| Photography and text by Amelia
Painter |
Iowa has changed greatly since becoming a state in 1846. The
prairies that helped develop the highly productive soils have
been reduced by more than 99 percent. About 95 percent of the
state's prairie pothole wetlands have been drained. Many
communities in Clay County are dedicated to revitalizing and
preserving Iowa's Native Prairie Flowers and Grasses. Most
Iowans are also dedicated gardeners, even if they already farm
hundreds of acres in commercial crops. Preserving our great heritage of heirloom seeds is
very important.
 Wild
Bergamont is part of the mint family, Wild Bergamot
has a wide variety of uses. The Meskwaki tribe used this
plant in combination with other plants to relieve colds.
The Hocak (Winnebago) tribe used wild Bergamot in their
sweat bath and inhaled the fumes to cure colds. Other
uses included cooking it with meat for flavor, placed in
warm water baths for babies, as a cure for bronchial
affections, as a cure for eruptions on the face, to
relieve a headache, as a cure for abdominal pains and
stomach aches, and rubbed over the body to cure fever, and
as a remedy for colic, nausea and vomiting. Wild bergamot
is also used in flower arrangements. Bees, butterflies
and hummingbirds use the plant for nectar. This perennial
herb grows to 5 to 12 inches high. The pink to lavender,
tubular flowers bloom from June to September.
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 Black-eyed
Susan is used along roadways, hillsides, and other
roadside areas. The plant offers protection and food to
several song and game birds and helps control
erosion. This plant is a biennial Forb and 1 foot tall
with yellow ray flowers and dark brown spherical centers.
Sometimes flower stalks will appear in the first summer,
but typically Black-eyed Susan blooms from June to
September of the second year.
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Compass
Plant, a member of the Aster
family and a plant
peculiar to the western and south-western prairies.Where did this plant get such a name? The large
leaves at the bottom of the compass plant almost always align
themselves with north and south. Early travelers across the
central plains used this plant to help give them direction.
Don’t mistake this sunny looking
yellow flower for a sunflower. You can tell the difference by
breaking a stem to find a sap or "rosin." This plant is part of
the "rosinweed" family. Also, the seeds grow where the petals
were, not in the flat disk at the center of the plant like the
sunflower. Like the sunflower, the compass plant grows high in
the sky measuring 5-10 feet tall. The flower heads can be 2-5
inches wide. They bloom from July to September. Stems on the
compass plant are thick and hairy with flower buds forming
opposite each other. The leaves of this plant grow mostly
clumped at the bottom near the ground.
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 Prairie
bush clover is a member of the pea family. It is
considered to be a **Threatened Species
in the State of Iowa.
It has a clover-like leaf
comprised of three leaflets about an inch long and a
quarter-inch wide. Flowering plants are generally between
nine and 18 inches tall with the flowers loosely arranged
on an open spike. The pale pink or cream colored flowers
bloom in mid-July. The entire plant has a grayish-silver
sheen, making it easy to distinguish from its relative,
sweet clover. This plant prefers dry tall grass
prairies with gravelly soil.
**Threatened
Species means any species which is likely to become an
endangered species within the foreseeable future
throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
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