Plant Story--slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum, an Inconspicuous Pretty Native

Sometimes you look right through it 

slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum

Sometimes its the green clump in the brown grass

slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum

Short (rarely more than 2' tall), with small leaves pea-like, small blue-purple flowers, and a difficult name  to remember (in English or Latin), slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum (pea family, Fabaceae) doesn't get much attention. Yet it is an American native wildflower with a range all across the mid-continental grasslands, from Indiana and Kentucky to Montana and New Mexico (see USDA plants data base under Psoralidium tenuiflorum).

Plant Ecology--Tumbleweeds, the Lifestyle

young tumbleweed

In the dry fall of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, the tumbleweeds let go and roll around.  Drifts on fences from the region make dramatic pictures link

While there are plants called tumbleweeds, actually tumbleweeding is something diverse plants do.

Plant Story: Morning Glories

morning glory, Amazon basin, Peru

   I like morning glories. Bright blue flowers that weren’t there last night--and that vanish in the early afternoon. Vines that drape over branches and walls. 

Ipomoea obscura

   Morning glories are in the genus Ipomoea (family Convolvulaceae). They are found throughout the tropics but especially in the New World. A few get north or south into temperate regions.

   There are 300-500 species of Ipomoea. (Why the range? Perhaps the same one was named twice, perhaps one that is widespread is really two. As data accumulates, the range of numbers decreases).