Grasses and Sedges and Rushes Abound
The grasses and grass-like plants take center stage in September, monopolizing every vista. Their slender stems and delicate seed-heads dance on the breeze.

Canada wild rye is a native cool-season grass. It emerges early in the season and grows quickly during the cool weather of April and May.

Beach three-awn grass is well adapted to its dry, sandy habitat. As the stiff awns mature, they twist into loops, finally dropping to the ground where they cleverly cork-screw the seed into the ground.

Purple three-awn is more finely textured than its sand-loving cousin. In the warm light of fall, its robust awns positively glow.

Indian grass is beautiful native grass—graceful in form and texture. The coppery-bronze seed heads invite tactile interaction.

My friend Nathanael said this is probably Greene's rush. In 1819, a botanist named James Ebenezer Bicheno described the rushes as “obscure and uninviting.” Bah humbug.

Another handsome rush, this one needlepod rush. The great botanist Floyd Swink collected this species here on August 14, 1935.
The eye is always caught by the light, but shadows have more to say.
— Gregory Maguire

Rough blazing star emerges each year from bulb-like corms. According to one source I consulted, these were used as emergency survival food among some tribes of Amerindians.

Did you know astéri is the Greek word for star? This star is sky-blue Aster. It is always wispy and unassuming, never pushy.

The flowers of the false foxgloves are "bilaterally symmetric." Bisecting them produces two equal halves, not four (or more), as in most plants.

Another Aster, this one New England Aster, prefers the moist ground at Coulter.
Getting to John Merle Coulter Nature Preserve
John Merle Coulter Nature Preserve is located on the east side of County Line Road between US 12 and US 20 in Portage, Indiana. It is bounded on the north by the MonoSol industrial plant and on the north and east by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Limited parking is available adjacent to the preserve entrance, on the east side of County Line Road.
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