Friday, June 16, 2017

something of a surprise

as you might recall last summer i had a jerusalem artichoke appear unbidden in the bed of my truck ( first photo )...it was large and attracted much attention ( some distinctly unwanted ) and it actually did produce tubers...this season i have had some various plants and a few grasses ( first through forth photo ) i am curious about popping up, but nothing of special interest... a couple of weeks ago i noticed one of the grasses was growing taller ( fifth ) than the others and i was wondering what it might be and today the answer was forthcoming...at first glance i thought it might be winter rye...that has been coming up in unexpected places like my bed at the community garden ( until someone pulled..maliciously or thinking it was a weed...take your pick ) but a closer look ( sixth ) gave me pause...rye has a very regular structure with the grain alternating all the way up the ear( seventh )...clearly the ear in the truck does not share that quality..it seems a bit more random and the grain is not as long and narrow as rye...it has more in common morphologically with the hard red spring wheat in the last photo...so we are calling it wheat and the long awns give it away as a spring variety...past that we are still looking for a better identification...we will share anything we find.

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