A Few Prairie Plants

I tried to do some on-the-fly botanizing in North Dakota and saw some familiar plants and learned a couple of new things.

This one I knew, but I'd never seen so much of it in bloom naturally. This is Stiff Goldenrod, Solidago rigida. The leaves and stems are very... stiff.

Here's another one I knew, but I'd never seen it when the berries are this ripe. It's Snowberry, Symphoricarpos either occidentalis- western or albus- common. It's an important food for wildlife. They will give humans a stomach ache, being mildly toxic.

I've always seen Gumweed in bloom. It's a common roadside plant in the prairie. This is probably Grindelia squarrosa, Curlycup Gumweed. Looks similar to a dandelion from a distance, but up closer you can tell the leaves and stems aren't like dandelion at all, and the flowers have a central disk as well. Yes, they feel sticky.

Lots of this tree was planted in North Dakota as windbreaks. It's not as invasive as our Autumn Olive, but it's not great. This is Russian Olive (or Silverberry) with the fruit. And you can easily see the difference in the two plants at this stage. The Autumn Olive berries are round and red. These are olive shaped, and although they will turn orange/reddish, they don't look anything like the others. Elaeagnus angustifolia is the name, which is another clue. Any plant with "angustifolia" in the name has narrow leaves, and these leaves are longer and narrower than the Autumn Olive.

Now for my best botany find. This is completely new to me. WINNER! This is Silver Buffaloberry. It's related to the olives, all in the family Elaeagnaceae, But this is Shepherdia argentea. The berries were ripe. The Native Americans gathered them to pound into meat with various other things to make pemmican. I had to try them.

YUM! I did learn that a lot of locals just shook their heads and said "no thanks." Web sites say they are bitter. I found them to be more tart, like wild currants. I ate quite a few! It's a small tree, also with white leaves. (Note "argentea"- silver - in the name.) They would make a yummy jelly or sauce to use with meat.

No new plants at home, but I found something very cool this afternoon that I'll probably show you tomorrow.

Kept busy all day- computer stuff, editing, picked up my sales stuff from the people who carted it home for me from Paradise, sorted books, ordered books, prepped for Saturday, blah, blah. Busy day.

See Silver/Gray Plants