FOUR OF A KIND FOR THE WIN

♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ FOUR

OF A KIND

for the win

The 8s have it in the 18th annual charity event

STORY & PHOTOS BY BETSY ILER

Four 8s won the big money at the Lake Martin Lions Poker Run this year

In its 18th year, Lake Martin Lions Club neared the $400,000 mark in its cumulative total of monies raised for local charities, Russell Marine President Dave Commander told participants at this year’s poker run event on July 17.

The civic organization’s signature event, and a favorite around the lake, the annual poker run dispatches boaters to five marinas, collecting one card from each to build a poker hand. At The Ridge Marina, the final stop on the run, boaters are treated to a picnic supper, live music and a chance for more prizes. They also are offered the opportunity to purchase additional cards to better their hands. Each player is issued a key that may or may not open a treasure chest filled with gift certificates for goods and services.

Playing the game is serious business, as the winning hand goes home with a check for $2,000. Second and third place hands also win substantial amounts of money, as does the holder of the worst hand.

A prize also is awarded to the best costumed crew and decorated boat. While the costume component takes home

I$600, the true prize in this competition is bragging rights, as the winning crew receives accolades for originality and creativity, as well as execution. Though not all crews choose a theme and dress the part, those that do get a lot of attention at each stop on the route. This year, some 17 teams dressed up for the poker run, making the judges work hard to choose a winner. At the end of the day, the Lakestock crew – a parody on the infamous Woodstock concert – won the bragging rights, but they had some stiff competition. Honorable mentions were made for the Gangastas boat, which was crewed by fedora-wearing suits bearing inflatable tommy guns and pearl-clad dames in short skirts. A crew of teachers won recognition for turning their boat into a school bus, and the entire cast of ’toon TV’s Sponge Bob Square Pants coasted into the docks blaring the beloved character’s theme song. One creative crew entered as the Lake Martin Landmarks, with each crew member depicting a beloved lake location, including Goat Island, Doctor’s Island, Pirate Island, the Lake Martin Amphitheater and the Yellow top Ice Cream Shop.

Buford and Melissa Minor went home happy after Melissa drew the winning poker hand

Clockwise from right: Claire Hughes, Callee Jinright, Cissy Agboatwala, Taylor Jinright, Cindy Barron, Jason Bennett, Ross Jinright, Jimmy Barron, Sohail Agboatwala and Dee Bennett were in it for the hold-up; Cindy Aldridge, Cindy Laporte, Pam Deloach, Nancy Turner, Susan Edwards, Andrea Jones and Nancy Anne Turner were fishing for a good hand; Kelly Dennis, Bailey Smith, Mary Baxlee Smith, Amanda Chandler, Savannah Bussey and Ireland McKelvey were Maddie Strong; Jake and Logan Coan, Mallory Caldwell, Benita Caldwell, Leah and Darren Pugh just wanted to free Britney; Ethan, Cooper and Ella Southern; Doug, Nicole and Elise Dellaccio and Jamey, Michelle, Ella Kate and Olivia Ramsey celebrated Christmas in July; and Heather Kwok, Judith and Ryan Sherrill and Amy and Jameson Courtney were the Lake Martin Landmarks.

While the event has always drawn a crowd, it sold out by 9 a.m. this year. Several boaters that had not pre-registered online waited more than two hours for the chance to purchase a hand if a pre-registered player didn’t show.

“That’s the earliest we’ve ever sold out,” Commander said.

Sponsored by Russell Marine, the event was declared a resounding success under a big white canopy at The Ridge Marina while the Russell Craig Band played. Boaters waited anxiously to see if they had won the big bucks for the best hand. That prize went to Melissa Minor, who took home the top prize with a hand that included four eights.

Don’t miss the fun at this event next year; look for information in the Lake magazine summer calendar and at russellmarine.net and register early.

Facing page, clockwise from top: The Lakestock 2021 crew, Robert Falero, Pamela, Bill and Alex Ochsenhirt, Laura Folero, Chloe Rogers and Scarlet took first place in the overall best costume and decorated boat category; David and Cindy Copeland, Toby and Deb Cook, Jonathon Tuck and Anita Jackson were ready to go back to school; Heather Feathers, Walter and Amelia Barden and Brant Feathers went duck hunting; This page, clockwise from right: The Emojis, Claire, Lila, Allie, Bailey and Truman Ingram and Lisa, Aubrey and Carly Lovelady, found a Connelly slalom ski in the treasure chest; Daniel Bradford, Crystal Sellers, Joseph Bernosky and Ken Sellers were on the waiting list but were able to purchase one poker hand; Jay and Cheryl Hudson and Monica and Ray Dumas were just in it to let the good times roll; All of his ocean floor friends, Abigail Lamkins, Jennifer Williamson, Trinity Holman and Mike and Kimberly Fussell, floated in with Sponge Bob Square Pants, Robert Holman; Thankfully, the lifeguards, Jason and Shawn Adams, Kevin and Kim Williamson, Brady Crowe and Brad and Jessica Macon showed up with Hank the rescue dog; Even Santa, aka Bill Kennebrew, took a vacation at the lake to support local charities with elves Mary Robertson, Laurie Kennebrew and John Johnson, and they brought Rudolph (don't let the poodle costume fool you).

Dodder

Nature's silly string can be a pest

"C “Creepy.” That’s a word that could have been coined to describe Dodder, the yellow-orange, leafless, creeping vine that winds up and over other plants — and sucks out their life juices. Many common names for this uncommon type of plant give you an idea of just how creepy folks think it is: Strangleweed, Fireweed, Devil’s Ringlet, Scald Weed, Pull-Down, Beggerweed, Witches Hair, Devil’s Gut, Hellbine and Wizard’s Net. None of those names sound like something you’d like to have in your garden. And that is certainly the case when it comes to Dodder. It’s easy to identify Dodder since it’s basically just a thin yellow vine – and there’s nothing else that looks like it. Depending on the species, Dodder has either no or very low amounts of chlorophyll, the chemical that allows plants to convert the sun’s energy to food and gives most plants a green color. So instead of using photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into food, Dodder relies on other plants to do that.

This plant sends thin yellowish tendrils up out of the soil that “sniff” out chemical markers given off by green plants. When Dodder locates a good target, its tendrils lean into the smell and when the vine reaches the green plant, it literally wraps itself around it and sinks toothlike probes called haustoria into the plant tissue; and then, it leeches the host of life-giving water, carbohydrates and nutrients.

Dodders are some of the few true parasitic plants native to Alabama – its hosts receive no benefit from Dodder; and yet, Dodder must have a host to stay alive. Another famous parasite found in our forests is Mistletoe.

Because Dodder does not have the ability to synthesize its own food, once the plant germinates, it must find a host plant within about a week or the seedling will die

Dodder is one of the few true parasitic plants native to Alabama

NATURE OF THE LAKE

BY KENNETH BOONE

after it uses up the food supply in its seed.

When Dodder has connected with one host, it reaches out for another and then another, creating a disorganized yellow net on the forest floor, or up and over shrubs or even into trees. Once Dodder matures and is attached to hosts, the original root in the soil dies and the Dodder vines are completely reliant on other plants.

As the parasite shares a host plant’s food, it weakens the plant, which can cause a number of problems, including making the host plant more susceptible to diseases, insect pests, drought and any other challenge. Dodder can also spread diseases among the many hosts that the vines connect. Most Dodder species are best suited to specific hosts. As an example, Clover Dodder will mostly parasitize clovers.

Dodder moves fast. One day, you might see a strand or two of yellow vine, and a few days later, it looks like somebody emptied a can of yellow Silly String on the ground. If you’re not afraid of having nightmares, Google time-lapse videos of Dodder tendrils emerging from the ground and waving their thin, yellow wormlike arms in search of green victims.

Technically, Dodder vines are stems with leaves that have evolved into something that looks like a tiny scale on the stem. But to the naked eye, it’s just a vine. Dodder vines do produce tiny light-colored blossoms that produce tiny pea-size fruits from mid-summer to fall. The fruits contain numerous hard-shelled seeds that can survive for years – up to 20 years, according to some biologists – in the soil before germinating. Dodder seeds collected and held in a herbarium germinated after 60 years, but it is unlikely that the same thing could occur in a wild environment.

Found worldwide in temperate and tropical areas, there are between 100 and 200 different Dodder species. All Dodders are members of the Cuscuta genus. These plants are all very similar and are hard to identify when the plant is not in bloom.

There are roughly 50 species of Dodder in North America; nine are native to Alabama, and six more are found in surrounding Southeastern states. One species, Cuscuta harperi, is only found in 12 counties — 10 in northern Alabama and two in Georgia.

Here in the Lake Martin area, species of Dodder can be found in the water, along the shoreline and in moist forest soils.

Dodder has long been used in Chinese folk medicine, and modern research has shown the plant may offer some benefit in treating human illnesses.

According to research published in 2017 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, biologists have discovered that by penetrating multiple plants at once, Dodder vines provide a chemical highway that gives individual plants the opportunity to communicate with each other. In the study, a plant on one end of a Dodder vine network was attacked by caterpillars. It sent out a chemical “distress signal” through the Dodder vines, which gave other plants time to raise their chemical defenses and suffer less damage by the caterpillars heading their way.

Nonetheless, Dodder is considered a pest around the world, as it can do tremendous damage to crops like beans, hops, alfalfa, clover and flax. It is largely controlled by hand removing the plant, though when infestations occur outside of agricultural fields, mowing is very effective. Since Dodders only reproduce via seeds, if you do pull up Dodder vines, don’t put them in your compost, as you could spread seeds that could germinate years after the compost is spread in your garden.

Some information for this article came from the U.S. Forest Service, Britannica.com, Michigan State University, Ohio State University and the Ecological Landscape Alliance.