Jun 19
Posted: under Plantlife.
Tags: identification, native plants June 19th, 2016
R- found a tall blooming plant Saturday, June 18, that he didn’t recognize: a colony growing in the creek woods, in the ‘swamp’ area, now very wet again. There’s a kind of “sandbar” (except it’s not sand, but alluvial mix from flash floods including black clay) that gets midday sun. He found a colony of […] [...more]
R- found a tall blooming plant Saturday, June 18, that he didn’t recognize: a colony growing in the creek woods, in the ‘swamp’ area, now very wet again. There’s a kind of “sandbar” (except it’s not sand, but alluvial mix from flash floods including black clay) that gets midday sun. He found a colony of these, 4 feet and more tall, and since he didn’t have a camera with him, he pulled the shortest one to bring back and show me. It was about four feet. By the time it got back to the house, it was fairly limp, the main stalk actually broken. I snipped it short enough to fit in a pitcher, hoping it would perk up. Some of the pictures were taken shortly after that; over time it did regain turgor so this morning I set it outside for a bit and took more pictures.
Clearly Mint Family–square stem, opposite leaves, flower shape.
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Jun 19
Posted: under Activities, Land, photography, Plantlife, Wildlife.
Tags: Activities, beauty, bird behavior, native plants, natural water, photography June 19th, 2016
The rain stopped a week ago; the winter grasses are brown or browning, the early wildflowers have gone to seed. But soil moisture is still good. The tallgrasses (switchgrass, Eastern gama, Indiangrass, big bluestem) are doing very well (switchgrass in the secondary drainage is taller than we are.) There’s an area in the east grass […] [...more]
The rain stopped a week ago; the winter grasses are brown or browning, the early wildflowers have gone to seed. But soil moisture is still good. The tallgrasses (switchgrass, Eastern gama, Indiangrass, big bluestem) are doing very well (switchgrass in the secondary drainage is taller than we are.) There’s an area in the east grass we call “The Bowl” because it’s a roundish area that seeps in wet weather as it slopes down to the old drainage line. It stays green longer. When we got the place, it was covered with broomweed (non-native), bare under the broomweed with a few scattered grass plants, not doing well because of the chemical defense of the broomweek. Today it looks like this:
You can see the upslope edge (pale beige of dry grass)
Every different shade of green, every native plant, reveals something about the soil where it is.
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Jun 19
Posted: under Activities, photography, Plantlife, Water, Weather.
June 19th, 2016
Most but not all the surface water has dried up, soils that were seeping and running with water last week are dry enough to walk on in regular shoes. Main grass: Queen Anne’s Lace, gaillardia, scattered bluebonnets stiff-stem prairie flax, coreopsis, goldthread, Venus’s looking glass, skullcap, green antelope horns, others [...more]
Most but not all the surface water has dried up, soils that were seeping and running with water last week are dry enough to walk on in regular shoes.
![Gaillardia-Qanne"s-lace-05-05-2016](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/e_moon60/12815053/272140/272140_original.jpg "Gaillardia-Qanne"s-lace-05-05-2016")
Main grass: Queen Anne’s Lace, gaillardia, scattered bluebonnets
stiff-stem prairie flax, coreopsis, goldthread, Venus’s looking glass,
skullcap, green antelope horns, others
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Jun 19
Posted: under Activities, Land, photography, Water, Weather, Wildlife.
June 19th, 2016
Earth Day 2016 It had rained in the day before, and dawned cool, with a northeast breeze–a perfect day to go checking the water quality on the east half of the place. Not as much rain as the previous weekend, so with some difficulty I was able to make it from place to place in […] [...more]
It had rained in the day before, and dawned cool, with a northeast breeze–a perfect day to go checking the water quality on the east half of the place. Not as much rain as the previous weekend, so with some difficulty I was able to make it from place to place in ordinary walking shoes. In the distance, the line of woods along the seasonal creek; to the left the “dry woods” growing on a hump of rock. Out of sight to the left, the line of trees along an old ditch dug by a former farmer, intended to carry runoff from the highway to the south property line . A beautiful day, with signs of recovery from the drought…and signs of much management still needed.
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