Jo Hain lives on a farm in Cerro Gordo county and likes to explore and photograph nature.

Last year, I went to a local county conservation park and saw a bush by a popular fishing spot. I checked my plant app, which identified it as Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius). I was determined to see what it looked like in bloom.

This spring, I remembered. I went in late May and was not disappointed. It was everywhere! Especially the south and west parts of the park. Inside the park and along the outside of the park.

Bear in mind, this park used to be a gravel pit. The terrain is pretty inhospitable to a lot of vegetation. Very rocky. But, Ninebark said, “Pffft, challenge accepted!”

Patrick Swanson has been restoring a Harrison County prairie. Click the links to read his posts about previous LoHi Treks in June 2021, May 2023, October 2024, and April 2025.

Just in time to witness the earliest spring wildflowers, this year’s multi-day LoHi (Loess Hills) Trek was held April 8-12, with Monona County serving as our base camp. This was my fifth LoHi Trek, and was a homecoming of sorts for me, as it was five years ago that the inaugural version of the LoHi Trek was launched in this special part of the Loess Hills. I even pitched my tent in the same place by the pond that gave me such an unforgettable experience during the first Trek.

Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development once again coordinated the event, and recently highlighted our daily hikes and activities as we traversed through public and private lands (with special landowner permission) in portions of Woodbury and Monona counties. I am grateful to them and the many partners, businesses, and volunteers who helped make this Trek possible. 

As a preamble to our arrival at our base camp, we stopped by the nearby Tuuli Farm to see the Farm’s signature flock of sheep. Early April is lambing season on the farm. Being able to spend some time watching two newborn lambs nestled together in their fold being looked after by their recovering momma was a special treat. 

Leland Searles has had a long interest in birding and wildflowers. He combines that with over fifteen years as a consultant in ecological assessment and restoration, along with graduate studies in environmental and psychological anthropology. His recent writing addresses some facet of ecology, often with awareness of social interests and power that shape our regard for the environment.

Triosteum: “having three pits [seeds] as hard as bone.” This genus of plants in the Caprifoliaceae family has six species, with three in North America and three in East Asia. Two occur in the Midwest: Orangefruit Horse Gentian (Triosteum aurantiacum), and Late Horse Gentian, Feverwort, or Tinker’s Weed (Triosteum perfoliatum, from the appearance of the stem perforating the leaves). In my experience, the last is the more common in Iowa.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post in April on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

Sunshine lit up the forest floor. Overhead, tall walnut and oak trees had no leaves yet. A white trout lily (Erythronium albidum) stood alone, just above the sparse new grass. Its petals arched in arabesques, as if lifting the flower above the earth.

Some accident of placement or ancestry, of light and moisture, had singled out this one to bloom today. Nearby, the other trout lilies were still asleep on pink stems, their buds drooping.

Bleeding Heartland’s Iowa wildflowers series returns for a fifteenth year. Past posts are linked here (alphabetized by the plant’s common name) and here (for posts covering many species).

Leland Searles has had a long interest in birding and wildflowers. He combines that with over fifteen years as a consultant in ecological assessment and restoration, along with graduate studies in environmental and psychological anthropology. His recent writing addresses some facet of ecology, often with awareness of social interests and power that shape our regard for the environment. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Home on Earth.

In the past two weeks, I have already visited three woodlands to see which early plants have emerged. Over those three visits, the phenology is clearly visible: a few small leaves poking from the chilly but warming soil and no trees in leaf; larger leaves and more species on the surface and swelling buds on trees and bushes; and finally, a few leaf buds bursting into miniature, sometimes crumpled leaves and flowers hovering above or nestled within the growing stems.

Among the emerging plants are: Black Snakeroot (Sanicula, leaves only), Bloodroot (Sanguinea canadensis, flowers topping encircling leaves only on April 5), Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullata, at first leaves and now blooms), Elm-Leaved Goldenrod (Solidago ulmifolia, recognizable basal leaves), Fragile Fern (Cystopteris fragilis, from tiny fiddleheads to expanding blades), Heart-Leaved or Woodland Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium, basal leaves around last year’s dry stems), Violets (Viola, leaves only), Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginiana, from leaves to the first flowers), and Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense, the first fuzzy leaves).

Normally I would publish this post on the last Wednesday of the calendar year. But thanks to Governor Kim Reynolds, I was tied up on New Year’s Eve writing about the December 30 election results in Iowa Senate district 16.

I enclose below a photo from each of Bleeding Heartland’s 26 posts about wildflowers last year. This series has become a favorite for many readers since 2012.

As in 2022, 2023, and 2024, guest authors and photographers carried much of the load. In alphabetical order: Emily Bredthauer, Katie Byerly, Lora Conrad, James Enright, Jeff Ewoldt, Jo Hain, Beth Lynch, Bruce Morrison, Diane Porter, Leland Searles, Kenny Slocum, Patrick Swanson, and Melissa Wubben. Special thanks to James, Jo, and Melissa, who contributed to Bleeding Heartland for the first time (but I hope not the last!) in 2025.

This series will return sometime during April or May of 2026. Please reach out to me if you have photographs to share, especially of native plants I haven’t featured yet, or any plant that hasn’t been featured in the past eight years. The full archive of more than 300 posts featuring more than 250 species is available here. I have also compiled links to several dozen posts that covered many plants found in one area, rather than focusing on a single kind of wildflower.

For those looking for wildflower pictures year round, or seeking help with plant ID, check out the Facebook groups Flora of Iowa or Iowa wildflower enthusiasts. If you’d like a book to take with you on nature outings, Lora Conrad reviewed some of the best wildflower guides last year. A book featuring plants native to our part of the country is probably more reliable than the plant ID app on your phone.

When Thanksgiving arrives, it’s time to put this series on winter hiatus. Iowa wildflower Wednesday will return sometime during the spring of 2026.

Please reach out to me if you’d like to contribute wildflower photographs next year. Guest posts focusing on one species at different stages of development are always welcome, especially if you want to spotlight a plant never seen before on Bleeding Heartland, or not featured in more than five years. The full Iowa wildflower Wednesday archive is here, alphabetized by the plant’s common name.

I also enjoy publishing essays about many native plants found in one park or prairie, or along a particular trail. You can find lots of inspiration in the posts linked here.

The Iowa wildflower enthusiasts Facebook group remains active year-round, for anyone seeking a break from social media negativity, help with plant IDs, or advice on what to do with your seeds or garden over the winter.

My long list of things to be thankful for includes a fantastic group of guest authors and photographers. (Scroll through the “wildflowers” tag to see their work.) I enclose below a collection of photos by Jeff Ewoldt, who recently found many plants still blooming in central Iowa. Sometimes, unusually warm autumn weather can produce new flowers on plants that normally bloom in the spring or summer.

Wishing you health, happiness, and good food over this long holiday weekend.

James Enright is a Sioux City native, avid hiker, fish keeper, and prairie enthusiast.

The 36-mile Glacial Trail Scenic Byway loops through the Little Sioux River valley, covering parts of O’Brien, Buena Vista, Clay, and Cherokee counties. Along the way, it reveals prairie bluffs, oak savanna, timber, deep ravines, and fertile farmland. I first visited with my wife several years ago and was immediately struck by the landscape. I didn’t return until May of 2025, when a new job required travel throughout northwest Iowa. Since then, I’ve driven at least one stretch of the byway more than 50 times this summer.

There is a sense of familiarity in these glacial hills that reminds me of my native Loess Hills. The prairie mostly occupies hillsides too steep to plow, tile, or even graze. Some lower regions also contain mixes of remnant and restored prairie. The ridges are generally dry, open, and exposed to near-constant wind. I encounter many drought-tolerant plants here that I see back home, including rough and dotted blazing stars, spiny golden asters, silky asters, and various drought-tolerant grasses like dropseed and muhly.

If I didn’t know better, I might expect to see yucca, skeletonweed, or prairie bluets on the west- or southwest-facing ridges. This region contains more remnant prairie than anywhere else in Iowa outside of the Loess Hills.

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

Have you ever noticed that some flowers have fun nicknames, while others have none? Old farmers know Marsh marigolds as cowslips. Soapwort is also called Bouncing Bet, and then there’s Common mullein . . . also known as cowboy toilet paper, flannel leaf, Quaker’s rouge, and Aaron’s rod, to name a few. 

On the other hand, some wildflowers have few nicknames. Asters and Goldenrod come to mind. Perhaps that is because both these wildflowers come in many varieties, which are hard to differentiate. I imagine our forefathers may have felt the same way I do. . . another #%! aster. Heck, even Sylvan Runkel didn’t take time to recongnize all the asters and goldenrods in either of his Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie or Wildflowers of the Iowa Woodlands books.

Editor’s note from Laura Belin: As Halloween approaches, I am republishing an article by Beth Lynch, professor emerita of biology at Luther College. She wrote this piece for Bleeding Heartland in 2017, adapting an article called “Tiny joys of a botanist,” first published in November 2013. Beth takes great delight in finding rare plants tucked away in the hills and valleys around her and is dedicated to protecting and restoring habitats for native species.

I write to share with you one of my tiny joys of late fall. I took this photograph during the first week of November. What is it? A twig with some leaves, right? Look again. What are those yellow stringy things hanging from the twig? Spiders? Whiskers? Look closely.

These are the bright yellow petals of the witch hazel flowers. Think about it: flowers blooming in November! Every fall when most of the leaves have dropped from the trees and the sun is weak, I look for these cheery little flowers on the witch hazels. They bring a bit of warmth to the cold dark days when I seem to need it most. Tiny joy, indeed.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post in September on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

On the first full day of fall, the Blue sage (Salvia azurea) of my garden is in full bloom. Flower spikes are head high. Some are deep blue, others paler. The ones I love best are the color of an Iowa summer sky.

Down in the heart of each flower, the petals narrow and form a well. Inside, a drop of nectar pools. It is ready for a visitor, someone whose flight is powered by sugar, someone who will pollinate the blossom.

Usually it’s a bumblebee who comes. It lands on the ruffled platform of the lower petal and pushes its head into the flower, probing for sweetness with its tongue.

Nature nerd Emily Bredthauer took most of the pictures enclosed below between August 30 and October 4, 2025 in Story, Marion, and Dallas counties.

I feel so blessed when I come upon a plant I don’t recognize. It’s like a gift from the Universe, inviting my curiosity to be satiated by the endless wonder of the natural world.

In late August, Lobelia inflata was a gift from my rain-soaked sacrament—the very small lavender-colored flowers caught my eye amongst the bevy of bright green. 

Bruce Morrison is a working artist and photographer living with his wife Georgeann in rural southeast O’Brien County, Iowa. Bruce works from his studio/gallery–a renovated late 1920s brooding house/sheep barn. You can follow Morrison on his artist blog, Prairie Hill Farm Studio, or visit his website at Morrison’s studio.

I can’t remember the first time I visited a prairie during the Fall season, but believe it was on Cayler Prairie in Dickinson County. I do remember how struck I was with the color everywhere! It had never occurred to me that prairie habitat would exhibit this color change—duh! So used to autumn color in the forested landscape; the trees that we herald each fall lighting up the scenery with vivid to subtle colors of reds, yellows, orange and ambers! But grasses and plants of prairies? Well, why not?

All plants have the same triggers that cause a color change when autumn arrives. As temperatures drop and daylight duration shortens, chlorophyll (the green pigment) breaks down, revealing other pigments. The carotenoids in differing plants bring on yellows and orange hues as the plant chlorophyll fades. And other plants produce anthocyanins in response to sunlight and cooler temperatures, resulting in red and purple colors. Different species have varying pigment compositions, affecting each type’s fall colors. For instance in the image of Stiff goldenrods (Solidago rigida):

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

Occasionally when I go fishing with my husband, the desired fish will be in the “shallows” of the lake. Fishing the shallows often requires casting from the boat towards shore. For any wildflower-loving fisherperson, this opens up the opportunity to observe the aquatic plants growing around the anchored boat.

That is how I first recall noticing Spatterdock—casting for walleyes in Clear Lake.  

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post in July on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum) is a slender waif. It grows up surrounded by bigger, taller plants. I didn’t discover it until we had been neighbors for almost twenty years.

I found it in a natural opening in the woods at the bottom of a hill. It’s near an intermittent creek, surrounded by trees. I named that spot the Pocket Prairie. To explore it, I mowed a trail through it.

The ground is often wet there. That may be why trees haven’t invaded. It is home to wildflowers that I don’t find up top, where the ground is drier. It’s a magical feeling to enter. This Pocket Prairie is where I discovered a native Iowa wildflower named Winged Loosestrife.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

On September 9 I watched a Ruby-throated Hummingbird visit the purple blossoms of Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera). For a couple of seconds she hovers at bill’s length from the flowers, then moves slightly up or around the stalk. I couldn’t see her tongue, but I knew she was using it to slurp out the nectar.

Most adult males had already migrated out of Iowa by that time. Females and the young of the year linger a while longer. They zip around seeking flower sugar, which they will put away in the form of hummingbird fat. They must store calories to power their long migratory flight south, right across the Gulf of Mexico and on into Central America.

Kenny Slocum is the naturalist and natural resource manager for the Clayton County Conservation Board.

I remember when I first moved back home to Iowa, I worked hard to identify plants mostly out of a desire to eat them. I would scour books on wild edibles, go out into the field, find what I thought looked like, say, chokecherry, come back home to double-check the references, and eventually give up because the field never matches the guide.

Foraged plate circa 2015

Eventually, Seek by iNaturalist came along and put those field guides right into the palm of my hand. Even better, the Almighty App rendered moot the tedious process of perusing all “ pink flowers,” or all “August bloomers,” or whatever section I had to examine based on how an author decided to organize his or her guide.

Suddenly, with a simple wave of the camera, I had my identification. Or so I thought.

James Enright is a Sioux City native, avid hiker, fish keeper, and prairie enthusiast.

I have spent most of my adult life hiking the Loess Hills prairies. The rugged Loess prairies are my home. I was born there, raised there, and I am content to spend the rest of my days hiking those bluffs and prairies.

Just over a year ago, I started sharing pictures of my Loess Hills adventures and information regarding the various preserves I visit on social media. I was surprised by the amount of feedback I received. To my surprise, even many locals were unaware that these preserves existed.

I spent most of the winter and early spring of 2025 hiking and photographing various preserves in the Sioux City area. I visited some of my favorites with snow on the ground: Stone State Park, Heendah Hills, The Broken Kettle Grasslands, Riverside Bluffs, Five Ridge Prairie, The Sioux City Prairie, and others.

Things changed in May 2025 when I began a new career path, which would take me on the road all over northwest Iowa five days per week. I decided to save my hiking posts for long weekend hikes in the hills until a fateful mishap at work left me lost and confused about my whereabouts.

Lora Conrad lives on a small farm in Van Buren County.

Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a plant anyone in Iowa should learn to identify. Most of us have heard stories about it, seen it (or thought we did), and many have experienced it.

Poison ivy is also the topic of many folk sayings—some helpful, some not, some just confusing. This article will help you learn how to identify this plant, what its effects are, and which of those many sayings are accurate.

HOW TO IDENTIFY POISON IVY

The genus Toxicodendron includes Poison Ivy—both Eastern (Toxicodendron radicans) and Western (T. rydbergii), as well as Poison Oak and Poison Sumac. Poison Ivy was originally placed in the genus Rhus (the Sumacs) but by the 1930s, botanists began separating the irritating plants from the other Sumacs. They were assigned to the genus Toxicodendron which is Greek for “poison tree.” Both species of Poison Ivy occur in Iowa. T. radicans is the familiar trailing or climbing vine that is called Eastern Poison Ivy. It is widespread throughout Iowa. You can see why it is called a poison tree:

Leland Searles has had a long interest in birding and wildflowers. He combines that with over fifteen years as a consultant in ecological assessment and restoration, along with graduate studies in environmental and psychological anthropology. His recent writing addresses some facet of ecology, often with awareness of social interests and power that shape our regard for the environment. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Home on Earth.

On August 13, I drove some back roads on the way from the Des Moines area to Grinnell. Often I do this, despite the extra gas it uses, to see what birds sit on the utility poles and wires, spot plants and plant populations in the roadways and adjacent riparian areas, and collect a few data points. In addition, when the native plant species are in seed, I stop to collect some seed to scatter elsewhere.

This activity has become a near-habit in the past ten-plus years, as my awareness of indigenous plant species has grown. That happened because I contracted with three counties over several years to conduct roadside vegetation surveys under the Iowa Roadside Vegetation Management program.

Melissa Wubben lives on a farm in Warren County.

Since childhood, I have had a keen interest in the plants and animals that share the planet with us. Whether I was learning to identify “weeds” while walking beans on our family farm or dreaming about seeing particularly pretty birds as I flipped through my mom’s bird identification book, nature provided ample opportunities for education and appreciation.

Later, my fascination with nature turned toward conservation, and my husband and I started our farm with a desire to integrate conservation and agricultural practices.

Our journey began with the purchase of a small flock of sheep in 2012, the first year of severe drought that would last for several years. I began reading about pasture management, soil and water conservation practices, and anything else applicable that I could get my hands on. Eventually, this research led me to native plants.

Jo Hain lives on a farm in Cerro Gordo county and likes to explore and photograph nature.

I was in my garden a couple years ago and I noticed some plants coming up. Looked like catnip to me, so I left it alone. It got taller and no longer looked like catnip.

Then I thought it was Stinging Nettle, so I didn’t want to touch it. I used my plant app and it said it was American Dragonhead (Dracocephalum parviflorum).

Plant apps are useful but not always correct. So I did look it up and, yes, it was American dragonhead. I posted it to the Iowa wildflower enthusiasts Facebook group. Someone confirmed it there as well.

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

The American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) is a big, bold, beautiful aquatic wildflower.

However, like all shallow water dwelling plants, it presents with an inconvenience: accessibility. I have several funny stories of coming home wet and muddy (and sometime shoeless) after hunting marsh-loving wildflowers. Because the American lotus thrives in quiet backwaters of rivers and edges of lakes and ponds, I have considered myself lucky anytime I find one blooming close enough to a dock or water’s edge to snap a picture. Otherwise, up close observations of the plant require a boat or wading.

This July, I kayaked what locals call Kaster’s Cover in Ventura, Iowa. This is the smaller section of Clear Lake on the east side of McIntosh State Park.

Bruce Morrison is a working artist and photographer living with his wife Georgeann in rural southeast O’Brien County, Iowa. Bruce works from his studio/gallery–a renovated late 1920s brooding house/sheep barn. You can follow Morrison on his artist blog, Prairie Hill Farm Studio, or visit his website at Morrison’s studio.

Just a couple years back, Hairy Four O’Clock (Mirabilis albida) was a new one for me; another native Four O’Clock to Iowa—never knew! Thanks to a heads up from friend Lynn Graesing, who discovered it on county ground (southeast O’Brien County) that was once part of her family years ago. Lynn had taken some pictures, but I could not tell her what it was, so went out with my camera to see it for myself and took a few images.

Nature nerd Emily Bredthauer took the pictures enclosed below at Eddyville Sand Prairie on June 28, 2025.

“…the joy of prairie lies in its subtlety. It is so easy—too easy—to be swept away by mountain and ocean vistas. A prairie, on the other hand, requests the favor of your closer attention. It does not divulge itself to mere passersby.” ~ Suzanne Winckler (2004, Prairie: A North American Guide)

I am quite partial to a woodland. My ears long to be enchanted by the melody of a stream. I am most comfortable and familiar with the long shadows of trees and the scampering about of squirrels. During the long summer days, that’s where the mosquitoes most want to be too. So this summer, I have been checking out some prairies.

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

There are two ways a person could start an article about Mountain Death Camas (Zigadenus elegans). One introduction could include words like dangerous, poisonous, and fatal! And the other would involve words like striking, stunning, and uniquely beautiful. Let’s start with the beautiful part first.

THE BEAUTY

The flowers of Death camas have six papery white petals (or in the case of Death camas – tepals). The striking star-shaped flowers are about a 1/2-inch across. Each petal has an olive green, heart-shaped gland near its base. When the flower opens, these glands present as a lovely circle on the flower, often with an inner yellow fringe.

Bleeding Heartland is republishing this post from July 2024 to celebrate America’s Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Happy Fourth of July!

A previous Iowa wildflower Wednesday post showcased a different collection of red, white, and blue wildflowers. Click on any link for more pictures and information about that plant.

Most of the photos enclosed below came from the Iowa wildflower enthusiasts Facebook group, which now has nearly 11,900 members. Join us to share pictures, ask ID questions, learn about gardening with native plants, or just enjoy a break from negativity on social media. It’s a politics-free zone. I also republished some pictures by Bleeding Heartland guest authors. You can find the full wildflower archive here.

Jeff Ewoldt grew up in northwest Iowa, currently practices law in Des Moines, and has always had a keen interest in nature and conservation.

On the first day of June, I headed out on my trusty mountain bike for a ride around Spencer, Iowa, intending to get some exercise and investigate wildflower activity in the northwest Iowa town where I grew up.

My primary destination was Oneota Park, located on the southeastern edge of town, not far from Spencer High School and my old neighborhood. Named for a prehistoric Native American culture that existed in the Upper Midwest from about 900 to 1700 A.D., Oneota consists of more than 220 acres of prairie and river bottom woods through which the Little Sioux River runs. It’s a place I’ve enjoyed exploring since it first became a county park in the late 1970s or early ‘80s, and the spring flowers on the expansive prairieland are particularly interesting to me.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

When I planted its seeds, I’d never met Large-flowered Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) in real life. All I knew was that it was a primeval wildflower. I wanted to see what it was like, once upon a time, back when this land was a tallgrass prairie.

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

It’s a legume, it’s a bush, it’s an insect pollinator and bird habitat, and in the Midwest it’s a native wildflower.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

My first look at Wild geraniums (Geranium maculatum) was on a vertical cliff, which forms the far bank of Crow Creek, near my home.

Pink-purple flowers leaned out over the stream, lavish among mosses, ferns, and other wildflowers.

I didn’t know what they were.

Patrick Swanson has been restoring a Harrison County prairie.

About six months have passed since I wrote about my experience on a fall LoHi Trek through the southern Loess Hills. This spring, LoHi Trek number 5 was held April 23-28 in the middle reaches of the Loess Hills, centered in and around Hitchcock Nature Center (HNC) in Pottawattamie County. This was my fourth LoHi Trek, and was distinctive from my previous journeys for its inclusion of an urban hike through the neighborhoods and urban core of Council Bluffs. 

Like earlier LoHi adventures, Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development spearheaded the planning and logistics of the trip, and posted an excellent summary of each day’s activities, highlighting the many partners and volunteers that made this event possible. 

Crescent Hill at Hitchcock served as our home base, where we set up camp near the Crescent Ridge Cabin. This area was formerly operated as Mt. Crescent Ski Area; Pottawattamie County acquired it in 2021 to expand Hitchcock Nature Center to the south and develop additional recreational opportunities beyond the snow-based activities for which Mt. Crescent was well-known.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or no holiday, I come bearing gifts on this wintry day: a photo from each of Bleeding Heartland’s 29 posts about wildflowers this year. Readers often tell me this series is their favorite thing about my website.

As in 2022 and 2023, guest authors and photographers carried much of the load for this series. In alphabetical order: Emily Bredthauer, Katie Byerly, Luuk Clark, Lora Conrad, Jeff Ewoldt, Kara Grady, Marla Mertz, Bruce Morrison, Diane Porter, Kenny Slocum, and Patrick Swanson. Special thanks to Emily, Luuk, and Jeff, who contributed to Bleeding Heartland for the first time this year.

This series will return sometime during April or May of 2025. Please reach out if you have photographs to share, especially of native plants I haven’t featured yet. The full archive of more than 300 posts featuring more than 250 species is available here. I have also compiled links to several dozen posts that covered many plants found in one area, rather than focusing on a single kind of wildflower.

For those looking for wildflower pictures year round, or seeking help with plant ID, check out the Facebook groups Flora of Iowa or Iowa wildflower enthusiasts. If you’d like a book to take with you on nature outings, Lora Conrad reviewed some of the best wildflower guides last year. A book featuring plants native to our part of the country is probably more reliable than the plant ID app on your phone.

Note from Laura Belin: Bleeding Heartland’s Iowa wildflower Wednesday series is going on winter hiatus and will return sometime in the spring of 2025. You can find all past posts focusing on specific plants here, and posts featuring many wildflowers found in one natural area here.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

I hear explosions from the kitchen. Snappy sounds, like popcorn popping. 

However, these are not popcorn. They are Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis) seeds ricocheting against the inside of a brown paper bag.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

Rising above the dead leaves and grasses, a golden wand swept upward in the woods. It could easily be overlooked. It made me think of some slender animal, unfamiliar, perhaps mythical, standing on its hind legs to look in wonder at where it had found itself.

Lora Conrad lives on a small farm in Van Buren County.

Sassafras.

One of my favorite smaller trees, Sassafras albidum, is considered native to Iowa. However, it has been found in the wild only in one or two counties along the Mississippi River, one of which is Lee, adjacent to Van Buren where I set out two in my yard.

Sassafras is prevalent across the southeast and northeast, including adjacent Missouri and Illinois. It is a member of the Laurel family. The origin of the name is believed to be a mispronunciation by 16th century European explorers of the botanical family Saxifrage. Here is a map showing its native areas from BONAP:

Patrick Swanson has been restoring a Harrison County prairie.

The fourth iteration of the multi-day LoHi (Loess Hills) Trek was held October 16-20 in Mills and Fremont counties of southwestern Iowa. This was my third LoHi Trek, joining about 45 others hailing from Colorado to Ohio, Minnesota to Missouri, and various points in between on this unique supported camping and hiking adventure. 

Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), assisted by many other partners and volunteers, organized the event and recently posted an excellent synopsis and great action photos of the daily activities. Here I will offer my own experiences as a complement to what has already been written, and reflect a bit on this journey and how it compared to the two previous treks I attended in 2021 and 2023.

Diane Porter of Fairfield first published this post on My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” Diane also maintains the Birdwatching Dot Com website and bird blog.

If I indulge my fantasy, I imagine asters as sentient beings, each with its own personality. If that were the case, then Willow Asters (Symphyotrichum praealtum) would be aristocrats, with their subtle lavender petals, slender leaves, and graceful poses.

If she were a lady, she would host gracious, elegant parties by a lake. Suitors would long for her attention.

There are indeed beings who visit her every hour of the day. She is always attended by bees, butterflies, and myriad other insects.

Nature nerd Emily Bredthauer took the pictures enclosed below at Cordova Park on September 22, 2024.

Cordova Park is a 1,050 acre area comprised of woodland, prairie, and bluffs overlooking Lake Red Rock in Marion County. Lake Red Rock was built in the 1960s as a flood control project on the Des Moines River. The namesake of Cordova comes from the small town that occupied the area from 1887-1962. The park boasts the tallest observation tower in a public park in the Midwest with the longest continuous fiberglass staircase in the world: The Cordova Tower. I was much more interested in what kind of plant life the park had to offer on the ground.

The plants documented below were blooming on the rocky shoreline of Lake Red Rock. I was pleasantly surprised by both the variety of wildflowers still blooming in late September and the indomitable nature of the plants that flourished along the craggy shore. 

Jeff Ewoldt grew up in northwest Iowa, currently practices law in Des Moines, and has always had a keen interest in nature and conservation. He thanks Lora Conrad for her dedication and assistance in providing identifications of most of the species shown here.

The Iowa Great Lakes region is known as one of Iowa’s preeminent tourist destinations, where recreational opportunities abound on the glacier-carved chain of lakes that most summertime visitors and year-round residents call “Okoboji.” During the growing season, the area is also a haven for wildflowers. While visiting last month, I observed many native plants in the region’s numerous nature preserves and along undeveloped shorelines.

On that particular weekend, the initial draw to northwest Iowa wasn’t the Lakes, but rather the Clay County Fair in Spencer, my hometown. I managed to find a few wildflower photo opportunities on the fairgrounds, particularly at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ display outside of the Sundholm Environmental Cabin.

This was just a prelude to the many additional wildflowers observed when, on Saturday, September 14, I ventured north into Dickinson County, my only plans being (1) to find some tacos for lunch; and (2) enjoy the outdoors.