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"Yellow Coneflower"

(Ratibida pinnata)

Color Pencil - 5X7" © Bruce A. Morrison

I've been delving in the prairie vicariously through my drawing lately.  If you can't go to the prairie "physically", then why not mentally or on the tactile surface of the paper in front of you?!  

My subject matter is likely one of the most common forbs (flowers) from the prairie, and can be found anywhere that allows it a seed bed.  But I love this plant, no matter how common place it may be.  And I look forward to gathering it's seed every fall...man what an amazing smell from a handful of seed!  I'll not try and describe it - just try it for yourself some fall.

I called this plant "prairie coneflower" for years, until I was corrected one day, being told it was a "Gray-headed Coneflower"  I had the scientific name correct - Ratibida pinnata, but was never keen on gray-headed...just doesn't sound appealing does it?  Well several months ago I got my new edition of  "Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie" by Runkel and Roosa and the name given it there is "Yellow Coneflower"...I can live with that!  :)  So I'm titling the drawing at the beginning of this blog Entry "Yellow Coneflowers" and I'll throw in the Ratibida pinnata to boot, making it official and correct.

I may do a drawing of "Prairie Coneflowers" one of these days...that's Ratibida columnifera to you sticklers out there!  :)  They grow in our pasture as well, occurring naturally in this SE corner of O'Brien County.

Been working on this piece and others off and on since Thanksgiving...may plant a few more forbs on paper...or a landscape to wander through.  In the meantime I'm still finishing commissioned painting work...but a walk through the prairie in my mind is still a refreshing respite!  

Hope you agree!

More Spring on the Tallgrass

Prairie Ragworts

Things are advancing here at Prairie Hill Farm Studio...well I'm "still" stuck on inside work but the prairie pasture is doing nicely.

Prairie Smoke

The Prairie Ragwort is now blooming strong on the dry gravel north facing esker. The Prairie Smoke is in bloom on the lower east side of the north pasture and the Prairie Spiderwort is blooming in the south section.

Prairie Spiderwort

The Ragwort survived through the past owners solely because it was on a steep slope that would have escaped spraying.

The Spiderwort is also native to this site but we introduced the Prairie Smoke from a native plant nursery north east of us. (The Prairie Flower Nursery) The photograph of the Prairie Smoke was the only one not taken on our prairie site. This plant does grow in our area though - within about 30 miles of here. We're trying to reintroduce native forbs that would have been encountered here 150 years ago...before settlers came and disrupted the native plant communities.

Something I've always said and will say again, I am very interested in diversity on our remnant prairie site - biological diversity. The best biological community is one that is diverse. A community that provides more than just a limited few plants and insects, will not support an equitable population or variety of wildlife. If you compare a patch of brome with a diverse prairie you'll not only see an aesthetic difference visually, but you'll see the difference in what creatures each can support. A monoculture of any one species is a miserable failure in it's support of wildlife, especially compared to a diverse prairie!

Some day this spring or summer I'll be able to break away from previous work commitments - when I do I'll be out there and possibly at the easel again...hope you can do the same!