Heavy Heart

Visited two of my favorite places yesterday, and while I came away with some nice finds that I will discuss in a different post, I also came away with a heavy heart.  My heavy heart was in response to the land management techniques that I am seeing employed with greater and greater frequency.  I debated titling this post "The Sterilization of Appalachia", and in the following paragraphs I hope you will understand why.

We have come to a point in our culture where the best response to anything we do not like is to kill it.  Humans are doing this to each other, and we are doing this to the land we have called home since the dawn of Creation.  If you don't like that person, don't like that plant under the powerline or along the side of the road, don't like that groundhog digging holes in the bank, kill it.

As I hiked The Ridges in Athens, Ohio I came upon a powerline on the south side of the property.  They had done some work in the powerline early in the year, but imagine my shock and surprise when encountering it this time and finding that it had apparently been nuked.  Not hardly a single living thing remained.

The especially sad part of this for me is that I did my graduate research at The Ridges.  I cannot begin to tell you how many trips I have made to the former home of the mentally ill.  It would appear to me that somebody is still mentally ill.  One of the things my floristic inventory of the site back in 1994 found was that powerline cuts had the greatest species richness of any habitat on the site, including different age woodland habitats, wetlands, or fields.  As you can see in the photo above, there is no species richness in this shot, because there are no species.

On my trip home I visited another of my favorite botanizing sites, Ohio Route 56 between Athens and Ash Cave.  Along this stretch of road are some very interesting plants, plants that one does not see everyday.  In fact, I believe I commented in an earlier blog post that I believe this stretch of road is one of the most botanically intriguing of any state road in Ohio.  

This stretch of road however is also now under attack from poor land management practices.  I observed herbicide being used with reckless abandon and mowing practices that force the question, "Why?".  In the past, I have collected seed of several milkweed species, thistle, Indian Plantain and other wonderful butterfly plants along this stretch of road, but sadly, as far as this year is concerned, there will be no seed to gather because it all got chopped down.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that the power company does not want trees growing into the powerline.  I understand that for safety reason the edge of the road needs to be clearly visible.  But why can't we hire people to go into the powerline and cut down the stuff getting big and leave the rest.  Why do we need to mow a full 45 feet from the edge of the road (I measured).  It would seem that the only possible answer is, "because its there."

I know a lot of folks do not understand the value of this roadside habitat, and while its not the best habitat it is still beneficial, as evidenced by the photo below of two swallowtails and a fritillary enjoying the nectiferous bounty of a roadside thistle.  Your home landscape can provide the same bounty.  A photo that I did not stop to gather was of a roadside ditch that had been hit with herbicide.  The front yard of this home had a putting green lawn that extended to the ditch which was reduced to bare dirt, every living plant which had called the ditch home having been nuked.

My prayer as I wrap this post up is that at some point people will learn that a world exists beyond ourselves.  I pray that we come to the respectful recognition that God thought it important to populate this world with other organisms besides us, and that those organisms deserve a place to carry out their short but valuable lives.  That God expects this.  

Family Trip

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

Water Horehound (Lycopus)

Hog Peanut

Scary bridge!

Devil's Trumpet fungus

Ragweed, with merely toothed leaves

Gorgeous campsite

Yes, there were fish in the pond!

Last week the family and I took a two-day camping trip to Lamping Homestead, a Wayne National Forest site just south of Graysville in Monroe County.  My oldest daughter's boyfriend had never had a primitive camping experience, so we thought we would educate him.  For our family, the site was a little more developed than our usual camping outings since there was an outhouse on site!

Lamping Homestead, as the name implies, is the site of an old homestead established by the Lamping Family in the 1800's.  The site had a two-acre pond, a couple hiking trails, and even a family cemetary, although we did not learn where the cemetary was until we were actually leaving and stopped to chat with a forest service employee.  For camping, there were a few sites under some white pine next to the pond, and there were some other sites tucked away in a pocket of deciduous hardwood.  We chose the sites next to the pond as they seemed less buggy.

The Lamping Trail made a loop starting from the east end of our camping area.  Not very far down the trail, hikers were taken over one of the most bizarre bridges I have ever seen.  I could not decide if it was intended to have a curvy nature, or if it was just that rickety.  We all crossed it and it seemed adequately stable, but was kind of scary to look at!

On the trail we came to a point where the "short loop" intersected with the "long loop".  Considering the knew problems I have been having the past couple months, I lobbied for the short loop and was glad I did.  The short loop was 1.5 miles and plenty far for my knee.  I discovered later that the long loop would have been 3.5 miles, and probably farther than any of us were prepared to handle.

The trail took us up a fairly steep, muddy climb onto a bench just below the ridgeline.  The soil was acidic and therefore home to some interesting plant life such as Spotted Wintergreen and the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain pictured above.  I sincerely thought I had missed my opportunity to photograph this small orchid, so I was quite pleased to find it, although I had a terrible time getting the lighting quite right.  The forest was quite dark and since I had several other people with me, I did not want to make them all stand around waiting for me to try a bazillion flash settings.

Made an another interesting find after the trail had descended and was heading back toward the lake.  Ragweed!  I know, normally ragweed is not exciting, but this one was different.  I am accustomed to ragweeds having deeply lobed leaves.  This one had no lobes.  I later learned that ragweed living in marginal habitat will sometimes exhibit this lobeless leaf feature.

Some of the other things we saw along the trail were Hog Peanut, Aster, and a very odd looking mushroom apparently called Devil's Trumpet.  Back around the lake I also found Water Horehound.  Or at least I think that is what it is.  Water Horehound and Field Mint look very similar.  The teeth on the leaves are not quite as robust as I would expect for Water Horehound, but the leaves had virtually no odor, whereas Field Mint is very aromatic.

The species total for the year currently stands at 493, with a few things still needing identification or confirmation.  Planning to make a swing down Clear Creek Road today in search of milkweed seed (Poke Milkweed) and Gaura biennis.

Weed Day

Ragweed

Carolina Lovegrass

Lamb's Quarters

St. Andrew's Cross

Now that the tomatoes and cucumbers are coming on, our family is spending more time at the garden on our property in Hocking County.  Or at least trying to!  And while the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and watermelon are doing reasonably well, the weeds in the garden are doing amazingly well.  A tribute to plenty of rain and cooler temperatures.

So I figured I should add some of the garden weeds to the One Thousand Flowers project, afterall, weeds are people too!  The Ragweed and Lamb's Quarters are really starting to become established in the garden. It was no time before my son and daughter were having allergy fits.  They tried to blame my dad's dog for their sneezes and snots because it didn't really kick in until after they went inside the grandparent's house for restroom pit stop.  I'm sure the ragweed was more likely to blame than Julie the dog however.  Julie is the sweetest dog, although rather odd to look at (sorry I didn't think to take her picture).  She is an apparent cross between a border collie and a basset hound.  Border collie appearance on a basset hound frame!

Had a weedy grass in the garden that I did not remember seeing in years past, perhaps because in year's past we did a better job of keeping the weeds knocked down than we have done this year.  The grass is Carolina Lovegrass.  Sort of a handsome grass, as far as weedy grasses are concerned.

My son and I did cruise the rest of the property a little and came across a subtle beauty, hiding in among the grasses out in the fields.  St. Andrews Cross is a type of Hypericum (St. Johnswort).  I find the petal arrangement very interesting, sort of in an X pattern, a pattern one does not see in nature very often.

Our visit to the garden ended with a surprise visit from a cousin of mine.  Kenny Minehart and his wife Rose stopped by to visit my parents.  I had not seen Kenny and Rose since the early 90's when we lived out on our family property (where the garden is) and they lived on the next ridge over.  It was nice to get to visit with the long lost cousins.

After Weed Day, the official count for the One Thousand Flower project stands at 485 species, although I still have some identification work to do.  I suspect the final count will land somewhere around 600 species by the time all is said and done.  A frustration I am having is how to get the oaks included in the count.  I missed the flowering season for them, working from the idea that it would be more helpful to get them in fruit with the acorns anyways.  I am now finding the acorns are up in the higher reaches of the trees, out of camera zoom distance.  I think my best chance is going to simply be to photograph the acorns as they fall to the ground and take accompanying photos of leaves and buds of the tree from which the acorn fell.  We'll see how it goes!

Pleasant Surprises

Buttonweed

Peppermint

Swamp Mallow

Graffiti artist

Ditch Stonecrop

On Monday I visited The Ridges in Athens and then stopped by Clear Creek Metro Park on the way home.  The theme for the day was surprises.  My first surprise was this beautiful graffiti drawn on a concrete pillar that was holding up an ancient water tank.  I am not normally an artsy person.  My idea of art is normally the shapes of the cut-outs on the outhouse door.  But what was drawn on this concrete pillar made me pause.  My hope is that this artist will find a forum to display their work in a more well traveled place than a remote rusty water tank.

My next surprise was a large mass of Buttonweed.  I didn't realize that it was such a butterfly magnet and that it was a native.  There were several Cabbage White and sulphur butterflies enjoying the nectar of this pink ground cover.

I also made it a point to visit the wetland area at The Ridges that parallels Dairy Lane.  Among the several things I found there was Peppermint and Swamp Mallow.  I remember the Peppermint from when I did my floristic inventory of The Ridges in 1994.  I do not remember the mallow being there.  I guess things change over time.

On the trip home I stopped in at Clear Creek Metro Park.  It had been awhile since I had spent any time there, even though I live only four miles from it and drive through it every Sunday on my way to church.  While I found several things blooming that were new to the One Thousand Flowers project, the one that I was most pleased about was the Ditch Stonecrop.  I sincerely thought I had missed out on this one.  The only place I knew for sure to find it was at Hope Furnace, and on my last visit there this wetland species was nowhere to be found.  To find it growing along Clear Creek was a special blessing.

Man of Many Interests

Trumpet Creeper

American Germander

Hoary Edge

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Northern Metalmark

July 6, 2013
On Saturday July 6 I took a break from wildflowering (not really) and spent some time lepping (butterflying).  As the title of this blog post implies, I am a man of many interests.  Sometimes I view this as a curse rather than a blessing, although I know deep in my heart that it is the latter which is true.  I just never seem to get a restful moment because I am always pursuing an interest.

On this day, the other interest was the annual Athens County Ohio Butterfly Count, a project tied to the North American Butterfly Association's July 4th butterfly count project.  This year I had a whole new set of counters, including some students from the Athens Middle School Science Club.

Of course, I could not totally ignore the wildflowers, and at our first stop, the Ohio University research garden on West State Street, I added two new species, Trumpet Creeper and American Germander.  But this day was officially for butterflies.  We had quite a few Cabbage Whites and Orange Sulphurs, to be expected considering the weedy nature of the site.  But when we arrived at a prairie reconstruction project along the bike path that parallels the Hocking River, we began to pick up some new species, including Great Spangled Fritillary, Zebra Swallowtail, and Tiger Swallowtail.

Our second stop, after a yummy and nutritious lunch at Wendy's was The Ridges.  By the end of our time at The Ridges, most of the counters were tired or had other obligations.  So I went on alone to the final stop, Trimble Community Forest near Glouster.  At this site I added several new butterfly species including Spicebush Swallowtail and Hoary Edge.  But the prize of the day was toward the end of my visit at Trimble.  The excessive amount of rain leading up to the count had left the trail up the side of a hill very muddy.  Coming down the hill proved to be a rather treacherous adventure.  Nearly at the bottom of the hill, my right leg started to slide out from under me.  I ended up with my left hand in the mud supporting me and my face grimacing in pain.  I had been having some trouble with my right knee for two years, but this summer had proven to be especially hard on the knee.  Sliding down the mud encrusted hill on it proved about more than it could handle.

As I stood cursing the hillside, a small brown butterfly briefly appeared before me, sitting on Ox-eye Daisy.  My initial thought was a metalmark, but in Ohio those are quite rare, and I did not get that good of a look.  I was able to relocate the little guy on a nearby maple leaf.  Nearby!  Perhaps 20 feet away.  Metalmarks are notorious for being very aware of their surroundings.  I knew that any movement on my part would most likely accomplish at least one of two things: me falling in the mud again, and the scaring away of the butterfly. With the camera, I zoomed in as close as I could without sacrificing all resolution and snapped a picture, which not worthy of any photo awards, but good enough to confirm the bug as a Northern Metalmark.

Wounded but excited by my metalmark find, I limped back to the truck.  The day had yielded 32 species of butterflies, considerably better than I was expecting, since excessive rain tends to keep butterfly numbers down and it had rained for several days prior to the count.  However, the best part of the day was turning young people on to the beauty and excitement of butterflies!

Rhododendron

Rhododendron

Chimaphila

Gaultheria

Black Cohosh slope

Me acting stupid!

June 30, 2013
My son, youngest daughter and I took a trip to Rhododendron Cove in late June to get photos of the Rhododendron.  I had been there earlier in the year and had photographed Mountain Laurel but apparently I had walked right past the Flame Azalea without recognizing it.

This time we were successful in bagging our quarry.  On the way in to the cove we past some other hikers and they confirmed that the Rhododendron was in bloom, although once we got to the top of the hill, I was somewhat surprised by how little of the Rhododendron was in bloom.

As we walked up the trail we encountered a large patch of Black Cohosh in bloom and I immediately put the kids to work looking for ants among the inflorescences.  A relatively rare butterfly, the Appalachian Azure, uses Black Cohosh as its caterpillar host plant.  I had found Appalachian Azure larva at Clear Creek Metro Park, only a few miles away, in 2011, so I hoped that perhaps it would be at Rhodie Cove as well.  We examined a couple dozen plants, but no luck finding ants.  We looked for ants because the ants farm the butterfly larva, and the dark colored ants are much easier to see against the white inflorescences than the white caterpillars.

Once we got on top of the hill, we also found Chimaphila and Gaultheria in bloom.  In all honesty, I thought I had missed the Chimaphila.  I was hoping I might find some going into fruit.  The acidic hilltops in the Hocking Hills region is great for plants in the heath family, including Rhododendron and Gaultheria.  Chimaphila likes acidic hillsides as well.

While we only found a few new species, they were good ones, plants that I would have found elsewhere only by luck.

Welcome Back!

Purple Fringeless Orchid

Cardinal Flower

Senna

Arrowhead

Sleepy Orange

I'm back.  I know it's been awhile.  I have a lot of catching up to do, pretty much the entire month of July.  The One Thousand Flowers project has continued on, I just have gotten lazy regarding blogging about it.  And, of course, I have awesome excuses.  The heat in the middle of the month totally wiped me out.  Would get home from work and didn't want to do anything.  Time has been at a premium as well.  Most evenings when I get home I work on writing my sermon for the next Sunday.  I guess when it all boils down, perhaps I have had writer's block, or maybe whatever the opposite of writer's block is.  Writer's Over-stimulation?  So many things going through my head, my mind bouncing from one idea to the next.  The past month I have only taken the time to tame those ideas which were absolutely necessary, sermons.

Well anyways, I awoke this morning with the idea of a couple short trips on my day off.  Wanted to go down to Big Pine Road in Hocking County to see if I could get held at gun point again, and then also to Clear Creek Metro Park.  On the way I stopped at the magical moth gas station (there are always great moths stuck to the side of the building there!) at Clear Creek, filled up the bike, and suddenly came to the recollection that the Senna and Cardinal Flower at work were blooming.  Which meant I had to get busy photographing these or I might miss my chance.  The only place I knew to find both was at Hope Furnace in Vinton County, considerably farther than I was planning to go.

I am glad I went to Hope Furnace however, finding everything I was hoping to find as well as a couple of unexpected blessings.  Among the things I was hoping to find were the Senna, Arrowhead, and Cardinal Flower pictured above.  Hope Furnace is the only place I know to find all of these at the same time.  I also found the cute little Sleepy Orange, a butterfly that uses the Senna as a caterpillar host.  I routinely find Sleepy at Hope Furnace, one of the few places in Ohio where I routinely find this bug.  Sleepy is much more common in Arizona, where it feeds on Cassia couvesii, a common desert shrub.

My best unexpected blessing was the Purple Fringeless Orchid.  Some of the folks on the Flora of Ohio facebook page had been talking about this lately, having seen it at Lake Hope, which isn't far from Hope Furnace.  I always feel so strapped for time however, I really didn't have time or interest in exploring new territory, so I was very pleased to find this lone individual at the edge of the swamp.

It would seem a lot of the wildflower activity right now is swamp species.  This is something I want to study a little bit further, probably this winter.  That is, the phenology (blooming season) of habitats rather than individual species or plant families.  Early spring is primarily woodland species blooming.  Then we went through a woodland edge and open field species phase.  Now into a swamp species phase with a new round of field/prairie species coming on.

I will try to get caught up on some of the other adventures from the past month or so, although I may not advertise them on my facebook page.  In my idealistic world, month old news is not news at all, but somebody may find it interesting so bookmark the One Thousand Flowers blog and revisit occasionally.  Oh, at Big Pine today I did not get held at gun point again.  And plant wise, didn't find much either.  Kinda disappointing!  ;)

By the way, the current species count stands at 439.  I think 1000 species is probably rather unlikely, but that's ok.  I've never been good at setting goals!  I'll just keep plugging away, having fun, and hopefully educating at least a handful of folks along the way.

American Mower!

I do not get on my environmental high horse very often.  While I do not always like how Americans treat Creation, either publicly or privately owned, I recognize the fact that in America we have the freedom to do what we want on our property.

With that said, America's obsession with mowing is about to drive me insane.  I am fully expecting the next big popular reality television show will be called, "American Mower".  The object of the show will be to use a stock, push or riding mower to mow the largest amount of space in a given time or to mow through a section of lush beautiful wildflowers without bogging down and stalling.

Pictured above is Glade Mallow, Napaea dioica, a relatively rare plant in Ohio.  This patch of Glade Mallow happens to be at the entrance to the village of Sugar Grove from US33.  It grows on either side of the entrance into town, or shall I say it use to.  I had noticed the plant there for several years, but just this year, with the One Thousand Flowers project, did I take the time to pull off to examine it more closely.

Now, Glade Mallow can only be see on the south side of the entrance road into Sugar Grove, because the highway department opted to mow down the entire population on the north side of the road.  I have experienced this multiple times during my big wildflower year.  One day seeing a plant growing, arranging my schedule such that I can go back to take photos, only to find that the plant in question has been mowed down in the meantime.

I can understand that mowing is required for safety reasons.  But I have seen examples of this mowing extending a full 100 feet away from the road.  Isn't this a bit extreme?  How many rare plant populations have been wiped out by over-zealous lawn mowers?

One thing I have decided is that some people mow out of boredom.  I see private citizens mowing roadsides, well away from their homes, blank looks on their faces, and I have to think it is because they have nothing else to do.  Once upon a time I lived in Indiana, and a common joke I would tell was that one could drive a golf ball from Muncie to Richmond without ever going in the rough!  Maybe these people think they are beautifying the roadside.  Personally, I find flowers far prettier than half-inch tall grass.

Roadsides provide a unique habitat, because they are periodically disturbed.  And while I can appreciate that we do not want deer, moose, or elk habitat directly next to the road, what is wrong with insect habitat within 100 feet of the road?  I have seen wonderful monarch butterfly habitat, several feet from the road, destroyed due to the mowing of beautiful patches of milkweed at the peak of bloom.

Cochise County, Arizona takes the mowing obsession to a whole new level.  Rather than mowing roadsides, they blade the roadsides.  Several years ago I discovered Yerba de Zizotes, Asclepias oenotheroides, growing along a roadside in eastern Cochise County.  At the time, it was the only known population of this milkweed in Arizona.  I counted nearly 40 plants along this roadside.  When I returned five years later, the number of plants had been reduced to zero.

In part, this is why projects like One Thousand Flowers, annual butterfly counts, mothapaloozas, etc, are so important.  We are destroying habitat, both locally and globally, at alarming rates.  It is important to have a record of what we are destroying, so that perhaps hearts can be changed before plants and animals disappear from our state forever.

Making up Lost Ground

Water Hemlock

Leatherflower

Bur-reed

Yum!

Last week I took a couple days off work, to get some wildflower time as well as some time away from the chaos of normal life.  While it didn't really work very well, as far as getting away from the chaos, as the chaos was always awaiting my return, it did work well to see some new and different things.

It is that same chaos that has put me behind on posting updates about the One Thousand Flowers project.  I have trouble posting about trips that happened a week ago, feeling like old news is no news at all.  But I do have some folks who are interested in the project, and at some point in the future these posts will be used to jog my memory as I write what will most certainly be a massively popular book about the big wildflower year, so I present the old news, even if it is old only to me.

A week ago Monday I tried to get caught up on some relatively nearby locals that I had not visited in awhile, among those Rutherford Swamp east of Nelsonville and The Ridges in Athens.  Frequently when I visit the Athens area, I like to take the back way home, along OH56 through Carbondale, Coonville, Starr, New Plymouth, and other small towns that nobody has ever heard of.  I truly believe that this stretch of OH56 has some of the most unique roadside botanical life of any 40 mile stretch of road in the state.

Near Carbondale a swamp can be found right next to the road, and this swamp always yields some interesting things, such as Water Hemlock.  Cicuta maculata, like many members of the carrot family, is extremely toxic.  Reports that I have heard is that consuming just a small quantity of this plant can cause 'violent vomiting'.  Not sure that I have ever experienced anything approaching violent vomiting, but I am sure that I never want to!

Another interesting plant in the swamp is Bur-reed.  I do not see it very often, and therefore it holds a special place for me.  The flowers are quite showy and the leaves almost have a succulent feel to them.

Blooming a little later in the summer will be Swamp Mallow with its gynormous, dinner-plate size flowers, and Button Bush, with its showy little floral balls, which the swallowtail butterflies will cling to for nectar.

Just around the corner from the swamp, a little farther west, is another wonderful little spot along OH56.  In this spot I have found Purple Milkweed and Four-leaf Milkweed, neither of which is as common as the more recognizable Butterfly Weed and Common Milkweed, both of which occur along this same stretch as well.  Also along this stretch is Leatherflower, a type of Clematis.  Much like the milkweeds above, Leatherflower does not qualify as rare, but it is a plant you don't see everyday, which gives it a special place for me!

I have also included a photo of a lovely spring found along this same stretch of highway in Carbondale. Sadly, this lovely orange water is a common feature of the southeast Ohio landscape.  The water in these parts is very iron-rich, and when that iron-rich water comes in contact with air, it turns orange.  For this reason, many people who live in these hills and hollows must invest in water treatment systems for their homes, so that their clothes, dishes, and everything else isn't stained orange.

A Long Day

Mourning Cloak

Indian-physic

Great Coreopsis

Angle Pod

Purple Milkweed

Great Spangled Fritillary on Butterfly Weed

The plan for last Monday was to spend the entire day at Shawnee State Forest and Lynx Prairie.  Unfortunately, my wife's truck got in the way of that plan slightly.  On Saturday it died at a city park in Lancaster.  So, rather than spending $90 to tow it home, and then another $90 to tow it to a repair shop on Monday, we just left it at the park, hoping someone would steal it!  No such luck.  Therefore, on Monday while my wife drove our Jeep, I drove the truck, successfully babying the gas petal to get it to the repair shop without it dying.

So my 274 mile trip south did not start until after 9AM.  But, once I got to Shawnee, specifically Forest Roads 1 & 5, I was treated to some nifty finds.  Perhaps the most surprising was not the wildflowers, but actually the butterflies.  At a stop along FR5, I saw more Mourning Cloaks than I have probably seen my entire life.  I estimate roughly 15-20 of these beauties at this one stop!

The flowers weren't bad either though.  I found Great Coreopsis, which was a lifer for me.  I also found several entire road banks of Indian-physic.  Seems like I read at some point in the past that Indian-physic has been used medicinally to induce vomiting.  I refrained from consuming.

I made a short detour to Lynx Prairie after Shawnee.  I had been told not to expect much, and in fact there wasn't much blooming, but my whole purpose for going was a single plant.  Scattered in the prairies was Angle Pod, a rather uncommon species of vining milkweed.  I had seen it there once before, a few years back, and was so taken back by the beauty of the flowers that I had to be able to include it in the One Thousand Flowers project.  While at Lynx, I did find a Butterfly Weed blooming, with a Great Spangled Fritillary doing its best to uphold the plant's reputation.

On the ride home, (yes, 274 miles on the motorcycle!), I made a detour into Vinton County in search of my favorite milkweed, Asclepias purpurascens, also know as Purple Milkweed.  Feeling like I was running very late, I decided on a short cut, in an attempt to get to the Athens/Vinton County line a little quicker.  My short cut, Ohio 328, proved to be very lucrative, yielding several Purple Milkweeds a mile or two south of New Plymouth.  The plant in the photo above was an especially dark Purple Milkweed.  Normally they are a bit pinker than this.

For the day I added a surprising 24 species to the year's total.  I wasn't expecting that productive of a day.  The year's total number of species now stands at 333.  And the truck diagnosis you ask?  The throttle body, oxygen sensor, and something else need replaced to the tune of $1300, which of course, we don't have!  A couple phone calls and my wife found a relative who is blessing us with an early Christmas present.  So all my stressing today over my truck ended up totally pointless.  Don't you hate it when a full day of worry goes to waste!

Lynx Prairie

Shooting Star

Lyre-leaf Sage

Blephila ciliata

American Columbo, by the way, this flower stalk is about six feet tall!

Green Milkweed

My children and I visited Lynx Prairie in Adams County, Ohio last Monday.  My kids are kind enough to tolerate me on these trips.  I think they enjoy getting out and doing something different, but they certainly do not get as excited about flowers and bugs and whatnot like I do.

We went south with the goal of seeing two things, Shooting Star and American Columbo.  The Shooting Star greeted us at the first prairie opening.  Lynx Prairie is made of roughly five open prairies separated by mixed hardwood forest, sort of like a chain of prairies.  And Shooting Star and Indian Paintbrush were the stars of the first prairie.

I had only seen Shooting Star in the wild once before.  That was just outside the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation in the White Mountains of Arizona, a couple of miles from the second highest peak in the state, Mt. Baldy (which is well over 10,000 ft.).  That Shooting Star was growing along a stream flowing through a mountain meadow, and was purple instead of white.  I regret to this day not getting a photo of it, but that was LOOONNNNGGGG before the days of digital cameras.

There were also several mints blooming at Lynx Prairie including Lyre-leaf Sage.  Interestingly, I see this plant nearly every day at work, as Salvia lyrata is fairly common in the nursery trade.  However seeing it in its wild form was kind of exciting.  Another common mint blooming was Horse Mint (I think thats what its called!), Blephila ciliata.

But my two most exciting finds for the day happened outside the prairie.  I noticed American Columbo blooming in a powerline  at the edge of the road.  I took my children by surprise a bit when I suddenly did a Dukes of Hazard 180 in the middle of OH125 and raced back to the powerline.  Ok, so I exaggerate, it may have only been a 175 degree turn!  We had a similar species out west that we called Deers Ears, due to the shape of the leaves.  The species in the west would usually be covered in bumble bees.  You sort of took your life in your hands trying to get a close look at it.  The lone specimen along OH125 did not have a single bee.  Kind of disappointing!

The other treasure for the day was somewhat unexpected, which of course are always the best treasures.  Green Milkweed, Asclepias viridis, was found along OH41 north of West Union, and is a new species to me.  I have been a milkweed nerd for a very long time, dating back to my days when I grew milkweed in Arizona as food for Monarch butterfly catterpillars.  Asclepias viridis reminds me a lot of Antelope Horns, a common milkweed in the west, which Monarchs seem to only rarely use as a caterpillar host.  I did not see any caterpillars on Green Milkweed, however, I have also yet to see a Monarch this year.

I must admit, with all the travels I had made this year, I had yet to find a single tick.  I was sort of proud of this fact.  Well, not only did the streak end Monday, it ended in a big way.  Between all of us, we managed to find 10 ticks.  Eeeeewwww!  My wife even picked up a tick and she didn't even go with us!  Guess that means its time to break out the DEET!

For those keeping track, the One Thousand Flowers project is now up to 252 species, and I still have a few rushes and sedges from Monday's trip to identify.  If you would like to help out with gas money, which would be most appreciated!, look me up on GoFundMe.com, project name One Thousand Flowers.