Prairie Photos - Green Thumb Sunday

 

 

Green Thumb Sunday -

Our Prairie Photos!

What's blooming 

"Your Way?" 

Fantastic Floriferous Friday!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Out at "Mr. Shady's Prairie"

(Nothing Shady on the Prairie!)

Click the photos for a larger image. Enjoy!

July - Blogger's Muse Day

Flying Flowers

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

taken at the prairie today.

GBBD - August 15, 2009

Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom day.
I haven't posted to this meme for quite some time.

Today's photos are not recent.
They were taken July 26 by Mr. Shady of his prairie. ;-)

Prairie

from The Prairies
by William Cullen Bryant

"These are the Gardens of the Desert, these
The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,
for which the speech of England has no name --
the Prairies. I behold them for the first,
And my heart swells, while the dilated sight
Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo! the stretch
in airy undulations, far away..."

Participate in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day by visiting Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Sunday Afternoon Prairie Walk

Almost Wordless Wednesday!
Do you know what is in these photos?
(click on them... some of them get a lot larger!)

(I'll provide the answers after the weekend)

(left to right): a and b

c and d













e and f












g and h










i and j











k and l














m and n













o and p









q and r








s










Here's the code to match the plants! (This is absolutely the last time I'm doing this!!!)
a) Rudbeckia hirta (Compositeae) Black-eyed Susan and Daisy Fleabane and b) Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Milkweed, one Black-eyed Susan and Daisy Fleabane; c) Desmanthus illinoensis (bundle flower, Illinois bundle weed, prairie bundleflower) and d) close-up of same; e) Coreopsis tinctoria - Plains Coreopsis and f) an array of Black-eyed Susan, Purple Coneflower and a "gaggle" of Gray-headed coneflower about to erupt!; g) Purple Coneflower about to erupt! and lots of Daisy Fleabane and h) Schizchyrium scoparium - Little Blue Stem (I hope I remembered that correctly!); i) Great Spangled Fritillary (butterfly) on Echinacea pallida - Pale Purple Coneflower and j) Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflower; k Ratibida pinnata - Gray-Headed Coneflower and l) Asclepias syriaca - Common Milkweed; m) Dianthus armeria - Deptford Pink and n) Dalea Purpurea - Purple prairie Clover; o) Rudbeckia hirta - Black-eyed Susan and p) skippers (butterflies) on Trifolium repens - White clover; q) Daucus carota (Umbelliferae) - Queen Anne's Lace and r) has me stumped. I've located a couple of different flowers that might fit, (note the saw-toothed, opposite leaves) however this blossom has a double row of petals (help!); s) Monarda fistulosaor - Wild Bergamot or Purple Bee Balm.


Last Sunday (July 6), I asked if I could help cut thistles in the prairie that my husband has developed and worked on for a number of years. Of course, after about an hour's work, we were able walk around (and I could take photographs!). I wish I could have gotten out there again this week, as so many of the plants were just on the verge of "exploding!"

We leave tomorrow for a wonderful family reunion that may encompass 75 or more people (and our own "kids" and their families won't even be able to attend.) Looking forward to it!

Nothing shady about any of this! ;-) If you want to see more of my prairie posts, click on the "prairie" label at the bottom of the blog.

Literary Wildflowers - Week Three

What a lot of fun this was! :-)

Below:
Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea, Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta,

Below:
Wild Bergamot Monarda Fistulosa in front of raspberries

Below:
Thanks to iboy, a positive i.d. has been made on this plant.
Germander Teucrium canadense is a native perennial.
It grows in colonies, up to 3 feet tall.
There are two horn-like projections
on each flower.

Below:
Purple Coneflower in front of a ?Sunflower? (seems like a lot of petals),
in front of Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota (Parsley family) and, I believe, a variety of Goldenrod (not blooming).
From one of our field guides re: Q.A.Lace: "This plant is the ancestor of our cultivated carrot. It is considered a weed in Nebraska."

Below:
Thanks to i boy and mjd for identifying the Horsenettle Solanum carolinense
in the foreground. These flowers are white and turn lavendar with age. The plant and its fruit are poisonous to both humans and livestock.
I see some Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa (not native), about to bloom on the left. Many people are left with a severe rash (worse than poison ivy) if skin contacts blooming plant. Behind that, I think, is Daisy Fleabane Erigeron strigosus of the Sunflower family.

Some of my "helpers."

I'd Leave
I'd leave all the hurry,

the noise and the fray
For a house full of books
and a garden of flowers
by Andrew Lang

Here at home.


If Flowers Want to Grow

If flowers want to grow
right out of concrete sidewalk cracks
I'm going to bend down to smell them.
by David Ignatow

Or in this case, right in the middle of the front yard! :-)

Thanks to Wildflowers in Winter for the great idea!

Saturday Afternoon

We first took a walk through the prairie. My husband pointed out the Autumn Olive seedlings that the birds are planting by seed dispersion. He's having to destroy not only the mature plants furnished (as seedlings) for planting several years ago but also these new seedlings. Instead of being the ideal bushy refuge and food source for birds, they've become invasive.

I know not everyone appreciates thistles, but I truly think they're beautiful. I'm not the only thistle fan. Check out the Great Spangled Fritillaries below!
(Click on the name for more information and the photo to enlarge it.)
We were on the edge of the prairie and just next to the woodland edge.

Close-up of the thistle.
This is Partridge Pea.

Next, we headed for the woods.
Trees
"I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree. . . .
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."
by Sergeant Joyce Kilmer I credit the following fungi to our recent rainfall. I had a comment, upon which I took action to investigate. The fungus below is most probably a Puffball.
I have NO idea what this is.

This is Monotropa uniflora, Indian pipe. Sometimes people find more beautiful specimens.
Click on the botanical name to go to a site that provides a photo of another "version," and additional information.Last, but not least, a few other items to share:
Path of a bark beetle,
Jewel weed, nature's defense against poison ivy "itch!"This area was so very overgrown and lush with rainfall,
that several jewelweed had fallen over... note this one's rooted stem.
Poke Weed (often called Poke Berry)
The plant parts are poisonous. (click on the name for more information)

I don't know what these flowers are... do you? Each stem was multi-flowered.

Towards the end of the trail, I noticed a few sticky seeds
had clung to the tail of my shirt. As I walked, I picked them off and dropped them.
I was providing a means of seed disbursement until,
at the END of the trail, I looked down and saw...

Thousands of seeds stuck to my socks!I'm trying to decide whether I should pick off the seeds
or throw the socks away!

Your verdict?