Clark Fork Native Prairie

Hello,
We are moving and don't have room for a wonderful heirloom table. It is a drop leaf table in the "Duncan Phyfe" style. It is made of striped mahogany. We had it completely refinished a few years ago. The dimensions are 30" tall; 38" x 20.5" when the side leaves are down; 38" x 50" when the leaves are up.

Asking $1,000 OBE.

Hello everyone,
This is an exciting time of the year at the Clark Fork Native Prairie, as different species of plants reemerge and flower. If you quickly scan the prairie, what you notice are mostly yellow flowers! Later on in the summer, the flowering plants display a wider palette of colors, including red, white, blues and a lot more.

So why are so many spring flowers yellow? Fifteen years ago Peter Lessica wrote an interesting story on this in the Montana Naturalist (Spring/Summer 2007 edition). Bumblebees, the sturdy pollination workhorses of later spring and summer, are not around in large numbers yet. This is because only the queens survive the winter, and they are busy raising this year's generation of offspring, which will be the worker bees. Many of the early spring insects that are visiting flowers now are flies and other more generalized pollinators. Studies on insect vision suggest that flies are more sensitive to yellow colors, while later-emerging bees are more attracted to other colors, such as blues; moths prefer evening-blooming white flowers; hummingbirds really dig the red, tubular-shaped flowers.

All these other flowers will show up in the prairie later in the summer, but for now, enjoy the spectacular yellow show, and thank the flies and other generalized pollinators for it.
Cheers, Erick Greene

Hi folks,

There is a very lovely spring flower blooming right now in the Clark Fork Native Prairie. It is called Slender Fringecup (Lithophragma tenella - in the Saxifrage family). It has deeply divided petals that are a wonderful pinkish color. It is small and easy to overlook, but look for it along the paths on the south side of the prairie and you will be rewarded!

Cheers, Erick Greene