What has changed in the outdoor world since your first days of illustrating these plants? What’s better, what’s worse?
There is good news and bad news. The good news is that many new prairies have been established (or restored) during the past 40 years by corporations, universities, botanical gardens, government agencies, and parks. It is much easier to find prairie plants now than it was 40 years ago, although these small parcels are no substitute for the original tallgrass prairie that covered millions of acres. The bad news is that many small remnants of original tallgrass prairie are being paved over, plowed up, or otherwise destroyed as cities and farm fields expand and roadways are widened.
PLATE 11. BLACKBERRY, Rubus allegheniensis
Source of specimen: Bishop Hill Timber
There are at least two attributes of Rubus that artists find attractive. One is the random (almost chaotic) position of the individual branches and twigs (compared to a very rigid form such as a tulip or an iris). This makes the composition on the paper much more flexible and open to endless variations. The other is the subtle “bloom” on winter brambles, which lends a bit of pale blue color to the stark winter landscape and to the resultant watercolors.
PLATE 16. TALL GOLDENROD, Solidago canadensis
Source of specimen: Johnson Prairie
Tall goldenrod is so widespread in the American landscape that Americans take it for granted. John Bartram, the eighteenth-century naturalist, was reluctant to ship goldenrod to European customers because it was such a common “weed” in the U.S. Many botanists have tried to explain how goldenrod galls develop. David Klein, the Amish naturalist/author, describes his search for goldenrod galls in the winter landscape in Great Possessions. He uses the larvae encased in the gall as bait for winter fishing.
—George Olson, The Elemental Prairie: Sixty Tallgrass Plants
