October 22, 2023

The landscape looks like a painting of a fall day. The sky is clear and blue against a backdrop of the brightest leaves. We walked back as the sun was setting, and the warm light glowed through the feathery seeds of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii). A dominant species of the tallgrass prairie, big bluestem changes from green to blue to burgundy. It grows in dense clumps, reaching heights up to eight feet tall with roots extending twice as deep into the soil. The seed head resembles the three long toes of a turkey’s foot.