June 17, 2023
Back row Left to Right: Bill Schumacher, Dean Porter, Jim Toppin, Cynthia Dassler, Jody Garber, Tomas Curtis,
Ray Showman, Marita King, Camryn Ford
Front row L to R: Rachel Fuller, Janet Traub, Megan Osika, Bob Klips
Caesar Creek Lake, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, hosted our spring foray on June 17, 2023. The site, near Waynesville, in Warren County, is underlain by limestone and shale 438 million years old, with abundant fossils. The emergency spillway of the dam is a popular place to collect fossils, including brachiopods and trilobites.
One of our collecting sites was the Gorge Loop Trail, which is downstream of the dam that forms the lake. The area has a variety of habitats, including bottomland along Caesar Creek and mesic uplands on glacial deposits. Another site was scenic Horseshoe Falls, a favorite destination for hikers.
After lunch, we held a workshop on the basics of bryophyte and lichen identification at the Caesar Creek Lake Visitor Center.
Foray participants have identified 23 lichen taxa and 25 bryophyte taxa, including 14 new county records for lichens and 5 for bryophytes. Identification of specimens continues and we will post updated results on our website, https://ohiomosslichen.org/past-forays/
SPECIES LIST
N = new county record
LICHENS
Agonimia sp. N
Cladonia ochrochlora
Crespoa crozalsiana
Flavoparmelia caperata
Graphis scripta N
Lepraria finkii N
Myelochroa aurulenta
Parmotrema hypotropum
Pertusaria pustulata N
Phaeophyscia pusilloides N
Phaeophyscia rubropulchra
Physcia americana N
Placidium squamulosum N
Protoblastenia rupestris N
Pseudosagedia cestrensis N
Punctelia missouriensis
Punctelia rudecta N
Pyxine sorediata
Sarcogyne regularis
Squamulea subsoluta N
Verrucaria nigrescens N
Verrucaria calkinsiana N
Willeya diffractella N
BRYOPHYTES
Anomodon minor
Barbula unguiculata
Brachythecium acuminatum
Brachythecium laetum
Bryoandersonia illecebra
Callicladium imponens
Campyliadelphus chrysophyllus
Campylophyllum hispidulum
Claopodium rostratum
Entodon cladorrhizans
Entodon seductrix
Fissidens taxifolius
Hygroamblystegium varium
Hypnum pallescens N
Leskea gracilescens
Leucobryum glaucum N
Lophocolea heterophylla
Plagiomnium cuspidatum
Polytrichastrum ohioense
Pseudanomodon attenuatus
Ptychostomum creberrimum N
Schistidium apocarpum N
Taxiphyllum deplanatum
Thuidium delicatulum
Weissia controversa N