Editor’s note from Laura Belin: This week Iowa wildflower Wednesday highlights the regal fritillary, an insect species that depends on plants native to the tallgrass prairie.

Kara Grady is a writer and plant enthusiast from eastern Iowa. Her work has been published by the Iowa Native Plant Society, Lyrical Iowa, Bleeding Heartland, and most recently by the Women, Food, & Agriculture Network. She currently lives and writes in northeast Ohio. 

With the 2024 presidential election looming large, I wanted to shift our focus to perhaps an even more serious candidacy. This candidate has lived in Iowa their whole life and is admired throughout the state. Its platform focuses on ecosystem restoration and insect education. It is one of the largest, most beautiful butterflies, whose host plant is an equally beautiful and common wildflower.

With all these credentials to its name, it may shock some people that to this day, the regal fritillary still hasn’t been named Iowa’s State Insect. There are many good reasons to do so.

Kara Grady is a wildflower enthusiast living in eastern Iowa. Her work has been published in the Erythronium newsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society. When she’s not going on rare flower adventures, she can be found reading the latest botanical books or attending prairie seminars.

Sitting down outside the crystal store in Amana, my eye was drawn to a sign half-hidden across the way. It was not studded with sparkly jewels, or advertised by bright colors, but nevertheless, I was pulled from my seat with curiosity to investigate. And I experienced a surge of joy when I realized what the sign was for: it was telling me of the Monarch Waystation planted right in front of the store, an array of wildflowers I had barely noticed moments before.

Kara Grady is a wildflower enthusiast living in eastern Iowa. Her work has been published in the Erythronium newsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society. When she’s not going on rare flower adventures, she can be found reading the latest botanical books or attending prairie seminars. The University of Iowa’s Facilities Management website has more information about Macbride Nature Recreation Area in Johnson County.

“And this is called the Mother Oak.”

Land manager Tamra Elliott and I stood together beneath the white oak’s branches, which were so heavy with leaves that they drooped towards the ground. “People kept telling me that it was dead or dying. But I knew it was alive. Our team worked to open up the canopy around it and it came back to life.”

Kara Grady is a wildflower enthusiast living in eastern Iowa. Her work has been published in the Erythronium newsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society. When she’s not going on rare flower adventures, she can be found reading the latest botanical books or attending prairie seminars.

First off, I need to thank Kenny Slocum for letting me borrow his “KAPAI” branding. It wasn’t until I read his “Notes from a prairie tour across Iowa” and related “KAGPAI” articles (for “Kenny’s Annual Great Prairiestomp Across Iowa”) that I realized I had done my own prairie tour, featuring some of the most niche ecosystems Iowa had to offer.

Mine began in late April with an hour-long trip to the Hamilton-Tapken Prairie Preserve north of Onslow (Jones County). It was a hopeful attempt to find pasque flowers, the flowers that led to Ada Hayden meeting her lifelong mentor and friend Louis Pammel. But I missed them and instead ended up roaming the brown hills fruitlessly. Instead, I stumbled upon a single cluster of early blue violets, one of the host plants of the endangered regal fritillary butterfly.

Kara Grady is a wildflower enthusiast living in eastern Iowa. Her work has been published in the Erythronium newsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society. When she’s not going on rare flower adventures, she can be found reading the latest botanical books or attending prairie seminars. At 2:00 pm on Saturday, August 13, Kara will give a presentation for the Loess Hills Wild Ones Chapter: Fall Wildflowers of Iowa. Click here to register.

“Here, Kara.”

I peer at my dad’s phone screen. It shows something vaguely familiar from scrolling many times through the Iowa Wildflowers app. “Huh. It’s some kind of penstemon. Where did you find it?”

I’m more than a little surprised that he even has a picture. When my dad goes walking, he’s usually buried in his phone and never really seems interested in flowers. But this one caught his eye, and after trying to tell me where it was (and me failing to understand), we set out together to find the mystery flower.

Kara Grady is an amatuer botanist and wildflower enthusiast based in eastern Iowa. Her work has been published in the Erythronium newsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society. When she’s not going on rare flower adventures, she can be found reading the latest botanical books or attending prairie seminars.

“I think I’ll put a cage around it.”

It was a beautiful blue day in the middle of May, and Chris Edwards and I were both staring at the one lesser yellow lady slipper blooming in his family’s woodland plot. While I stared in utter rapture, Chris looked slightly grim, and perhaps for good reason. This is the last clump of the slipper that still exists since his grandparents bought the woodland in 1963. He blames ravenous deer for their disappearance.

Hungry deer are just one of the many challenges Iowa’s orchids face in their struggle for survival.