Mid Summer and Gorgeous

 Prairie Hill Farm

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

The heat has just abated a little and the Black Flies (having undergone a second hatch) have finally calmed down a bit...now its the skeeters - but hey, the dragonflies, bats and swallows need to eat too!  The prairie pastures have continued to wow me...the insects, birds, grasses and forbs are giving cause to pause and watch.  Get out if you can...I know that life tends to get in the way, but a quiet walk is in order!

(Click on any image for a larger view)

 

 

 Monarch Butterfly (male) feeding on Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) 

in the pasture here at Prairie Hill Farm

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Mass of Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum) in bloom in the pasture

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardi) 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta) 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)  

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Fairy Napkin! OK...just a dew covered spider web! 

The "little fairy" can be seen peeking out from it lair in the upper hole in the web 

(should have zoomed in on him). 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 My favorites in the low areas of the pasture and ditches - 

Swamp Milkweed! (Asclepias incarnata)  

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Mass of Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) - delicate little plants, balanced in the left foreground by spikes of Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) 

 photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Mass of Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata)

 photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

 Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) 

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

The prairie keeps changing - hopefully I can keep up and record it...if you get a chance - get out and enjoy it!!! 

 

Some of My Favorite Things...

 "Canada Milk Vetch (Astragalus canadensis)" 

Color Pencil drawing -  © Bruce A. Morrison

I've been working on more drawings of prairie plants (grasses and forbs) and anyone that really knows me realizes I only do this out of a real love for the subject matter.  I guess I've been watching winter so long that I'm drawing for cathartic reasons!  But the subject matter this time around is one from our prairie pasture and that's the Canada Milk Vetch (Astragalus canadensis), sometimes these plants have other common names, I think Rattle Pod is one...these names usually make sense too - the seed pods do rattle when shaken about.  

This plant first showed up on our north pasture hillside over 10 years ago and in a location I had not been doing fall or spring seeding...again last year I found several plants in our south pasture, and again in locations not seeded before, so it may very well have been here before these areas were grazed years back.  Also, like some other plants I can think of, we've had some years intermittently that we could find no Canada Milk Vetch anywhere...2012, 2013 and 2014 were such years, yet last year they were "widespread" and in locations we'd never seen them.  That's very interesting to me but I have no answer to why!

Canada Milk Vetch, to me, has a very visually interesting structure...its almost graphic in quality ...although I chose to draw this plant - it would have made a great serigraph as well!  Or even a wood block!  Its a fairly common and somewhat aggressive plant - not one for the garden, but a great plant for the pasture here...I know the deer and rabbits sure love it!  (A lot of pruning going on through the summer.)

I tried treating the drawing's background a bit differently than in the past (more scribbling and less solvent), but tried being true to this forb's anatomy.  I drew this milk vetch at it's peak - which in the summer heat, lasts a fairly short time unfortunately...its a good thing there's lots of different prairie flowers and grasses out there and that they all have their specific bloom time - you have all summer to enjoy!

Spring is on the doorstep - get out and enjoy it!

Prairie Plant of the Week - "Ratibida pinnata - Yellow Coneflower"!

"Ratibida pinnata - Yellow Coneflower"

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I made this prairie forb the "print of the week" because it was peaking nicely here at the studio prairie pastures - so why not "plant of the week" too!?

As I mentioned before, this is a very common native prairie flower or forb (flowering herbacious plant).  Most will recognize it a first glance but maybe by different names.  I like to state the scientific name for a plant if I can - that way there is no argument what plant is being discussed!  This plant (Ratibida pinnata) is commonly referred to as a "Gray-headed Coneflower" or a "Yellow Coneflower", and even some times a "Prairie Coneflower"

"Gray-headed Coneflower" refers to the light green or gray flowering head when it first appears - before filling out with small florets and turning brown.

This prairie flower will adapt readily in a flower garden but tends to be pretty tall at times (4-5 feet here in the pasture) so it needs support from other plants or will lie down from being top heavy.

There is not any odor or smell that I can detect from the flowers, but the bees and butterflies are non-the-less attracted to them...the bees can often be seen pollinating by going round and round the rim of florets.  The smell of this plant's seed heads when they are dry and ready to pick - is "amazing"!  Its a wonderful smell that has come to mean "prairie" in the autumn to me.

Thanks for stopping by - be sure and check out the prairie this summer - you do not want to miss it!

 

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!

Spring on the Tallgrass

It's now officially spring on the Tallgrass Prairie! The Pasque Flowers are in bloom.

I'm practicing "Phenology" again, as I mentioned back on the 24th of March. This year (in NW Iowa) things are a bit behind the rest of the state...in fact we still have some good snow drifts along the black tops and back roads here today. But we may have broken the cold streak and turned the corner! Well, one can always hope.

I'm extremely tied up with freelance work at the moment and have not had any creative or even relaxed time lately, so I try and take advantage of those small windows of opportunity as they present themselves. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had to go to a meeting at the Prairie Heritage Center SE of here...if I went about an hour early I could stop along the way and check out the Pasque Flower progress and possibly get some pictures.

Except for the lack of more time I wasn't dissapointed, the flowers were up and the wind was down (lack of wind is almost unheard of around here!). There was more going on there than I could take advantage of so I'm hopeful of a return trip or two in the next couple weeks. I'm also hoping for some more windows of opportunity in general around here this spring...we all need those moments to our selves...to take in the natural world and charge the batteries!

Feel the Burn!

Prairie Coreopsis and Phlox

Why is it I get excited when visiting a local tallgrass preserve and I see that part of it had been burned in the fall or spring? I'll admit being pretty excited when I hear some favorite site had some burn event the previous season...it's not that a charred landscape is what I prefer - it's what comes afterward. Fire was a natural occurrence on the tallgrass prairie, it prevented incursion of trees and competition from other plants that may have been invasive or disruptive in some way. It also warmed the soil, contributed nutirients and removed heavy thatching and buildup of sunlight blocking debris. But the characteristic I look for "visually" is - it promotes heavy flowering.

We have a prairie remnant here at Prairie Hill Farm; it was what drew us here originally. With the property buffered by pasture land, we also encouraged the native plants that had once grown here in profussion by burning periodically. When there is an absence of burning for many years most areas like pastureland experience a noticeable degradation of "diversity" - a boring and devoid "monoculture" results. It's sad to see what was once a natural habitat of dozens of native grass species and hundreds of different flowering native forbs (wildflowers) turn into one color, with one or two grass species and scattered invasives (non-native plants).

It's not just the noticeable lack of color and form but the lack of wildlife diversity that results. All creatures require that chain of life we used to hear about...this plant requires this insect for pollination...this bird requires these insects or seed or pollen bearing plants to thrive...this amphibian requires these plants for habitat - and on and on. That's biodiversity plain and simple! That's also what we humans have changed so dratiscally...but I won't get so preachy here, I'm only saying I like it hot when it comes to prairie! Hot with color, form, contrast, insects, birds, frogs, reptiles and mammals!


Yesterday (Saturday) we had a window of opportunity to burn our pasture and prairie remnant. It's hot work, but for those results we enjoy the rest of the year through. The prairie is charred now, but oh what a beauty it'll be this spring summer and fall!