Verdant

The changes over a week are far more subtle than over several. This week has been especially rainy, so the plants have in fact taken on quite a bit more size, especially the dangle-pod. They are fast growing annuals and have outpaced the dog fennel. [You can click on the photo for a closer look.] On the west side of the pond the swamp flatsedge (Cyperus ligularis) that were killed in the January frost are recovering, slowly. It will take some time for them to repopulate, if there is even space for them. The bushy bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus), which has made a regular home in the meadow, is growing to monumental proportions after the rains, with grass leaves towering six and half feet into the air before the first suggestions of the tufts that will come begin to show. Mostly, it is green everywhere. If you lean in close, however, you can see the dangle-pods beginning to flower. This pale yellow blossoms will metamorphose into a long dry dangling bean pod by October. The red flower is called a tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii) and it grows at the edges of the Palm Hammock, far from the re-growing restoration site. But they are so striking against the general green of everything else, I could not refrain from taking their picture. The ground was mushy everywhere from the rains.