Schaefer Prairie - Minnesota

[RickR]

These Polygonum amphibium var. emersum (Swamp smartweed) have nice undulating leaves.  In the second pic, the seed heads of Vernonia fasciculata (Prairie ironweed) are in the foreground and background.  The ironweeds do seem to like a lot of moisture, despite their strong root systems.
        

        

And one more prairie scene to end the album.

                        

[cohan]

The Vernonia are interesting.. Panayoti was just talking about the genus a bit on FB and his blog.. another genus I have not seen in person..

[fleurbleue]

Wonderful to be allowed to discover your wild flora ! Many thanks Rick 

[Hoy]

Rick, beautiful - and in no way similar to neither moonscape nor marsscape
The Canada thistle isn't restricted to Canada! It is a bad native weed here too! But the purple loosestrife is not although it is native too

Lots of interesting plants, in fact they all are

[Lori S.]

The Canada thistle isn't restricted to Canada! It is a bad native weed here too!

Heck, it isn't even from Canada - we are getting a bad rap here!    It's an introduced European weed.... (so why is it called "Canada" thistle??)

Yes, very interesting plants.  I'm puzzled by Liatris too... have some blooming in the front yard and may have to post them here for IDs!

[Lori S.]

I'd never heard of Dyssodia papposa, common name, Fetid Marigold...
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416462
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DYPA
http://www.missouriplants.com/Yellowopp/Dyssodia_papposa_page.html

[Hoy]

The Canada thistle isn't restricted to Canada! It is a bad native weed here too!

Heck, it isn't even from Canada - we are getting a bad rap here!    It's an introduced European weed.... (so why is it called "Canada" thistle??)

Well Lori, in English the very common spruce Picea abies is called Norway spruce and the maple Acer platanoides is called Norway maple, neither are restricted to Norway although they are native here. The pine Pinus sylvestris is called Scots pine but is a rather dominating species in Norway and other countries too. And the Beatles have a song "Norwegian Wood" although I don't think they ever saw one!

[McDonough]

Cool series Rick, very educational, some interesting new plants for me.  First of all, the second Allium stellatum photo shows an exceptionally wide-petaled form, unlike anything I've seen before, quite extraordinary!

I don't know Lysimachia quadrifolia, nor the native Lythrum alatum, thanks for introducing us to these.  Up close, Brickellia eupatorioides is intriguing, less so from further away, but I like such plants... here again it is another one I never heard of before.

As a native gentian fan, love seeing Gentiana andrewsii, so far I only grow the very closely related G. clausa.  I'm also a fan of Liatris, but similarly have not sorted these out yet, your Liatris 101 treatment certainly helps.  Too funny about jeans stuck with seed; as a kid, I would wander woods and fields, and invariably end up with my cloths stuck with seeds that had to be painstackingly picked out, not sure what plants did this, but I remember being annoyed by such an occurence.

[RickR]

...the second Allium stellatum photo shows an exceptionally wide-petaled form, unlike anything I've seen before, quite extraordinary!

I made a particular location note of that allium plant for the same reason, Mark.  Hopefully, I'll get back their for seed for us.   But the photo is a bit deceiving as the entire head was about two-thirds the size of the others, with shorter pedicels.  I don't think the overall size of each flower was any larger, just wider petals.

[RickR]

A very quick stop, now in September to gather some seed nearby, this is Brickellia eupatorioides shown again in seed.
          

They look as though they are growing in a monoculture of Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), but in fact there is lots of diversity.  Seen in the right foreground is an odd, late blooming Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), and in the center foreground is the Liatris punctata (probably), also shown earlier.  Hiding in the grass are other forbes, too.
               

[cohan]

This is one of many ecotypes where the diversity requires you to get up close to see Many of my favourite spots locally and on trips into the foothills and mountains would just look like either grass or stones until you get in there and start walking around!

Nice to get in seed views of plants too!