Ozark Roots Native Plants

The prairie looks pretty dead right now, but next year’s hopes are out there waving in the wind. Including, in order of appearance, big bluestem, buttonbush, little bluestem, Indiangrass and a forb I’m not confident enough to identify. Thanks to for letting me collect a few seeds from Chesney Prairie, a tallgrass remnant out near Siloam. You can’t go wrong with local seed sources — with permission and respect, of course.

My little milkweed seedlings in the greenhouse supported one single monarch caterpillar this year, and today was the big day. I couldn’t stay long enough to see it emerge this morning, but I love the little window of time when the chrysalis turns transparent and gives a peek at those orange wings. Maybe this new arrival was one of the butterflies I saw later in the day at Lake Springdale.

These monarchs are all a part of the last generation of the year, and they illustrate the importance of planting late bloomers: sunflowers, asters, goldenrods, purple coneflowers like these and others. Insects need these autumn flowers to make it through the winter and, in the case of these monarchs, to make a migration of hundreds of miles. It’s such a treat to add to their numbers just a little bit.