Attention Prairie Rescuers: This weekend (4/23-25) might be your last chance to dig before they mow.

Sandy Wilson, Jane Reierson, and I were rescuing plants at the Beltway 8 & Zavalla site on Thursday (4/22/2020) for Friday's Blazingstar Workday. Under what feels to the ankle like a field of dewberries and roses (probably the invasive McCartney rose, wear boots) grows and incredibly diverse assortment of prairie plants, now in gorgeous spring bloom. Especially beautiful now is the carpet of Herbertia lahue and all the Sabatia campestris.

If you are going to rescue, be careful of holes made by prior rescuers. Whether you wish to dig or just see the wildflowers, email LSComposts@yahoo.com for driving directions. Jane's comments: "...We talked with a man who said it was going to be mowed at the end of this week or early next week. Kelly found the liatris...[The] guy who is going to mow it, A.J. ... is OK with us being there."

For the wetland plant lovers, we saw many varieties of sedges and rushes including the few that I took to Dr. Brown for identification:

• Eleocharis ....
• Spider lily
• Juncus dichotomus (ID'ed by Dr. Larry Brown)
• Juncus Marginatus (ID'ed by Dr. Larry Brown)
• Spring-blooming obedient plant (Physostegia intermedia??)
• Saggitaria papillosa (ID'ed by Dr. Larry Brown)
• Carex flaccosperma (ID'ed by Dr. Larry Brown)

The grasses growing there include

• Little Bluestem
• Indian grass
• Long spike tridens
• Gulf Muhly (Found first by Jane, these large clumps are along the back woods edge. We needed to whack (Sandy) or prune (Lan) the roses back before we can get to them to dig.)
• Dicanthelium
• And much more, but I've reached the extent of my grass identification ability.
  

The wildflowers (forbs) are glorious!

• Kelly Walker, Jane Reierson, and earlier Noreen Hoard found a huge patch of Liatris (of course not in bloom). Yesterday, we filled 2-3 bags (the bags that 40 lb soil comes in) full of tubers and there were still lots for the taking.
  
• Herbertia (Now a blue carpet! With about 1 " diameter bulbs. You have to DIG DEEP or the stem will break off.)
• Meadow pink (Sabatia campestris - Lots! They are an annual and I've never had success in having them reseed. However, up to now I have only planted them one at a time, surrepticiously rescued. So this time, I get to try with many and will report if they reseed for me.) (Note the more of the meadow pink and especially the Herbertias are in the low, usually mowed areas.)
• Baptisia erecta
• Spiderwort
• Flax (Linum berlandieri)
• Blue-eyed grass
• Toadflax (Nuttallanthus texana)
  
• Indian Plantain (Arnoglossum ovatum)
• Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium - not too many. We dug up about 3 huge clumps)
• Puccoon
• Ironweed (Vernonia spp.)
• Winecup (We dug up a few "carrots")
• Pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa)
• Small yellow evening primrose
• Rudbeckia hirta
• Rudbeckia texana
• Swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius)
• 10 petal anemone (Anemone berlandieri)
• Anemone Caroliniana
• Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphus)
  
• Erigeron ....???
• Verbena halei
• Pluchea camphoreta
  
• Bull thistle
• Invasive Brazilian vervain (mostly at edges)
• This is all only from memory and my memory, which has never been very good is going fast.

Interesting aside: I had left my shovel there on Tuesday, when I was briefly there to cut some wildflowers to show at my garden club meeting. While talking to Jane, AJ said that he had found the shovel. I met AJ, when I went searching for my shovel. He told me has lived on Zavalla for 47 years. About 10 or 15 years ago the person who owned the property where we are digging offered to sell it to him at $0.25/square foot (calculated to about $11,000 per acre).