Each day I’ve picked what I think will be a simple subject. Today’s was a single sycamore leaf with no effort to include background, foreground or any other difficult or distracting thing.
Then as I settled in and began my …
Category: Nature
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Nature Sketching Day 2 – Asters Along the Driveway
Today’s nature sketch is of the purple asters that were growing along the driveway. Each day I try to make an entry with a pencil drawing.
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Is it Ginseng Root, Tree Root, or what?
Do you know what kind of roots these are?
The other day I got an email asking for some identification help.
From the photos, I do not believe it’s ginseng, but I can’t tell what it is. Some of them …
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What Happens to Ginseng in Too Much Sun
Why is this ginseng turning yellow?
…UPDATE 10/5/24 This is an old post from when I first started observing ginseng in the wild and among my wild-simulated patches, and thought I knew a lot more than I did. The ginseng
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This Beaver is One Heck of an Optimist
This beaver must possess tremendous optimism. Either that or he’s a long-term strategist, or both! Most farmers dislike beavers with a passion bordering hatred. The reason why that is, at least for the ones I asked, is because they’re always …
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Spider Stick
Anyone who has ever ridden, or rather, *driven* a four-wheeler on a tree-lined path will know exactly why this four-wheeler is sporting a lovely branch of wilted leaves.
It’s a “spider stick”. And it’s the person in front, if you’re …
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Do Your Dogs Sing with the Chickens?
Badger howling at coyotes. We have singing dogs. Every morning at sunrise when the rooster crows and the hens wake, and during the day when the chickens get all a-cluck over an egg laying, the dogs break into song with …
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Rattlesnakes and Dogs don’t Mix – Snakebit dog
A WildOzark Timber Rattlesnake They’re not aggressive. Really.
This one just wanted to be left alone. It’s the second one I’d encountered that week, and both were relatively calm. Badger even stepped on the first one and didn’t notice until after …
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The Slow Descent of an Ozark Mountain Landslide
I’ve been observing and recording our slowly descending Ozark landslide. Leaning trees and driveway encroachment, photographed day by day.
Since the flood last Monday I haven’t done a whole lot of cleanup. The main reason for that is the landslide.…
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The Impermanence of Things
We’ve had a lot of rain in the last days here in the Ozark Highlands. 7 inches in a few hours Monday night. That’s too much rain for our little creeks and hollers.
Lots of folks have lost homes, cattle, …
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Rattlesnake at the Gate
Gnats have made it nearly impossible for me to stand being outside at my potting bench for very long.
Yesterday I did the little bit of work I needed to do at it while trying not to breathe so the …
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Unripe Fruit
I have a hard time believing I have no pictures – at all – of ripe elderberry fruit. After digging through file after unfruitful file, I thought it might be faster to just go get a new photo.
Not quite.…
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What’s Blooming at the end of May?
Wild Ozark plants blooming at the end of May
I took a little walkabout yesterday to photograph some of the flowers that are setting berries, blooming, or getting ready to bloom right now.
Yesterday’s post highlighted the orchid I’d been waiting …
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Talk about Delayed Gratification! (Twayblade Orchid)
I’ve been waiting a whole year to see this flower.
When I first found the plant last summer there was only the two leaves. Without seeing a flower, it’s hard to positively identify a plant, unless that plant has something …
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Water Over the Bridge-Videos
When you can hear the roar of the wet-weather waterfall from the house, you know the water’s up. If you can see the waterfall from the front porch, it’s a fair bet the creek is way over the bridge.
When …
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A Woodland Habitat – Dragons among the Nettles and Cohosh
There’s a particular woodland habitat at the far corner of our property that I love.
The variety of plants that grow there is amazing.
It’s the perfect place for American ginseng, but those plants have nearly been extirpated by diggers …
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Dragons Hatching, Clematis Blooming, and Feeding Horses in the Rain
Dragons Hatching!
Last fall I collected seeds from a large Green Dragon. I put the berries directly into pots and kept them overwinter in the ginseng nursery. The other morning I noticed they were hatching – er, sprouting! The …
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Unwelcome Guest – Snake in the Hen-house
Apparently there’s a snake in the hen-house. Looks like the hens had some stealthy company yesterday. The unwelcome guest left a bit of evidence behind for me to find this morning.
I searched under all of the nexts and behind the …
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What’s that plant good for?
“What’s that plant good for?”
A curious thing I’m noticing by selling plants at the market is that people almost always have the same question, phrased in various ways.
It’s often the first thing they ask, in general about any …
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A Ginseng Sanctuary at the Compton Gardens in Bentonville
Wild Ozark is honored and excited to be embarking on a long-term project in conjunction with Compton Gardens in Bentonville, Arkansas. This American Ginseng Sanctuary project is made possible, in part, by a grant from the United Plant Savers.This …
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Sleuthing the Bellwort. Sessilifolia or Perfoliata?
Sessilifolia or Perfoliata?
Three species of bellwort are found in Arkansas: Uvularia grandiflora, U. sessilifolia, and U. perfoliata. The one I see most often around here is the grandiflora, or Large-flowered bellwort as it’s commonly called.
Bellwort in the Ginseng
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An Entourage of Green Ambassadors
Show and Tell
I took my little assembly of show and tell items, and a small entourage consisting of three Green Ambassadors on the road yesterday. We, or at least *I*, had been invited to speak to the Olli Group…
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Sun Splashes, Tree Silhouettes and Flowering Woodland Herbs
The day was dreary for the most part, but just before sunset the sky brightened. And so I went out with the camera and managed to get a few photos of some of the flowering woodland herbs in the ginseng …
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Solomon’s Seal Unfurling
Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
There’s a nice patch of Solomon Seal at the front of the driveway that was so choked out last summer that I don’t think any of them got a chance to bloom. I was …
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Arnold’s First Rooster Crow
Arnold is a Fall chicken. He hatched from an egg, along with his three nestlings way back in October (I think). The clutch of eggs that had hatched shortly before his fell prey to a large black rat snake. You …
