The MN wildflower blog

Maybe I should subtitle this:

Hope springs eternal

Today I took a walk through an area of Long Lake Regional Park that I don’t get to often–the east side of Rush Lake, between the lake and Old Highway 8, a stretch of nearly a quarter mile. While the west side has some very nice plant life, the east side is loaded with weeds and invasive species: sweet clover, butter and eggs, motherwort, lamb’s-quarters, buckthorn (of course) and a host of others. I got a nice surprise, though. Scattered along the way I came upon Culver’s root, wild bergamot, fringed loosestrife, and surprising amount of clammy groundcherry. None of it in huge quantities, but enough to make me think it wants to be saved. I’d start this new restoration project if I only had the time…

Hope springs eternal, part 2

A few months ago I wrote about The death of a prairie remnant. I’ve visited the site several times since then looking for signs of life. I had some hope at the beginning of June when some groundcherry and wild licorice looked like they might come up after all. I thought about changing that post’s title to “The prairie remnant that refused to die”, but the drought on top of the severe soil disturbance seemed to be more than the poor distressed plants could handle after all. Most just shriveled up after a couple weeks, including the 2 or 3 Nuttall’s evening primrose plants. Today I visited it again and found a wild licorice blooming. Sweet. Maybe some of it will survive after all.

I spent a couple hours at Long Lake Regional Park today. On the prairie, the prairie smoke and pussytoes are starting to go to seed, though there are still plenty of blooms left. The blue-eyed grass is blooming now, as is American vetch, lupine and Carolina puccoon. Bastard toadflax and golden alexanders are finally opening up—I saw the first buds on them weeks ago.

In the woods by Rush Lake, the giant colony of European lily-of-the-valley is in full bloom. When I went into the thick of it to take some pictures I thought I would pass out from the scent, it was so strong. Also blooming in the woods now are cream pea, starflower and drooping trillium. Last year I only saw a handful of trillium scattered about, but this year I found a clump of about a dozen flowering plants, plus the scattered loners. I was worried it was dying out, but now I’m not so concerned.

I spent the day at Wild River State Park, my first trip there this year. My duties in the Prairie Care program had me checking on pussytoes and sandwort. It looks like it will be a good year for pussytoes, but it’s too early to tell on the sandwort.

The large-flowered trilliums are blooming in droves now—there’s millions of them. Also blooming are nodding trillium, early meadow-rue, jack-in-the-pulpit, kittentails, large-flowered and sessile bellworts, prairie buttercup, miterwort, and a variety of violets: bird-foot, prairie, downy yellow, dog, and common blue. Yellow lady’s slipper is starting to bloom, but isn’t quite there yet.

We spent a couple hours in the afternoon spreading seed on a newly-burned part of the prairie. It was a blustery day and the wind did a good job of dispersing the seed. Even so, I had a bunch stuck to my clothes when I got home, enough to plant myself. We’ll see what sprouts.

It was a beautiful day today and I took a quick tour around Long Lake Regional Park. In the woods by Rush Lake, I saw the kidney-shaped leaves of little-leaf buttercup coming up. They are one of the early bloomers. The first leaves are coming out on a variety of shrubs, too, mostly gooseberry and elderberry.

On the prairie, prairie smoke is starting to sprout but it will be a few weeks yet before anything blooms. Pussytoes should be leafing up as well, though I didn’t see them.

Railroads have been a sanctuary for prairie remnants. The right-of-way along the tracks goes largely undisturbed, allowing patches of native plant communities to survive amidst urban development and expanding agriculture.

At Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton, one of my favorite places to be, the railroad runs the length of the park, forking at the north end near the old train depot. There are prairie remnants scattered along the tracks, with 2 especially nice spots: one near the fork and another near the swimming beach.

This week I discovered what is most likely the death of one of those remnants.

As part of the Northwest Quadrant Redevelopment project, sections of the railroad tracks are being dismantled. The rails and ties are being piled up next to the tracks near the swimming beach and construction workers and equipment have heavily disturbed the surrounding soil. Last year Nuttall’s evening primrose, wild licorice, Virginia ground cherry, prairie coneflower, butterfly-weed, and a number of native grasses had been found growing there. I have little hope they will survive this and expect to see more sweet clover and spotted knapweed take over in their place.

It makes me very sad.