Prairie Wanderings: A day at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge
By PAUL G. JANTZEN
Contributing writer
It is a pleasant June afternoon for Prairie Day at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge. Set in the Gypsum Creek watershed in the southeast portion of the Smoky Hills, a canopy of blue sky and cumulus clouds hover over the prairie grasses and wildflowers as they respond to the sunlight and several weeks of timely rains. We see several chunks of red Dakota sandstone deposited here some 100 million years ago. The sand grains were cemented together with the calcium carbonate precipitating out of the sea water that covered this area.
From the visitor center we walk westward to the upland prairie and mark the checklist furnished by the Refuge. We organize the observed plants by plant families, recording only those in bloom today.
Near the visitor center we note the common St. John's-wort. Introduced from Europe, its yellow petals display tiny dark spots suggesting drops of St. John's blood. Livestock eating this plant become highly sensitive to light.
A prairie larkspur immediately attracts our attention, its flowering stalk reaching above the prairie grasses. The upper one of five petal-like sepals of each white flower bears a long, curved spur containing nectar which attracts bumblebees and other insects. These insects, in turn, help pollinate the flowers. Like most larkspurs, this species is poisonous to cattle.
We can't help but notice the magenta red of the purple poppy mallow. And we note its relative, the (white) pale poppy mallow which is not on our checklist. The roots of poppy mallows can be eaten raw or cooked.
We recognize the familiar wild prairie rose and, also in the rose family, the sulfur cinquefoil, which is not on our checklist. The five leaflets of each leaf remind me of strawberry leaves.
The catclaw sensitive briar displays its soft pink balls of flowers. Elaine touches its leaflets to watch them fold together, but they have already responded to this afternoon's breezes.
We see two legumes, wild alfalfa, or scurfpea, and blue wild indigo. The handsome purple-blue flowers of "indigo" develop into inflated, woody, black fruits with beaked tips.
We check off the plains evening primrose with its yellow petals. In the roadside ditch approaching the Refuge headquarters, we had seen the white showy evening primrose.
We enjoy the two wood sorrels, violet and yellow, with their sour three-parted leaves. Their oxalic acid provided the tart taste for pioneers in the absence of rhubarb and gooseberries.
We recall that the butterfly milkweed flowers we see here would be a deep orange in Chase County and red in eastern Kansas and Missouri.
The Virginia groundcherry's light yellow flowers are dark spotted toward the throat. Its flowers mature to form bladderlike fruits, each containing a pea-sized berry. I never quite learned to "pop" those fruits like neighborhood kids did.
There are two species representing the sunflower family: daisy fleabane and yarrow. In both, the disk flowers are bisexual, and the ray flowers are only female. The daisy fleabane disk flowers are yellow; the ray flowers are white. The name "fleabane" refers to its supposed ability to banish fleas.
In yarrow, or milfoil (meaning thousand leaf, due to its many leaf divisions), both disk and ray flowers are whitish. Elaine comments on its spicy aroma. Plains Indians use this plant to treat many ailments. But it also contains a poison.
The only grass we see blooming during our short excursion is the short Scribner panicum. It remains green all winter, producing seeds in June. Most of the tall prairie grasses will send up flowering stalks later in summer.
The tiny flowers of the prairie blue-eyed grass (not a true grass) are the only member of the iris family we see today.
Seen along the road approaching the visitor center were many yucca, or small soapweed, noted for its many uses by the American Indians and its unique pollination process involving a moth.
During our informal survey of blossoming plants we are favored with background music rendered by two avian soloists. There is the joyous melody of the dickcissel's dick-ciss-ciss-ciss. We see it on yonder shrub. And Elaine hears the clear bob-whoit in the distance.
Even this short immersion in wild country gives our souls a lift.
