Lecture ‘Endless Prairie, North American Midwest’
Nature photographer Philip Friskorn will give a lecture on growth and flowering on 27 October. He takes the audience to North America in his slide presentation. The tallgrass prairie of the Midwest is rightfully so.
This grassland once stretched from Canada to Texas as a deep north-south belt. With thousands of miles of unprecedented biodiversity, Indian grass and big bluestem, the steep slopes are rich in flowers. Many of our garden plants come directly from the lawn.
The grasslands have three zones: in the east a wet grassland transitions from grassland to heavily wooded areas and in the west (toward the Rocky Mountains) a dry and barren grassland with short grasses. Between these two biotopes we find tallgrass prairie.
Over the past two centuries much of the grassland has been settled and cultivated for agriculture and livestock. Compared to the original area of tallgrass prairie, there is little, but that ‘little’ sometimes covers half of the Netherlands.
Fascinating plant life attracts insects. Butterflies like monarchs are a common sight in the meadow. Insects in turn attract birds and breeding birds attract various predators; So the natural cycle is back in order.
The evening will be held at Hermann Bavinquis in Hoogwein. Starts at 7:45 PM. Admission is free for members.
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