Jo Ellis: Carthage park rife with flowering fauna

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September 6, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sun Sep 06, 2009, 10:01 PM CDT

By Jo Ellis

CARTHAGE, Mo. — As the song goes, it’s a long, long time from May to December, but the days slow down when you reach September.

By September, the sights and smells of fall are in the air, and winter is peeking around the corner. Many flowers have finished blooming or look a little past their prime.

Still, September has its attributes. Along with moderating temperatures, a showy display of flowering native plants leads the way into fall. A great location to see an amazing variety of these native plants is in the natural habitat surrounding the sloughs in Kellogg Lake Park — especially around the southeast slough.

I’ve been watching these for a while now, frustrated because many of them look so familiar, but I didn’t know what to call them. Fortunately, Randy Haas, land conservationist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and Ronda Headland, community conservationist with the department, had a little spare time between meetings last Wednesday, and they came to my rescue.

They led me on an informative tour of the park, dropping interesting tidbits about our native flora along the way. In my defense, I did identify the brilliant red cardinal flower, which seems to always be standing at attention. Randy said the plant is attractive to hummingbirds because of its color.

Blooming profusely now is the purple mist flower. Although much taller, the fuzzy-headed flowers bear a great resemblance to the alyssums that are popular for borders. The mist flower can be seen all over the park.

The marsh (or swamp) milkweed buds first erupt into tiny pink balls, later opening into delicate mounded florets resembling the familiar Joe Pye weed. Randy said the milkweed is a host plant for monarch butterfly larvae and is important to their survival.

Also abundant are the showy mallows. Their large seedpods open into white blooms with a deep pink-to-magenta throat that easily attracts attention even from a distance. It is similar in appearance to a hibiscus. We found a nice display of both the mallow and the marsh milkweed on the south bank of the lake.

The cardinal, mist flower and milkweed are popular choices for a rain garden, Randy said, because of their love of water. Plans on how to create a rain garden in your yard may be found in a department brochure.

Ronda pointed out the less noticeable but uniquely interesting sedge grass, the seed heads of which present a prickly appearance. Its singularity comes from its sharply triangular stem. I have never before seen a triangular stem.

The lizard tail, so named because of its white, spiky bloom, had already turned to an intense copper-colored “tail.” The tall cup plant is recognizable because its large triangular leaves form a shape that will hold rainfall. It features large, daisy-like yellow flowers.

Along Spring River, we discovered a beautiful example of a white crown beard. Randy said it also is known as the wing-stem frost weed. During a hard frost, water squeezes from cracks in the stem and freezes into spiraling curlicues, he said. Nearby, we found the less colorful but interesting button bush that has round ball blooms that look like irritated porcupines.

Other wildflowers found in the park are the ubiquitous goldenrod, brown-eyed Susan and trumpet vine. My thanks to Randy and Ronda for a great afternoon.

Around town

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital Auxiliary will stage its annual membership coffee at the home of Richard and Pam Williams, 1330 Grand Ave. Memberships are $5 for active members, $10 for inactive members, or bring five recipes for the auxiliary cookbook and have your dues waived for the year. You may bring a friend.

Two free programs are coming up this weekend. Lyle Sparkman, president of the Missouri Archaeological Society, will present a talk on “Tracking Mammoths,” exploring the migration of Ice Age hunters in the New World, the Paleo-Indian Period in Missouri and the evidence left by these ancient hunters. The program is co-sponsored by the Powers Museum and the Carthage Public Library. It will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday in the library’s community room.

On Sunday, the Powers Museum presents Roland Diggs in a program on “The Legacy of Ozark Wesleyan College” and the other institutions that followed on that campus. The program begins at 2 p.m. at the museum, 1617 W. Oak St. The museum will be open from 2 to 4 p.m.

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