We are fortunate to have a few areas of prairie running through our neighborhood. The largest area features a path which makes it very nice for an evening walk or bike ride. Over the years, the prairie has undergone restoration by experts and finally the real native Iowa plants are beginning to thrive.
Each time you walk through the prairie, different flowers are in bloom. You'll see bunnies darting in and out of the protective prairie cover, with birds and butterflies hopping from flower to flower.
There are weekly prairie walks with a local expert who points out plants of interest, such as this milkweed. There are several species of milkweed thriving in the prairie now, which makes it a perfect stopover for monarch butterflies.
The leaves on this large plant are cupped and hold water after a rain. You can see birds, bugs, and butterflies stopping by for a sip.
One of my favorite flowers is Queen Anne's lace. It looks delicate but is actually extremely hardy.
On our recent walk, I spotted this False Indigo. It was interesting to see it in bloom as I now have one in our garden, along with a few other native prairie plants.
I'll leave you with this thought for the day:
2 comments:
Indeed it is! beautiful pictures and an enjoyable post. Seems like the kind of place where you can put out a lawn chair and enjoy a quiet bit of time at peace with nature!
Pretty! Our home's backyard backs up to a greenbelt with a bike trail and a strip of native prairie grass that looked not so good, so I few years ago, I bought a bunch of wildflowers seeds and even got some from the DNR and threw them all up and down the strip in back of our house and finally this year, I started to see the fruits of those seeds.
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