A Mid-Summer Morn's Walk through the Prairie

Many apologies for the gap in posts. All I can say is that it is somewhat paradoxical that the most beautiful time of a Central Minnesota prairie is also our most busy time. When I would like to be photographing and pondering its beauty, we're busy weeding, plugging, and preparing sites for future seeding. 

Of course calling this the most beautiful time for a prairie is a matter of opinion. Like many things aesthetic, there will be disagreement as to elements that make a prairie beautiful.  To my mind, the peak of the wildflower season is when the Grey Headed Coneflower blossoms.

Granted, part of what makes the Grey Headed Coneflower an exceptional flower is that it blooms for a long period of time. It staggers its heads so that as one fades, others come into bloom. You can see that in this photo--those that are past their bloom and those heads that are just beginning to blossom. 

But there are other elements that contribute to a beautiful prairie such as texture, variety, asymmetry, symmetry and, of course, color.

Who could argue with the brilliance of color and the symmetry of the Meadow Blazing Star? Just as the Grey Headed Coneflowers begin to fade, the Meadow Blazing Star starts its bloom. Of course it stands out nicely from its yellow background. 

The petals of the Purple Coneflower are fading, but the seed heads endure. Their darkness, size, and symmetry (indeed mathematical symmetry) add to the visual texture of the prairie.

It is hard to believe that such an exotic looking plant as the While Wild Indigo is native to our midwestern and Central Minnesotan prairies. Notice its seed pods darkening above it. 

The height of the Compass Plant, shown here, is up to seven, sometimes even eight feet tall. Such contrast adds to the beauty of the prairie.  

We could use more white in the prairie this time of year. And that is what the Culver's Root flower provides. I seeded this prairie about eight years ago, and this is the first year that the Culver's Root has shown itself this dramatically. 

This is an elevated view of the prairie in our commons. I like the contrast between the uniformity of the turf grass, and the naturalness of the prairie.

The beginning of the flowering of the Goldenrod (behind the Purple Coneflower shown here) marks for me the turning point of the prairie and the seasons. Plants are mellowing, focusing less on growth and more on seed dispersal. 

A photo and a side note: we have never done justice to this small cluster of seven Bur Oaks. I mowed and sprayed this area to begin preparing it for a reseeding of Oak Savannah grasses and wildflowers. 

Bur Oaks on our 80 Acres

Much of the photography in this blog is taken on our 80-acre farm here on the edge of St. Joseph, in Central Minnesota. More than half of our land was too low or too wet to come under till, which means it has some remnant native plants. One of them is the Bur Oak. Indeed, the landscape of this part of Minnesota was once defined by the Bur Oak, as well as a whole system of native grasses and wildflowers. This ecosystem, or biome, we call the Oak Savanna. 

As I said in a previous post, the Bur Oak is a slow-growing tree, with a life expectancy of 200 years. Some have been measured to live 400 years, making them the longest living plants in our area.

This Bur Oak was about my height when we built our house in 1987. That makes it at least 35 years old. 

One aspect of the Oak Savanna is that the trees in it are spread out, allowing sunlight to penetrate the woodland floor. Such sunlight allows for a good many of prairie, or full-sun, plants to inhabit the a savanna. And of course the oaks will have a good many partial sun/partial shade (but not dense shade) native wildflowers under them. In many ways, a good savanna looks like a prairie with Bur Oaks in it. 

Because these trees grow slowly, their wood is more dense. So, square foot for square foot, these trees have stronger, heavier wood, which is why people like them for making things and for burning. The reason one sees "Oak Fire Wood" for sale is because an Oak log will put out more heat, and burn longer, than other lighter woods like Pine or Poplar. 

This Bur Oak is easily three feet in diameter, making it a two hundred year old tree. It has grown in a lower, wetter part of our land.

I'm guessing that there were many more oaks on our property at one time, but they were cleared to create tillable land and were used for construction. 

This cluster of Bur Oaks is unusual on our property. I assume a squirrel collected and stored acorns from the nearby Oak in the previous photo. Together they make up a nice little savanna in our wetlands. Because their acorns may have all come from the same tree, they are all of the same family, and therefore sharing similarities in structure, which I look for when I walk by them.