Category: Native

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02/09/2024 Lomatium rooting

A small flat seed, with darker stripes in the middle and paler papery edges, sits on my palm with a single tiny root extending up about half the length of the seed.
I was looking at the seedlings and soil in the caliche planters when I saw one of the carrot-leaf lomatium seeds we planted last spring. I picked it up and was surprised and delighted to see it has a single thin root emerging! I set it back carefully with the root facing into the soil and gave it a bit more water.
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01/28/2024 grasslands field trip

Mom stands on the edge of overgrazed grass at edge of bare winter woods
Mutual photography of bloggers.
Zoomed out view
Close up
More close up
I saw a tiny dew covered spiderweb in a hollow in the ground!
A cute little seedling at just the seed leaves stage, near the dew covered spiderweb.
Briar turns to face the photographer against a backdrop of winter oaks
Who me?
After turning around in the previous picture, briar majestically lifts her head in the bright winter sunlight
Briar can pretend to be majestic and noble!
Still closed mostly
Open!
We saw several Scleroderma earthballs.
A prairie verbena purpled leaves for winter but still alive.
Last year’s branches of queen’s delight (Stillingia), the limestone species.
Briar sat nearby as Mom tried to get a picture of the Stillingia stems too.
So tiny
Unfurling leaves
Mom has been seeing Cymopterus blooming in other nearby sites but in this site they were just emerging.
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02/03/2024 Lexington WMA walk

Briar the german shepherd dog solemnly waits in the car for her adventure to begin as I load the car.
Ready to go!
Briar the german shepherd dog smiles up at me, wearing her orange safety vest, from a wash filleed with brushy and little bluestem. the dam of Lake Dahlgren is in the distance.
We looked around behind Lake Dahlgren. Here is all I put on iNaturalist. I put a few of the prettiest ones here in the post directly too.
I'm holding the dried stem of the plant "seedbox". Its two visible seed pods are a distinctive cubic shape with a hint of roundness on each side, and a hole in the middle top.
I recognized Seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia) from its fun pods! We have some in our garden.
Briar the german shepherd, wearing a blue harness and a bright hunter-orange safety vest smiles down from a ravine top at me.
liverwort leaves on damp brown sand
Liverworts!
I point at a tiny green patch of moss on sandstone while Briar sits baffled but smiling nearby.
Dog for scale next to moss.
Briar the german shepherd dog stands in her orange safety vest on a big exposed ridge of sandstone, with bluestem grass and cedars and oaks in the background. she is looking out of frame and smiling.
The clouds came and went. It was cool and breezy but I did okay with just one layer of long sleeves.
Splitbeard bluestem seed tufts lit up by sunshine against red sandstone
Splitbeard bluestem is so pretty with its tufts. I think this picture would be a fun puzzle.
eroded red sandstone leaving nodules. bluestem and goldenrod and other dead plants at the top of the eroding edge
Nodule habitat
round red and dark brown sandstone nodules in softer sand
Close up
I found some nodules in the sandstone!
a blackberry stem and leaf, the stem has whitish speckles
Blackberry stem
close-up of blackberry stem and a bud, showing the white patches with dark centers
Maybe not lichen
I thought this blackberry stem had lichens, which would have been unusual, but I think maybe it was a fungus.

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01/31/2024 red seed processing

A single scarlet legume seed sits in a clear glass beaker of just-boiled water.
Paula picked up this coral-bean from the Texas coast somewhere. Nokes’ guide to native plant growing says hot water allowed to cool can break the thick seed coat. I also scratched at it somewhat ineffectually with a razor and barely made any noticeable damage to the hard shell.
Ten smooth seeds lay on a folded envelope along with scattered bits of twig and dried bright red-orange berry flesh.
The fruits of American Bittersweet have been sitting drying in this envelope for several months and slid right out of the dried fleshy bits. Nokes says they succumb easily to damping off, in addition to needing cold stratification, so we’ll just put them outside in a pot.
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01/29/2024 prairie larkspur leaves up

A single leaf is circled with a white marker. There is a black metal sign with messy porcelain marker writing saying “prairie larkspur”. Lots of the sandy loam soil is visible and other small winter annuals and some dry tan buffalograss are around nearby.
I checked both prairie larkspurs in the front side year and each one has a leaf! I have circled this one with white lines. I was actually worried about this one because I accidentally broke off the dried stem pretty low, but it seems the root was fine. I had two plants in the back yard too but I haven’t looked for them yet.
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Recent food and beverage

Some tepary beans mixed in those refried beans! The hot sauce is Chimayó pepper mostly. 01/25/2024.
Homemade pasta with homemade pesto. 01/24/2024.
I finally roasted the yaupon holly leaves instead of just having it dehydrated. It’s actually a nice tea now! I did 300 F for somewhere over 1.5 hrs on a cookie sheet. 01/22/2024.