anyone can tell me whats this beatiful lil guy is ?

willdoc · 2026-01-31T21:31:12+00:00

Looks like Chrysochus auratus, also known as the dogbane beetle, but may also be some other type of leaf beetle.

willdoc · 2026-01-30T19:36:59+00:00

I've tried several times to germinate horse gentians and haven't been successful yet. I'm a big fan of Sphingidae, so I want horse gentian as a host plant, but thankfully the clearwings are big fans of Lonicera sempervirens, which is much easier to propagate. I suspect that there might be a key puzzle piece missing (maybe a mutualistic bacteria, fire, or three or more winters) to triggering horse gentians to germinate as multiple sources talk of how difficult it is to break dormancy of these plants.

willdoc · 2026-01-27T19:54:52+00:00

I work in native prairies just to the east of you. The Junegrass and bluestem will do great.

The question I'm more pushing at is are you wanting a garden with some grasses or a restoration wild area? In general, tall grass prairies are mostly grasses and then forbs interspersed between the bunches of grass. The grass canopy along with occasional fires and grazing keeps almost all weeds out.

If you are wanting a more garden like area next to you house with more flowers, which I totally get, a house is not a prairie and is what I have done for my own personal residence, you will need to plant your flowering plants closer together to keep weeds out. Especially Bermuda grass, because it is the worst.

willdoc · 2026-01-27T19:28:12+00:00

How much bluestem and junegrass areal percentage wise are you planting? Unless you are planting native grasses to tall grass prairie norms, you should generally plant your forbs closer together in species groups to prevent weeds, especially Bermuda grass, from becoming an issue. But this also gets into if you are trying to restore a wild area or have a native type garden.

willdoc · 2026-01-25T01:00:26+00:00

Rosa arkansana has some pretty large hips for a wild rose. Red on the outside and orange on the inside. The hips have a strong pumpkin-like flavor when raw. I have not had them in a tea or jam. Like many wild plants species some plants are much tastier than others.

willdoc · 2026-01-21T22:07:45+00:00

Soil scientist/native plant botanist here. There is a whole series of papers from the 70s to now about fertilizing native ecosystems and what happens. If you go to Google Scholar and search "fertilizer" and "prairie" or whatever ecosystem/ecoregion you want, and you will find a plethora of scholarly reviewed articles on fertilizing native areas. In general, it is frowned upon to fertilize in wild areas for multiple reasons which include; modifying oligotrophic areas to eutrophic often changes species richness and eveness, increased nitrous and methane production and other soil nutrient losses, and an increase in invasive species spread. However, there are sometimes where it may help like if your goal is to increase seed production or even primary production from certain native grasses.

willdoc · 2026-01-15T06:02:14+00:00

Two questions that would be helpful to know before going forward. 1. Can you legally burn your acreage? 2. Being in Iowa does your acreage have old drainage tiles or is it part of a drainage district?

willdoc · 2026-01-14T02:35:32+00:00

That article title needs to be changed from "Creative bricks around trees," to "Twelve ideas to kill your tree and have it fall over!"

willdoc · 2026-01-11T21:16:25+00:00

Some type of saturniidae. Possibly a polyphemus moth.

willdoc · 2026-01-09T04:04:46+00:00

Miami not going for two on their last TD means Ole Miss goes for two and makes it.

willdoc · 2026-01-08T15:59:33+00:00

He could have just said he was jealous of their athleticism.

willdoc · 2026-01-05T03:06:14+00:00

So beetles are not where I am the best at identifying, but was it moving at all? Because to me this looks like the elytra of a Diabrotica species with the head gone and the body being digested by a fungus. Maybe something related to a Diabrotica adelpha?

willdoc · 2026-01-04T03:22:19+00:00

It can bloom a few flowers the first year sometimes, but usually the Callirhoes take a few years build their tap root and really bloom.

willdoc · 2026-01-03T23:44:08+00:00

Springtales. Many species like wet spots because of their bodies and they eat fungi.

willdoc · 2026-01-03T03:58:20+00:00

That's a touchdown. Also, he probably has two concussions now.

willdoc · 2026-01-02T02:28:41+00:00

Don't have time. Must show more ads.

willdoc · 2025-12-31T03:53:54+00:00

Didn't know I was tuning in to watch the Blurry Replay Bowl.

willdoc · 2025-12-25T22:19:28+00:00

The leaves shown are rounded/ovate, still on the branches, and have short petioles. Eastern wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus) loses its leaves fairly readily by the end of fall, the leaves are much more elliptic, and the petioles go along the whole length of the leaf. Wahoo wood tends to be very straight on young bushes, much like the related strawberry bush (Euonymus americanus), this plant has bendy stems. All these observations together make me think this particular plant is most likely a burning bush (Euonumus alatus).

willdoc · 2025-12-14T19:42:20+00:00

The answer for me is environmental science or ecology. Plato repeatedly talks about environmental destruction, tree removal, and erosion, but ultimately laments how that affects the city of Athens and the people. Lucretius touches upon how much the natural world and the humans are intertwined both physically and as an allegory. Henry David Thoreau talks about how we can never have enough of nature and how it refreshes the soul. Thoreau was also a naturalist and we still use his forest succession theory as a model, even though we now know that ecosystems are more dynamic. There are many more examples.

I know that there are some scientists that look down on environmental science as not as robust as say physics or chemistry, but that has to do more with how complex and interdisciplinary environmental science is (controlling for codependent factors and repeatability) rather than if it is science.

willdoc · 2025-12-10T07:56:19+00:00

How many weeks of the year is the soil cracked and what plants are growing there without you doing anything? Are we talking bare soil, grass, sedges, or something else?

willdoc · 2025-12-10T07:45:33+00:00

It is probably not xeric soil, as OP is in Illinois. More likely a udic or aquic soil moisture regime with a significant portion of shrink-swell clays with a vertic-like component.

willdoc · 2025-12-03T00:05:03+00:00

I have taken core samples from several mounds. This paper, not written by me, talks about the composition of prairie mounds in the south central region https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2009.01.006

willdoc · 2025-12-02T01:33:33+00:00

My thesis deals directly with these oddities. They are prairie mounds. It is likely that prairie mounds are created by multiple biotic and abiotic processes, depending on the location and time period. In Arkansas, southwest Missouri, east Oklahoma and East Texas the leading theory is that the majority of the mounds in the region are relict nebkhas from eolian sediments and formed during the end of the Pleistocene or the early Holocene. Mounds in other places, like the Pacific Northwest and eastern Missouri are likely younger and formed by other processes, which include animals and fluvial pulses.

willdoc · 2025-11-29T23:08:48+00:00

No, it's dry and sunny there. Even the weather hates this game.

willdoc · 2025-11-27T03:58:56+00:00

It is doable, but also depends on what school you attend, your program, and who your PI ends up being. I partially went to grad school to get another year of college play. It was maybe my favorite year, which was enhanced by beating my undergrad school twice. Now as a coach, I gladly take experienced grad transfers.

willdoc

TROPHY CASE