Other things I saw on today’s hike include a monarch who I’m sure appreciated that some asters and goldenrods are still blooming, a turtle, and really cool fungus. I’ll post them at #WednesdayWildflowers throughout the winter once I’m not able to make it to the field weekly.

Until next week! 🧪

Prairie umbrella! Jk it’s Baptisia alba, wild white indigo, a legume that’s relatively rare but not at Nachusa. Some sites used to have a few but are now Baptisia forests! There’s a weevil that specializes in its seeds; I wonder if they had a couple really bad years?! 🧪 #WednesdayWildflowers

This week’s #WednesdayWildflowers I have two species for you.
1. New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, one of the final blooms of one of the final bloomers of the season.
🧪

Next we have we have Sorghastrum nutans, the Queen of tallgrasses in the foreground and the empress of tallgrasses, Big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii
in the background.

Fall is truly one of the best times of the year in the prairie. Get out there if you can! 🧪

#WednesdayWildflowers

Sorry for last week’s hiatus. It was too wet for #WednesdayWildflowers

I’m switching things up this week and making it a grass edition. The grasses are really grassing this week with Little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium showing off its floofy seeds and pink hue for fall. 🧪

Last but not least, Solidago speciosa. Even though most of its buddies had already bloomed, this beautiful showy goldenrod shows why it got its common name. #WednesdayWildflowers 🧪

For this week’s #WednesdayWildflowers I’m back at Nachusa. I was helping MSc student in the lab Ana collect functional trait data today. Prairies are yellow and purple right now with asters and goldenrods blooming. First up my favorite aster, Silky Aster, Symphyotrichum sericeum. 🧪

This week’s #WednesdayWildflowers is coming to you from the World Seabird Conference in Tasmania. #WSC4 🧪

1. Southern rhododendron, Rhododendron ponticum
2. Australian tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica. Ok I know this is not a wildflower but tree ferns are so cool I couldn’t resist.

1. White rattlesnakeroot, Nabalus alba, so named because its roots would be used by Indigenous folks to treat rattlesnake bites.
2. Plains frostweed, Crocanthemum bicknellii.
3. How many legume species can you spot?
#WednesdayWildflowers 🧪

For today’s #WednesdayWildflowers I’m back at Nachusa where I spent some of this hot morning picking seed for a savanna restoration. I have two species and then a photo back out in the prairie that illustrates the amazing diversity of native legumes at Nachusa. 🧪