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Establishing spring prairie flora (re: Cliff Welsch's ??)

In remnant prairies, I've noticed Dodecatheon seems to slog on barely
noticable through years of heavy grass cover and then really "enjoys" the
burn years. The same goes for things like Nothoscordum bivalve, Hypoxis
hirsuta, Viola sagittata and V. pedatifida, and those mentioned below. The
key seems to be that Dodecatheon avoids competition durign burn years with
the beat-'em-to-the-punch, spring ephemeral approach, and then hangs on in
the interim. This species takes 5-8 years from seed to flowering, but
eventually the seeds produced germinate near the parents, forming clusters
of flowering plants over another such time period. INtroducing mature
transplants will speed up this time frame. 

It is true that I use mowing to help establish prairie plantings, and this
may help the shorter, earlier-flowering species (including Castilleja
coccinea, Dodecatheon meadia, Potentilla simplex, Sisyrhinchium
angustifolium, Zizia aurea) to establish among the tall stuff. The thing is,
I've never done the experiment to tease out whether it's simply including
enough of the right species of seed in the original mix or a specific mowing
effect. 

James T.

-----Original Message-----
From: welsch@pilot.msu.edu [w*@pilot.msu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 2:11 PM
To: prairie@hort.net
Subject: for James Trager


Hi James:
    Thanks for the info (species that compete well in thick stands of
native grasses).  I would predict that Baptista alba, Penstemon digitalis,
Eryngium yuccifolium, Silphium laciniatum would compete extremely well
(have long been impressed with their "staying" characteristics) but
Dodecatheon media???  The ability of this latter forb to "compete" would
certainly be dependent upon annual burning (fall or very early spring).
Without annual burning, it would be hard to imagine that this forb could
survive a thick stand of native grasses.
Just one year without burning (in a thick stand of native grasses) would be
more then this forb could handle. Right????
  All is well on this end, hope all is going great at Shaw.
Cliff
(Clifford W. Welsch)

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