Stretching for the Sun

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Last year at Austin’s place they had a very hot fire. The fire was so hot it killed many large oaks! Even some of the Little Bluestem did not come back.

Broomweed was thriving after the fire.
Tiny True bug (Heteroptera) eggs all lined up. I actually brought this home. Because I thought the one in the middle might be hatching. It did not. 🙁
The small Pencilflower (Stylosanthes biflora) was scattered among the other vegetation. So I am not sure where it got the common name. Perhaps it was for its short pencil-sized height?
Could the seed pod of the Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia virginiana) be the reason for its common name? Well, I looked it up…”At one time this plant was fed to goats as it was thought to improve milk production. That earned it the common name “goat’s rue” due to the presence of rotenone. That practice is no longer followed.” Follow the aforementioned link for other traditional uses.
A Leaf Beetle (Zygogramma heterothecae) has no common name in BugGuide. On iNat it goes by Camphorweed Chrysomelid (Calligrapha heterothecae). However this has not been widely accepted yet as commented in BugGuide. I did find in the paper referred to in BugGuide that Zygogramma is being proposed to change. This is the paper: Shawn M. Clark, Hume B. Douglas, and Daniel J. Cavan “Notes on Calligrapha Chevrolat (Subgenus Zygogramma Chevrolat) and Tritaenia Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Chrysomelinae),” The Coleopterists Bulletin 78(2), 281-295, (21 June 2024). https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065X-78.2.281
Received: 15 September 2023; Accepted: 29 April 2024; Published: 21 June 2024

Prairie Gaillardia (Gaillardia aestivalis)!
Another fav still blooming, Dogweed (Dysodiopsis tagetoides)! However just barely. 🙂
The Annual Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) was bright against the burnt cedar.

Indeed a very tall Gumweed (Grindelia)! In fact perhaps the tallest ever! 😉

Another really tall one was the Buffalo Bur (Solanum rostratum). Indeed it had no choice. Deep in the understory next to the creek it was stretching for the sunlight.

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Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

8 Comments

  2. Great article on goats rue – so many uses – Interesting common name “Devils shoestring” too – did not know that about it’s roots.

    Sobering cautionary tsle about how heat affects the body & mind – a bit scary actually.

    Reply

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