Tag: leaves

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04/18/2023 candidates for globemallow and other updates

Judy’s suggestion of starting the tomatillos outside has worked great. They are already sturdier and healthier than the few surviving seedlings indoors.
This isn’t a Euphorbia seedling so maybe it’s a globemallow??
The Baptisia australis plant I bought at Prairie Wind Nursery last year is coming up again!
This snailseed from Abby appears to live! Though it’s a bit chewed on.
I think this is one of the several ampelopsis vines we moved in late summer or early fall. Yay! I hope some of the others come up too.
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04/14/2023 who grew?

The prairie parsley dug from TX home is about to bloom!!! It is a biennial, so I hope it likes it enough to reseed here.
Bluestars make it to another year! I think they must need a second individual to seed as they haven’t spread.
The little grayish friends are rabbits tobacco! I think I may have finally hit critical mass with them as a few are in the tiered cactus planter too.
Speaking of needing two individuals, I bought a Salvia azurea to supplement my otherwise happy one from TX. I hope they start spreading now!
One of the two potted Baptisia bracteata have emerged! So excited. I haven’t had luck with them from seed.
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04/14/2023 maybe possibly hopefully a Spiranthes rosette!!

The below three pictures are of leaves I found on the east side of a grass clump in the backyard prairie. It feels less fleshy than the invasive introduced dayflowers and most of those also have a reddish stem. I have flagged it and we’ll wait and see if it disappears (probably a Spiranthes!!) or keeps growing into a dayflower. As a reminder, I seeded them from a pod from my parents’ house last winter.

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04/16/2023 blue life

Perennial blue flax (Linum lewisii) is doing beautifully in its second year!
We thought the mealy blue sage was dead in the rainbow garden as the one by the porch has been up for a while now, but this morning I noticed leaves! It lives! Maybe just less warm and sheltered out here in the side yard?
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04/15/2023 spring at home in person

Mystery green bit in caliche planter. Looks suspiciously like a grass but we’ll find out! Maybe something good!
The yellow irises from Judy are in full bloom now!
One of the two Camassia scilloides has TWO flower buds!
The other Camassia scilloides has a much smaller flower bud. The angusta has a similar sized bud that is on a shorter stalk as of yet.
The two leaf senna is coming back! This one got big last year and made a lot of seeds.
The other smaller two leaf senna from last year is off to a great start this season!
I put a lot of Missouri fluttermill primrose seeds in the yellow area of the rainbow garden )near the two leaf senna) and one is coming up! Yay!
The dwarf spiderwort continues to bloom! This one has two flowers now! The other individual hasn’t flowered yet.
This mystery grass has appeared in many areas under the oak tree. It seems wrong for millet but I don’t remember wheat in the bird seed mix? Any ideas are welcome. iNaturalist suggests the wheat genus but I don’t think there are any native ones here.
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04/06/2023 Black Mesa Nature Preserve afternoon walk

Briar posed for us as we began our slow walk up the trail.
Here we go! Briar was on her leash and thought we were slow. Especially when I kept stopping to take photos of grama grass.
Mom also does botany photography along the trail!
I’ll look up this grasshopper when we get home.
I like how this photo has a cholla in front of a juniper with grama grass framing it. These were among the dominant plants along the trail.
Framed by the cholla cacti and distant junipers is a stretch of green tinted soil exposed by erosion! you can also see some of the abundant yuccas.
This young yucca by the trail already has a few strings peeling off the leaves.
One of the volcanic rocks that gives Black Mesa its name was down at our level. The trail climbs the Mesa for a round trip of 8.2 miles, but between botany and my arthritis we did a round trip of 1.6 miles in 1 hr and 50 min.
This dried leaf was very firm and had lovely reticulated veins.
Close up of cholla cactus branches and spines, with Black Mesa in the background.
Briar is the picture of patience once again. The packed earth trail is really broad and smooth!
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04/03/2023 fruit trees before we left

Williams pride apple is blooming.
Seckel pear has started to leaf out and the Liberty apple behind it too.
I think this one is the bud on the Arkansas Black Apple. Or maybe McIntosh. I forget already. Update: Paula checked and it’s McIntosh.
Butterfly milkweed coming up in the rainbow garden!
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04/03/2023 extended field trip

The painted brown entrance sign at Boiling Springs State Park.
Briar thinks camping might be okay.
A lovely prairie near the Spring Hill trail.
Some beautiful grama grass curled empty seedheads with a background of little bluestem.
Yuccas under a soapberry tree.