Partridge Pea is a Legume

As I've said, my sister Sarah was visiting last week. It was the first time she's been in Iowa since Jonathan and I moved back in June. If you've been following along on my blog, I've been posting things about her visit in chronological order, kind of. First, there was the fair. (I interjected with Carstens, which had actually happened the two days before.) Then there was McFarland Park in Ames. I had met my mom and sister in Spencer for the fair, Jonathan went home to Hancock, and I went to Ames with my mom and sister. Wednesday, my mom, dad, sister, and I all back down to Hancock so Sarah could see where I live and some of my favorite things nearby. Which included:

Partridge Pea! My interest in prairie flowers began when I moved here, so it's actually just been a few months that I've known anything about them, and partridge pea was the first native one I identified. It is my favorite and I named my blog after it. It had made some developments as of late. I've mentioned before that it is a legume. Here is proof! IT'S GOT BEANS!

Now that's just me calling them beans. They look like peas, though, don't they?

This was actually the first time I'd seen them with beans on. In the morning, we all went out for a walk on a nearby B grade road where I knew them to grow. And there they were.

They start out green, but eventually turn dark brown and dried out. This one has popped open and let out all its seeds! My mom collected a few of the dried seed pods and she told me that one of them exploded in the car! One of the common names this plant has is "sensitive plant" and I read that names comes from the seed pods popping open at a slight touch.

My favorite NON-native wildflower is chicory. Seen here among grasses lit by the morning sun.

An interesting sight: claw marks in this hole. 

Hearkening back to my second post on this blog. The grove at the end of the center line is the one that surrounds my house and the church next door. You can see the colors in the fields have changed from green-green to green-brown and green-yellow. Soon they will both just be brown.

Penny loves to be let loose.