Daily Dosage

Wild quinine is a pretty distinctive and actually pretty plant.  This is it -- it kind of looks like it's not quite blooming yet, but it never gets showier.  It's never been my favorite because of the midicinal common name, not because of anything important about it... so I decided to find out about that.  So the Cinchona tree is where the medicine quinine comes from, and is still used today to create this anit-malarial medication.  I guess in WWI, the supply of cinchone bark and therefore quinine was cut off.  This plant was used as a substitute.  Ito does contain quinine, but not nearly as much, and don't think it works nearly as well, but it does have medicinal uses, including reducing fever and treating burns.  

Pretty Prairie

I thought this photo showed just how lovely the prairie is at the beginning of June.  

The cast of characters is changing... shooting star has left the stage.  As you can see above, spiderwort and indigo have become numerous and prominent.  

In addition to the foxglove beardtongue pictured earlier in the week, other new flowers include wild quinine, shown here:

This I think is a smooth phlox, which was blooming last week but I didn't include a photo.  I said "I think" because I don't think phloxes usually have those pretty spots around the center, but I can't figure out what else it would be.

This flower is a mystery to me.  I spent a while with guide books, and Chris with a computer, and we didn't figure it out.  Might be we could with the actual plant, but with only a photo, no luck. 

I saw this huge snapper laying eggs.  And when I say I saw it, I mean, I actually saw the white, golf-ball sized eggs dropping from her body into the hole she dug.  It was really cool.  Unfortunately, my trigger finger doesn't have the luck or skillful timing to catch that in the photo.