Plant of the Week

Swamp milkweed
Asclepias incarnata L.
other common names: rose milkweed, silkweed, water nerve root, white Indian hemp
Asclepias: from the name of the Greek god of healing and medicine
Incarnata: from Latin, for “flesh,” referring to the flesh-colored flowers
Milkweed family: Asclepiadaceae

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

Finding Projectile Points

Collecting artifacts is an enjoyable hobby; follow these common-sense guidelines provided by the Office of the State Archeologist at the University of Iowa. Always get landowner permission before collecting. It is illegal to collect on public lands without a permit. Surface collect; do not try to excavate a site. Identify, catalog, and label your finds and record site locations with the OSA. The OSA can help you document, process, manage, and care for your collection. DO not collect human remains. All prehistoric and modern cemeteries and burial sites in Iowa are protected by state and federal law. Report any human remains or burial sites you encounter with the OSA. Avoid buying and selling artifacts. This activity encourages looting and the loss of our nonrenewable cultural heritage. Many items on the market today are recently made copies.

A Guide to Projectile Points of Iowa

Part 2: Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Woodland, and Late Prehistoric Points

by Joseph Tiffany, photographs by Christian A. Driver

Tree of the Week

American Plum, Prunus Americana Marsh.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves simple, alternate, oval to oblong-oval, 2 to 4 inches long with petioles ½ to ¾ inch long, sharply toothed; petioles with or without glands; veins forming a network near the margins. Winter tqigs slender to moderate, often thorny, gray or red-brown; leaf scars small, half-round, with 3 bundle scars. Buds ovoid, 1/16 to ¼ (usually about 1/8) inch long, the terminal absent, often paired (side by side) above the lead scares; scales about 6, glabrous, red or reddish brown. Flowers perfect, regular, showy, in umbellike cluster of 2 to 5, appearing with or shortly before the leaves in spring; petals 5, white, nearly round. Fruit a drupe about 1 inch in diameter, red or light purple when ripe. Bark brown or dark gray, scaly.

SIMILAR TREES: Cherries have nonthorny twigs, terminal buds, flowers in racemes, and much smaller fruits. In winter, distinguished from other small, thorny trees by its lack of a terminal bud and its frequently paired lateral buds.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native throughout the state.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Finding Projectile Points

The durability and variety of point forms make them ideal for classification and study. Point forms, however, can vary by quality of material, skill of the maker, breakage and reshaping, and reshaping by use. The single point types illustrated in this guide include a wide range of variability around each modal form depicted. Very similar point forms have been given different names by archaeologists working throughout North America. Despite these factors, the points illustrated represent broad patterns of past shared behavior, craft, and technology in the Upper Midwest and Plains through time. While archaeologists cannot demonstrate that the point types they have defined represent past reality in the minds of their makers, the operating assumption by most archaeologists is that they do.

A Guide to Projectile Points of Iowa, Part 2: Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Woodland, and Late Prehistoric Points by Joseph Tiffany, photographs by Christian A. Driver

Winter Sport

Years ago, after an extended field trip to the marshes of the Gulf Coast, Paul Errington reflected: “The South was genuine, beautiful, and fascinating, but it was not home to one born and apprenticed in a country molded by ice sheets.”

He spoke for all children of the northern prairies and glacial wetlands—people and wildfowl. Even though the prairie ducks have basked this winter in the Laguna Madre and other sunny resorts, it has been in forced exile. They were banished from their homeland by winter and are chafing to return. The North is where they belong, and for seven months, from ice to ice, they will be back in their prairie waters. The seven months are beginning; the fires of spring are kindled.

North again. Home again.

Out Home by John Madson

Tree of the Week

Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana L.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Small tree or shrub, often colonial. Leaves simple, alternate, oval or obovate, 2 to 4 inches long with petioles ½ to 1 inch long; margins finely toothed, the tips of the teeth sharp and pointing outward; two glands normally present on petiole near the base of the blade. Winter twigs slender, glabrous, gray or red-brown; leaf scars small, half-round, with 3 bundle scars. Buds long-ovoid, 3/16 to ¼ inch long (sometimes larger), terminal and laterals nearly equal in size; scales 6 or more, glabrous, brown with light-colored margins. Flowers similar to black cherry but commonly blooming earlier in spring; petals nearly round. Fruit a drupe ¼ to 1/3 inch in diameter, red or dark purplish red when ripe; calyx deciduous. Bark gray, smooth.

SIMILAR TREES: Black cherry has narrower leaves with incurved teeth. Wild plum has its flowers in small, umbellike clusters, and its fruits are much larger. In winter, black cherry has dark red-brown bud scales; other trees with similar twigs have false terminal buds.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native throughout the state.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Comfort Foods from Iowa

Scalloped Corn Casserole

1-pound can cream-style corn

1-pound can whole kernel corn (drained)

¼ cup minced onion

¾ cup milk

½ cup light cream or half-and-half

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 cups crushed soda crackers

2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients except butter and spoon the mixture into a buttered 1 ½-quart shallow baking dish. Dot with butter. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes, then stir the mixture and reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

Prairie Cooks: Glorified Rice, Three-Day Buns, and Other Reminiscences by Carrie Young