Laurels and Barbs #1

This week I drove from State College to Baltimore, and instead of listening to Toby from Elmo stump the chumps, I was appalled by what I saw along the highway. Any time you see in early September a roadside that looks like an Autumn scene - dried up plants, red leaves on the sumac and wilted milkweed - you can bet the prairie that herbicides have been sprayed. I was so appalled, I was DWI. Driving While Irritated.

Along the highways in Pennsylvania there were stretches of road where ALL of the vegetation within sprayer range had been Agent Oranged. Some of this was in hard-to-reach places and was getting sort of tall for the edge of a highway, but much of it was neither tall nor in a place that a brush cutter couldn't reach. PennDoT had simply decided that a preemptive strike was in order, and left behind an ugly, lifeless roadside wasteland. If you're going to take a drive to enjoy the fall wildflowers I know a couple of highways I wouldn't recommend.

And then I crossed the Mason-Dixon Line...

Along Interstate 70 MDOT is using herbicides to kill Ailanthus trees. Groves of these invasive weeds stand dead, while others have just been sprayed and are in the process of dying. Nearby grass was green and wildflowers were blooming. Highway right-of-ways are often the first places an invasive plant thrives before spreading into the surrounding countryside, and it is nice to see MDOT taking action to stop at least one species of invasive plant from spreading any further without blackening the whole roadside.

LAURELS to MDOT...BARBS to PENNDOT!

Southern Slender Lady's Tresses (Spiranthes lacera)

Dr. Scribner, I presume...

Last week Carl Keener and I visited the prairie in search of a few of the rarer grasses that have been reported there. The prairie is steadily shrinking and each year brings the risk that another of the rare plants will finally be shaded out and lost from the prairie, so our success was far from certain. However, hopes were high as we began our search and we were soon rewarded by finding not a grass, but a new spot where a single Ladies Tresses orchid was blooming. This fall I have seen four of the tiny, distinctive blooms at four scattered locations on the prairie. Each six-inch stalk rises directly from the ground (the leaves are gone at this time of the year) and holds many tiny, white blossoms that are unmistakably orchids if you look closely enough. The blossoms are arranged in a spiral around the stalk which is surely the origin of the name of the genus: Sprianthes. These plants are reportedly the Southern Slender Ladies Tresses Orchid (Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis), a species which is by no means common but isn't among the rarest plants found at the prairie. I'll post a picture of the orchid.

The rarest plants at the prairie include Scribner's Panic grass (Panicum oligosanthes). This unassuming little plant, which to be honest looks a lot like crab grass, is found widely across the center of the continent but is known from only two locations in Centre County, and no PA locations west of Centre County. Dr. Keener and I set out to find this grass and identify it and a few of the other small panic grasses that grow at the site. I really should say that we both set out to find grasses, but only Dr. Keener really endeavored to identify them. The identification of panic grasses is tricky, so I am happy to leave it to the pros. We managed to find a few plants that appeared to represent at least a couple of different species of Panicum. Back at the Penn State herbarium Dr. Keener was able to identify two specimens as Panicum oligosanthes, presumably the subspecies (var. scribnerianum) known as Scribner's panic grass. Another specimen was identified as Panicum capillare sensu lato. The classification of panic grasses is complex, but this species includes the plant knows as Gattinger's Panic Grass that others have reported from the prairie.

I'm sure most of my readers are thinking that it would be great to have an obscure grass named after yourself, so I did a little digging to find out just who Scribner and Gattinger were to merit a plant name. My five minutes of internet research indicates that Frank Lamson Scribner was chief of the Division of Agrostology, US Department of Agriculture. On 1883 he participated in a plant collecting trip through Montana and described the panic grass that is named after him. Scribner also described (and therefore named) Gattinger's Panic grass, but I do not know who Gattinger was. Another few minutes on the internet was required for me to learn that Agrostology is the study of grasses.

If anyone reads this far you must be very interested in eponymous grasses of xeric limestone prairies (I'm sure there is an internet forum on the subject), so here is one additional tidbit. It turns out that the most characteristic grass of the prairie (Sideoats grama - Bouteloua curtpiendula) is named after either Claudio or Esteban Boutelou, who were spanish agriculturalists and gardeners.

Out with the New, In with the Old

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours clearing brush at the prairie. This time I was working around the largest remnant prairie patch which contains a nice variety of unusual wildflowers. The last time we cleared brush we worked at a smaller remnant patch. Last time we moved the brush across the prairie remnant and created a brush pile on the other side of the dirt road. This was a good way to get the brush far enough out of the way that it shouldn't interfere with future prairie expansion, but moving the brush across the prairie caused some minor damage to the Sideoats Grama (the native grass that identifies this as a xeric limestone prairie). I expected we might see some damage, so I chose the first remnant we cleared because it had only grass (no rare prairie wildflowers). Grass, I believe, can take trampling better than some of the wildflowers and should quickly recover from the damage we inflicted as an unavoidable side effect of clearing.

The large prairie remnant has a lot of wildflowers as well as grass, and I want to minimize there, especially since it is fall when a lot of wildflowers are producing seed. Therefore yesterday I moved the brush uphill away from the prairie instead of moving it across the prairie as we did last time. Not only did this help prevent damage to the prairie, but it meant that I had to move the brush a shorter distance, which made the work go a lot more quickly.

Under the brush I found a nice sampling of prairie plant species. There was some Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) and Prairie Brome (Bromus kalmii), two grasses that are characteristic of limestone prairies. I found at least one stunted Whorled Rosinweed (Silphium trifoliatum) which can grow to 6 feet tall, but under the shade of the Autumn Olives was a spindly three-footer. There were lots of Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) and Wild Bergamot (Mondarda fistulosa). I also found several native Field Thistles (Cirsium discolor). These natives resemble the weedy alien thistles that are common on lawns and farm fields. However, the natives aren't quite as spiny and do not grow rampant on your lawn. Instead they are rather uncommon wildflowers and in this case are one of the species that help distiguish this site as a unique remnant of a native habitat that is fast disappearing.

I've posted a photo of Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor) taken at Box Hollow prairie in early September.

Harvest Time

Late summer and fall are the times of the year when most native plants set seeds, so I have been collecting a few prairie seeds for use in the restoration. Some parts of the prairie are in bad shape but can probably be restored quickly just by cutting the shrubs and trees that are shading out the prairie plants. In other areas the prairie plants seem to be gone or nearly gone, so we plan to scatter some seeds from other parts of the prairie to help fill in the bare spots. This week I collected seeds of Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) and Prairie Brome (Bromus kalmii). These grasses are most easily identified by their flowers and the seed heads that follow. Like most grasses, the seeds turn straw colored when they're ripe and I collect them by simply stripping the seeds (and miscellaneous other dried bits of plant) by hand. I store the seeds in plastic bags either in my refrigerator or in my unheated garage to give them the cooling they need to sprout. Like the seeds of most temperate zone plants, these probably need to be chilled to simulate winter before they'll sprout. Otherwise, the seeds might sprout in fall and be killed by winter weather before they have a chance to grow and gain some strength. Being programmed to wait for a long period of chilling means seeds don't sprout until spring, when conditions for growing are better. At least that is the way most native plant seeds behave, and I plan to proceed on the assumption that Sideoats Grama and Prairie Brome seeds are similar. I have to admit that I don't plan to try NOT chilling some of the seeds to see if they will still sprout in the spring, so I won't know for sure if chilling is necessary.

I Smell Chemlawn

One of the neighbors here must be having the lawn sprayed with weed killer. It is one of the many lengths we go to in order to keep nature at bay and keep our .25 acres neat and tidy. We all claim to be nature lovers, but we strip our lots bare of any nature that might have existed and replace it with a neat and tidy lawn and a few neat and tidy plants from Europe or Asia we bought at Walmart. We have very little appreciation for the environment that is around us. Anything that doesn't fit our idea of what nature should be we cut, kill, or spray, and proudly show off the results to the neighbors, challenging them to keep up.

A prairie isn't neat and tidy. Last year's grass stems still blow in the breeze, the Black-eyed Susans never seem to grow in a row, and sticks, thorns, and bugs are everywhere. It takes time to appreciate this scrubby stand of Sideoats Grama and Poverty Grass for what it is, a haven for rare plants, a part of the past, and a unique, irreplacable treasure. Our little prairie is just one of countless unique natural spots. Most never get a name, and go unnoticed until eventually they are cut down, cleared, overrun by nonnative plants, or replaced with a tidier, sanitized version of themselves. At least for now, Box Hollow prairie won't share this fate. Maybe by restoring Box Hollow prairie we can not only save one unique natural place, but also inspire a little more appreciation for our environment and all the wild, untidy, natural things it contains.

We Like the Change

Before


After

The Crew

Labor Day Workforce

First Workday

Today is the first day we've gotten our hands dirty restoring the prairie, and I think we made some good progress. A crew of five worked for about 3 hours cutting and removing brush from a small prairie remant, and now the sun shines on lots of Sideoats Grama that was slowly dying in the shade. Our crew ranged in age from 38 to 7, but everyone found a way to help out. In addition to cutting and removing brush, we also flagged the edge of the prairie where it borders the dirt road to indicate to the Penn State Farm Operations crews where we plan to work.

We first cut the brush with a chainsaw, then dragged the cuttings to a brush pile location which also had to be cleared of brush. The majority of the brush consisted of two species of shrub honeysuckle (Lonicrera morrowii and L. mackii) and Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellata). These are all non-native shrubs and they are the shrubs most responsible for the disappearance of the prairie at Box Hollow. Another invasive non-native shrub, a species of privet that I think is Ligustrum obtusifolium was also removed. We cut several native plants, too including a couple of small White Pines (Pinus strobus), Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium), and Black Walnut (Juglans nigra). We left a few large Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) standing amid the prairie grasses. Black Walnut, Red Cedar, and Blackhaw Viburnum are among the native plants that are common on this site. Red Cedars are characteristic of xeric limestone prairies so we plan to leave at least some of them standing as long as they aren't so thick they shade out the grasses and forbs of the prairie.

The two photos posted today are a before and after shot of the prairie patch we cleared. The large shrubs in the center or the photo were Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera mackii), which are easy to cut and remove. The taller shrubs in the background were Autumn Olive, which have much denser wood and many short branchlets, making them harder to remove. In the end, it all ended up in a brush pile, where it will provide habitat for the local cottontails and field mice.

Roadside Prairie Patches

In addition to a few larger patches, there are many smaller patches of prairie at Box Hollow. This photo shows the one that most looks like a prairie. There is a solid stand of native grasses here with few weeds or invading shrubs, providing a glimpse into the past when prairie like this covered thousands of acres in central Pennsylvania. The remnant prairies that remain add up to only a couple of acres.

The Big Patch

This is the largest patch of prairie left at Box Hollow, measuring maybe 50 feet wide by about 75 feet long, and guarded by two large rocks placed at the entrance. The land here is owned by Penn State University, and I assume the university placed the rocks to block vehicle access to an abandoned dirt road that runs through the middle of this photo. I think the road may be partly responsible for the existence of this patch. These dirt roads are mown once in a while, and that may have helped keep down the shrubs that are taking over the prairie. The rocks make a nice landmark and picnic table.