Dyke Marsh Is Lush in the Summer

Dyke Marsh is like a “sea of green” in the summer when wetland plants like wild rice (Zizania aquatica) are at their height.  Wild rice shimmers in the breeze and can grow to be 10 feet tall.  In the second photo, it is in flower or bud. In the third, it is in fruit.

Wild rice in flower.

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) plants sport violet-blue flowers that live for one day, die and then others bloom.

The yellowy-orange dodder (Cuscuta) plant looks like strands of straw intertwined amid the narrow-leaf cattails.

The female pumpkin ash trees (Fraxinus profunda) now have multiple seeds. FODM is treating 18 pumpkin ash trees and trying to prevent their demise from the invasive emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) that is killing ash trees across the U.S.   Later in the year is a better time to assess the trees’ viable seed production, say experts.

Photos by Glenda Booth

Wild rice in fruit.

Pickerelweed in flower.

Dodder plant.

Female pumpkin ash tree.