Restoring Bottomland Prairie, April 2016, Part 3: The Vetch Stretch, cont.--The Good News

The good news was that some beautiful native plants emerged where I had removed the Crown Vetch from the Creek Buffer.  

Wild Sweet William (Phlox divaricata)
Native perennial volunteer.
A little sanicle is sprouting in front
of this lovely phlox.
Native biennial volunteer.

Giant Hyssop (Agastache nepetoides).
This magnificent mint was
planted in the Creek Field but
decided to come up in the Creek Buffer.
Native perennial, in our seed mix.

 The Giant Hyssop at the left, the Wild Sweet William at the right, and the Canadian Wood- Nettle below would all love to form colonies of their own.   With the vetch pushed back, they can give it a try.

Canadian Wood-Nettle
(Laportea canadensis)
Native.  Perennial.  Volunteer.
It likes "rich, moist woods," so it's an honor
that it chose our buffer for its home!

Note the fat cheeks on the Canadian Wood-Nettle!  Its cousin, the Stinging Nettle, has a longer, narrower leaf. 

 Both nettles are food plants for Red Admiral caterpillars.  

Wild Violet (Viola nephrophylla) in the Creek Buffer.

Native.  Perennial.  Volunteer.

I took the photo just before digging out that last

vetch plant, visible in the foreground.

Among the other shade-lovers in the reclaimed territory were Wild Violet, Golden Alexander, White Avens,  White Snakeroot,  Sanicle, and Pennycress.

Golden Alexander
(Zizia aurea) Native perennial.
Planted in the Creek Field
Volunteer in the Creek Buffer

White Avens (Geum canadense)
Native,  perennial. volunteer.
These are the basal leaves.  The stem leaves will
look quite different, both in shape & shade of green.

Whie Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima=Eupatorium rugosum) 
Native.  Perennial.  Volunteer.

The shade-loving White Snakeroot (left) will bloom in the late summer. 

The unexplained corpse of an Ichneumon Wasp rests on the leaves.   

One of two sanicle species that
grow in Kansas.   Native.
Biennial.  Volunteer.

The sweet new leaves of Sanicle appeared just days after I had dug up the Crown Vetch from this very spot.  

You can still see the loose earth.

They say sanicles are healing herbs.  

They seem willing to help heal our bottomland!

Some of the species rushing to fill the void left by the departed vetch were non-native, such as the Field Pennycress pictured below.  

Field Pennycress
(Thlaspi arvense)
Introduced annual.
Volunteer.
Volunteer.

Other non-natives included Shepherd's Purse and Flannel Mullein. 

These species do not appear to push out other plants. 

Absolutely thrilling to see was that while invasive vetch was moving from the buffer to the field, our native vetch, Canada Milkvetch, was moving from the field to the buffer!

Canada Milkvetch (Astralagus canadensis) growing on the edge
of the buffer, next to the Loop Path.  The hairs on leaf & stem
distinguish it from Crown Vetch.

Of course, Canada Milkvetch can look very much like Crown Vetch when it first comes up.   I have to be careful that I don't remove a good guy when I'm after bad guys!  The closeup on the right shows the hairs on leaf & stem that distinguish Canada Milkvetch from Crown Vetch.

That's enough good news.


For the bad news, see the next post!