Plant of the Week

Meadow sweet
Spiraea alba DuRoi.
other common names: narrow-leaved meadow sweet
Spiraea: the ancient Greek name; from spiraea, meaning generally “a wreath spiraled or twisted,” for the twisted seedpods of some species
Alba: from Latin, meaning “white”
Rose family: Rosaceae

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

An Interview with Paul Garvin: Part 1

Tell us how you developed such a strong interest in Iowa’s minerals that you wrote a book about them.
My interest in geology has always centered on minerals. As a boy growing up in Idaho, I hiked mountain trails, walked the shores of crystal-clear lakes, and pored through the ruins of abandoned lead and silver mines. I picked up and hauled home anything that looked interesting. During my high school years I built a shed, complete with a workbench, storage shelves, and electricity, so that I could house and study my minerals. When I arrived at Cornell College in 1969, I began to look for places to collect and study minerals. I soon became aware of favorite mineral-collecting quarries, mines, and other localities, and I developed research projects for Cornell geology students and myself. Eventually I became aware that I knew more about the geology of Iowa minerals than perhaps anybody else. Jean Prior believed this to be true, and she urged me to write the book.

In simple terms, what’s the difference between a rock and a mineral?
In simple terms, a rock is an aggregate of one or more minerals. Granite is an aggregate of crystals of quartz, feldspar, and minor minerals like mica. Limestone is an aggregate of crystals of the mineral calcite. One can physically break a rock into its component minerals, but one cannot physically break up a mineral into anything but smaller pieces of the mineral itself.

Paul Garvin, Iowa’s Minerals: Their Occurrence, Origins, Industries, and Lore

Midwest Nature Quote of the Week

There was a calm wordlessness over the water, a savage evening brightness, the presence of quick life, quick death, multitudes of fish, birds and fishing men brought there by inexorable greed, balanced by the ages; and it was not something we ask for necessarily, as part of the acceptable world, but I took it as an offering, in answer to all need.

John Hay, In Defense of Nature

Plant of the Week

Wild petunia
Ruellia humilis Nutt.
other common names: hairy ruellia
Ruellia: in honor of an early French herbalist, Jean de la Ruelle (1474–1537)
Humilis: from Latin, meaning “low,” in reference to the low-growing habit of the species in many habitats. (Due to variance in the genus, some authorities combine this species with another species, R. carolinensis.)
Acanthus family: Acanthaceae

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

An Interview with Mark Müller: Part 2

How do you merge your illustration work, your writing, your DVD work, etc., with your hands-on reconstruction work?

The reconstruction work that we do merges seamlessly with all my other projects including the educational/awareness aspect. We delight in having people come out for advice on their own plantings, help with a burn, or just enjoy the raucous color display when everything is in full bloom. Of course the hands-on work often inspires the artwork and keeps things real. It’s also great when you have to draw or film something and don’t have to leave the farm!

What has changed in the outdoor world since your first days of trying to learn about it and protect it? What's better, what’s worse?
So many things in the outdoor world have changed in my lifetime for better and for worse that whole books are written to address this question. But in general I’d say that things were pretty nasty in the 1960s as far as air and water quality and habitat destruction were concerned, and at the pace of environmental atrocities at that time we would be a lot worse off now if it were not for some pretty bold legislation and the blooming of environmental groups and an explosion of awareness—thank you, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold et al. If you would have told me 20 years ago that you would see dozens of bald eagles munching on bullheads along the Iowa River behind McDonald’s in Iowa City or that we would have a trapping season for bobcat and river otters or that turkeys would become a nuisance here, I would not have believed it. So there have been some miracle reversals, but we may have outdone ourselves with our contribution to global climate change, which will make DDT nearly wiping out raptors, oil spills, excessive logging, near total destruction of the tallgrass prairie, wetland draining, ivory-billed woodpeckers, etc., seem like trivial events in comparison to what we may be facing. It could be more than easy to go completely negative here, so I concentrate on keeping our consumption footprint small, continue to work on protecting and creating high-quality habitat and holding my breath that people will have the courage to get up and do what needs to be done before it’s too late.

Mark Müller, coauthor, An Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants, and author, Prairie in Your Pocket, Woodland in Your Pocket, and Wetlands in Your Pocket

Plant of the Week

Canada wild rye

Elymus canadensis L.

other common names: nodding wild rye, rye grass, Canada lyme grass, Great Plains wild rye

Elymus: derived from the Greek elymos, the name for a kind of grain that has the lemma and palea tightly rolled about the seed

Canadensis: meaning “of Canada” 

Grass family: Poaceae (Gramineae)

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

This Week in Iowa Nature

Skunk cabbage blooms, which generate their own heat, often appear before the snow melts at Hanging Bog State Preserve in Linn County.

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