Fall Meadow at Lake Springfield Boathouse (1)
/We visited the meadow near the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse last week on a sunny, but relatively cool fall morning. Near the Boathouse, I noticed some beautyberry and asters.
The large cup plant has already been cut down - the stumps of the 4-angled square stems obvious.
We noticed that the purple martin houses had been taken down; there were big mowers in the area around the boathouse as we walked toward the meadow.
A lot of meadow plants have already produced seed. The goldenrods and asters are still blooming…and a few thistles.
The area that becomes an overflow creek during heavy rains was dry but there were some interesting plants around it:
Invasive bush honeysuckle with lots of red berries.
Seed pods of mallows.
There was only one milkweed plant I saw in the meadow…and wondered what happened to the plants I had seen earlier in the season. Perhaps they fell over, and the other plants hid them?
On the other side of the visitor center, I did find some milkweed with bursting seed ponds. The plants had fallen over but the seeds were still spilling out and floating away.
The vines in the trees were easy to see. The leaves on both poison ivy and Virginia creeper turn red in the fall! The edge of the forest is full of trees with the vines growing up the trunks and into the higher branches.
Tomorrow’s post will be about the insects we saw.
