This Week in Iowa Nature

The Pleiades dance brightly in the winter sky. Look for the Seven Sisters star cluster above and to the right of Orion.

Jean C. Prior and James Sandrock, The Iowa Nature Calendar

Plant of the Week

Lead plant

Amorpha canescens Pursh

other common names: prairie shoestring, wild tea

Amorpha: from the Greek amorphos, meaning generally “without shape” or “deformed,” in reference to the flower, which has only one petal

Canescens: from Latin, meaning “gray hairy”

Legume family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition