I don't post much detail about my research here, but, because I can, here's a photo:



It's a compass-plant, one of the very typical tallgrass prairie species (that even gets down as far south as I live). It's one of my favorite prairie species because it's so BIG (the grown plant with flower stalk can be over 6' high) and it's really hard to mistake it for anything else.

It's called compass-plant because supposedly the leaves tend to orient north and south. The story goes that the Native people knew this and they clued in the pioneers crossing the prairie...except down here it doesn't seem that the leaves really orient that way. Or maybe they don't at all and the story is totally fake. Or maybe the part about the Native people telling the Anglos about it is true, except the Native people were messing with the pioneers' heads...

at any rate: this is one of the pictures that now decorates my poster. Unfortunately the plots where I'm actually doing the research don't have any compass-plant; this one was along the gravel road near the plots. (I might collect seeds this fall if it sets seeds...)