Prairie Plant of the Day Monday 9/27, 2010

Prairie Plant of the Day Monday 9/27, 2010

Name of plant: Purple top

Wildlife information:

Plant Description: This native perennial grass is about 3-4' tall The blooming period occurs from mid-summer to early fall and lasts about 2-3 weeks for a colony of plants. After blooming, the spikelets lose their purple color and become brown.

Interesting information: The caterpillars of several skippers feed on Purpletop.

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GOOD N/A GOOD GOOD N/A N/A FAIR FAIR

Prairie Plant of the Day Tuesday 9/28, 2010

Name: Brome Grass

Wildlife Habitat Values:

Description of Plant:Smooth brome grass (Bromus inermis L.) is a leafy, sodforming perennial grass that is best suited for hay or early spring pasture. It is deep rooted and spreads by underground rhizomes.

Interesting Info:Sod-forming grasses like Brome tends to become too thick to allow easy movement by some wildlife and provide little food value

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Prairie Plant of the Day Wed/Thurs 9/29-9/30, 2010


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Name: Common RagweedWildlife Habitat Values:

Description of Plant: Common Ragweed is an annual and grows up to five feet tall. It has hairy stems and light green leaves, up to four inches long. Ragweed flowers are yellowish-green and small. They grow in clusters up to six inches long near the top of the plant.

Interesting Info: Ragweed is a good source of food and cover for wildlife. Eastern Cottontails eat the plants, and insects, such as grasshoppers, eat the leaves. Some animals which eat ragweed seeds include: Meadow Vole, Dark-eyed Junco, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Bobwhite, Purple Finch, Mourning Dove, American Goldfinch, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.


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POOR POOR GOOD GOOD N/A N/A GOOD GOOD


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Prairie Plant of the Day Friday October 1, 2010

The following animals eat Smooth Sumac berries: Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Mourning Dove, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird, Common Crow, Purple Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Phoebe, American Robin, European Starling, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Chipmunk, and Eastern Cottontail.

Eastern Cottontails also eat bark, and White-tailed Deer eat leaves and stems.

Smooth Sumac is a pioneer plant. This means it is one of the first plants to take over a field.

Name: Common Smooth SumacWildlife Habitat Values:

Description of Plant: The colony-forming smooth sumac is a 10-20 ft. shrub with short, crooked, leaning trunks and picturesque branches. It grows in open woods, fields, roadsides, and edges. It prefers dry soil. The leaves of this shrub have lots of small leaflets which together make one "leaf."

Interesting Info: Raw young sprouts were eaten by the Native Americans as salad. The sour fruit, mostly seed, can be chewed to quench thirst or prepared as a drink similar to lemonade. Boiled fruit as a remedy for diarrhea. Diuretic. Roots and berries steeped to make wash for sores.


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FAIR POOR FAIR GOOD N/A N/A FAIR GOOD

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/glossary.htm#bark

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/glossary_hp.htm#pioneer

Prairie Plant of the Day Monday October 5, 2010

• Name of Plant: Showy Tick Trefoil• Wildlife Habitat Values:

• Description:This native perennial is about 3' tall. The leaflets are 2-3½" long and less than half as wide. The fruits of Showy Tick Trefoil are hairy pods, split into triangle-shaped seeds. The seeds of Showy Tick Trefoil are eaten by Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Eastern Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, Virginia Opossum, and White-footed Mouse.White-tailed Deer eat leaves and stems.

Interesting info: Several Desmodium species contain potent secondary metabolites. They are used aggressively in agriculture as part of the push-pull technology. Tick-trefoils produce extremely high amounts of antixenotic allomones - chemicals which repel many insect pests - and allelopathic compounds which kill weeds. Tick-trefoils are generally useful as living mulch and as green manure, as they are able to replenish soil fertility due to their nitrogen fixation.


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GOOD POOR GOOD POOR N/A N/A GOOD GOOD

Plant of the Day Friday 9/17/2010

• Name of Plant: Queen Anne’s Lace• Wildlife Habitat Values:

• Description: Queen Anne's Lace, also called "Wild Carrot," is a common plant in dry fields, ditches, and open areas. This plant is best known for its flowers, which are tiny and white, blooming in lacy, flat-topped clusters. Each little flower has a dark, purplish The fruits of Queen Anne's Lace are spiky, and they curl inward to build a "birds' nest" shape. This plant blooms from May to October. It is a biennial plant, which means it lives for two years. It will spend the first year growing bigger, and then bloom the second year.

Interesting info: It was introduced from Europe, and the carrots that we eat today were once cultivated from this plant. Some animals have benefited from the arrival of this wildflower. Caterpillars of the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly eat the leaves, bees and other insects drink the nectar, and predatory insects, such as the Green Lacewing, come to Queen Anne's Lace to attack prey, such as aphids.People can eat the large taproot, which of course, is a carrot. The leaves of the plant, though, are toxic, and may irritate the skin.

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Name: Indian Hemp


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Prairie Plant of the Day Monday Oct 11, 2010

• Name of Plant: Wild Raspberry• Wildlife Habitat Values:

• Description: Fruits and canes. Includes raspberries. Excellent wildlife coverand nesting. Wild turkey, ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasant, blue jay,various woodpeckers, tufted titmouse, mockingbird, gray catbird,brown thrasher, robin, wood thrush, veery, cedar waxwing,grackle, oriole, tanager, cardinal, grosbeak, rufous-sided towhee,raccoon, chipmunk, squirrel, deer, and rabbit.

Interesting info: perennial shrub, 1-2 m tall, stems (canes) upright, biennial, prickly, often with gland-tipped hairsalternate; compound; 3-5 leaflets per leaf on first-year canes, egg-shaped, sharply pointed, doubly saw-toothed; usually 3 leaflets per leaf on second year (flowering) canes, end leaflet largest.


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Plant of the day Monday 9/13/2010

Plant of the day Tuesday 9/14/2010

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Plant of the Day

• Name of Plant: Common Milkweed • Wildlife Habitat Values:

Description: Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is a perennial herb growing from a deep rhizome. The hairy stems are usually solitary from a simple to branched and thickened base, and are 6-20 dm (1.9-6.5 ft) tall. The opposite leaves have broadly ovate to elliptic blades that are 10-20 cm (3.9-7.9 in) long and 5-11 cm (1.9-4.3 in) wide. The leaves are sparsely hairy above and densely hairy below, and the petiole is 0.2-1.4 cm (0.08-0.77 in) long.

Interesting info: People have used milkweed for fiber, food, and medicine all over the United States and southern Canada. Milkweeds supply tough fibers for making cords and ropes, and for weaving a coarse cloth The pods are delicious when properly cooked, and the flowers are also edible. Some people eat the leaves and young shoots, but they are not recommended,


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Prairie Plant of the Day Monday Oct. 25, 2010

Name: Giant Ragweed


Description of Plant:This is a native annual plant from 3-12' tall, branching occasionally. The preference is full sun to light shade, moist conditions, and fertile loamy soil. Under these circumstances, Giant Ragweed can develop into a huge plant. It also tolerates slightly drier conditions, but the large leaves have a tendency to wilt and wither away if there's a significant drought. Poor soil containing some clay or gravel is also tolerated Interesting Info: It has some ecological value to various moths, but otherwise is less important than Ambrosia artemesiifolia (Common Ragweed).


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Plant of the Day

Prairie Plant of the Day Wed/Thurs October 27,28 2010

• Name: Bull Thistle

Thistles are a good food source for many animals. Eastern Cottontails and White-tailed Deer eat the leaves and stems. Flower nectar is consumed by hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. Seeds are popular with many birds, such as American Goldfinches and Juncos, as well as mice and other small mammals Thistle is a biennial plant, which means it lives for two years and then dies. The first year it grows a rosette, a cluster of leaves near the ground. The second year it grows flowers and fruits, spreading seeds before it dies.

Thistles have pretty purple to pink flowers, one to two inches wide. Leaves are three to six inches long. Bull Thistles can reach six feet tall.This plant, which is in the Sunflower family, can grow in fields, gardens, and roadsides. Bull Thistle is an introduced plant, but is now common

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Plant of the Day

Prairie Plant of the daySept. 2010

Name of Plant :Little Bluestem


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• Name of Plant: Big Bluestem• Wildlife Habitat Values:

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• Name of Plant: Switch Grass• Wildlife Habitat Values:

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• Description: Fruits and canes. Includes raspberries. Excellent wildlife coverand nesting. Wild turkey, ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasant, blue jay,various woodpeckers, tufted titmouse, mockingbird, gray catbird,brown thrasher, robin, wood thrush, veery, cedar waxwing,grackle, oriole, tanager, cardinal, grosbeak, rufous-sided towhee,raccoon, chipmunk, squirrel, deer, and rabbit.

Interesting info: perennial shrub, 1-2 m tall, stems (canes) upright, biennial, prickly, often with gland-tipped hairsalternate; compound; 3-5 leaflets per leaf on first-year canes, egg-shaped, sharply pointed, doubly saw-toothed; usually 3 leaflets per leaf on second year (flowering) canes, end leaflet largest.


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• Name of Plant: Side Oat Grama• Wildlife Habitat Values:

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Prairie Plant of the Day Monday 9/27, 2010