porchprairie

[porchprairie]

having a good laugh about this beautiful, balding, federally-protected lady I met today. Native plants are the best but goddamn, if you're a celebrity bee, why not go for the trashy sugar rush ornamental cultivars?

Someone literally got in an argument with me over if rusty-patched bumblebees will nectar on hydrangeas and, well....

[porchprairie]

Know what i love? Killing buckthorn

^ this invasive little shit made the most satisfying rrrriiip when i finally pried it loose, which is important to know bc if you wanna kill these things, you gotta pull em out by the roots

That's easy to do when the plant is young, but if you miss the window and the roots get established, then it becomes an exercise in patience-- you're probably gonna have dig the bastard out several times before you kill it for good

Look at this bitch. I had my first go at it last year and it was so entrenched I couldn't even get a spade under the roots

I've read that clipping off the all the leaves and stems 2 or 3 times in a growing season makes it easier to remove the roots the following year, and that seems to be true--I clipped it twice last year and then let it start its spring growth before i tried again. Clipping the leaves means the plant wastes a bunch of energy growing new ones so it's not building more roots

This time i did manage to pry the roots out, but I still had to get a clippers and snip the rhizomes, which means there's probably enough plant still in the ground that we're in for at least one more season of this war of attrition

Honestly though? It's fun. The effort-to-reward cycle is really interesting bc each task is only maybe 30 minutes long and then it's done and you've killed the plant a little. And then in 2 months you come back and do it again and kill the plant a little more. I think this is what grinding down a video game boss must feel like, idk. All I know is, there used to be 3 buckthorns at my in-laws' place and now there are 2

FEELS GOOD

[porchprairie]

Mosquitoes actually are not replaceable in any ecosystem that naturally has them and that includes replacing them with any of the non biting species because these are the traits that make them so core to food webs:

Tiny

Can use every single pool of moisture to raise generations no matter how dirty and stagnant and low in oxygen

Can fly

Males get by on just sugars

Females take protein from larger animals to manufacture thousands more eggs

All these things combined allow thst ecosystem to make huge volumes of insects from conditions barren to most other macroscopic life. You might think there are other insects that seem to make huge massive swarms out of nothing but there's really nothing that hits all the same qualities *except other insects that also suck blood.*

It's the precise combo of being able to "prey" on things millions of times larger and breed in nothing but a few drops of filthy rainwater or the moisture in a rotten log. That's the most efficient combination for anything that size to multiply that rapidly where nothing else can even survive, except of course the things that can move in because they eat them :)

[porchprairie]

in carex hell. send thoughts and prayers to those of us who are trapped in carex hell

[porchprairie]

rosy sundew (Drosera spatulata) in the rain

[porchprairie]

[porchprairie]

The jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), also known as the spotted touch-me-not. When the seeds mature enough to start a new generation, their pods develop a nastic response and explode, dispersing the seeds in the environment. When the time comes, the cells of the seedpod accumulate and store mechanical energy based on their hydration level. Any external stimuli then overloads the system and the walls separate and quickly coil up on themselves, transferring energy to the seeds and launching them outwards. | Journal of Experimental Biology

[porchprairie]

Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin folks!

Are you interested in food crop trees? Canopy Nursery is open for preorders! They’re associated with the ageoforestry nonprofit The Savanna Institute, which is doing a lot of cool work

Deets on pickup:

Potted trees can be picked up in:

Champaign, IL

Prairie du Chien, WI

Columbus Junction, IA (chestnuts only & only June 7-9, 2025)

Bare root plants & cuttings can be picked up in:

Champaign, IL (chestnut, heartnut, and persimmon)

Spring Green, WI (black currant, willow)

[porchprairie]

BIGGEST NEWS

Blazing Star Gardens is open for presale!!!

This is the one company I preorder from, because Dustin has THE GOOD STUFF. Bastard toadflax, hoary puccoons, ground plum, Michigan/wood lilies, and wood betony? THE GOOD STUFF

[porchprairie]

Nothing like inhaling massive amounts of plant semen all summer

*grabs you by the shoulders* listen don’t get it twisted you CANNOT get it twisted. those are plant penises, NOT the sperm. once the pollen lands on the female structure in question, THEN it germinates and makes the sperm. do you know how many college biology students are threatened by this misinformation each year?? how many fall victim to the classic blunder??

[porchprairie]

the lichen knowledge iceberg i have constructed on request

[porchprairie]

old gods are waking

[porchprairie]

i hate when people defend those horrible monoculture lawns because they don't want bugs outside. like we don't live on planet bug

[porchprairie]

My dry-site prairie basket is coming right along. These are all narrow-rooted species that love full sun and fast drainage

From top clockwise:

Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)

Palid coneflower (Echinacea pallida)

Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Tall green milkweed (Asclepias hirtella)

Center, my new favorite, Illinois bundle flower (Desmanthus illinoiensis)

[porchprairie]

you have to help me. i'm developing an obsession with this lettuce (?) on the level of a gothic horror protagonist.

inat remains silent in my hour of need and you - yes, you, person with some level of botanical knowledge - are now my only hope.

at first i thought it was some fucking huge dandelion. that's what we usually get here, plain simple Taraxacum. a genetic fluke, perhaps. our yard is in full sun all day. who knows. after all, behold the herbaceous basal rosette, the glabrous, deeply toothed leaves...

[id: a shot from above of a plant that looks suspiciously like a very enthusiastic dandelion rosette. there are no flowers present. the rosette is about a foot in diameter. /end id.]

but it gradually became apparent that no dandelion would grow like this. we've never seen it flower. and it grew only larger, taller.

inat suggested Cichorioideae but could give me no further clues. no kind stranger named lactuca2014 or taraxacumfreak blessed my notifications with a positive id (an event i had not necessarily expected but certainly hoped for).

[id: a new picture of the same plant, taller and bushier now, with new and paler green growth towards the top. /end id.]

it is as tall as a shrub, now. what dandelion has this kind of stability, this kind of dogged determination to grow a single plant As Tall As Possible? you don't believe me? look. variable for scale.

[id: the plant from the front. a pale-skinned person stands next to it, giving a thumbs up. the plant is as tall as his waist and as tall as the handrail in the background that lines the stairs to a front door. in the foreground, an actual dandelion is visible, and much smaller. /end id.]

it has to be a fucking lettuce. that's the only conclusion i can possibly draw. a feral g-ddamn lettuce is growing in our front yard. right???

i need you to help me. i need to know the name of this neighbor. i need to know if i can eat it.

[id: a close-up shot of the young growth of the plant. the leaves look a whole lot like young lettuce. /end id.]

@headspace-hotel @rebeccathenaturalist @thedisablednaturalist i am on mobile and unable to look through other blogs i follow who might in a million years be able to help me positively id this creature; if you know, please let me know! if you don't, i would very much appreciate your help in spreading and sharing these pictures so i can find out!

we are on the east coast of turtle island. my friend the lettuce (?) has been growing for a few months now, maybe since early or mid march. i unfortunately do not know anything about our soil content. we are at the very edge of a coastal plain bordering on mixed deciduous forest but this is a yard, with semi-disturbed soil; we mow very rarely and it is mostly allowed to do whatever. including grow lettuces (?) apparently.

if it helps, other current residents include a variety of poaceae, oxalis, white clover, and dandelions; we had a lot of deadnettle a month or so ago and typically get plantago and fleabane as well as it gets hotter.

[porchprairie]

Wanna see something cute? (I think it's cute)

This bundle flower seedling tucks itself in at night

Left: daytime plant has compound leaves arranged in pairs with leaflets spread wide

Right: sleepytime! Nighttime plant folds its leaflets together like a book. The pairs of compoind leaves make a V-shape

[porchprairie]

Wanna see something cute? (I think it's cute)

This bundle flower seedling tucks itself in at night

Left: daytime plant has compound leaves arranged in pairs with leaflets spread wide

Right: sleepytime! Nighttime plant folds its leaflets together like a book. The pairs of compoind leaves make a V-shape