Saturday, May 30, 2009

What is growing now

This morning, I visited the mini-prairie where cattle grazed all last year. There were more thistles growing than I remember, but the flowers and grasses were coming along nicely. There will be LOTS of Star False Solomon's Seal. (I always feel bad for flowers with the common name 'false' something or other. It is not their fault that the person who named them thought they looked similar to something else - but I digress.) There were also Zizia, hoary pucoon, yellow star grass, strawberries and lots of violets blooming.

We visited the big prairie and found more violets than I had ever seen before. They are so short that I can't see them when the grass is tall. We saw a couple of windflowers blooming along sorrel, blue-eyed grass, zizia, hoary puccoon, in bloom. One prairie smoke going to seed and a flowering buffalo berry plant.

Searching for pre-flowering plants, we found silky aster, sunflowers, prairie turnips, goldenrod, coneflowers, bastard toadflax, and bedstraw.

It is still pretty sooty out there. We have not had any rain to wash the ashes away.

The tent caterpillars are all over the bushes and trees. I am afraid for the health of the apple tree. Last year they ate all the leaves and blossoms. After the caterpillars died off, the leaves came back, but it was too late for apples.

No comments:

Post a Comment