Bad Guys

Usually I like to focus my observations and energy on natives... if I spent too much time paying attention to the invasives, I'd have a terribly negative attitude, as there are a lot of them.  Still, sometimes its important to be aware of their phenophases...

Purple Loosestrife, ravager of wetlands, is in peak bloom now... 

Sweet clover is blooming, slightly past peak.

Queen Anne's Lace... many are blooming,
many are already going to seed...

Chickory -- probably peaked last week but there's still plenty.  

This photo is just to show the whitecaps on the lake --
it's another REALLY windy day!

The Low Point

Let’s hope this is the low point of the week. So. I’m doing solo spots with a 1^st grade class. Which is sort of horrible to start with, honestly. I mean, it’s really hard for them the first time; they don't yet know how to be still and quiet. So it's just generally not the best time for me. I don't get to journal at all myself. But we get through it, and we’re at the sharing time at the end. One little girl has drawn one of those Queen Anne’s Lace caterpillars and has the caterpillar to share with the whole group. She want to pass it around from kid to kid, but we explain to her that this is hard for the caterpillar, maybe she should walk around with it for all to see. I show her how to hold out her hand and walk around. She starts, going really slow so all can see. She gets to about the 6^th kid, who apparently has not been paying attention at all… and he thinks she’s holding out her hand for a high 5. So he gives her one. Smashing the caterpillar to mush right there on her palm. Oh, my god. So sad. I mean, I know it’s just a QAL caterpillar and they're everywhere, but that girl was crushed. Crying, the whole bit. It was not pretty.

So it can only go up from here, right?

"Winter" Wildflowers IX

Queen Anne's Lace, one of our prettier summer invasive weeds, isn't my favorite-looking plant in its winter costume, but it does have a neat form... like a heart-shaped cage enclosing a knot of seeds.

Gone to Seed

American hazels have bright chartreuse-y green hazelnut casings right now (which will dry and turn brown as the hazels get ready to eat. They are fuzzy and smell fresh.

Below is a little caterpillar. These things inhabit Queen Anne's lace as it goes to seed. As the flowers die off and the umbrels form protective cup-shapes, there is a black-spotted green caterpillar in almost every one. Right now, a lot of QAL still has blooming white flowers, but a few have started to form seeds. As time goes on, the wormies will pupate and, when the QAL has dry, ripe seeds, there will be little black beetles in the cups of the flowerheads.

Ablaze with Color

The prairie is jumping with colors this time of year. Here are some new prairie faces:
blazing star, not quite blazing yet, but starting to bloom.

butterfly (moth?) on false sunflower.
purple prairie clover.

yellow coneflower.
leadplant, a fantastic perennial legume that is actually a small shrub, with a woody stem. It blooms purple with orange pollen. I cannot get it to come back in my yard, but I keep putting them in...

rattlesnake master. Not a new face, but...

I thought the pinkish color on these newly opening Queen Anne's Lace flowers was really spectacular, although the plant itself is an invasive.