Flora and Faeries

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 restoring wetlands and stabilizing soil.

"O’er the wild meadows, I tell thee Amongst ye tall wild grasses, the sedges and the rushes, is where we shall see dancing merrily, a faery there shall be."

Athey Thompson

Who lives in these huts? Not Hobbits. Nobody was out and about when I quietly snuck by so I’m making a guess that it’s likely a colony of golden winged warblers. The species has suffered the steepest decline of any songbird over the last 40 years but, thanks to a partnership between Cornell Labs and a conservation group, Minnesota is a stronghold for these little songbirds—half the global population lives here!

I saw neither a faery nor a golden winged warbler, but I’m happy to know they’re in the neighborhood.