What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a patch of green over there
Telling me that Spring is here!
Hmmm. . . well, the sentiment is kind of right. Things are happening in the meadow. There is a green tinge to most of the meadow with patches of thick green stuff here and there. It must be spring because my nose is going CRAZY!
In the pic above, the bottom image shows the areas of green emerging in the meadow. There is a close up on the heaviest area on the top left. This is most likely just grasses that were already in the field before I started the dirt work that are coming back up. Marc, the Meadow Man, tells me that the natives we planted will take their time to germinate and grow in. In the meantime, the grasses and other plants that were on the site will fill in. But, the native meadow plants will out-compete them over time and allowed to grow - and with fire, of course.
Wandering around in the field yesterday, I was surprised to see some flower. Out of nowhere, a burst of yellow caught my eye. I bought a book recently on identifying wild flowers of the Coastal Plain and found it to be a good guide to identifying these plants. Admittedly, I had some trouble and reached out to Marc, but I got the first one on my own. The book is shown on the right and under the products page. If you click the link and buy it, I get a commission. I joined the Amazon Affiliate program and am giving it a test run. No pressure.
Turns out the yellow flower is Carolina Jessmine - Gelsemium sempervirens - and its a volunteer. I was not aware of any Jessmine, or Jasmine as it is commonly called, in the yard when we moved in, but there may have been some. In any event, here it is growing next to a tree where the soil was not disturbed and the grass not cut for about 8 months. It is native to warm temperate and tropical America from Guatemala north to the Southeastern United States and is found in the Coastal Plain. It is also used frequently in landscaping as a ground cover under live oaks in the New Orleans area. This plant is poisonous.
On the top left we have the early growth stage of a Thistle - most likely Bull Thistle - Cirsium horridulum. Alternatively this could be Carolina Thistle, but the latter is more adapted to woodlands, roadsides and ditches whereas the former is adapted to fields, open woods, pastures, savannas and pine lands - what we have here. Young stems can be chewed, juiced or served in salads. This plant has been present in the field for quite some time. Its window of growth precedes the turf grass in the field, so it bursts up before grass cutting and seeds around the time I cut - or used to - so it had a very nice niche. Thistle is beautiful until it seeds and dies back. I will take more pics of this as it grows.
And, finally, the stumper, which required Marc's help. The tiny flower on the right sits atop a long grass-like leaf base. We see these all over the yard every year as the first flash of spring. They stand only six inches high and once I start cutting grass, they go away - for a year. Any guesses?
Marc said, "crush the plant and smell it - if it smells like onions, it probably is." Ah, that took me to the right genus. What we have here is Meadow Garlic - Allium Canadense. This is common in the area and inhabits open woods, fields, and roadsides and emits an odor of garlic, although I had trouble smelling it. These plants just flowered, so perhaps they are not quite as redolent as the will get. The plant is edible and all parts of it were used by Native Americans as food. Benson says the bulb tasted creamy.
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