Friends of the Wildflower Garden
A web of present and past events
These short articles are written to highlight connections of the plants, history and lore of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden with different time frames or outside connections. A web of intersections.
This month we look forward to the Wildflower Garden in September and the slow advance into autumn. We give some hints of what to look for on the boardwalk and in the upland. We have a chart of flower-visiting wasps of the upper midwest, a view of a special black dragonfly and a report of summer visits by school kids. We conclude with a story how American Lotus got to the Garden years ago.
This Month
The Wildflower Garden in September
Summer Visits All Wrapped Up.
Twelve groups of kids from the Minneapolis Schools Summer Learning and Early Childhood have visited this season.
The Friends invested over $3,000 in transportation funding to bring these school kids to Eloise Butler for an outdoor nature experience. This continues a program we started in 2009.
Bus transportation is now around $300 per bus, depending on distance. You can help us replenish the Transportation Fund by donating now for next years fund. Any amount appreciates. Without this fund, these children would never come. The program also introduces parents to the Garden and hopefully they will return with their children.
You can donate on this page of our website or print a form and mail a check.
The Wildflower Garden in September
In September we move into the autumn season. Many plants that began blooming in August such as the sunflowers, coneflowers and the early asters continue to bloom into early September, but the riot of July and August color is already more subdued.
In the wetland the cardinal flower may still be in bloom and the flat-topped asters and the turtleheads, both pink and white, are now already blooming at the end of August along the boardwalk. Some of wasps identified in the accompanying article can be seen on asters.
While you are on the boardwalk you will find a number of Arrow-leaved Tearthumb and you can discover just are accurate the common name is. Highlighting the backdrop of the wetland are the bright red fruit of the American Cranberry bush.
Moving to the upland, don’t miss the white and blue bottle gentians blooming now. The blue is one of the most terrific blues in nature. Thin-leaved Coneflowers will be found everywhere now while the tall grasses, Big Bluestem and Indian Grass, are beginning their show. The asters will soon be a dominant flower in the Upland Garden.
On the west loop path (Aspen Alley) spot the tall Rattlesnake Root. There are very few of these plants in any given year. Flowers are just beginning to open as I write. The folk use of this plant is interesting, check it out on our information sheet.
Below: Big Bluestem and Indian Grass in the upland Garden.
Beneficial Wasps
Most of us try to shy away from wasps for the obvious fearful reasons but they are part of the natural order that pollinates flowers. There are over 100,000 identified species of this ancient group of insects with a number found in the upper midwest. Many are best identified by the genus, leaving the species identification to those so inclined.
This chart, produced by Heather Holm of Restoring the Landscape with Native Plants, identifies 16 of the genus that you may see around your flowers. As pollinators they are as important as bees, which are a group descended from the ancient wasps of Jurassic times. Many are ground nesters.
This link is to a larger image -
this link is to a pdf copy to download.
Let’s look at just two of these.
The mason wasps, genus Ancistrocerus, also known as potter wasps, have striking patterns of color on a black or brown background. Many use existing cavities for their nests, a few species build their own. Caterpillers tend to be their prey.
Photo of the potter wasp is species Ancistroceus campestris, by Beatriz Moisset, used under license CC-BY-SA 4.0
The last segments of the antennae of the males of this genus and most other potter wasp genera have a back curved hook, which can be used in rooting.
Nests are typically made of mud in cavities. The female does the work, mixing soil with water and carrying the mud back to build the nest made of many cells, each cell then stocked with caterpillars and end plugged after the eggs are laid.
The other is on of the great black wasps of the genus Sphex, also known as digger wasps, because many of the genus will create their own cavity in soil in grassland habitats, while some of the genus will use an existing one. Each nest has multiple cells. The species shown here, Sphex pensylvanicus, digs it’s nest and stocks it with paralyzed insects.
Below: Sphex pensylvanicus on fennel flowers. Photo by Hardy Plants.
Sphex pensylvanicus has the distinction of being the first insect of the new world to be described by a native of the new world - John Bartram of Philadelphia, in a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1749.
Bartram (1699-1777) was an early American botanist and explorer who traveled extensively in the colonies collecting plants. He was the most important contributor of plants to European gardens and herbariums of that era, arriving in what were known as "Bartram's Boxes."
Linnaeus considered him the “greatest natural botanist is the world.” In 1765 he became “The King’s Botanist” for North America although King George paid little attention to what he sent. His and his son William’s writings on nature made a deep influence on the school of romantic writers of England.
Bartram, along with Benjamin Franklin was among the co-founders of the American Philosophical Society. His famous garden in Philadelphia survived the war with England and is now a National Historic Landmark.
Black Saddlebags
This has nothing to do with horses or bicycles. Black saddlebags (Tramea lacerata), one of the “skimmer” dragonflies, is identified and named by the black blotches where the hind-wings meet the body and when viewed from over or under - you get the idea.
The wings also have a distinctive black spot on the forward edge of the wing at the tip. They are large - two+ inches long with large reddish eyes. Females have distinctive yellow spots on top of the abdomen. They mate in the air and then the female lays her eggs on top of the water. The juveniles eat small aquatic insects, especially many mosquito larvae.
Have you seen one? They are common in southeastern Minnesota but can be seen in the Metro area and in the Arrowhead region. They migrate south and the offspring born there migrate north in the spring. The offspring of the northbound generation are the ones that go south in the fall.
Below: Male Black Saddlebags seen in west metro. Photo ©Christi Bystedt.
How American Lotus got to the Wildflower Garden.
Over and done with in 25 years.
It all started simply enough in 1925 when Eloise Butler planted a single stem in Birch Pond.
It gets more interesting in 1930 when Martha and Bill Crone plant seed in Birch Pond and in the Garden Pool. They had discovered a patch of lotus at Rice Lake near Shakopee and here is how Eloise tells the story:
Since I left Minneapolis this fall, an interesting discovery was made. A wild duck was given to a pair of ardent nature lovers [Martha and Bill Crone]. In dressing the bird, some undigested seeds of American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) were found in the gizzard. This was enough to start an investigation, for the lotus has been nearly exterminated in the vicinity of Minneapolis. The duck was shot near the neighboring town of Stillwater. [actually Shakopee according to Martha Crone]. My friends thought that they knew every square rod of the territory. But a vigorous search revealed much to their delight a large tract of lotus that had been concealed in blossoming time by a rank growth of tall grasses.
Lake scene with American Lotus. ©Photo by Lago Mar under license CC-BY-SA 3.0
Eloise continues her story:
A quantity of seeds were collected and encased in balls of clay to serve as sinkers The ponds around my garden were bombarded with these balls, and a quantity of seeds were sent to me to distribute in Massachusetts. I have sent some to the director of Harvard’s botanic garden, and some will be planted in the cemetery where my sister, Mrs. Cora E. Pease, lies buried. The lotus is said to be the largest flower of this latitude. The appearance is striking when the flower in full bloom. And the large top-shaped receptacle is very singular. It breaks off [and] rolls over and over in the water, shedding the seeds through the perforated disk like a patent seed dropper.
In a letter to Martha and Bill Crone in October 1930, Eloise wrote:
I never heard of such a wonderful ‘snoopin’ ! It reads like a fairy tale or a story out of Arabian Nights. I shall rehearse it for my botanical correspondence club [the Agassiz Association]. I embodied in my annual report to Mr. Wirth your account of the bombardment of Birch Pond. I want your work to be appreciated at headquarters.
In 1932 Eloise planted some of those in her new Mallard Pool in what is now the meadow north of the Garden. The story continues in 1933 after Martha became Curator.
On September 14 at 11:45 at the bath house at Glenwood Lake (now Wirth Beach) she meet Mr. Louis Boeglin (in charge of forestry and horticulture for the Park Board), 3 men and a truck from the Park Board and they went to Rice Lake at Shakopee to get Lotus. She reported they got 125 good roots and were back at 5 PM. Theodore Wirth had requested some in a letter to Martha earlier in the year.
The last known planting was in 1947. They are now gone from the Garden and Birch Pond. Habitat is everything when it comes to plant survival. American Lotus is found in 10 Minnesota counties, principally in the metro area and SE Minnesota.
Below: American Lotus, Nelumbo lutea. ©Photo by Liz West under license CC-BY-SA 2.0
Identification booklet for most of the flowering forbs and small flowering shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. Details Here.
Photo Note
Photos that are credited with a "CC " caption are used under Creative Commons license for educational purposes. The letters and numbers, such as "CC-BY-SA 3.0" refer to the license type. These photos may be used by others only for free educational purposes so long as credit is given to the original author whose name precedes the license type. You may learn all about the requirements on the Creative Commons webpage.
Previous articles
July 2023 - Friends Annual Meeting Guest Speaker
July 2023 - The Wildflower Garden in August
July 2023 - The story behind the name - Riddell's Goldenrod
July 2023 - Fruit for rooters
July 2023 - Happenstance at the welcome kiosk - A woman walks by . . .
June 2023 - Kids Visits to the Garden Need Support
June 2023 - The Wildflower Garden in July
June 2023 - Lilies of the Garden
June 2023 - The Butler Memorial Association
June 2023 - The Hottest Summer
May 2023 - Kids Visits to the Garden Need Support
May 2023 - The Wildflower Garden in June
May 2023 - Lady's-slippers of the Garden
May 2023 - The Indigos
April 2023 - The Wildflower Garden in May
April 2023 - Where Does the "Spring Green" Come From?
April 2023 - A New Invasive
April 2023 - Eloise Butler Memorial: April 1933 - Her last 10 Days
All selections published in 2023