Iowa Wildflower Week

The first week in May 2010 will be Iowa Native Plant Society's first Iowa Wildflower Week. Events are listed here. When I find a geocache (with kids or alone), being able to identify wildflowers has enriched my hiking. Maybe it's the way I grew up, but nature has always had a prominent place in my life. I see Iowa Wildflower Week as a great way to celebrate our spring ephemerals.

There are two Tuesday evening events. One at Margo Frankel Woods, home to GC19164 Back in Black and GC1Q3FR The BarnStormer and another at Jester Park. Jester Park Lodge has no nearby caches, but the park is home to several geocaches. I like to go early to event sites for some geocaching, and I make sure to photograph any unknown flowers. I look them up later with my field guides. I also keep a lifelist, which I'll discuss in the future.

So, yeah.......

Right. I have a blog. I've been neglecting this blog for a couple weeks. Why? Because of this blog: 

www.homelearningresources.com


My company, Three Sisters, produces homeschool events, and we just had two big ones last Sat. and last Wed. I expect to see some craft action here because we're going to have woodcarving classes for kids ages 11 and up. Interested? Visit the website above and search for "wood carving."

Violets

As in my last post about Dutchman's Breeches, violets can vary in color, too. We were tickled to find some eaten violets on a couple plants. You can see them here with a complete flower on the left.

Dutchman's Breeches Mystery

So my dear husband and I take a quick tour of Margo Frankel Woods' west side. Our quick survey tells us that it is NOT a good candidate for placing a geocache. It is cool, but the east side of the park is better suited for caching. And I had high hopes (read the last paragraph of this post from 2007). I am frequently torn -- excellent wild places that I'm not sure should be disturbed.

After the survey-tour, I went poking around and photographing Dutchman's breeches at the homeplace.

Mostly good memories. Then I notice a few of these:

This flower is pink and its stem is erect. Yellow and drooping is normal for Dutchman's breeches. I'm not finding any information in my reference books, field guides, or the internet for pink petals. My guess at the moment is a local variation. Does anyone out there in bloggerland have an idea about this?

100 Species Challenge #66

Specimen #66 Sycamore

Platanus occidentalis

Photo by me. Near GC1H4Q7 Holiday Fun.

See the white bark on two of the trees in the photo? They are sycamore trees. One is squatty and short and the other is tall -- different shapes, but they are the same.

My family is pretty familiar with this tree. My uncle next door had one in his yard, and our current neighbor across the street has one. We also have watched many a ball game in the shade of a sycamore.

The very large leaves and "balls" are fun for kids to play with.

The bark on the lower trunk is flaky and smooth. I was excited to recognize them -- something familiar!-- in Sequoia National Forest. I recently read on a listserve that Iowa has very few old sycamore trees. Web searches are yielding no information on a "sycamore plague," but I have requested archives. I think it will be interesting enough to post here.

Places to visit with sycamore information:

•  http://www.gpnc.org/sycamore.htm
• http://thebrentonarboretum.blogspot.com/2010/01/snow-storm-window-watching.html