Prairie Photography | The Prairie Ecologist

As a photographer, I tend to gravitate toward small subjects, even when I should probably be paying attention to what else is happening around me. I spent the first couple days of this week at our Niobrara Valley Preserve, helping with the annual roundup of our west bison herd. I was up close and personal with more than 400 bison, surrounded by a sweeping landscape of prairie and river. As a result, here are some close-up photos of leaves I found during a break in the action.

This isn’t the first time I’ve come back from a bison roundup, only to share photos of leaves. In fact, it’s been almost exactly two years since I last did it. To be fair, I have also posted lots of photos of bison and bison roundups, and you can use the handy search function on this blog page if you’d like to see those. Today, though, you get to look at leaves. Or not – there’s plenty of other things you can look at on the internet. Go ahead, I won’t mind.

Anyone still here? Ok. For those of you who didn’t wander off to look at kittens or John Travolta memes, here are some more leaf photos. During some down time, I wandered toward a nearby stream. I first stopped to photograph oak leaves tenuously hanging onto branches (a few dropped every time a gentle breeze came up). Then, I made my way down to the water and got my knees wet along the edge of the stream as I photographed leaves in or near the water.

Some of the most interesting photos came from leaves just barely submerged under the clear water.

This cottonwood leaf had clearly been in the water recently, probably after one of the recent rains we’ve had.

I think this is my favorite of the bunch. These willow leaves seemed perfectly situated in the shallow rippling water.

Ok, I actually did take some photos of bison, the people working with them, an elk that wandered nearby, and a few other things. Maybe I’ll post some of those sometime, but people and bison all kinda look alike, don’t they? Leaves on the other hand…!

Dotted gayfeather (*Liatris punctata*) seeds at our family prairie last weekend.

This is the season of flying fluffy seeds. Asters, thistles, blazing stars, milkweeds, and other late season flowers are sending their seeds into the air, a few of which might actually land in a place where they can germinate. Each of those seeds is attached to a filamentous structure, variously called a pappus or coma, depending upon the species of plant. Those fluffy structures catch the wind and allow the seed to travel many miles, in some cases – though most land within a few meters of their origin.

Seeds that can float on the air are a nice adaptation for plants, but they are also attractive photographic subjects. Over the last week, I’ve photographed the seeds of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), dotted gayfeather (Liatris punctata) and tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum) in some local prairies. Here are a few of those photos for your Friday enjoyment.