The weather is getting hot and we can now start to think about summer. One of our earliest summer prairie plants, ox-eye (or false) sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), is now starting…

Google Street View provides an on-the-ground view of a street and its surroundings. It works in a lot of areas of the United States, including, apparently, all of Dane County.…

One of the joys of having your "own" natural area is meeting people who are also enjoying the site. On Saturday I was doing my weekly survey of our Sandhill…

Yesterday Kathie and I toured an interesting private savanna site near Rush Creek State Natural Area. This SNA is part of the blufflands on the Mississippi River. The tour was…

Glade mallow (Napaea dioica), a handsome plant of wet prairies and marshes, is the only plant endemic to the north-central United States. On the state species list for Wisconsin, it…

Now is wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) time, although there are few places where you can see this handsome prairie plant . Last evening Kathie and I led our annual field…

Japanese hedge parsley (Torilis japonica) is one of the so-called emerging weeds for southern Wisconsin. Unfortunately, it has been at Pleasant Valley Conservancy ever since we started restoration work. I'm…

Nick Faessler of the Prairie Bluff Chapter of the Prairie Enthusiasts has designed a clever shovel for digging wild parsnip, sweet clover, or any other herbaceous weed. These are sold…

The late spring prairie flora is not as colorful as the summer flora, but there are some nice species. Generally, these species march in sequence across the calendar.Two weeks ago…

Bird's foot violet (Viola pedata) is one of those great early spring prairie plants. (See my post of May 17.) On one of our remnants we have a nice large…