Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Prairie compass, prairie sunshine

Photographed 28 July 2013, Cinder Path prairie remnant between Derby and Humeston.

It's a toasty 17 degrees here this morning, but tonight's low is predicted at minus-7 --- and we're scheduled for another snow day, too. So it seems like a good morning for a little summertime prairie sunshine.

I've been sorting photos during January, pulling photos of prairie plants taken during the last five years, reading more about them, then posting in an effort to create an alphabetized directory (in the sidebar), primarily for my own benefit. These are going up as a set on my flickr page, too.

Photographed 28 July 2013, Cinder Path prairie remnant east of Derby, Iowa.

I have memory issues when it comes to plant identification --- and tend to forget the names of more obscure varieties during their off-seasons. But compass plant, one of the most distinctive of our prairie natives, is unforgettable.

Photographed 1 June 2011, Cinder Path prairie remnant east of Derby, Iowa.

Compass plants (Silphium laciniatum) are called that for good reasons. Their deeply-cut and distinctive base leaves, from which flower stalks eventually appear, are among the largest on the prairie and after emerging and growing randomly for a couple of weeks, turn on their petioles so that their edges are alligned north and south with their faces turned east and west. Or at least that happens nearly all the time. So these plants have been a reliable navigation tool for humans as long as humans have been wandering around in what once was an inland tallgrass sea.

Photographed 1 June 2011, Cinder Path Prairie Remnant east of Derby, Iowa.

The flower stalks are among the tallest on the prairie --- a six-foot stalk is nothing and depending upon conditions, stalks can reach 8 feet, even 12. 

Photographed 21 August 2011, Cinder Path prairie remnant east of Derby, Iowa.

Taproots are even longer --- up to 16 feet down there below us. And there's a good chance that compass plant you encounter along the trail or while wading through the tall grass is older than you are. It's estimated that some live for more than a century.

Photographed 21 August 2011, Cinder Path prairie remnant east of Derby, Iowa.

These photographs were taken at either the Cinder Path prairie remnant east of Derby or the larger remnant between the Cinder Path and Highway 65 between Derby and Humeston, the leaves during June; flowers, during July and August.

Photographed 28 July 2013, Cinder Path prairie remnant between Humeston and Derby, Iowa.

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