Friday, April 7, 2017

Spring 2017

Grass widows (Olsynium douglasii)
Click on the image so you can really see it.

Also, you can just make out tiny delphiniums sprouting in the grass.  Years ago, back in the annals of this blog, is a sad tale of the destruction of the area on the left side of this image by a plague of voles.  Then there was the invasion of the evil Medusa-head grass.  I built it back over a wider area, and there are still voles tunneling around, but there is enough prairie here that they can eat whatever, and there is plenty to go around.  I don't know exactly what they do in this ecosystem, but I suspect they help spread plants, splitting up these clumps of Grass widows, for example, when there are enough that they can't eat them all.