Naturally Natives Plants that Ramble
Robert Weaver
by Scott Woodbury
Milkweed’s fluffy seeds can drift for hundreds of miles.
Missouri Wildflowers Nursery 9814 Pleasant Hill Rd Jefferson City MO 65109 www.mowildflowers.net mowldflrs@socket.net 573-496-3492
Meet us at one of these locations in the St. Louis area. Give us your order by Tuesday before a sale, and we will bring it to the location. Kirkwood Farmer’s Market, 150 East Argonne Dr. Kirkwood MO 63122. Give us your order in advance or pick from the selection at the market. April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; May 21, 28; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Shaw Nature Reserve, 307 Pinetum Loop Rd Gray Summit, MO 63039. Event: “Spring Wildflower Market;” General Public: Free admission. May 7, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Members preview sale: Friday, May 6, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Shopping at our Brazito (Jefferson City) location: Our retail “store” (outdoor sales area) is open for you to make selections. You can also send a pre-order and pick it up at the nursery. Open 9 to 5 Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 Sunday. We can ship your order! We ship plants on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays all year. UPS usually delivers the next day to Missouri and the surrounding states. Shipping charges apply.
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ong-distance dispersal is how species migrate long distances, maintain genetic variability, and will potentially adapt to climate change. This is why frogs hop like crazy on rainy days in summer: to mate with distant frogs and hopefully keep a healthy and diverse bloodline going. This is why male black bears and timber rattlesnakes wander far from the den in summer. Occasionally, unusually long-distance dispersals take place, including a bald eagle that got caught up in a storm over the Atlantic and came down in Scotland, and a Chinese duck that flew all the way to the West Coast of North America. Who knows what hitchhiking seeds they may have carried with them to distant lands. Coconuts float across oceans, and with luck, sprout on a faraway island. In the short run, the chances for successful dispersal (in rare cases) might appear slim, but over geologic time (thousands of years), the chance for success becomes more plausible. That said, common dispersal happens all the time and close to home. Along Ozark rivers, wild gourds, with fruits that resemble large bobbers, can float for hundreds of miles when the waters rise. I’ve seen them floating into West Valley at Shaw Nature Reserve on rising spring floodwaters. Native Americans used wild gourds as floats for fishing nets. Other native riparian (living near creeks and rivers) plants with floating or buoyant seeds include sedge, rush, iris, arrowhead, rose mallow, monkey flower, water plantain, and pipevine. The muddy floodwaters of autumn are a stew of silt, sand, mussel shells, river glass, and seeds that get deposited far away downstream. Milkweed, willow, aster, groundsel, goldenrod, and blazing star (most species in the Aster family) have fluffy seeds that can fly for hundreds of miles on a steady breeze. Willow seeds fluff out and take to the breeze in May. That’s why black willow (Salix nigra) quickly shows up in every ditch and pond. Milkweeds begin their aerial journey in late summer and fall. It is not uncommon to see The Gateway Gardener™ MAY 2022
