Moderate drought (original post 6/28/12)

They say northern IL is in a moderate drought.  It shows, and I daresay it should be upgraded to extreme very soon.  Lawn grass has thrown in the towel; our softball game had time called about every two minutes last night due to violently blowing infield dirt; one of my tomato plants, despite attentive watering, was looking a little weepy today; and the most telling of all--the native plants in our natural areas are getting droopy.  If they can't hack it, like they've hacked it for millennia, something is definitely up.  I am not complaining, on this heralded 'hottest day of the year'.  I feel fantastic.  My joints feel loose, my brain is relaxed, my bones are thawed.  This is payback for all of you cold-weather-lovers, for crowing about fall crispness when I feel all tight and tensed up. 

Yesterday was my first day back with the Wednesday morning Seedpickers this season.  I volunteer with the North Branch folk to collect native seeds during my summer vacation--a great way to give back to the preserves in a non-killing fashion (after all the normal cutting and herbiciding), and a great excuse to get my butt out of bed early on a beautiful day.  We went to Bunker Hill, mainly for sedges--Carex gracillima, sprengellii, davisii, swanii, tenera.  The Cx swanii seems to have taken the drought personally; there were not very many in the areas from which I remembered them previously.  It's one of my favorites, so small and fuzzy and pale green. I don't have my own photo yet, so I'm borrowing one from the University of Michigan herbarium:



Almost cuddly, they are!  Their normally wet prairie is very sparse and rock-hard this summer, so you can't really blame them for lying low.  And yes, I anthropomorphize plants.  Deal with it!