Tag: Ozark hiking

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Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

The race is on. The spring ephemeral Ozark wildflowers blooming now are in a race with the trees. They want to put out their leaves for the summer.

Most spring ephemerals grow on the forest floor. All summer the trees shade this area making it hard for plants growing there to get enough light to photosynthesize. Certainly there isn’t enough light for a plant to make seeds.

Edible seeds on American Elm
Unless the tree has showy flowers like redbuds or dogwoods, people don’t think about trees having flowers. Many trees like elms, oaks, hickories and walnuts are wind pollinated so their flowers are tiny. The pollen clouds are noticed because they cover everything with a yellow film. These elm seeds are called samovars and are edible. I found them a nice snack, if I could reach them.

Trees Race Too

Many trees are wind pollinated. Leaves slow down the wind and the pollen. This yellow cloud coats the leaves instead of the pistils waiting to be pollinated. So the maples, ashes, willows, oaks and black walnuts are busy trying to bloom before the leaves too.

American elms are rare here due to Dutch elm disease. I’d found some down by the river in bloom. One even had branches low enough for me to get a picture or two.

On a recent walk I found the seeds on these trees. Since they were listed in “Foraging the Ozarks” as edible, I tried a few. They are bland, but a nice snack. Elms make lots of seeds so eating a few won’t hurt.

Nearby the green ash were blooming. November’s flood washed out my favorite ones, but I did find a few young ones I could get pictures of.

Ozark wildflowers blooming like Spring Beauty
Spring Beauty is a spring ephemeral. It forms large colonies in moist ground. I have seen it carpet lawns in town as well.

Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

The trees were expected. So many wildflowers weren’t. Beautiful spring beauties lined the road and the path along the river. Rue anemones are just opening. Blue violets are having trouble growing up through the sand leaving their flowers sandy.

Redbuds are blooming. Fragrant sumac is opening. Virginia bluebells are getting ready. Rose verbena has its purple pink bouquets out along the road.

Ozark wildflowers blooming like rose verbena
This native wildflower, Rose Verbena, blooms all spring and summer. It is a low growing plant and would be a nice groundcover. It is one of the earliest bright wildflowers blooming along the roads.

Time Frustrations

Now is the time to go hiking to find, admire and photograph all the Ozark wildflowers blooming. It’s also time to get the garden ready and to start planting early crops like peas, turnips, kohlrabi, mizuna and more.

Trying to do both is frustrating.

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GKP Writing News

Foraging the Ozarks

I am not much of a forager. However, the Carduan Chronicles is forcing me to learn more about foraging. One book to read is “Foraging the Ozarks” by Bo Brown.

Ozark Survival

One of the ships in the Carduan Chronicles lands in a Ozark ravine. Those on board are stranded and must learn to live on this strange, new planet.

An immediate need is food. The Carduans must discover which plants growing wild in a ravine and old pasture are edible and which parts of the plants taste good.

Dandelions food on Carduan world
One of the first edible plants easy to find in the spring is the dandelion. Although it is an import from Europe and occasional near creeks and pasture edges, it could be found by the Carduans. Both the flowers and leaves are edible. The root can be roasted and used for a coffee substitute.

As a Writer

I am a gardener, not a forager. Many years ago I wrote a Nature Note column for a local paper and met an old woman who had grown up foraging. She introduced me to several so-called weeds that were good to eat.

Most of these plants were brought over from Europe and grow wild. But they prefer disturbed places like gardens and lawns. They are rarely found out on the hills and in the ravines.

Most foraging books focus on these common plants. I needed to learn about the others. “Foraging the Ozarks” is a book including many of these other plants.

amazing pawpaw cluster
One of my favorite wild edible is the pawpaw in late summer/early fall. Unfortunately for the Carduans, the pawpaw is a tree. However, sometimes the ripe fruits aren’t eaten before they fall to the ground.

The Next Step

It’s fine to read about these edible plants. The problem is that I must rely on someone else’s opinion about them.

This leaves me looking for and taste testing these wild plants. I’ve found many of them before taking pictures for my Dent count Flora project. Now I’m looking them up again to take a nibble of leaves and fruit. Many do have edible roots, but I hate to dig the plants up.

A final consideration is the size of the plants. The Carduans are only four inches tall. Trees might present very big problems for them.

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Looking At Lichens

Wildflower season will begin in a couple of months. I have a new camera to practice with to get ready. So I am out looking at lichens.

What Is a Lichen?

These are a textbook example of symbiosis, mutualism, a partnership between two organisms. Both of the participants benefit.

In the case of lichens, a fungus and an alga are the participants. The fungus provides the structure and nutrients. The alga provides food as it can do photosynthesis. A fungus can’t.

Orange lichen on a honey locust trunk
Most lichens in my area of the Ozarks are gray green in color. But they come in many colors. Orange is bright. It seems to only grow on tree trunks.

Where Are Lichens?

Around my home, lichens are lots of places. They grow on the trees. Some ground and rock areas are covered. Even my clothesline and truck have lichens growing on them.

These plantlike growths come in a variety of shapes and colors. Some look like flat leaves and are called folious. Others are spiky. The many branches of some make it look lacy.

Most lichens I see are a grayish green. There are places where they appear black. The ones on a black walnut near my barn are orange.

Up on a hill I found the soldier lichen. All lichens make a kind of pod that opens to release spores into the air to form new lichens elsewhere. Soldier lichens have bright red pods and got their name as the color was like that of British soldiers.

Wooly lichens spotted while looking for lichens
Lichens are not parasitic. They hold onto a surface and grow there. These wooly ones seem to prefer warmer weather when they can spread all over branches. Only a few were braving winter cold.

Why Bother With Lichens?

If you’ve ever admired Spanish moss, you’ve admired a lichen. Such lichens grow where the air is moist like in the South.

Up on the tundra, reindeer and caribou graze on lichens as grass has trouble growing in such a cold place. Cold, even freezing, doesn’t seem to bother lichens much as long as they have water, nutrients and sunlight.

Looking at lichens often means seeing folious lichen
Folious lichen looks a bit like smashed gray green leaves on rocks and tree trunks. These are often in a circular pattern. They put up cups that produce the spores to drift away on the wind to begin new colonies.

Lichens aren’t Wildflowers

My Dent County Flora is about plants. Lichens aren’t plants. But they are interesting.

And looking at lichens, taking some pictures of them, let’s me get in some good camera practice. Plus they are interesting. Any excuse is a good one to go out walking in the woods.