Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie is a great site for compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), but this year only about 10% of the plants are flowering. Why? Even though they are non-flowering,…

After a while one gets bored with the masses of mid-summer yellow prairie flowers, which makes the purple species that are coming along now especially welcome. One of the great…

We have two Kawasaki Mule utility vehicles and they are indispensable for our restoration work. Thursday the red Mule broke down for Kathie when she was at the far end…

The topic today is showy tick trefoil, Desmodium canadense, a handsome species of prairies and open savannas. Since we have dealt with several native prairie/savanna species that are rhizomatous and invasive, we…

The farm house near our cabin was burned down by a former landowner. The land under and around the house was ignored until we removed the debris about 15 years…

I stumbled across a link to this video while editing the Oak Savanna page on Wikipedia. Well worth watching this 8 minute video. Although the species are different in Oregon…

Those battling weeds in natural areas can't help being depressed as they drive along and see large populations of enemy plants. Late summer is especially bad as these weeds start…

Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie State Natural Area is always one of the great sites for the showy butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), but this year is especially nice. I counted 180…

Although it may take a while, it is possible to replace smooth brome with a high diversity of native prairie species. In the early days of our restoration work on…

Sweet clover (Melilotus alba; M. officinalis) is probably the most expensive weed that we deal with in prairie restoration work. In contrast to garlic mustard and reed canary grass, the…