just for Eeyore

Streamside thistle

sticky, sticky, Sticky

Commonly known as Curlycup gumweed, a native flower of dry prairie places. Know to both modern herbalists  and to Native people as a medicinal herb, it was used for everything from a poultice for poison ivy to a treatment for breathing problems to a remedy for saddle sores on horses and skin rashes on humans. The downward curving bracts exude a sticky resin, hence its common name. A September bloomer and an obvious friend to bees.

sometimes you just Need...

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum)

 sharp eyes!

I had no idea that this little prairie flower had taken up residence in one of my grassy flowerbeds. Not a grass relative, but a close cousin of the Rocky Mountain iris that is also blooming at the moment. You need to be an early riser to catch this little blossom, she closes her eyes for the day by mid-afternoon, and is nearly impossible to find in the grass when she is sleeping.

Native Americans of the Northern Plains used an infusion of the root to cure stomach and intestinal problems, and the flowers are a favorite of bees. Turkeys and songbirds savor the seeds, which may explain where they came from.

for Becka and Andy

After 16 years and a couple of days, the Rocky Mountain Iris are still blooming right on time, just for you.

Thomas Nuttall, 1786-1859

Nuttall's violet is one of the earliest of the prairie wildflowers to bloom in the "wild" part of my yard, and one of my favorites. Named in honor Thomas Nuttall, a British born naturalist and one of America's pioneer paleontologists and plant collectors.

Nuttall was the curator of the Harvard Botanic Garden in the 1820s and at the Philadelphia Academy of Science in the 1830s. He traveled west and collected many of the prairie species first seen by Lewis and Clark whose sample plants were lost during their Voyage of Discovery. Nuttall is honored by not only having the violet named for him, but 4 other plants and 4 bird species as well.