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Photo of the Week – May 2, 2013

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As I wrote in an earlier post, my boys and I were at our family prairie last weekend.  Only three flower species were blooming.  One of those was ground plum (Astragalus crassicarpus, aka buffalo pea), and I took several photos of the flowers as I walked around.  This one was taken as the boys were waiting impatiently for me to get in the truck so we could get home for lunch.  As it turned out, the photo turned out to be my favorite of the day, and the boys didn’t starve.

Ground plum flowers at the Helzer prairie near Stockham, Nebraska.

Ground plum flowers at the Helzer prairie near Stockham, Nebraska.

Besides being an attractive flower in the early spring, ground plum also produces large edible pods that taste like raw peas when they’re still green.  Those pods grow to about an inch in diameter, and resemble plums – especially when they turn red later in the year.

I haven’t yet figured out why ground plum plants that flower in the spring don’t always produce pods.  We had one seed harvest year (2001) in which we collected a 30 gallon barrel full of seed pods from one 60 acre prairie, but I have never seen that kind of production since.  Most years, we do a lot of searching but find little seed – even where we know plants were blooming prolifically in the spring.  I assume it’s a combination of weather, management, and herbivory pressure, but that doesn’t really narrow it down much!

Photo of the Week – April 25, 2013

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I made a quick trip up to our Niobrara Valley Preserve this week to help set up time lapse cameras that will help document recovery from last year’s massive wildfires.  More on that next week…

The weather followed the same pattern we’ve seen the last couple weeks; cold and wet early, followed by gradual warming.  We delayed the trip a day to wait for the latest snowstorm to move through, but three inches of snow were waiting when we arrived mid-day on Tuesday.

Late April snow covers the Niobrara Valley.

Late April snow covers the Niobrara Valley.  The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve – Nebraska.

Most of the snow had melted by Tuesday evening, leaving barren post-wildfire soils exposed once more.  The cool spring has slowed early vegetation growth, though there were some sedges and a very few other species starting to green up in the prairies.

A rivulet of water runs out of melting snow.

A rivulet of water runs out of melting snow in the burned pine woodland north of the river.

Some of the cameras we set up will watch for soil erosion.  I was pleased not to see any evidence that severe erosion started over the winter – even with some decent rain and snow events.  There has been some, of course, but less than I’d expected.  Some of the erosion created interesting patterns in the ashy sandy soils (below).

A bur oak leaf lies in a pattern of sand and ash.

A bur oak leaf lies in a pattern of sand and ash.

The next several weeks and months of green-up will bring big changes to the appearance of the Niobrara Valley, which has been largely barren and drab-colored since the wildfires last July.  It’ll be really nice to see some green there again.