Pat’s Wildways: Learning about Maples on the St. Marys River

Whenever a friend calls with an idea for an outing I am usually game. This time, my friend Diane Stoecker and her husband Ed planned to take their boat out on a sunny, mild winter day. Did I want to come along? Yes! Did I want to go on a short trip around Tiger Island just offshore from our marina? Or did I want to go on a longer expedition on the St. Marys River? The longer one, of course!

So, on a recent Sunday, we towed their boat over to the boat ramp near Ralph Simmons Wildlife Management Area (WMA) just off U.S. Route 301 near the Georgia border, about 40 minutes away from Amelia Island, and soon enough, we were on the St. Marys River. I’ve lived in north Florida for years and I’ve been on sections of this river before, but most often by canoe and sometimes just swimming in the river from a sandbar, but this was my first time to have the luxury of exploring a part of the river by motorboat.

We had a perfect weather day for this excursion. Although it was still officially winter, the sun was out, the weather was pleasantly warm, and there were no bugs bothering us. Perfect! Unfortunately, at 60 degrees or so, the water was not warm enough for me to jump in, but it sure looked temping on this beautiful day. Due to the tannic acid, the water is tea-colored, which might put off some people, but actually, this water is as clean as it gets, far away from any human-caused pollution.

Most of the time we were the only boaters in sight, although a few times we passed a couple of kayakers or fishermen along the banks. On the Georgia side of the river, we passed some elaborate fish camps, complete with shelters and smokers and, in one case, even a target for shooting practice but they were empty of people on this gorgeous day. At one point, we landed on a wide sandy beach with a vacant campsite in the Ralph Simmons WMA and explored this perfect, free, first come/first served campground, and I could see Ed and Diane’s minds churning as they recorded this place for a future overnight visit.

We covered a lot of miles that day on the river, heading in one direction beyond the borders of Ralph Simmons WMA but not quite up to White Oak, then backtracking in the other direction past our put-in and beyond, under the bridge of Route 301 and further, under a train bridge too. We three are all nature lovers but not fishermen, so our boating trip reflected our interests. There was not much in the way of wildlife to look at this day, so our attention was directed to the red flowering trees here and there along the way.

We all recognized that these were red maple trees in their flowering stage before leafing out but we motored over to look more closely at a couple of them that had branches close to the water. But what was going on here? One set of red flowers on one tree looked very different from the red flowers on another. Back at home, I set to work Googling red maple flowers.

We have red maple trees in our own woodsy backyard, and I have always admired their red color in the spring and their red leaves in the fall, but the branches are so high I never inspected them closely. But now, thanks to this trip on the river and Google to fall back on, I have learned something new about the trees I have watched in my yard for decades.

It turns out that red maples have both male and female flowers; some have both and some are only one sex. The male flowers have yellow pollen on their stamens that protrude from the petals and the female flowers have protruding stigma that catch the pollen and eventually produce the fruit, which, in the case of maple trees, is that winged seed or “whirlies” that many of us kids used to stick on our noses in play. When I got home I photographed the protuberances on one of my own maples, and sure enough it was a female, with the “whirlies” already formed but still a nice shade of red.

I never know what I will learn when I explore new areas with an open mind. Even right in my own backyard I’ve discovered something new to me, after this St. Marys boat trip. It’s always something.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D, is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com