Blue-joint grass? #phenology

In various locations and mixtures on our property we have both big and little bluestem grasses. Little bluestem predominates. We also have a variety of other grasses and sedges and maybe some reeds. This autumn, one sunny mid-afternoon, some grasses glowed golden.

blue-joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis)

Photo by J. Harrington

At first we thought they were little bluestem, but then we looked more closely and decided they're not. That's when the trouble started. We've been through each of our field guides and online guides several times, trying to determine what we had photographed. The seeds align in the wrong direction on the stem to be side-oats gamma. It's fairly easy to skim through the grasses sections and decide lots of "it's nots." The greater challenge is to conclude, with at least a modicum of certainty, "it is."

blue-joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) seed heads

Photo by J. Harrington

As usual, if any reader believes the identification is incorrect, please feel free to let us know your preferred identification. Meanwhile, we're proceeding with the idea that we have Calamagrostis canadensis identified. (The photo on the USDA web page threw us for awhile.) We're using the description and photos in Prairie Plants of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and this photo as our basis.

                     Grasses

By Heather Allen

So still at heart,

They respond like water

To the slightest breeze,

Rippling as one body,

And, as one mind,

Bend continually

To listen:

The perfect confidants,

They keep to themselves,

A web of trails and nests,

Burrows and hidden entrances—

Do not reveal

Those camouflaged in stillness

From the circling hawks,

Or crouched and breathless

At the passing of the fox.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.

Ducking season's change? #phenology

There's a flock of half-a-dozen or so wood ducks hanging around the west end of a small pond up the road from the house. Some may have returned to a Spring resting place. We're guessing hunting pressure has pushed them off bigger waters around here. Since wood ducks are reported to be one of the North Country's early migrants [see p.4], perhaps there's a message that Winter will be delayed and mild? [There are no ducks in the accompanying photo, no matter how hard you look.]

country pond in Autumn

Photo by J. Harrington

Leaf colors are now peaking but not as spectacular as some years. Nevertheless, the next week or two will be the time to get out and enjoy one of the best times Minnesota has to offer. Don't be surprised if we get snow around the first week of November. For that matter, do you remember the Halloween blizzard of 1991? Most of the time we've locked it away as a repressed memory.

early November snow

Photo by J. Harrington

We're hoping for a very delayed start to cold, freezing, snowy weather because there's still a bunch of buckthorn we'd like to get pulled, and a chance to smooth out the grounds before Winter sets in. Then we can spread some wildflower seeds on the snow and see what grows come Spring. If that doesn't work out, we'll do the ground prep and seed spreading after snowmelt. How's that for flexibility?

We hope that Friday 13th left you largely unharmed. We avoided, barely, a couple of near accidents with the jeep, so our luck for the week seems mostly used up. One of our favorite poets, Wendell Berry, has a poem we've included before, but it fits so well with Friday the 13th's hazards and this time of year. We hope you enjoy, both literally and figuratively,

The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry, Special Contributor

 When despair for the world grows in me
 and I wake in the night at the least sound
 in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
 I go and lie down where the wood drake
 rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
 I come into the peace of wild things
 who do not tax their lives with forethought
 of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
 And I feel above me the day-blind stars
 waiting with their light. For a time
 I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.