Friday, May 7, 2010

This Week in Iowa Nature

Arbor Day is the last Friday in April. Plant a tree or shrub for wildlife cover and food.

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

Monday, May 3, 2010

Plant of the Week

Bedstraw
Galium species
other common names: cleavers, catchweed, goosegrass, burrhead, gripgrass, loveman, scratchweed, sweethearts, love-me plant, beggar’s lice, fleaweed, inchweed, pigtails, poor robin
Galium: from Greek for “milk,” referring to the use of some species to curdle milk for cheesemaking
Species: There are at least 25 species of Galium, some of which are found in many different parts of the world. Two bedstraws are fairly common on Midwest prairies: northern bedstraw, Galium boreale (shown), and cleavers, G. aparine.
Madder family: Rubiaceae
Photo: Galium boreale L.

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