My goal yesterday at the grasslands was to find Butler’s Quillwort (Isoetes butleri). I was not successful. Sometimes no data is good data. Now I know that it is the wrong time of year. All herbaria collections for this plant were taken in the spring. So this means another look in the spring (oh darn) 😉 What we did find was this. And I still am not certain to what it is.
A quillwort? It did not quite match the pictures of a quillwort. But then again I did not know for sure what it looks like. It was in the right habitat which is seepy areas in limestone soils.
So I brought a sample home to investigate. Each blade had two sheaths on it. A pointy basal sheath and then a second sheath 3-4 mm higher.
The green blades were slightly cupped.
Next I peered at cross section under the compound scope. This proved it was not a quillwort. Quillworts have four chambers.
I did not cut this older cross section very well. However the colors are pretty!
Here are more of the mystery plants. They were rather dried out for the season. It makes hard to ID with no reproductive parts. With further hunting, I am thinking the plant maybe a spike-rush or at the very least in the Cyperaceae (Sedge family) or the Juncaceae (Rush family). I will just be patience and wait for spring!
A late monarch today! Tomorrow, I will continue on with other finds from Friday’s grasslands outing.
I have not seen a monarch in a week or two. Very few butterflies today. Painted ladies and sulphurs.
Thanks for the report!
The mystery plant is quite interesting. I hope to help you explore its ID soon.
🙂
Test3
Mary, are you having connectivity problems? I can see all 3 test posts.
I am having a problem of notifications of comments. Not sure what is happening. Sorry for the extra notices you are getting on the tests
That tomato article is great. I knew they thought it was poison but I didn’t know people were scared of hornworm.