Environment Blogs

With warmer weather and spring rains, grasses have begun to grow. Looking around my yard, my lawn grasses are rapidly greening up, some even flowering between our routine mowing. Other grasses in my landscaping are just starting to put out new leafy growth. Why the difference in growth rates? Cool...

When I hike in the woods during the spring, I’m always excited to see my favorite spring ephemerals in bloom. I can recognize Celandine Poppy by the sunshine yellow flowers with four petals, Yellow Trout Lily by the recurved, yellow petals forming an upside-down cup, and Pawpaw by the...

What do you see when you look at a grass? Green leaves in a bunch? The cause of your allergies? A plant that constantly needs to be mowed?Grasses do not invite easy identification. They are missing the number one useful identification feature – a colorful flower! But that’s not to say that they don...

I never thought I’d be called “the grass lady.” When I started getting into plant identification, I too looked at grasses as a group of plants that only the best of the best could identify – and that was most definitely not me. And then I found myself in an internship where I needed to tell...