Steele Prairie State Preserve Wildflowers

Over the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons, Mary Damm and I conducted a plant inventory at T.H. Steele Prairie State Preserve for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  In addition to the few photos below, I put together a short slideshow that can be viewed here.


Allium stellatum

Liatris pycnostachya

Asclepias sullivantii

Sorghastrum nutans

 

Blazing Star

Liatris aspera is just one of those plants that's hard to pass up when carrying camera gear. These were photographed in a dry oak savanna at Liverpool Sandpits Nature Preserve in Lake Station, Indiana.

Post number 500!

Presenting GYBO post number 500! In celebration, here are my top 10 favorite photos. Probably all of them were posted sometime earlier. Thanks to all who visit and comment, and thanks to all who have posted here. Special thanks to Ben and Scott for setting up this group blog.

Interrupted Fern, Porter County, Indiana

Bloodroot, LaPorte County, Indiana

Blue-Eyed Mary, LaPorte County, Indiana

Cleft Phlox, Lake County, Indiana

Bluehearts, Lake County, Indiana

Prairie Brome, Lake County, Indiana

Nieuwland's Blazing Star, Lake County, Indiana

Yellow Lady's Slipper, Lake County, Indiana

Sullivant's Milkweed, Lake County, Indiana

Wild Columbine, Marshall County, Indiana

Bleached Blazing Stars

You often will find botanists and wildflower enthusiasts doing flips and cartwheels in the field when chance brings them to plants with petals of a pigment that differs from the norm for a given species. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it is pretty exciting to find "forma" that are not as common as the typical species.

Last weekend, I led a field trip at Pine Station and Clark and Pine Nature Preserves in Northwest Indiana for Shirley Heinze Land Trust. A common species in the panne and swale communities is Liatris spicata, which normally has pinkish-purple flower heads clustered in a wand-like spike.


We were lucky enough to also see the white-flowered form of this species, Liatris spicata forma albiflora.


Also locally common in the drier sand at these sites is Liatris cylindracea, which normally has an open inflorescence of lavender-pink flower heads.


Lo and behold, we stumbled upon Liatris cylindracea forma bartelii, which has stark white disc flowers.


I never grow tired of seeing Liatris and the many insect species that visit them in their natural habitats, but it is even more of a thrill to see the white needle in the amethyst haystack once in a while.

Stars Blazing! Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii and Liatris aspera

Starting about mid-May, every time I visit a prairie remnant I think, "This is the most beautiful time of the year on the prairie!" Then, I visit a week or two later and think, "No, this is the most beautiful time..." Such was the case yesterday at Cressmoor Prairie in Lake County, Indiana. There were Sunflowers of many kinds, Silphiums in abundance, Goldenrods in profusion, Blazing Stars a plenty, and tall, tall grasses in anthesis! And the varied, colorful, and busy insect life...wow!

Savanna Blazing Star (Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii)

Cressmoor is one of just a few places in northern Indiana where it's easy to see Savanna Blazing Star (Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii). It differs from Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera) in having middle involucral bracts non-bullate (not puckered, swollen, or blistered) and flowering peduncles as long as- or longer than the involucres. And, while rarely mentioned in manuals, its upper stems and peduncles are often infused with a dark maroon or purple color.

Savanna Blazing Star (Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii)

Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera). Note the bullate (puckered, swollen) involucral bracts. Photographed in dry sand prairie along the edge of the Liverpool Sandpits in Lake County, Indiana.

Liatris pycnostachya

I got the chance at Fisher Oak Savanna to see several Liatris species side-by-side. It was helpful to see the difference in the involucral bracts. Liatris spicata has appressed involucral bracts (right), while those of Liatris pycnostachya are reflexed (left).

Blazing Stars!

Thoreau once said, "How early in the year it begins to be late." I always think of this when Blazing Stars and Goldenrods begin their summer show.

Marsh Blazing Star, which seems to grow in prairies and savannas more than marshes, was beginning to flower at Ober Savanna Nature Preserve in Starke County, Indiana. It was being frequented by a Skipper of some type (maybe a Dun Skipper). Thanks, Kirk, for pointing out that it's a Skipper, and that it's a butterfly, not a moth.

Liatris spicata (Marsh Blazing Star)

On low dunes in Gary, Indiana there were thousands of Cylindrical Blazing Stars in bud, and two were already in flower on a south-facing slope. In a week or two it should be spectacular.

Liatris cylindracea (Cylindrical Blazing Star)

Liatris spicata

The main fen area at Cabin Creek Bog had two corners of blazingstar. In one area it was growing very thick with prairie dock and in the other area with Ohio goldenrod, shrubby cinquefoil, and obedience plant.