
10/28/2023 dinner

From Forest to Skillet: Edible and Native Plants in the Cross Timbers of Oklahoma. 837 yard species and counting!
I bought rattlebox, a cute native annual plant, last year at the Botany Club plant sale. I forgot that I put some seeds in the prickly pear’s planter but this solves the mystery of these lightly fuzzed leaves! So cute! I hope they like this spot and return again.
Unless you’re taking a herbarium specimen or moving stuff in the garden, we often don’t see how deep some native plant roots are. Today I helped two friends rescue plants from a remnant prairie that is about to be dozed and built on. (We dug with permission.)
Spiderworts, native perennial dayflower, an all yellow Gaillardia, fleabane, western horse nettle, and Heterotheca (I think?) all came up easily with a sharpshooter shovel. Little bluestem has very deep roots but I think they are supposed to be okay to divide. Fern acacia (I think??) had a longer root (over a foot for a 6” tall plant) that may have broken.