Wildflower Week

How many of us have thrilled to see a meadow filled with bluebonnets or to find the very first wildflower of spring alongside a hiking trail? The fields at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge are blazing now with Coreopsis, Coneflower, Mexican Hat, Gaillardia and more.

"Painted Flowers" by Dana Crites

In recognition of the significance of our precious natural heritage of native flora, Michael L. Young, Acting Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, proclaimed May 21-27, 2017, as National Wildflower Week. “I call upon the people of the United States to join me in celebrating the United States Department of Agriculture's management of native wildflowers and other plants as well as the enduring benefits provided to society by native plant resources in America's National Forests and Grasslands.”

Barbara's-buttons (Marshallia caespitosa) at HNWR by Robert Jones

Why wildflowers?  Here is the answer, from Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center:

Native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and trees do much more than add beauty to the landscape. They help conserve water, reduce mowing costs, provide habitat for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife, protect the soil, and save money on fertilizer and pesticides. As Lady Bird Johnson said, native plants also “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”

Phaon Crescent on Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) by Carl Hill

But North American native plants, defined as those that existed here without human introduction, are disappearing at an alarming rate due to human activities, such as urban development, agribusiness and the introduction of invasive species. The loss of native plant communities has reduced wildlife habitat and the genetic diversity necessary for balanced ecosystems.

Native plants are not only hardy and require less effort to maintain in home or commercial landscapes but they can provide food and sources for traditional and new forms of medicine.

The Texas Dept. of Transportation, usually referred to as TXDOT, provides an online brochure, Texas Wildflowers, depicting numerous Texas wildflowers, details about each of the ten eco-regions of our state, driving tours and destinations for wildflower viewing.

Happy Wildflower Week!

To Green Your Garden, Go Native

From the US FWS Newswire

How ‘green’ is your garden? Well, now may be last chance this year to plant seeds of wildflowers native to your region that will give you low-maintenance blooms next spring and all summer long. Not only will they thrive — they’ll support native birds, insects and other pollinators that depend on familiar, home-grown species for a healthy ecosystem.

“Native species evolved in the local environment and have developed complex interrelationships with other area plant species as well as fine tuning to local climate and soil conditions,” says Kathleen Blair, an ecologist at Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. Exotic plant species — non-natives, including many commercially available garden flowers — haven’t. That means, she says, “If you plant non-native or exotic species, a whole lot of other local species cannot use them.”

It’s possible that going native might help save a local ecosystem, or at least parts of one. That’s what motivates Pauline Drobney, a biologist at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa, where the staff is working to restore the globally threatened tallgrass prairie savannah. Each year, says Drobney, staff and volunteers plant up to 250 species of native plants on the refuge.

Does planting native mean sacrificing flash and drama? No way, says Drobney, who won over a skeptical neighbor by showing him the butterfly milkweed and blazing star in her yard. “It was just knock-your-socks-off color,” she says.

Some non-natives or exotics have become ecological nightmares, escaping backyards to rampage across entire regions, choking out native species as they spread. Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria, native to Europe) is a prime example. “It’s a nightmare of a plant. It’s now clogging up the wetlands of the East Coast,” says Blair.

Beyond that, planting an appropriate species will improve your odds of success. Some wildflowers are highly site-specific in terms of rainfall, elevation and soil type.

Here are just a few examples of some native wildflower favorites by region:

Great Plains/Prairie: blazing star, cream gentian, fall sunflower, prairie phlox, prairie violet, heath aster, bird’s foot violet. (“Not only does it bloom profusely, but it’s the obligate host food for the rare regal fritillary butterfly,” says Drobney about the last plant species.)

Southwest: lupin, beard-tongue (or penstemon; a real hummingbird favorite)

Chesapeake Bay watershed: butterfly weed, Joe-Pye weed (also known as trumpet weed), eastern or willow bluestar

Southeast: bee balm, black-eyed Susan

Pacific Northwest: broad-leaf lupine, spreading phlox

Upper Plains: rigid goldenrod, wild lily

Northeast: blue flag iris, New England aster

For reliable information on plants native to your region, consult your local native plant society. For Texas see http://npsot.org/ Some other good sources are:

• Department of Agriculture: http://plants.usda.gov/ or http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/nativegardening/index.shtml, which offers a variety of links and native plant information.
• Native Plant Information Network http://www.wildflower.org/ – houses a native plant database and searchable image directory maintained by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
• Plant Conservation Alliance http://www.nps.gov/plants/ – contains links to plant guides by region.
• U.S. National Arboretum http://www.usna.usda.gov/ – search “native plants”.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/ – search “native plants”.

ED Note: Source for Texas wildflower seeds: http://www.wildseedfarms.com/. For photos of wildflowers seen at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/photos.asp?album=12. for more infomration about Hagerman NWR, the official site is http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html

Bluebonnet photo by Callie Evans.

Tall Grass

By Pat Rowland (Orginally published in the Featherless Flyer , September, 2007)

During the late summer and early fall one can observe some of our most magnificent prairie plants in bloom. Big Bluestem and Indiangrass are a few of the most prominent seen at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.

Big Bluestem commonly called “turkey foot” because the seed head usually branches into three parts, is one of the most impressive native grasses flowering in late summer. Growing up to eight feet tall, it would make a man on a horse barely visible riding through a tall grass prairie in frontier days. Few, if any, grasses can equal Big Bluestem in quality or quantity of forage production. Since 1885, through overuse and abuse, this native grass has been killed out or greatly reduced in most of its original area.

Indiangrass (shown in photo) is one of the most attractive native grasses. Indiangrass is found growing throughout the bluestem belt of the United States. It is very nutritious and is also a high forage producer.

Both grasses are known as sod formers with short scaly underground stems and roots that saturate the top two feet of the soil and may even reach as deep as seven feet. Until the invention of the steel plow, farmers were unable to penetrate this thick mass of fibrous roots. All can be found on the native prairie area located on Hagerman NWR.

ED Note: According to Refuge staff, “Native prairie restoration is one of the ongoing projects on the refuge. It is estimated that close to 4,000 acres of the refuge were once native prairie. It is our goal to remove the current vegetative invaders and restore selected areas to native grasses and wildflowers."

Preparation has been underway for over a year along Bennett Lane and later this fall more grass and wildflower seeds will be planted. “The native grass mix includes the following species: Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Buffalograss (Buchloe dactylodies), Eastern Gamagrass (Tripsacum dactylodies), Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis), Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), Green Sprangletop (Leptochloa dubia) and Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).”

For more information about Hagerman NWR, the official website is http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html. For information about programs and activities of the Friends of Hagerman, please see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com.

Fall Flowers

By Pat Rowland

(Originally published in the Featherless Flyer, October, 2007)

Spring is when most people think of wildflowers in bloom. As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. However, native and restored prairies exhibit an abundance of colorful flowers through three seasons - spring, summer and fall. Two of the most impressive autumn flowers are Dotted Gayfeather and Maximilian Sunflower. Dotted Gayfeather (Liatris punctata, also known as “blazing star”, blooms from August to October, exhibiting a beautiful purple flowered spike and standing 1 to 2 feet high. Dotted Gayfeather has a root system over 21 feet deep and is a palatable and nutritious range plant. The bulb-like root has a carrot flavor in early spring and has been used for food by Native Americans.

Maximilian Sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) is closely associated with the bluestem grasses. It grows upright, singly or in a close cluster from a common rhizome. Maximilian sunflower (shown in photo by Sue Malnory) is palatable, nutritious, and readily eaten by all classes of livestock. It produces a heavy crop of seed that is excellent wildlife food. Both these plants can be found on the tall grass prairies located at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.

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Ed: Thanks to grants in 2009 and 2010 from the Prairie and Timbers Audubon Society, McKinney, Texas, prairie restoration work is underway along south Bennett Lane at the Refuge, with extensive planting of native grass and wildflower seeds.

For more information about Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, the official website is http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html and for information about the activities and programs of the Friends of Hagerman, http://www.friendsofhagerman.com.