This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

After the jump I’ve posted some pictures of Virginia waterleaf, a wildflower found throughout Iowa in woodland areas. It can bloom anytime between May and July, but came out early this year, like everything else.  

Here’s your mid-week open thread: all topics welcome. After the jump I’ve posted some photos of Sweet William, also known as blue phlox. Bleeding Heartland readers caught a glimpse of this flower in one of the May apple pictures a few weeks back, but the species is pretty enough for a separate diary.

As a bonus, I added two photos of an unusual Jack-in-the-pulpit I saw recently while pulling up garlic mustard (an invasive plant).

The Iowa House and Senate adjourned for the year today. Tomorrow Bleeding Heartland will sort through the state budget compromises and other news about the survivors (mental health reform, solar tax incentives) and casualties (property tax reform, nuclear power bill) of the session’s busy final days.

For now, enjoy a couple of wild geranium photos after the jump. One of them includes other native plants I can’t identify, so I hope readers with expertise in this area will share their wisdom. Wild geranium is found in woodland areas throughout Iowa and the eastern U.S. The more familiar geranium houseplant is native to South Africa.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

This week’s featured native plant is wild ginger. Although common in wooded areas throughout Iowa, its flowers are easily missed unless you’re looking for them. Wild ginger usually blooms in April and May. I’ve posted two pictures after the jump, along with a couple of bonus photos of violets, because their leaves can resemble wild ginger leaves.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

This week’s wildflower is a favorite for many people I know. May apples typically bloom in May (hence the name), but this year flowers appeared several weeks early in central Iowa.  Also known as umbrella plants, these flowers are easy to spot, since they often grow in large colonies. A bunch of photos are after the jump.

This is an open thread. I’m not planning to write a separate post about First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Windsor Heights yesterday, or President Barack Obama’s speech at the University of Iowa today, so any comments about those events are welcome here. I would advise “fired up and ready to go” students to focus their volunteer energy on one of the competitive Iowa House or Senate races within striking distance of Iowa City.

I’m posting the mid-week open thread early today. What’s on your mind, Bleeding Heartland readers?

The wildflower of the week is Jack-in-the-pulpit, which has a distinctive shape when blooming.

Here’s your mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

After the jump I’ve posted three photos of bellwort, a yellow flower that can bloom between April and June in Iowa. Like everything else, it came out early this year.

On Wednesday I inadvertently posted photos of a non-native flower, so here are a couple of bonus Iowa wildflower pictures. Dogtooth violets typically bloom in Iowa between April and June, but this year’s unusually warm weather brought them out in late March.

I can’t believe how early wildflowers are blooming in central Iowa this year, especially compared to the unusually cold spring of 2011. After the jump I’ve posted a few photos of Dutchman’s breeches, which are common in wooded areas.

This is a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

The warm March weather has brought out many plants earlier than usual this year, which inspired me to launch a new series at Bleeding Heartland. Every Wednesday I will post at least one photo of a native wildflower blooming somewhere in central Iowa.

Today’s installment: bloodroot, which you can find in some wooded areas in March or April.

Consider this an open thread; all topics welcome.

Richard Doak wrote a great piece in last Sunday’s Des Moines Register urging readers to “plant the seeds of a more eco-thoughtful Iowa.” Seeding native plants along roadsides has helped the state Department of Transportation save money and labor while user fewer chemicals.

Highway officials cite a long list of other benefits, such as controlling blowing snow, improving air quality, reducing erosion, filtering pollutants and providing wildlife habitat. They’re even said to improve safety by reducing the effects of highway hypnosis, delineating upcoming curves and screening headlight glare.

Doak wants to see much more native landscaping in Iowa:

To set the example, let’s have every school, every courthouse, every park, every hospital, every library set aside at least a patch of space for wild indigo, prairie sage, golden Alexanders, blackeyed Susan, pale-purple coneflower, butterfly milkweed, prairie larkspur, shooting star, compass plant, partridge pea, spiderwort, ironweed, blazing star, smooth blue aster or any of hundreds of other flowering plants that were native to the tallgrass prairie. […]

It’s estimated that up to one-third of residential water use goes to lawn watering, and lawn mowing uses 800 million gallons of gasoline per year, including 17 million gallons spilled while refueling. Some 5 percent of air pollution is attributed to lawn mowers.

Native plants require no fertilizer or herbicide, no watering and only enough mowing to mimic the effects of the occasional wildfires that kept the prairie clean of trees.

Interest in reducing pollution and conserving water and energy should be reason enough to switch to native landscaping.

About ten years ago, our family stopped trying to grow a grassy lawn in our shady yard. After the jump I’ve listed some of the benefits of going native.