Tree-weavin' Scot's Pine for Prairie

Last Saturday I had the chance to visit an interesting site within the Rice Lake Plains in Northumberland County.  The property was recently acquired by the NCC and our goal for the day was to assemble a list of vascular flora for the property.  Given the presence of tallgrass prairie remnants in the area, we came across a few expected goodies as well as a few surprises.

The site is perhaps 1/4 Scot's Pine by area, but hopefully in due time some will be removed or fall victim to a prescribed burn.  I got my tree-weavin' on; shimmy, shoot the gap, find the prairie (see this video for an introduction to the concept of tree-weavin').  I would hazard a guess that 1/4 of the ground cover was Poison Ivy, a tricky species to work with when doing burns as the irritant properties of the plant are taken up in the smoke.  Anyways, a nice site with rolling hills, well-drained soils, and a mix of prairie, old field, plantation and successional poplar stands.

Cylindric Blazing Star (Liatris cylindracea) was in full bloom; Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) had, for the most part, gone to seed.

Gray Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis), a species commonly found thriving among inhospitable gravelly substrates, adds a bit of yellow to the mix.

There were a dozen or so of the white form of Cylindric Blazing Star.

One of the highlights was Stiff Yellow Flax (Linum medium).  There are 10 species of flax known from Ontario with all 6 of the native species ranked as S3 or lower.

This Early Figwort (Scrophularia lanceolata) stuck out among the knee-high vegetation surrounding it.

Another highlight for the day, a south-facing slope was home to a good number of Prairie Buttercup (Ranunculus rhomboideus).

I wondered into the woods after lunch and found some Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) growing among some large pine.

Not much of a show-stopper, but the group was quite happy to turn up a patch of Frostweed (Crocanthemum bicknellii) which upon closer inspection of the small, exposed sandy area, was right beside a patch of Intermediate Pinweed (Lechea intermedia).

A single patch of Pinesap (Monotropa hypopithys) was noted, obtaining nutrients from the Scot's Pine above it.

Sky Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense) was beginning to bloom.  Similar to Arrow-leaved Aster (S. urophyllum) and Smooth Aster (S. laevis), this species is easily identified by its deeply cordate basal leaves.  Arrow-leaved tends to have notably 'winged' leaf petioles and an upswept, white inflorescence, while Smooth has glabrous leaves (though it shares the bluish-mauve colour of the petals of Sky Blue).  All can be found in prairies and drier habitats, sometimes all three at a single site.

The cream coloured blooms of Tall Cinquefoil (Drymocallis arguta).  It still stings to think of the flat of plugs I grew out for my campus prairie garden; one year they were planted (with signage no less!), the next year, weeded out by well-meaning undergrads.

 Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans) in bloom.

Afterwards, I made a trip over to the Red Cloud Cemetery, a site which was situated within tallgrass prairie which has been allowed to revert to a somewhat natural community (albeit with a few headstones).