My first sunrise at Couchville Cedar Glade. Continue reading “Couchville Cedar Glade at Dawn”
Tag: wildflowers
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:
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: true blue
This is my husband’s favorite driveway-crack flower because it is truly blue. Blue wildflowers usually lean toward violet or lavender or purple, but not this thing.
We’re talking Giotto fresco blue. Or Crayola crayon blue. Continue reading “Driveway-Crack Flowers: true blue”
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”
Couchville Cedar Glade 5/24/16
Tuesday morning was so beautiful I kept driving after I dropped the kid at school. Ended up at my favorite magnet: Couchville Cedar Glade. Continue reading “Couchville Cedar Glade 5/24/16”
Driveway-Crack Flowers: White Clover
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”
Spring yard salad
Yard Salad. An incomplete list, and a couple years old, but I wanted to put it back out there. There are benefits to being lazy and cheap and not mowing too soon in the spring. Continue reading “Spring yard salad”
Dwarf. Lark. Spur.
Radnor Lake posted pics of dwarf larkspur drifts, so I had to go. Flowers in blue and purple do exert a pull. Bluebell woods are the prime example, but dwarf larkspur is a biggie too, so to speak. Continue reading “Dwarf. Lark. Spur.”
Bloodroots (are doin’ it for themselves)
My Facebook feed is full of bloodroot right now. Sanguinaria canadensis. Bloodroot is the first big, splashy native ephemeral, and thus popular among macro-lensed flower nerds compelled to document signs of spring.
Ephemeral means it isn’t splashy for long, so I dashed to Warner Park Nature Center today to get my bloodroot fix. Continue reading “Bloodroots (are doin’ it for themselves)”
First Flowers
Before I began to Look Around (see what I did there?), the only clue winter was waning was this:
Daffodils are still pure cheer, but they aren’t the only yard flower to signal spring. Continue reading “First Flowers”
Sidewalk Nature 