November

The remains of the year are evident, but few blooms are evident.

Rosinweed reblooms after mowing at the edge of the Cajun Prairie Gardens. Its nectar is taken up by a Gulf fritillary.

If you like big grasses and fall color, the show can be amazing. Switchgrass and Big bluestem here make a show.

The prairie now blooms its final blooms. By mid-month, the number of blooms in the Cajun Prairie Gardens is far less than a million a day, and in many views, nothing remains in flower. But the month opens looking much like October. With each passing day, one or more species goes out of bloom. In some areas that were mowed, the plants rebound and produce a few blooms.

A few of the ‘Asters’ including Symphyotricum patens (Late purple aster) continue to bloom.

The plants begin to draw the lasts of their nutrients either into their root systems or into their seeds.

Crowpoison blooms in the mowed lawn.

Nothoscordum bivalve (False garlic or Crowpoison) begins blooming and continues blooming throughout winter if it is warm enough. The winter of 2015-16 has had almost continuous blooming of Crowpoison.

View across the Iris-Hibiscus marsh at the Cajun Prairie Gardens. Dead heads of bloomers all around.

Fenton remnant prairie in October 1988. In the background a 30 foot diameter clump of Big bluestem is apparent. Switchgrass surrounds it, and in the foreground, Kansas gayfeathers are going to seed.