More blazing star

Please click on image to go to Flickr photos, then use took above the photos to ENLARGE one to three times to view detail.

Liatris aspera a showy Arkansas native prairie plant

Please click on image to go to flickr and use took above photos to ENLARGE.

Monarch butterfly, caterpillars and grasshopper on milkweed on August 21 and 22, 2009

Please click on top image to ENLARGE view of monarch butterfly nectaring on swamp milkweed on August 21, 2009.

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of swamp milkweed with several tiny monarch butterfly caterpillars and a green grasshopper feeding on something. Is he in charge of birth control for butterflies, reducing the population so that some few caterpillars will be able to get to adulthood as monarchs?

Karst map of NW Arkansas significant tool for identifying green infrastructure deserving of protection

Please click on images to ENLARGE to read and see detail.



http://watershedwarrior.blogspot.com

The Town Branch Neighborhood is the smallest rectangle on that map. Enlarge the chart to read it.
Our neighborhood is a small hotspot for groundwater recharge and you can see how the wetland with springs and depressed land coincides with the karst coloring when you click and blow up the map.
Although the Nature Conservancy guys who created it admit that more ontheground investigation (and underground) to confirm a stricter scientific map is needed, it matches what I have believed about our neighborhood for some time. You can see the national cemetery circle with the karst just to the north along the old alley between Gov ave and Hill ave and pinnacle and wpwp are bright as is my own yard!
Please note one particular error. Cato Springs Branch, a northeast-flowing tributary of the Town Branch, is mistakenly called the Town Branch on the map. The oldest available government maps mark the portion of the Town Branch that flows from the UA and through our neighborhood as the Town Branch.
This is a significant tool for working on green-infrastructure plans and the FNHA already has it but in PDFs, which I can't post on the blogs.
Aubrey James Shepherd

Butterfly nectars on inflorescence of Verbesina virginica on August 17, 2009, at World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Verbesina virginica, one of several plants that are called frostweed in winter because frost forms on their stems, on August 17, 2009.

Peter Carrington identified this tiny flower as Sida spinosa, a member of the family Malvaceae

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of tiny Sida spinosa that I don't remember seeing before but which came up voluntarily from fill dirt spread as topsoil on the new parkland adjacent to World Peace Wetland Prairie. I would like to know as soon as possible whether this is native, how invasive it may be, etc. It may already exist on WPWP but I don't think so. If it is allowed to stay, then it will join the WPWP mix, and WPWP volunteers are trying to remove invasive species.

The fill dirt on top of the park is to be dug out. If this and many other volunteer plants on the new park are invasive, the dirt must not be deposited anywhere along the new trail across Pinnacle Prairie or near WPWP.

Insects and flowers: Ya can't one, ya can't have none without the other!

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of unique insect on thistle bud on World Peace Wetland Prairie on August 14, 2009.

Two photos of grasshoppers on swamp milkweed plus an amazing tiny flower

Spotted, metallic-shiny grasshopper visits swamp milkweed on August 7, 2009

Please click on images of swamp milkweed with shiny green grasshopper on August 7, 2009, at World Peace Wetland Prairie.

Pinnacle Foods' wet prairie native wildflowers on August 7, 2009, adjacent new to city trail between 12th Street and Hill Place student apartments

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of wild native flowers on Pinnacle wet prairie immediately west of World Peace Wetland Prairie on August 7, 2009.



P
Third photo shows Illinois bundle flower on August 7, 2009. Desmanthus illinoensis is its scientific name. For more information, please see http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/01/15/3e774f4876885

Bottom photo displays hairy wild petunia with a pollinator on it on August 7, 2009. Ruellia humilis is its scientific name and it is a member of the Acanthus family (Acanthaceae) For more information, please see http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/hw_petuniax.htm

Pollinators pile on milkweed on World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of gray hairstreak butterfly and other bugs and insects on milkweed on WPWP on August 6, 2009,

Gray hairstreak butterfly on rattlesnake master on August 4, 2009.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) on rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) near WPWP on Pinnacle Prairie on August 4, 2009.

Tiny yellow proves special when seen up close

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of tiny yellow flower on WPWP on August 2, 2009.

Wasps of many colors love Eryngium yuccifolium on the prairie on August 2, 2009

Please click on images to view wasp on Eryngium yuccifolium on August 2, 2009.

Tiny white beauties lost in the tall growth on WPWP on August 2, 2009

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of tiny white flowers on World Peace Wetland Prairie on August 2, 2009

American basketflower (Centaurea americana) is NOT a thistle

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Centaurea americana, the American basketflower, incorrectly known to many as a star thistle.


In the photo below, please note the greenish bug on the basketflower. It is the same as the white bug on the basketflower in the preceding post.