Tag Archives: prairie

Frogs in the Grass

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When I think about frogs in the prairie, I usually think of leopard frogs – aka “grass frogs”.  It’s not unusual to see one leaping ahead of me as I walk through our Platte River Prairies, even when I’m not particularly near water.  But during the last couple of years, I’ve been seeing chorus frogs quite a ways from tadpole-rearing sites as well.  A couple weeks ago, I caught one in our yard (middle of town).  After taking a quick trip to school with my son, she’s back in the yard somewhere.  I hope she can find a nice pond by next spring…

Early last summer, I was hiking in Griffith Prairie (Prairie Plains Resource Institute) north of town and came across a chorus frog near the top of a high dry hill.  The closest pond was a few hills away – a long way for a tiny frog to travel through the tall grass.  I had my camera along, so I spent some time photographing the frog, which put up with me very nicely.  Eventually, it jumped and got hung up – temporarily – in some grass, where it kindly stayed long enough for me to get a photo.

A chorus frog on a hilltop at Griffith Prairie (Prairie Plains Resource Institute). My 10-year-old son, who researched chorus frogs after we found the one in our yard, tells me this is a female because there's no dark patch on the throat.

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It's hard not to project human thoughts onto the frog in this photo, isn't it? ("How did I get myself into this mess??")

As far as I know, chorus frogs spend their winter nestled down under grass thatch and/or logs and probably freeze solid when the temperature drops sufficiently.  I’ve had a hard time confirming this, so would love to hear from anyone who has good information.

Photo of the Week – August 19, 2011

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No, someone didn’t toss a mess of orange plastic twine out in the prairie, though that’s certainly what it looks like.  That crazy jumble of orange is the parasitic plant called dodder (Cuscuta sp.).  It has no chlorophyll, so is unable to photosynthesize – hence the non-green color.  Instead, it attaches itself to its host plants and extracts food from them.  The dodder in our prairies appears to favor goldenrod and sunflower species.

A patch of parasitic dodder on Canada goldenrod in a restored Platte River prairie, Nebraska.

Dodder has no leaves, and only tiny flowers that produce tiny seeds.  We’ve never harvested the seeds, but dodder shows up in our restored prairies anyway.  I think that’s great.  The fact that a parasitic plant can find and colonize amongst its host plants is just another indication that our restored prairies are functioning well.  I’ve never been able to find anyone who knows much about how its seeds travel, but there is a lot of speculation that they hitch rides on people, equipment, and animals.  Whatever – it seems to work!

I have a soft spot for species like dodder that have made their own counter-culture way in life.  (I no longer remove cowbird eggs from grassland bird nests for the same reason – so sue me.)  A plant that doesn’t even have leaves?  What a great idea!  Why make your own food if you can get it from someone else??

I’ve never seen evidence that dodder is eaten by anything, though I have to assume that something feeds on it.  Otherwise, we’d probably be swimming in dodder – and that might reduce its attraction to me just a little!