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Steve

Seeing Plants

From Donna Deaton (via Facebook): I have never noticed so many bee balm plants as I’m seeing now. I can’t drive past the meadows on Old 112 without point them out to whoever is with me. I also have to…

Fragrant white waterlily

fragrant-white-waterlily

Plant of the Day–fragrant white waterlily (Nymphaea odorata), at Kerr Ranch Wildlife Refuge Comments (viaFacebook): Donna Deaton I am so much more aware of the plants around me since Saturday. I saw lots of pale purple cone flowers, some obedient…

Nuttall Field Tour, June 3

Poteau-Valley-Prairie

Rescheduled Nuttall field tour is coming up this coming Saturday–June 3. Our planned major stops include:1. Old Fort Smith & the confluence of the Poteau with the Arkansas2. Massard Prairie & native prairie restoration at Ben Geren3. Poteau River riparian…

Aquatic veg in Nuttall

yellow-pond-lily

Nuttall’s journal contains relatively little about aquatic and wetland vegetation compared to terrestrial. He does describe a couple of oxbow lakes in eastern Oklahoma however. The first is near the Kiamichi River, seen by him during his side trip to…

Nuttall’s route

oxbows-on-the-poteau-river

On May 16, 1819, after about three weeks based at the garrison at Fort Smith, Nuttall traveled south and west with Major Smith and soldiers to the Red River. The first night they camped near Gap Creek at the foot…

Native hay meadows

horse-powered-stationary

Patches of unplowed prairie that persist in the Poteau River Valley do so because they have been (and are being) used as hay meadows. Repeated mowing can tend to favor grasses over forbs, and farmers prefer hay with more grasses…