Restoring Bottomland Prairie, May 2015, Part 4: Latter May Plants!

The grass-like leaves of  native
perennial Ohio Spiderwort break through the mat
of  the non-native annual Hedge Parsley.

 Also  pushing aside the heartily-volunteering Hedge Parsley was the beautiful native perennial, Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis).   Ohio Spiderwort was in our seed mix in 2013, but 2015 was its first year to bloom.

How excited I was to see it!

Ohio Spiderwort blooming...
Grace!

Amorpha fruticosa blooming.
Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these!

But it wasn't just that single species:  It was a time of  beauty!

One of the loveliest shrubs in the world is False Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa).  It volunteers along the intermittent streams back in our uplands, where I fell in love with it!   So I was glad when one of our mentors recommended we include it in the bottomland seed mix.  It was planted with everything else in 2013 but bloomed for the first time in May 2015.

False Indigo Bush is a mositure-groupie!
This native legume likes the soil
of bottomground and stream banks.

You have to be careful when Amorpha fruticosa
first comes up.   Its leaves can briefly resemble
those of that other legume,
the horrible invader Crown Vetch.
But don't pull this one up!

This gracious shrub was planted
in the Creek Field in 2013.   But when it
came up in 2015, it was in the adjoining
buffer, not in the Creek Field.   So many
of these seeds come wearing little
traveling shoes!

Cut-leaf Daisy blossom.

How baffled I was when this yellow-blooming plant showed up in the field buffer, right along the driveway.  No sunflowers that I knew had ferny leaves like this.   I pored over my wildflower books--several times going right past it because the leaves weren't pictured, and  its range is indicated as Kansas's "western half."  

Slowly the leaves led me to the answer:  It was a Cut-leaf Daisy, Englemann's Daisy, native to the mid-grass and short-grass prairies, but nevertheless blooming right there along our driveway.    

Cut-leaf Daisy leaves.
Note the hairy stem!

 It is a perennial.  I hope that means it will be with us for many years to come!  

How did it get to the Flint Hills?

Perhaps the seeds arrived in the CRP mix we used on the field buffers in 2008--or maybe they hitched a ride on our Creek Field mix in 2013.  

Now, as I write this in April 2016, I am eager to see if Cut-leaf Daisy will return this year to this home not-on-its-range.   

Cut-leaf Daisy
(Englemannia peristenia=
Englemannia pinnatifida)
Native perennial.  Volunteer.

Did it hate the wet summer we had last year? 

How about the burn of the field buffers on March 17, 2016?  

Cut-leaf Daisy, I am hoping to hear answers from you, in person, if possible.

If you come back this year, I will greet you by name!

Purple Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) may or may not have inhabited bottomland prairie before the settlers plowed it up.   It is a stalwart of the tall grass prairie in rainier parts east of the Flint Hills.  Echinacea angustifolia is our echinacea of the uplands, especially dry, rocky areas.     But E. purpurea may have been here in moist areas, such as our Creek Field.   We included it in our seed mix and it bloomed the first year in great numbers and has returned strongly every year.   June seems to be its highpoint, but in 2015 a few hardy individuals bloomed in May.

Echinacea purpurea
Native perennial

Indian Blanket Flower
Gaillardia pulchella

Indian Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is a native annual (western 3/4 of Kansas) which we included in our seed mix and which has bloomed profusely ever since.   

It is of course our hope that native perennials in this restoration will eventually form a prairie sod.   But it is also our hope that there will always be enough disturbance to provide a few areas of purchase for gorgeous annuals such as this one!   

With regard to disturbance:  McDowell Creek in the past has been happy to oblige!

Ruellia strepens
Native perennial
Creek buffer
Volunteer.

Not included in our seed mix but volunteering shyly on the creek buffer was this lovely Limestone Wild Petunia (Ruellia strepens), cousin to the more common Prairie Petunia (Ruellia humilis).  

This plant shuns the limelight.  Not only does its blossom appear far down the stem, hidden by its leaves, but each blossom opens at night, only to fall by the following evening.   Then, later in the season, in a masterstroke of introversion, it produces a closed flower that is self-pollinating!  

Like the damsel in the castle in any self-respecting fairy tale, native-plant-beauty is always menaced by threats.   Two non-native invaders showed up in May 2015:  Poison Hemlock and Musk Thistle.   We'd been controlling Poison Hemlock in our creek buffer for years; the Musk Thistle was new to these fields.   

Both species can create dense stands that crowd out other vegetation.

Poison Hemlock
(Conium maculatum)
Every part of this plant is
toxic to animals and humans.

Musk Thistle
(Carduus nutans)
Hard to control!
Severed flowers can still set seed!

When  we discovered these invaders in the middle of the restoration, we knew our adventures with them were just beginning!