Sunday, July 10, 2016

Restoring Bottomground Prairie: May 2016 (After Burning in March)

Creek Field, looking west
May 13, 2016


By mid-May the bunches were still small and bare earth was still visible.





Eastern Gamagrass
Native perennial.
In our seed mix.

Among those bunches were Eastern Gamagrass, getting ready to flower. . .


Eastern Gamagrass
Tripsacum dactyloides
Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
Creek Field
Native perennial.  In our seed mix.
Spiderwort Blooming
May 17, 2016
and  
Spiderwort
one of the loveliest of prairie flowers! 














Sawtooth Sunflowers
 (Helianthus
grosseserratus)

Greening up.  Native perennial.
In our seed mix.
Others were Sawtooth Sunflowers, Gray-headed Coneflowers, and Whole-Leaf Rosinweed.    


Gray-headed Coneflowers
(Ratibida pinnata)
Greening up.
Native perennial.
Volunteer.

Whole-leaf Rosinweed
(Silphium integrifolium)
Native perennial.  In our seed mix.
Rosinweed is a cousin of Compass Plant
and Cup Plant.  
The new leaves of Rosinweed form a light-colored "button" in the center of the plant when it first comes up that helps to identify it from afar.  

A predacious Soldier Beetle pursues a tiny insect inside this new-leaf "button."  
















The bunches soon ran together, as shown in the photo below.  Bee Balm is in the foreground, with Golden Alexanders next, followed by Tall Thistle, then a sedge, and finally unidentified bunches in the background.







One species, however, appeared not as a bunch but as a lone individual.    That was Compass Plant.   
Compass Plant
(Silphium lacinatum)
Native perennial.  Volunteer.





He towered above the others, and for awhile, I visited him every day, like a special friend.

Compass Plant was not in our seed mix.  I am always admiring of species that plant themselves!


The bare ground between bunches began to fill in.  

I was not happy with some of the filler, such as Hedge Parsley, which took advantage of its immense seed stock to sprout anew.  The burn had killed off a winter's growth of Hedge Parsley.   But with so many seeds in the soil, a few scattered patches of Hedge Parsley reappeared.  
The burn on March 17 killed off
a winter's growth of Hedge Parsley.
But this prolific species was able
to recruit quite a few seeds to
germinate after the burn.



Tall Thistle (Circisium altissimum)Basal leaves.
Native biennial.  Volunteer.

I was very happy with some other filler, however:  Tall Thistle!  

This species can make it hard for a human to walk through the field, but it makes it easy on wildlife in search of seeds, nectar, and pollen.   And its late-summer blossoms are gorgeous!

My friend Jeff Hansen, who confirmed for me that these were indeed the basal leaves of Tall Thistle, congratulated me on hosting such a patch.   He made me appreciate this species even more when he said he envied me "this thistle life!"  


Foxglove (Penstemon digitalis)
in the midst of Tall Thistles.
Penstemon digitalis was more
numerous  in the Creek Field
this year than last,
but it seemed shorter in stature.
Foxglove Penstemon bloomed among the growing thistles.  












White Avens sprouted in the Creek Field as well as in the Riparian Buffer, a volunteer in both places.
White Avens (Geum canadense), pictured here in a part of the
Creek Field where Crown Vetch had been removed, is
a native perennial.
Golden Alexanders bloomed gorgeously in both locations, a volunteer in the Riparian Buffer & a planted species in the Creek Field.
A row of Golden Alexanders
volunteer in the Riparian Buffer.  
Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa) 
Native perennial.  In our seed mix.
Also a volunteer?
Indigo Bush was planted in the Creek Field but appeared only in the Riparian Buffer, in 3 times the numbers as last year.  

It seemed to me butterflies were fewer in number this year than last.  I saw almost no Gorgone Checkerspots, for example, on the Golden Alexanders as I have the previous years.  (This may be a result of the strange alternations of warm and cold we had during the late winter & early spring.)  So I was especially delighted when this Red Admiral landed on my pant leg as I drove the buggy on the Loop Path, between the Riparian Buffer and the Creek Field.  
I've been enjoying Red Admirals for years but it wasn't until this one landed that I realized how gorgeous--and how multi-colored--are their underwings!

Last year I enrolled in Sunflower Studies.  This year I'm signing up for Sedge School!

Sedges took advantage of  the wet May to expand their hold on the Creek Field.
Sedges have been welcome volunteers in the Creek Field, claiming ever more territory for native perennials.  I know we have Woodland Sedge (Carex blanda), but we have other species as well.  I don't yet know how to identify them.   
A sedge in the Creek Field

This mystery sedge has a
reproductive structure similar to
Woodland Sedge.  
Sedges!!   Please don't confuse me just for fun. 

I have so much to learn!!!

















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