Saturday, October 11, 2025

Blazing Star And Lead Plant

This morning and part of the afternoon I traveled to the Nature Conservancy office at Weaver Dunes to collect prairie seeds for a new section of land that is being converted from farm to prairie. The weather was foggy and cool and I started out with a sweatshirt and two fleece jackets. When I left I had just the sweatshirt on.

We had about 25 people helping. We had five priority species to focus on plus ten secondary species. I decided to focus on two priority species.

I filled a quarter of a paper envelope with lead plant seeds. The orange is my water bottle. The blue are my shoes. Lead plant can have roots 10 to 15 feet in length. Lead plant prefers dry and sandy soil. Lead plant is in the legume family so it secures nitrogen in the soil.

We collected a couple of gallons of blazing star. I started out putting the seeds in an envelope but quickly dropped that idea and put the blazing star seeds into a milk jug I had attached to my pants. Monarch butterflies and other butterflies appreciate blazing star. While we were working a half dozen bald eagles flew over our heads-a good omen, not? One guy found the shell of a map turtle.

 

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Blazing Star And Lead Plant

This morning and part of the afternoon I traveled to the Nature Conservancy office at Weaver Dunes to collect prairie seeds for a new sectio...