Silent Impact Environmental

 Hello! The wildflower for this week makes quite the color show in the summer, meet the... ROYAL CATCHFLY: Royal Catchfly Silene regia Grows 4-6 feet tall Ranges in the Central Midwest Flowers Late June-August Leaves branch off opposite and the plant is typically covered in small white hairs. There are no extruding branches until the top, where the buds extend into flowers with 5 petals. Red is a very rare color, especially for prairie wildflowers. Red is attractive to butterflies, which are the primary pollinators, especially larger butterflies, including the Black Swallowtail. Another major pollinator is the ruby-throated hummingbird, making the royal catchfly one of the few prairie flowers which is pollinated by hummingbirds.  Prefers dry, full sun soil, and can perform well in rocky, loam earth. The seeds are small black dots which remain in the flower bud until the wind disperses them, leaving the seeds nearby. In most states where the catchfly occurs naturally, it is dee...

 Nov. 27, 2023 Hello! The wildflower for this week is Common Milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca L .) The Common Milkweed is a prairie and pasture wildflower which thrives in dry soils as well as wet soils. It can be found on the sides of roads and many different areas. The seed pods release cotton-like seeds which can float very far and allows for the widespread growth of the plant. Typically found in the eastern US and some of southern Canada, the common milkweed is one of many different milkweed plants. The leaves are large and oval in alternating sequences. The flowers are large ball-like pink structures, before forming into tear-shaped pods in the fall, when seeds drop.  A major importance factor for the milkweed plant is it is a host plant for Monarch Butterflys. Meaning, Monarchs will only lay eggs on the milkweed family, making milkweeds essential to the continual survival of the beautiful Monarch butterfly.  Milkweed make an excellent garden and backyard plant. They gro...

 Its Friday not Wednesday, but there is still time to do a wildflower of the week! Introducing the New England Aster!!! Symphyotrichum novae-angliae The New England Aster is in the aster family, and blooms from August to October, it offers a very nice purple touch to the fall wildflowers. Typically the aster can be found in prairies, savannas, and open fields where other open range wildflowers grow. The New England aster prefers moister soils, but can grow very well in different areas.  The actual plant has alternating leaves, with a hairy stem, and usually clusters of 3 flowers. The claim to fame is the purple petals and yellow center. Not to be confused with smooth asters, which also have large purple flowers. Smooth asters are more lavender, where the New England Aster found in the wild will typically exhibit darker purple flowers. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/symphyotrichum-novae-angliae/ https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/symphyotrichum_novae-angl...

 Introducing a new segment of the page: Wild Flower Wednesday! Each Wednesday, a new wildflower will be posted, with a description and some details.  Today's wildflower is one you may see in people's yards and gardens, or in the wild: PURPLE CONEFLOWER, Echinacea purpurea Average Height: 2-3 feet Typical Location: sunny grassland, prairie, fields     (dry conditions) Flowers: Summer, around June-July The purple coneflower is a very common native ornamental wildflower, which many people use in their yard landscape, and is known for the showy purple petals. There are many other coneflower species, but the purple coneflower is one of the most well-known and used. There are typically many stems and flower heads for each plant, and when the seeds drop, they typically can scatter nearby and will grow relatively easy. These are also a favorite for gardens due to being easy to care for and grow, as well as their magnetism for bees and butterflys. The nectar in the conef...

Hey! It's November 2nd, and it's deep into autumn, most of the leaves in Ohio have fallen, we have had our first and second frost, things are going dormant (sleeping for winter).  In fact, it was snowing during trick-or-treat night!! Does that mean we will have a snowy, long winter?? We'll have to wait to find out.  Recently, I have been taking more time to work at the Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC), which is in my hometown, and we have been focusing on seed collection/sorting, and honeysuckle removal.  Seed Collection: The wildflowers, grasses, and sedges all have different periods of maturing: end of spring, end of summer, and end of fall. Through this time, there is a window of collection when the seed has flowered, and then begins to drop. The collection of fall seeds has included: New England Aster, Heart Leaved Aster, White Snakeroot, Stiff Goldenrod, little blue stem (grass), big blue stem (grass), and Indian grass. These seeds are placed into brow...

 I recently planted my 37 wildflowers into the ground in my backyard which I was raising all summer long. I got the plants from a native plant sale at the Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC). I had interned at this center in summer 2022, and learned how to identify trees, wildflowers, and butterflies. That summer in 2022, I raised 12 species including butterfly weed, short's aster, bluestem goldenrod, royal catchfly, and black eye susan. The species were very successful, due to their natural ability to grow in many soils and with little care. The following summer (this summer '23), I chose to increase my plants and chose more difficult ones to grow. Some of these include, foxglove beardtongue, grays goldenrod, blue mistflower, hoary vervain, ironweed, milkweed, blue false indigo. The overall growth from when they were purchased to when they were put in the ground was significantly less than last years selection. There are several factors which could contribute to th...