Tag: wildflowers

Nashville’s Mustard

[This is a post from 2017. For the newest Nashville Mustard post, see “Meet the Mustard” (link)]

There are swaths of yellow right now in Elmington Park: small yellow blooms massed in the lawn. I hope the city doesn’t mow soon, because the yellow is Nashville mustard—our mustard—and it needs to go to seed and spread. I saw it on the way to Hebrew School, and as soon as I could, I went back and parked the car in the lot, then parked my body flat on the grass.

Continue reading “Nashville’s Mustard” →

John and Hester Lane Cedar Glade (6/25/16)

Yesterday’s Division of Natural Areas hike was at a glade new to me: John and Hester Lane Cedar Glade. Look what happens to a cedar thicket after a managed burn:

prairie coneflower meadow

I’ve never seen so many prairie coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) in one place.
How long had those seeds slept in shade till freed by fire? Continue reading “John and Hester Lane Cedar Glade (6/25/16)” →

Driveway-Crack Flowers: Venus’s Looking Glass

Before it’s gone, here’s another volunteer in the cracks of our driveway: Venus’s looking glass, Triodanis perfoliata. It’s in the bellflower family, and if it were a bell, it would tinkle rather than peal because the flowers are about the size of a fingernail (a fingernail that gardens and plays with Lego). And, it’s native. Continue reading “Driveway-Crack Flowers: Venus’s Looking Glass” →

Driveway-Crack Flowers: White Clover

clover closeup

White clover seeded itself into our driveway cracks, so I took photos yesterday, the better to learn it.

Each flower is flowers: a globe of up to 50 tiny flowers, each with “a small standard and two side petals that enclose the keel.” So says Illinioswildflowers.info.

Standard? Like the synonym for flag?  Continue reading “Driveway-Crack Flowers: White Clover” →