Couchville Cedar Glade 7/5/16

The day after July 4th is a let-down because of the firework tents. Fireworks are legal to sell in Wilson County, so that’s where we go to buy. Most of June, there’s a retail tent at each big intersection, as well as at intersections big only to folks who have to cross them every day. Till yesterday, the tents were lined with tables decked with patriotic skirting, and full of customers buying armloads of flammable goodies. Tax is figured on solar calculator or iPad, depending on demographic of the seller.

Last week, we visited three of these tents in search of just the right smoke bombs, sparklers, and the little trucks that turn somersaults. My mom handed my kid fireworks gift money. Day made.

But yesterday, the tents were deserted. Not even a half-price clearance sale.
We were glad to get to the glade.

First thing we saw was a flower new to us: Rose Pink (Sabatia angularis), in the gentian family. It sprang up like bouquets along the one mile loop, starting in the parking lot. Gorgeous.

It had rained the night before, so the path was mud through the barrens, and wet rock through the glades. The pic below tries to show a typical scene. See the seedling of Prairie Tea (Croton monanthogynus) by the stone? This is the path, usually bone dry but now filled with a couple of inches of water. The little Prairie Tea plant is making its own tea at the moment, but will dry in a day or so and be fine. The soil is too shallow to hang on to water long.

The big elm by the yucca was a vulture tree: three black vultures watched us come and go. We did not take this as a sign.

The fameflower wasn’t open: too gray, too early in the day. I still haven’t seen an open blossom. But lots of other things were out, including this Guara. I don’t know the species. Longiflora? Biennis? Parviflora? Guara needs a good, descriptive common name.
(EDIT: Guara filipes! And it does have a good, descriptive common name: slender beeblossom. The bees need to be slender, too: it’s a small flower.)