Thursday, August 18, 2011

Re: Thismia hunt 2011

If you go into a wet prairie remnant and spend 5 hours crawling through dense vegetetion looking for Thismia americana, and if you run afoul of Slough Grass or Prairie Cord (Spartina pectinata) in the process, this is what your arms might look like afterward. Even so, it's a good way to spend a day, and there are lots of other great things to be learned and discovered. Certainly Thismia is out there somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered!!

5 comments:

Steve said...

If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one from Team 5 who's arms look like that.

Keith Board said...

Our group certainly gave it an honest effort!

Scott Namestnik said...

Huh... mine is just poison ivy all over my wrists, where the rolled up sleeves of my long sleeve shirt didn't cover my arms... and on my knees. Could I have gotten poison ivy through my pants because I was kneeling in the plant in saturated soils? Can the chemical become mobile and move through clothing with water??

Steve said...

I don't see why not. As a liquid, I would think that would be able to penetrate through clothing right? Back in the day, prior to do-gooder burn ordinances, my dad would burn the dune behind where we lived every spring, and every spring, he's have poison ivy on his face, neck and hands from standing in the smoke.

Incidentally, since burning was outlawed, their dune is now a forest of Siberian Elm, Tree of Heaven, Garlic Mustard, etc.

Scott Namestnik said...

I guess so.

I've heard of people getting poison sumac in their mouths and throats after burning in a fen. That doesn't sound like much fun.