Today was the first official day of research, so we went out to the Botanic Garden’s Native Plants garden, where Meghan, Alyssa, and Taran taught Bob and me how to identify a bunch of different species. Here are two:
Baptisia alba (Wild White Indigo). This common flower is in the pea family, and so has pea-like blooms. It’s a beautiful tall plant, and commons in a cream variety as well.
Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie Dropseed). A thin grass that grows in these characteristic clumps.
Silphium perfoliatum (Cup Plant). The Silphium family is a big one for prairies, and includes Cup Plant, S. terebinthinaceum (Prairie Dock), S. integrifolium (Rosinweed), and S. perfoliatum (Compass Plant.) They all have yellow flowers when they bloom and rough, large leaves. Cup Plant acts like a cup (botanists can be very inventive when naming) and catches water where the leaves meet the stem, which is great for mosquito breeding unfortunately!
We spent some time in the Garden’s herbarium, where we identified and pressed two species we couldn’t name in the field. Tomorrow we’re off to Wildwood Nature Center for sampling!