Grayhead Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

These native perennial wildflowers, common in the tallgrass prairie region, are robust and stand two to five feet in height. Grayhead Prairie Coneflower is easily seeded and it becomes a prominent component of roadside and field plantings where disturbance has occurred. It helps to provide diverse structural habitat for Bobwhite Quail, seeds and invertebrates that serve as food for other birds and wildlife. It is grazed by livestock and, as with many native prairie forbs, disappears from most pastures. Grayhead Prairie Coneflower blooms throughout July and, as shown in these photographs, is particularly attractive where it occurs in combination with other wildflowers including Wild Bergamont.  Three years ago we collected Coneflower cuttings from our CRP fields and included them in numerous bouquets at our son and future daughter-in-law’s wedding!

These photos feature a rare demonstration of enhancement of roadsides with native wildflowers and tall prairie grasses within a municipal area. The photos were made July 5, 2010 along Fort Riley Blvd. (near the Highway 18 and Highway 113 intersection) in Manhattan, Kansas. The success is attributable to three factors: KDOT selected a diverse mixture of native seeds several ago when reconstruction occurred, KDOT has not mowed these two relatively small areas during the peak of the growing season, and apparently broadcast applications of herbicides have not occurred. KDOT deserves a

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bouquet of praise for establishing these areas.

The colorful area on the south side of Fort Riley Blvd., east of the Highway 113 intersection, includes a steep “ravine” where it is not practical to repeatedly mow.  The colorful area on the north side of Fort Riley Blvd. includes a couple acres west of the Clarion Hotel where the roadside is adjacent to undeveloped woodland—and apparently “acceptable” as a “wildflower roadside.”  As community leaders gain additional appreciation for the merits of these areas, and with the establishment of a $17 million tax-funded Flint Hills Discovery Center, maybe additional suburban highway rights-of-way areas featuring our state’s natural heritage of prairie wildflowers can be established--along with a new culture of conservation--within the Manhattan area (and in or around other communities in the state). The general approach of city officials is to require that the highway and park departments at all levels of government keep everything mowed low—too low for tallgrass prairie wildflowers and native grasses!

Please see two additional photos of the same site, on the north side of Fort Riley Boulevard on June 16, 2008, and on the south side of Fort Riley Blvd. made on September 24, 2009.  That display of other wildflowers in the seasonal succession was made possible in the absence of mowing during the growing season.  


Wild Bergamont (Monarda fistulosa)

This perennial forb, also referred to as mint-leaf beebalm, add a splash of lavender color to the landscape.  As pointed out by Michael John Haddock in his book, Wildflowers and Grasses of Kansas, these long-blooming fragrant flowers are especially inviting to bees—thus the common name “beebalm.” See Mike’s website at http://www.kswildflower.org/ Wild Bergamont often occurs naturally in roadsides and pastures near native prairies that serve as seed sources, and it is sometimes included in Conservation Reserve Program field plantings. The current edition of Nebraskaland Magazine, July 2010, features an excellent article entitled “Losing Our Pollinators, Why We Should Care.”  The article can be viewed on line at http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/nebland/articles/preview_articles/Pollinators.pdf.

Photos by Ron Klataske


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