Sunday, August 29, 2010

Zizania Aquatica, Wild Rice


This morning, I joined a group of esteemed Botanists- Dan Boone, Jim Decker, Brian Riley and Jim McCormac on an exciting expedition near Bellfountaine, Ohio.  Along the way, we stopped to see a Zizania aquatica population discovered by my botanical sensei, Rick Gardner, a few years ago.  This state threatened grass grows right in the clear water of the silt bottomed Little Darby Creek.  I've looked for this plant along the Lake Erie coast for quite some time, but I've never found it.  It was once common along the coast, but now it's mostly gone due to anthropogenic changes in the Lake Erie ecosystem.  I'm glad that I got to see and photograph it today near Plain City.


A quick note- Clicking on each picture will link you to a much SHARPER image!

 Tom

2 comments:

  1. Oooh wild rice. Fascinating and beautiful. Quick question for the blogmasters...could "Ohio Flora" possible serve as a forum enabling people who want to go out and see the featured plants to do so? Or even maybe have a "Where can I find?" feature asking for directions to an un-featured plant someone might have a hankering to see. Thanks!

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  2. Bob- It certainly could- We could have a feature that was called "Go out and see it" for example, which would feature a plant, a little bit about it, and where to go see it. The Where can I find feature could be implemented as a link to an e-mail address.

    Tom

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