05/21/2023. Legume leaves in the backyard, of unknown origin. 05/27/2023. The adult leaves are more triangular than the fuzzybeans in the front yard, but it also gets less sun here.
The rainbow garden is almost there. The winecups have gotten MASSIVE. I have never seen such mammoth winecup leaves in the wild.
A typical winecup with regular sized leaves. We saw this one today on our afternoon walk, at Saxon Park.
A view panning over to see the Salvia greggii and coreopsis too. All the white flowers in the raised beds are cilantro. If you’ve been looking at our iNaturalist feed, the cilantro flowers are hopping with insect activity.
This seedling is not something I recognize so I’m hoping it could be Bluehearts from Mom. I left other volunteer plants in as that species is hemiparasitic and does better with a host. Possibly a silverleaf nightshade seedling!Another possible silverleaf! Looks a lot like its congeneric cousin tomatoes’ babies. Another baby Arkansas yucca!!! This one is in a bigger pot so hopefully we can keep it watered enough. Two fern acacia seedlings from last fall came up!!The winecups are really taking off!! Super pleased. This adorable sweat bee is the first visitor I’ve seen so far to our Penstemon grandiflorus. New mystery in the prairie!Briar being innocentGuard flamingo One of our two plastic flamingos has been retired due to its new hobby of breeding mosquitoes. The remaining one has been reassigned to guard two Oklahoma penstemon that the dog keeps laying on.
Same dinner as yesterday (leftovers still yummy!!) but this time Paula added butterfly pea flowers to the lemonade! The acid of the citrus turns it from blue (the flower original dye) to purple!! Doesn’t change the taste but very fun.
We got 2.75” in less than 24 hours!Missouri Fluttermill primrose baby survived pouring rain even under the rain barrel! Left seedling is Winecup and upper right seedling is Astragalus crassicarpus!Two possible yuccas in the green section. Not a milkweedNot a milkweed?Maybe a milkweed Known milkweed (probably viridiflora)The skinny adult leaves of known milkweed. New book The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Diboll and Cox mentions many milkweeds first adult leaves are skinny even if the eventual adult leaves are broad. Either that or I got the species wrong. One of two Blackfoot daisy survived earwigs and is now growing flower buds and a few new leaves!Perennial coreopsis begins!Briar was pretty miffed it rained HARD most of the day. So before our walk she curled up in disgust right on my big Liatris mucronata from home. Thanks. The Mexican Sage from Judy is up!A sedge?Partridge peaOldplainsmanMysteryCaliche planter babiesThe tomatoes have gotten a bit sunburnt from past rain with sunlight after, so this time I flicked water off and put them in a less intensely sunny spot. Trying to get them hardened off for planting. Like Briar, Shacks was disappointed by rain and not being out. Paula brought him some favorite juicy grass and he loved it.
First tepary bean up along trellis!Right in the middle of this picture is the brown coating of a green milkweed being pushed up as it takes root!This is also probably a green milkweed, and it has two tiny adult leaves starting to push out between the seed leaves!These seedlings are in the same pot so I think they are also green milkweeds. Briar finds examination of seedlings boring but at least we are outside. I’m not sure why but my hopeful globemallow suddenly died. Here is a small seedling in the globemallow container. Maybe it is one? There are a lot of Euphorbias popping up too. The prairie parsley is blooming! I saw a potter wasp on it but didn’t get a picture as I was distracted by a baby cottontail bunny running away!I planted two species in this pot – small native Hypericum and an unknown pod with tiny seeds inside from a dappled light post oak/blackjack oak forest. Maybe agalinis? It bears watching. The Venus looking-glass is blooming in the rock garden!Another plant with narrower toothed leaves, milky sap, hairs on the veins, and square stems is growing with the Venus looking glass. Not sure what it will turn out to be! Edit 05/2023: another type of Venus looking glass!