Prairie Wildflowers

Native Prairie Wildflowers

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.

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.

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.

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.