Splendid day
It is always a great day when I get to go to the grasslands. And today was no exception with the perfect weather!
This plant was my goal to see today! It is called Big-root Cymopterus (Vesper macrorhizus or the old name Cymopterus macrorhizus). Only one was found blooming today and it was pretty small. It never is a huge plant. The flowers’ colors can range between a dirty white to a dirty lavender. To me what is really cool are the seed heads that will tower (a couple of inches) above the plant. When that happens, I will post a photo of that.
Sumac berries. The berries can be used to make tea. Kathy shared some with me once. It was pretty good with a hint of lemon flavor as I recall.
The Prairie Verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida) is not blooming yet, but this one was interesting for these pretty red galls on it.
Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum) trunk.
Surprisely some Broomweed was found blooming!
That’s all I’m doing today. I will share more of the finds from today on tomorrow’s post.
Looks like a fun day. Artful blackhaw limb and pretty berries. Someday im going to try some tea too.
I remember that sumac lemonade, it was pretty decent!
Hooray! Looks like it's time to restart our walkabouts!
I'm going to try making ground sumac. I think (from googling) that it is too late to make sumac-ade.
That Big-root Cympoterus ALWAYS makes me think of Shirley! She got excited when I showed her the one I had dug and was the one to identify it for me. So that species has memories.
Kathy, There are multiple plants and places that bring such wonderful memories of Shirley for me. Cymopterus was definitely one that she monitored among many of her special plants. I think about her every time I go out.