June 13tap images for gallery view
Good morning. I'm prairie sage, Artemisia ludoviciana. I'm a sacred plant used for smudging. It makes people feel at ease. When I'm dry I'm silvery gray, almost white. When wet I turn jade green.
Hello. I'm named after Thomas Nutall who first found me: Nuttall's sunflower, Helianthus Nuttallii. My flowers smell like dark chocolate.
So, I have three common names. Some people call me beautiful; some people call me stiff or prairie sunflower. I'll let you decide which you prefer. Either way I'm a sunflower, Helianthus pauciflorus. I grow in colonies and have stiff dark red stems.
That's all folks. Three flowered avens, Geum triflorum.
They call me marsh ragwort, Senecio congestus. I just showed up here, which makes me a volunteer. ☺
I'm not confused. But the people who named me are. I go by seaside arrow-grass, Triglochin maritima L., which is kind of funny. I'm growing 12 km from the vertical centre of NA and I'm not a grass.
While most of my colleagues don't mind being eaten, I do. So, I developed a way to prevent that. I will make your skin feel like it just got burned if you touch me, anywhere.
There I was stuck, floating on water at the bottom of a pail and then (I think it's called) a finger tucked under me and set me free. (white spring moth, Lomographa vestaliat ?).
June 14 tap images for gallery view
Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa here. We smell like Earl Grey Tea.
I'm Canada milkvetch, Astragalus canadensis. I'm a wanderer. That broken stem in the background is where I was last year.
Well, you guessed it. I'm a lettuce. Blue lettuce, Lactuca pulchella to be precise. Best not to eat me, though. I will make your tongue go numb.
June 15 tap images for gallery view
We're called narrowleaf sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani. That's because we have, you guessed it. We grow up to 6 feet tall. Every few years we disappear and show up over there ...
I'm little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium. I'm not related to big bluestem but botans thought both our blades are blue tinged at emergence.
You can't miss me in the fall. I turn crimson with fluffy white seedheads.
I'm a Virginia Ctenucha moth, Ctenucha virginica. The photog thought I was a scape moth until Simone Hébert Allard pointed out the difference. There are lots of us this year.
June 16 tap images for gallery view
I'm the tallest goldenrod that's why they call me giant goldenrod, Solidago gigantea Ait.. I can reach up to 2.5 metres in the right spot; you know moisture, soil, sunlight. My colonies are not as dense as Canada goldenrod. But, I tend to impede most other plants from growing beside me.
Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis, here. I grow all over the place. I seem to like highway ditches. My leaves are almost identical to giant goldenrod but they're smaller and kind of a dusty gray. I grow in dense round colonies. Over time they become doughnut-like with a hole in the middle. Other plants can get started in the middle.
They call me Missouri goldenrod, Solidago Missouriensis, because that's where I was first discovered. My leaves look like Canada and giant goldenrod except they are more serrated and have a faint purplish brown tinge on the edge. And my stems are reddish brown.
Well, my name comes from a distinguishing characteristic. My stems are stiff. So they call me stiff goldenrod, Oligoneuron rigidum. My yellow flowers are the biggest and brightest of all the goldenrods. I grow in dense clumps.
We're confused. We were started from seed quite some time ago. The seed, named Riddell's goldenrod, Solidago riddellii, was purchased from Prairie Moon Nursery (in Minnesota). But, Laura Reeves says we're a different goldenrod.
Soon after we got started, and had dug a little deeper, we came across the suggestion that seed be obtained (by collecting or purchasing) from nearby sources. A 200 km radius was recommended. Obviously Minnesota is outside of the circle. We have since stopped getting seed from far away. As such, maybe S. riddellii is slightly different where the seed came from.
I'm a mud dauber. I'm about six inches long.