I named this blog bear grass and rosemary for a reason. Britton's bear grass is one of the most common of the protected plant species here. It is an impressive-looking plant with a cluster of white flowers on a tall stalk. The scientific name is Nolina brittonia. It is named after Nathaniel Lord Britton (1857-1934), who was the first director of the New York Botanical Garden. The plants began blooming late last month and will continue to bloom into summer. A field trip from Ridge Audubon Society is coming next month to see them. When the Archbold folks were here last month they were impressed with the population. There are places within the preserve where I can do a 360-degree turn and see 20 or 30 plants in bloom. The stalks are generally straight, though with all stalking plants, occasionally you see a plant that for some reason has grown in a serpentine pattern rather than a vertical pattern. The plants shown here are in the open, but in some places they are growing in the filtered forest sunlight. If we ever have a good fire here, I can imagine the explosion of growth that could occur.
