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I am still at IU busy working out the details of an installation. I start each morning reading/researching as I enjoy my coffee. I found this article alarming and inspiring. Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The NextDecade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says.
Working out an idea for a future work.
1.5 - sketch for TOAST
Myy work is about the ecological solutions in urban landscapes. What solutions can I unearth in food, toast, char? - time to ponder and ruminate. Stay tuned.
Peck + Scratch Installation
Eight chickens and two roosters were installed in Symbiosis, April 1, 2023, from 11:00-5:00
There's more than eggs when it comes to urban chickens. Peck and Scratch is a throwback to when every family had a symbiotic relationship with these quirky feathered friends. It was common knowledge that chickens are miraculous energy transformers; they effortlessly clean up weeds and bugs from living soil while providing families with a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to chemical pesticides and herbicides. Plus, their waste is invaluable - it replenishes the soil with much-needed nutrients for plants to thrive. In addition, the protein-packed eggs they lay contain all the amino acids necessary for promoting brain health for early childhood development.
By offering a cozy environment, refreshing water, and a lush habitat, we're showing gratitude towards our curious and joyful friends and providing them a safe home away from potential harm. Instead of supporting factory farms, our chickens deserve to thrive in an ecosystem filled with living soil and all the essential components they need to lead happy, healthy lives.
It's time to think outside the (takeout) box and invest in the power of urban chickens.
As a social sculpture artist, I'm passionate about how our civilization interacts with the land. Despite our advances in technology, something just isn't right. I'm always searching for inspiration to inspire nurturing abundance of life in our landscapes. However, our current landscape practices, with overly groomed flowerless shrubs and chemical inputs, are far from desirable. Recently, I stumbled upon a book called "When Violence Is The Answer" lying in the street, dirty, torn, and rain-soaked. Although the word "violence" is harsh, the analogy of violent treatment of humans to our current landscape practices is thought-provoking and valid. The artistic possibilities are limitless on this journey of ecological awareness and expression. Should I incorporate it into a sculpture or read it?
“Carbon by the Yard” was a temporary relief in the shape of the Carbon element symbol, “C”. This simple gesture brought attention to the fact that gas lawnmowers emit eleven times the emissions of a new car.
Carbon by The Yard
In 2022, I transformed “Carbon by the Yard” piece into “CARBONsink ” using solarization and regeneration instead of herbicides to transform the turfgrass into biology. I then seeded it with wildflowers. The new piece soaks up rainwater, stores carbon and supports pollinators.
It is important to note that the EPA estimated that non-native turfgrass monocrops use one-third of all public water. In the US, this translates to 9 billion gallons of water daily.
These two social sculptures highlight how our colonial landscape decisions impact our carbon footprints.
CARBONsink 6/8/2023
DIY- check out the steps to install your own CARBONsink.
Soak the ground.
Use the power of water in conducting heat into the plot. Proper hydration will pull heat from the surface deeper into the soil, enhancing the effectiveness of solarization.
Cover the soaked turf with two layers of cardboard. This will smother the turf grass and use the suns energy to solarize it.
Soak the cardboard layer
Layer 4”- 6” leaf mold compost. I use Nature’s Way Resources and Heirlooms.
Spread the compost evenly .
Soak the compost , and level it for sprinkling the seeds.
Sprinkle seeds generously.
The seeds come from Native American Seeds.
Make sure the seeds make good solid contact with the ground. Press them in.
April 2023
June 8,2023
July 29, 2023
”Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them” - Albert Einstein
To change my mindset I have to change how I see. For years I have seen through a mechanistic mindset. Observing the growth of Symbiosis these past years has given me a new perspective. When I step back and consider what else might be happening, what can I see if I consider natural systems as opposed to purely industrial systems? A whole new world of thought and possibilities unfolds.
I see that nature is a master collaborator, as proven by the Rudbeckia hirta and Passiflora incarnate duo.
Planted close together, the vine quickly sought support from the stout-stemmed Susan, needy for sun, but lacking the strength to reach it alone. The black eyed Susan, not threatened, seems to welcomed the addition, together they twined and grew - now standing not two but four feet tall. Conventional thought sees the vine as overcoming the flower, but in reality, they are just two plants working together, building a structure that is maximizing photosynthesis and basking in the sun while providing protective habitat small life dwelling in the area.
A lesson for us all - Collaboration can truly conquer all. The fiery skipper seems to agree.
Originally Rumblings was going to be a wall of wild bee portraits, 50/10,000. It is time to start thinking about the next step.
Since I started these in 2019 my knowledge has expanded. It is no longer enough to exhibit the bees as portraits. They are an integral part of a bigger system. In incorporating systems thinking I will arrange the pieces into a 11’ X 25’ work on paper composition, an abstract eco-landscape that holistically balances urban and natural systems.
It will be a composition of twenty-eight 30” X 44” watercolor monotypes from my Rumblings* body of work. The pieces will be installed in a tight grid to reference urban development. Centered in each 30” X 44” piece is an abstract portrait of a wild pollinator.
The work will be completed in my studio when the defined space dimensions are finalized. At that time, I will select the portrait pieces and organize them in a systematic manner that works best for the size and shape of the proposed space. I will then transform the individual portraits into the monumental composition of an urban ecosystem that balances manmade and natural systems. To do this, I will add abstracted shapes representing biological systems that pollinators depend on into the blank spaces of the individual works. These marks will be extremely light and delicate, watercolor and pastel. They will be leaf and petal-like silhouettes of birds, vines, blooms, grasses, roots, water, and hooves. These shapes will weave in and out chaotically, connecting the portraits in the urban structured grid and transforming them into an ecologically balanced urban landscape composition.
RUMBLINGS* WORKS 2019 — present
Done! My gloves are proof. For weeks, my schedule was jam-packed with proposals and large-scale projects that needed my attention. Amidst all the chaos, I was also starting a brand new sculpture for the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs' Earth Day Celebration. I thrive when I can hyper-focus, but this time I almost let something slip through the cracks. "Earth Moves" was in danger of being incomplete by the deadline. With less than a week left to finish, I knew I had no choice but to push myself harder than ever before. I woke up at 5:00 am every day and worked tirelessly until 4:00 pm, without taking a lunch break. I felt every muscle in my arms and shoulders ache, but the feeling of being fully present and working towards something important was truly exhilarating. I couldn't disappoint Necole Irvin and let "Earth Moves" fall short of its potential. After countless hours of welding and crafting, today the sculpture was finally installed on the 3rd floor of the Julia Ideson Library. The end result is a, call for action work of art made from welded steel, lath, indigenous clay, grass, and glass beads. It was a true labor of love that I poured every ounce of myself into. #earthday @lanolalady #mayorsofficeofculturalaffairs #houstonmayor #cindeeklementart #work #gloves #drive
Agapostemon virescens lead a very unique lifestyle - living in underground communal nests, with up to 30 individual females sharing the same space. These tricolored metallic bees have an intricate defense system which consists of assigning roles; while some female bees explore and gather food, at least one always stays behind as gatekeeper! Interestingly enough, this species cleverly protects their nest from predators by making sure that they always has someone on guard duty.
During late-July to early-August, a second generation of A. virescens emerges that is both male and female. With no place in their natal nests for the males to go, they seek shelter elsewhere - hosting bee slumber parties where huddles are formed! The females take advantage of this time by sipping on flowers like New England aster, goldenrods and sneezeweed so as to survive winter without having any need build nests or lay eggs during fall season. Sadly though when temperatures drop these mated females enter hibernation while males die selflessly protecting them until spring arrives again next year.
Since the beginning of my artistic journey, I have consistently explored elements of time and movement within both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. With "Hairy Clover," an element in Symbiosis this exploration takes on another layer of complexity - exploring how the water cycle creates motion that stores carbon, ultimately building the planet's energy.
Marsilea species are an extraordinary group of ferns, displaying a fascinating phenomenon known as nyctinasty - the daily movement of leaf orientation. During daylight hours they reach out to capture sunrays and then at night fold inwards into vertical positions due to pulvinus joints located towards the base of each stalk which adjust based on water flow into motor cells. This adaptation ensures that these plants remain attuned with their environment by regulating transpiration through stomata opening and closing cycles - remarkable!
I have read that this Texas native is endangered in many states. :(
Marsilea vestita, southern water fern
8” X 8”
Ink
In 2020, I was asked by Lawndale to propose a sculpture for the sculpture garden. Instead of proposing one of my steel or bronze sculptures, I proposed a living sculpture titled Symbiosis. I have since endeavored to witness and record/document its growth and relationships through photography. These photographs will be my reference materials for more poetic documentation. Simultaneously I have sought out historical and contemporary ways of immortalizing natural history. My search led me to explore websites, antique stores, and estate sales, looking for how naturalists, explorers, and artists have documented Earth’s wildlife and plant life’s relationships throughout history. This research has led to the discovery of two exquisite artistic collections from 1705 and 1903 that sparked inspiration within: Maria Sibylla Merian's book Metamorphosis Insectorum (1705) as well as Theodore Jasper’s American Ornithologists' Union (1903). Both are incredibly valuable works that promise to help me find my wings and bring Symbiosis memories into full bloom.
For the next seven months, I will diligently document through photography the unique relationships as they develop in Symbiosis. When 2023 draws to a close, my contract with Lawndale runs out. Then, I will start the final chapter of the work. This project has become something special that needs to be immortalized in artworks showing their symbiotic relationships. With watercolor monotypes as my medium of choice and abstract expressionism becoming part of me along the process - these works are primed to tell stories of how humanity can reconnect with natural systems in urban landscapes.
Theodore Jasper’s American Ornithologists' Union (1903)
Theodore Jasper’s American Ornithologists' Union (1903)
Maria Sibylla Merian's book Metamorphosis Insectorum (1705)
This morning I read Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been a form of record keeping in science News.
The marks left in a cave 25,000 years ago illustrate the wisdom of early hunter-gatherers. Even then, these people were knowledgeable about their environment and respectful of nature's cycles; understanding that taking too much from one place could lead to decline. Nowadays, we can look back at this example as an invitation for modern civilization to take up sustainable living practices—regenerating our resources instead of simply consuming them without thought or consequence.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the question, how do we mimic regeneration in our cities? We have to ask, What can we learn from Earth’s earliest environmentalists? A lot.
“When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.”
– Aldo Leopold on the call of the sandhill crane
During my Christmas day stroll with family and Tobi, I came across a crumbling old stump harboring an exquisite feathered creature. The majestic bird looked to be either a Whooping Crane or Sandhill crane - the two largest birds of North America.
While North America has many struggling ecosystems, it's so important that we remember the stories of hope and recovery too. The Sandhill crane is one such story - once endangered, their numbers have rebounded thanks to determined humans working to save them. Getting to know these creatures better can only inspire more hope for future environmental recoveries. I'm looking forward to learning more about the whooping cranes on my trip south this February with Curtis. If you know any other inspiring stories of environmental recovery please share them with me?
As found on Christmas day with it's natural patina.
In my garage studio after giving the bark a little wash to highlight the movement in the wood.
Detail
We need these stories of recovery our society needs to believe we can do this.
Humans naturally mourn the economic and surface loss of colorful flowers and green plants from a freeze. It is easy to become wrapped up in the superficial aspects. With systems thinking central to my eco-art practice, I wonder if there is an ecological purpose for a freeze. It has been a month since the freeze giving me time to watch and wonder. I have looked beyond the skin-deep perspective and discovered something beautiful about how a freeze gives life.
A week after the freeze, the same space is transformed into the earth tones of a 1980’s residential den.
This freeze occurred at the end of the second year since the Symbiosis installation. It was my first freeze with native plants and opened a floodgate of realizations and thoughts about freezes.
A freeze in the tropics looks and acts differently than in the northern US, but how are freezes in the tropics different than those in the Northern states? How does slimy organic matter from a freeze in the tropics impact its soil complexity? A freeze in a coastal prairie garden that has shade from a two-story building is not like a freeze in a sunny open field. Is there a relationship between the freeze and the drought, is there a relationship between seasons? For the past month, these are the questions I have taken with me when I visit Symbiosis and research on line.
What initially appears to be a destructive event can be the seed necessary for regrowth. Prairie plants are particularly delicate in these intense freezes as frozen water expands and rips apart cell walls, destroying their armature. When the thaw period eventually comes, and the water drains away, all that remains is a slimy puddle of cell slime.
A small corner of Symbiosis before the December 2022 freeze.
These slimy puddles and decaying plants quickly milt into the soil, building its complexity and enabling it to store carbon, cooling the planet and soaking up water. When it breaks down, it provides food for microorganisms in the soil. A freeze is a quick and intense way to quickly build a large amount of living soil in the subtropics. This is a refreshing reminder of how our actions have real-world impacts. I am leaving the dead organic material to break down naturally. I am mindful of the inherent beauty of all seasons, all colors of ground cover, and the event's natural power and energy potential. Understanding and honoring freezes can improve Earth’s health for future generations. It is the fastest, most economical way to build a large quantity of soil. When it comes to soil carbon as an asset, a freeze is an economic plus.
I am not anti-freeze - instead, I'm pro-freeze!
Almost two weeks after the freeze and the new growth is noticeable. . The dried plants are crumbling into soil.
I still have unanswered questions and I am hopeful they will reveal themselves through Symbiosis. Until them I walk the garden every day in complete amazement the new growth rise through the decaying material as it melts in the armature of the soil.
My research into fast fashion for my bison sculpture’s new location in an old Forever 21 has me dreaming of a unique, symbolic sculpture for my latest social sculpture endeavor, Symbiosis Celebration. I searched the resale online sites for a used/vintage acrylic bag. A simple bag, sculptural in shape, that I would fill with the large bills and dead butterflies in the Eco-System piece in my 2022 portfolio. However, as I explored acrylic vintage bags and thought about how to intertwine fashion to elevate my Symbiosis Celebration work, an idea was born. I discovered the Hermes-designed clear acrylic tote that originated during the 1996 Paris terror attacks as a tribute piece and in response for the lives lost in that tragic event and the follow-up tote for the 1997 'Hermès Souvenir de l’Exposition. The underside reads ‘Un Voyage au Pays de Merveilles’, which translates to ‘A Trip to Wonderland’.
The trip to wonderland' is the inspiration for my new work - but with a new Anthropocene symbolism behind it.
I will wear the iconic clear vintage purse filled with drop-dead gorgeous dead butterflies and large bills to the Lawndale's upcoming brunch, where my living sculpture Symbiosis is and where my idea for urban eco-tourism was born; this recycled wonderland bag promises to draw attention with a new purpose and all thanks to its meaningful content and viral hashtag potential! When Symbiosis Celebration takes off, truly the world will transform into Wonderland the Hermes team dreamed of.
On a side note, my brief research into Hermes revealed they are and have been a leader in eco concious slow fashion.
Me in my closet deciding how and what to wear with the Hermes tote. Imagine it full of bills and butterflies. I could not decide whether to go minimalist or put my best fashion foot forward. So I decided to consult with one of my favorite edgy and fashion-forward textiles artist and fashionista, Loren Siems, and Houston’s Kick Pleat team.
Wish me luck.
At the event
Image by Laura Bolton.
At the event
Image by Laura Burlton
When maintaining “Symbiosis” and when I observe urban landscapes, I see the beauty in decaying plants and the tiny creatures they protect. This brown anole is a garden beneficial, keeping fire ants and other insects in check. Without camouflage, they are prey for birds, snakes, and some spiders. As an artist I find beauty through systems thinking and a balanced ecosystem.
Can you find him/her mimicking a dried, twisted leaf?
I received a spam email this summer with a bold photo of a popsicle asking, “How do you cool off in the heat of the summer?” I immediately thought about how the planet cools off. That spam email inspired these ephemeral sculptures, I used the materials mother nature uses to cool the planet.
PLANET POPSICLES
6” X 1” X 12” ephemeral
Sticks, H20, Passionflower, Fall obedient plant, and American Beautyberry
PLANET POPSICLES
6” X 6” X 24” ephemeral
Sticks, H20, Passionflower, Fall obedient plant, and American Beautyberry, Beatles, Pokeweed, Scarbs, Golden Rod, passed butterflies, and passed moths
New World Giant Swallowtail and Milkweed and the health of Monarchs. This tropical mikweed HAS to be cut down November 1. The Milkweeds are the host plants for Monarchs. They need to move south by November and won’t head south if Tropical Milkweed is available as a host.
Monarch and Climbing Hempvine. Climbing Hempvine is an aromatic delight. It reminds me if warmed sweet honey. The Monarchs agree.
Purple Coneflower and the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly.
Mockingbirds and the fence. I have learned that birds need habitats with multiple elevations. The fence is a popular place for birds to look for insects and tiny toads to eat while keeping an eye on predators.
Monarch and Climbing Hempvine.
Ask upper of the Hesperiini family
Gulf fritillaryon American beauty berry.
GulfFritillary on Marsh fkeabane pictured below.
Marsh fleabane
Gulf fritillary and Lawndale’s mailbox. Over a few weeks the count in the doorway climbed to over 200.
In identified mushrooms.
Carpenter bee
Gukf Fritillary are eating everything
How nature arranges itself
Chrysalis on crabgrass stem
Morning glory, mile a minute vine.
Carpenter bee and Obedient flower
The White viened pipevinesis is the host plant for the Pipelvine swallowtails. I wish I had more. The caterpillars devoures it, and then it comes back.
Cloudless Sulphur and Turkscap
Hemiargus ceraunus, it blue ceraunus,an d pasted native plants.
Monarch and Blue mist flower
Northern Mocking bird perched on the fence.
Northern Mockingbird and trough pond
Hesperiina And Frogfruit
Pushfly and Passiflora leaf
True Sparrow stays in messy bush like spaces for safety and for a source of caterpillars
American snout butterfly
Gulf Fritillary with OE
“Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) is a debilitating protozoan parasite that infects monarchs. Infected adult monarchs harbor thousands or millions of microscopic OE spores on the outside of their bodies. When dormant spores are scattered onto eggs or milkweed leaves by infected adults, monarch larvae consume the spores, and these parasites then replicate inside the larvae and pupae. Monarchs with severe OE infections can fail to emerge successfully from their pupal stage, either because they become stuck or they are too weak
to fully expand their wings. Monarchs with mild OE infections can appear normal but live shorter lives and cannot fly was well as healthy monarchs.
Although recent research shows that tropical milkweed can lower OE replication within infected monarchs (due to high levels of cardenolide toxins), this might not benefit the monarch population. In
fact, this could actually promote disease spread by allowing moderately infected
I PROJECT MONARCH
HEALTH
monarchs that otherwise would have died quickly following eclosion to live longer and spread more parasite spores.“- monarch parasites.
ECO—SYSTEMS
size varies
financial gain and passed butterflies.
Image by Nash Baker
Symbiosis Celebration
social sculpture
—from Chemical Plants to Native Plants—
Native Wildflowers, Food, Art, Music and Migration
Fall color tourism contributes $1 billion per year to North Carolina. Houston has fall and spring color migration; we can cultivate them into tourism and build soil health.
“For profit is the fuel that will change society's landscape practices to embrace the planet's ecological systems in Houston. Applying economics and industrial concepts to my work, I see ecotourism as an untapped resource that can strengthen our environmental and economic health. I propose nurturing and marketing Houston’s ecotourism, through a Symbiosis Celebration of migration, that ultimately encourages and celebrates new mutualistic relationships between Houstonians and the planet. Through fostering relationships that regenerate Houston's micro-ecosystems, we will move our reputation from Chemical Plants to Native Plants — we can prosper as the Green Energy City.” — cindee travis klement
“If you dig deep and keep peeling the onion, artists and freelance writers are the leaders in society - the people who start to get new ideas out.” — Allan Savory
In April 2021, I installed the first native plants in Symbiosis, in Lawndale's Mary E. Bawden Sculpture Garden. Within two months, Symbiosis exploded with bountiful native blooms. Plants expected by the Ladybird Wildflower website to be one to three feet tall in Symbiosis were instead two to four feet tall. In June, the endangered native bees started returning. In the first twelve months, I have witnessed seventy new species in the space: from bird nest fungus to Red Admirals, Monarchs and skippers, skimmers, one of the bumblebees listed as endangered, Bombus pensylvanicus, treefrogs, toads and birds.
Building Mutual Symbiotic Relationships to Power Ecological Recovery
In preparation for the celebration I envision cultivating relationships among the City of Houston, local property owners, Houston's indigenous landscape and its wildlife, soil and climate, food, restaurant, music, visual and performing arts, museums and professional sports team communities.
The following steps will contribute to building these relationships:
· The business and private property owners will need to redirect their existing landscape budgets to native plants that support our wildlife.
· These new landscape practice guidelines will align with the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and Resilience.
· New native wildflower and grass landscapes will slow rainwater, allowing it to soak in and return to the aquifer to cool the planet while sequestering carbon and storing it in the ground where it is stable, providing food and safe habitats for our indigenous wildlife.
· The approximately six hundred species of birds, four hundred and thirty species of butterflies, eight hundred species of Texas native bees, one thousand species of moths, eighteen species of dragonflies, thirty species of turtles, including two box turtles, and seventy-two species of amphibians native to Texas will expand their populations in our city.
· Houston's creatives in the food, restaurant, music, visual and performing arts, museums and professional sports industries will respond to the new mutualistic/symbiotic relationships among Houston's landowners and our unique plant and wildlife in exciting creative ways and performances during the celebratory periods.
· The City of Houston will promote, market, and support the above-described new relationships with its services infrastructure, completing the mutualistic relationship that will support Houston's economy and ecosystems.
Why Houston Can Support Ecotourism
Although Symbiosis taught me the speed with which an urban landscape can transform into a wildlife haven, it was not until I was in Fredericksburg that I realized Houston's ecology is an untapped tourist economy. When you combine Houston's rich soil, high humidity, heat and long growing seasons with the indigenous native plant landscapes supported by Houston's urban irrigated commercial and park landscapes, Houston's native plant wildflower and wildlife tourism can far exceed those of the small towns in Central Texas. Another tremendous asset is Houston's central geographic location in the bird and butterfly migration paths between the North and South American continents and our proximity to the Gulf Coast. Texas has the most butterfly species of any state in the United States. Houston's inner city is 600 square miles; our "sprawl" is an asset to urban ecotourism.
As additional support that Houston can be an ecotourism powerhouse, I have read that one of New York City's most popular tourist attractions is The High Line's native landscaping. In North Texas, Plano also uses wildflowers and music to attract tourism dollars.
Funding
I see businesses and organizations all over the city which are starting to take advantage of the ecological benefits of native landscapes. Unfortunately, many other property owners (business and home) are unaware of the economic and environmental benefits of native plant landscaping. They spend $50-$100 per hour for weekly maintenance and $4—$12 per square foot for seasonal plantings, while also incurring high water usage and bills. Suppose the City appeals to these businesses and individuals to convert their existing non-ecological landscape budgets to native wildflower and grass landscapes. In that case, the City can promote a native plant/wildflower and wildlife, food, arts and music festival that will symbiotically support native ecological systems. The supporting businesses can profit from the tourism they generate.
The Texas Can-Do Spirit
Systems thinking to mitigate climate through industry and the arts is a new territory — will Houstonians embrace this new field of thinking? In Texas, that depends on how you ask and present the need. In our recent history, from Katrina to hurricane Harvey, unsolicited Houstonians volunteered to help their neighbors. In 1901, wildcatters discovered Spindletop, drawing people worldwide to build a better life in unknown territory. “Wildcatter” is used to describe one that drills wells in areas not known to be producing fields. The spirit of the wildcatter is deep in our Texas Can-Do Spirit. It is in our nature to embrace a new field of wild.
Why Big Ideas Are Important.
“The climate needs big, public, audacious goals that everyone can contribute to,” he argues. “Cathedrals were not completed in the lifetime of anyone starting them, but communities bought into these projects.” -The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/19/climate-change-cathedral-project/
Gerhart Prairie in a drought
On October 7th, I was invited to participate in rescuing prairie plants from the Gerhart Prairie south of Houston. The Prairie, I believe, is part of the Texas Nature Conservancy. A manufacturer has a fenced-off area on the property. They will put in a road through the prairie to service the fenced-in operations. We were rescuing the plants in the designated place on the future road. Several Master Naturalists identified plants, as did Mark Morganstern of Morningstar Nursery. Mark kindly reaches out to me when free and needy plants are available.
That Saturday, I received an amazing list of the plants I rescued.
1.) Helianthus angustifolia (aka Swamp Sunflower)
this is the tall 'sunflower' plant with the very narrow leaves that have the edges rolled under.
(I think I may have inadvertently referred to this as Maximillian Sunflower, which is not what this is)
2.) Baptisia sphaerocarpa (aka Yellow Wild Indigo or Yellow False Indigo)
this plant is a small subshrub in the Fabaceae (Pea Family); it has trifoliate leaves without subending bractlets and it has bright yellow flowers borne on erect inflorescences. Its fruits are round, hence the Latin name sphaerocarpa which literally means 'round fruit'. It will bloom in the spring.
3.) Euthamia leptocephala (aka Bushy Goldentop)
This plant is in the Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) and is closely related to the goldenrods (Solidago spp.). Euthamias have round-topped inflorescences rather that the 'open-spray'-shaped inflorescences of the goldenrods. There are two species of Euthamia in our area -- the other is Euthamnia gymnospermoides (aka Texas Goldentop) -- it have longer and much narrower leaves than does E. leptocephala.
4.) Croton lindheimeri (aka Woolly Croton or Lindheimer's Hogwort)
This plant is a member of the Euphorbiaceae (Spurge Family). It has very small unisexual flowers surrounding by a yellowish tomentose hairs; the female flowers are borne near the base of the inflorescence while the male flowers are bunched near the apex of the inflorescence. This seeds of this species are an important food source for quail and dove and the plant is a larval host for several species of butterfly.
5.) Neptunia pubescens (aka Tropical Puff)
A member of the Fabaceae (Pea Family) in the Mimosoid clade (or subfamily) which means it does not have typical pea-shaped flowers. The flowers are bunched onto a round receptacle or head, each with a small inconspicuous corolla, but the numerous long stamens are quite showy. Neptunia pubescens sprawls along the ground. It is larval host plant for the ceranus blue (Hemiargus ceranus) butterfly and its seeds are consumed by many wildlife species.
6.) Lythrum alatum var. lanceolatum (aka Winged Loosestrife)
This member of the Lythraceae (Loosestrife Family) grows to be about 3-4 ft tall and produces long racemose infloresceces with smallish lavendar (pink,purple) flowers. It is a special value to native bees and is also used by hummingbirds and butterflies.
7.) Eupatorium serotinum (aka Late-flowering Boneset)
A member of the Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) which has rayless sporting only white disc florets. It is a perennial that emerges early in the year, but does not bloom until August - November. While it's flowers are small there are many of them, so that the plant is a real show-stopper in the fall. It is of special value to native bees and its nectar attracts butterflies and many other insect species and it seeds are eaten by many bird species. The plants you dug up were fairly small (maybe due to the drought this year; the species usually grows 4-5+ feet tall.
8.) Agalinis heterophylla (aka Prairie Agalinis, Prairie Geradia, False Foxglove)
This is a member of the Boraginaceae (Borage or Broomrape Family). There are several species found locally, but the most common is Agalinis heterophylla, easily distinguished by its deeply lobed calyx. It is a larval host for the Buckeye butterfly and attracts numerous insect species, including bees and bumblebees.
9.) Ludwigia octovalvis (aka Mexican Primrose Willow)
A member of the Onograceae (Evening Primrose Family), this plant likes its feet wet, so a low spot that collects water is a great place to plant it. It is fast growing and reseeds readily. It is a nectar source for butterflies and other insects and is a larval host for the water primrose hornworm moth (now there's a mouthful!).
10.) Conoclinium coelestinum (aka Blue Mist Flower)
Another member of the Asteraceae whose flowerhead do not have ray florets, but the long stigmas of the disc florets make for a showy flowerhead nonetheless. This species is NOT an annual (as I misinformed you yesterday, sometimes things stick erroneously in your mind), but rather a perennial that dies back to the ground each year and also spreads readily by seed. It attracts many late-season butterflies. It can be a bit 'bossy' as Mary Spolyar put it, but as I have found with vigorous natives a bit of pruning/thinning doesn't hurt them in the least.
I look forward to watching them thrive in Symbiosis.
The rescues
