Ken Lassman has been keeping this almanac for over a decade, He invites you to share your observations and photos in the comments section. You can find his book Wild Douglas County at The Raven Bookstore and The Community Mercantile in Lawrence.
Kaw Valley Almanac is now being posted at the Merc!
May: Little Flower Killer Moon
This month is so called by the Osage Indians of the area for the transition from the short statured flowers of April to the taller flowers that keep up with the growing prairie grasses. The shorter pre-vernal flowers like prairie violets, star-eyed grass, buttercups and lousewort on the prairie finish up and go to seed, being replaced by taller flowers such as yarrow, daisy fleabane and larkspur. In the woodland, the "killing" is even more dramatic, as early spring beauties, dutchman's breeches, cutleaf toothwort, rue anemone and the like finish up and pretty much disappear under the closed canopy of tree leaves and thick shrubbery, with virtually no woodland flowers replacing them until mid-late summer composites make their way back into the woods.
This year, it is comforting to be reminded that we can still have cooler, wetter, later springs instead of increasingly earlier, hotter ones like the previous several. Climate change increases the oceanic and atmospheric temperature, which can result in more extreme weather including more snow and flooding, more droughts and heat waves, and there is evidence that the shrinking arctic ice cap can make those colder extremes even more pronounced despite continued increases in global-wide temperatures. More moisture means more severe weather in our region, so stay tuned....
Want your wildlife observations, pictures, links posted here? Send them to seasonsandcycles@yahoo.com
I enjoy your almanac and have been keeping a daybook of my own. I also enjoy Poor Will’s almanac in Countryside and Small Stock Journal.
Fantastic, Carol! Feel free to share any of your observations (and/or photos) either in the comments or email them to me to include (if they are about the Kaw Valley region) in the Nature Notes. I find such observations to be an excellent way to develop and deepen a lifelong relationship with the land and the life that it holds and hope that it does the same for you.
Ken