Nature cooperates. Coming around a corner of the lake on a path that’s been inaccessible all winter I encountered this hillside community of little grassy huts. Looks a bit like a wee Shire. Technically, these humpity hillocks are called Tussocks, and likely composed of carex stricta , or tussock sedge. It belongs to a huge genus of common sedge with over 150 different species in Minnesota. Tussock sedge, with its dense, clumping root system is considered a ‘superplant’ for r

A Giant of a Grass . On a beautiful February afternoon that felt more like April, I came across this forest of feathery grasses reaching way above my head. Bending and dancing in the breeze they waved at everyone going by, just as happy as I was for the sunshine and the clear, blue sky.   The plant finder in my phone identified it as miscanthus , but I’m not sure which variety – there are a bunch. There’s the sinenses, nicknamed ‘silver feather’ with its arching fountain-like

Crunchy Snow Dunes . Walking an unfamiliar route along the far side of the lake, I came to an area that opens up to a series of low mounds that roll down to the shore. In the summer these will be gently undulating with clumps of feathery grasses waving in the breeze.      Now they are still, hard and crunchy, making me think of unkempt snow dunes. All the stalks leaning uphill, the breezes swept up from the frozen lake and bent them backwards.   " I am winter’s meadow

Waiting Patiently for Rain. The weather forecast called for rain, so I headed out for a walk along the lake in hopes of getting caught in a downpour. It’s been at least three weeks since the last significant rainfall and the unusually warm days have made everything thirsty.   As the lake level drops, grasses that are usually up to their chins in water are now exposed to air and sunlight. Some of them are still standing tall and reveling in the last blast of summer – others ar

Native but Nefarious. Today when the trail is green on green on green this stand of pretty grasses caught my eye. The pale, narrowly pyramidal flower clusters gracefully ascending from long slender stems shone in the sunlight like illuminated way markers. Lovely. "T he moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."

Common yellow foxtail tries for glamour. With a jazzy name like Setaria pumila you expect big things. The botanical references describe...

And a multitude of angels. Everything is bursting into bloom, exploding with color and redolent with fragrance, but this unruly stand of...