This is the most commonly encountered Dichanthelium in the eastern United States.Correspondingly, it is the most generalist species of Dichanthelium in the eastern United States.It has 26 synonyms that loosely represent its range of morphological and geographical variation.It is often lumped with D. acuminatum.In Michigan, Wisconsin and the Chicago region, it is erroneously referred to as D. implicatum (a travesty that won’t soon be rectified and that largely hinges on the cult of personality). The sheaths are pubescent with short uniform hairs. The vernal stem leaves (biggest leaves on the stem) are oriented nearly 90 degrees from the stem. The adaxial leaf surfaces can range from glabrous to villose to velutinose; consistency is found at the population level. The spikelets average around 1.6mm long. Ligule length is the strongest character.Unlike D. acuminatum (to which it is only distantly related), D. lanuginosum has a uniformly long (2.0-4.0mm) ligule.It also lacks the ciliate lea…

The Dichanthelium Series: Dichanthelium praecocius

June 28, 2010 There, beneath the big grasses of the prairie, nestled next to triple-canoed violet fruits, aborted Scleria achenes and the tumbled tops of Agrostis hyemalis is a grass that no one sees.It is small.It is hairy and dirty. The stems emerge tangential, node, soon bend geniculate but not quite erect.Hairs are ubiquitous but sparse enough to collect dirt; char in good years. Vernal panicles elongate and expand moments before the axillary inflorescences; a novel trait for the genus.Lodicules pump like steam engines as the flags of gynoecium and androecium unfurl to disperse and collect anemochorous wares. Spikelets fall short of D. villosissiumum and rarely exceed 1.9mm length.Its ligule further distinguishes it from D. villosissimum and D. acuminatum into which it has been lumped as of late. The ligule is much too long for this (exceeding 1.0mm) and has a unique shape in that the central hairs are shorter than the marginal ligule hairs. Home in the prairie, beneath the big grasses where vol…

A Botanist

June 16, 2010 A botanist is a natural historian. A collector of facts and events that he employees in the speculation of one's influence on the other. A botanist listens as the ancient seas of the Ordivician tell stories 450 million years old.He can feel the impact of an asteroid 65 million years ago, smell the soot from increased volcanism, and give witness to the subsequent diversification of mammals and angiosperms. In his mind, he can not only see the glaciers of the Pliestocene melt and distribute the great soils of the Midwest, but he can smell the tundra and hear the Mammoth’s call. He sees anthropogenic fires, the hypsithermal, the prairie pennisula, the bloody sword of DeSoto and John Deere's polished plow. He tries desperately to explain how today's mistakes and yesterday's blindsightedness form the inevitable consequences of tomorrow. And as the perpetual inaction of society oozes onward, he need only think of glaciers and oceans, extinctions and speciations, and the ever…

Visit the latest Berry Go Round

Winter Mosses (2009-2010)

April 17, 2010 Rafinesque and the Resurrection of Polygonum bicorne

February 07, 2010 Constantine Samuel Rafinesque was a strange man. I can’t stress that enough. When you look him up on Wikipedia you quickly realize that he was different. His name is preceded with such erudite appellations as polymath, autodidact and polyglot, besides the more familiar terms of botanist and zoologist. But this post isn’t about Rafinesque, or at least not directly so. Indirectly, it has to do with his eyes and what they saw. You see, where others missed the trees for the forest, Rafinesque perceived entities hidden deep within morphologies. Ever the avid publisher, he described many of these entites as taxa (usually species) new to science. Since his death, the oscillations of botanical treatments and nomenclatural innovations have alternately celebrated his insights and condemned his indiscretions. Few authors have had as many taxa bounced in and out of synonymy for so many decades. Polygonum bicorne, the focus of this post, is a fine example of this.
Rafinesque described Polygonum bi…

Strolling the Remnants: Sand Prairie Conservation Area My work through the Institute of Botanical Training takes me all over the Midwest. In 2009, I was working on a contract in southeastern Missouri that was about an hour from Sand Prairie Conservation Area. An admirer of prairies of all kinds, I visited the site twice over the season and would like to share my observations below.

Visit One: April 17:

A chilling spring breeze blows across the sand prairie.

Sun-warmed sand dislodges, rolls and re-accumulates as it gradually exposes and conceals scattered pebbles in this sandy scene.

Small dune-like hills stabilized by vegetation subtly gradate into expansive flats. The surrounding landscape speaks of the early Holocene winds and braided waters of glacial outwash that are responsible for the sandy deposition. A sprinkling of sand islands scattered within a matrix of wet forests of the Mississippi floodplain. Here, inches in elevation separate desert from swamp.
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