Tag Archives: platte river prairies

Photo of the Week – June 29, 2012

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This week I visited a portion of one of our restored prairies that I hadn’t been to for a while.  During the last couple of years we’ve been grazing it fairly hard, so the wildflower displays haven’t been fantastic.  I was pleased to see that the rest we’re giving the prairie this year has allowed those wildflowers to do their thing.

The site was seeded in 2003, and included a number of excavated wetlands.  Portions of the upland seeding came in well and others have some issues, but for the most part, the wetlands look great. 

This year, for the second time since we seeded the site, some of the wetlands are experiencing an explosion of an annual plant called prairie gentian (Eustoma grandiflorum).  The plant is closely related to, but in a different genus than, the gentian species familiar to many tallgrass prairie enthusiasts.  Our gentian is an annual that shows up mainly in wet prairies, with an apparent affinity for alkaline soils.  It’s an awfully pretty flower, and when it’s blooming in abundance, makes for a spectacular floral show.

Prairie gentian blooming along the edge of a restored wetland slough. The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.  You can click on this and any of the other photos in this post to see a larger, clearer, version of the image.

Click below to see more photos from yesterday morning.

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Reminder – July 13 Field Day is Fast Approaching!

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Recent rains have helped to ensure that we’ll have an abundance of flowers to look at during our Platte River Prairies Field Day on July 13, 2012.  It’s been hot and dry – and looks to continue that way for at least the next week – but we’ve had enough rain that most plants will still be green for our big event.  And, of course, that means that we’ll have a good supply of bees, ants, spiders, and other critters too!

If you’ve forgotten – or somehow missed the initial announcement – you can see all the details here.

Do you know what kind of garter snake this is? Are you sure? If you come on July 13, you can see a number of snakes and other reptiles and amphibians in person as shown by an actual herpetologist. Alternatively, if you don’t like snakes, you can be assured that there are no snakes in the Platte River Prairies. Not one. As far as you know.

We’d appreciate hearing from you ahead of time if you know you’re coming – so we can be sure to have enough snacks and drinks for everyone – but you’re more than welcome to just show up at the door too.  It will likely be hot, but we’ll have plenty of shade outside, a big air conditioned building to retreat into if you need it, and lots of ice water to refill your bottles.

Please contact Mardell Jasnowski at 402-694-4191 or mjasnowski@tnc.org to RSVP or with questions.

See you in a couple weeks!