o! pioneers

there is still evidence out there that this was a corn field last season...but you really have to look for it now...it is being subsumed by non commercial plants that have colonized the field ( which has been transferred to the care of what must be assumed is a more aggressive realtor ) ...the pioneer plants are usually annuals...what most call "weeds"...as i have said umpteen times my definition of "weed" is in serious flux so i will simply call them plants...after the annuals colonize the bare ground perennials begin to move in...this is already underway half way through the first fallow season since i found thistles, milkweed, and queen anne's lace (sixth seventh and eighth photos respectively ) which are all perennials on the perimeter of the field...if this field is allowed to fallow for however many more years it takes to actually build some more redundant commercial property on shrubs will begin to move in and the place will resemble a savannah...but not for long since, left on its own. trees will eventually make an appearance...movement towards forest is the general rule if a climax community is allowed to form...i am skeptical of this...but weirder things have happened...a woodlot would not be a bad thing....1:19.m. as i look a bit more into it what i took for milkweed may be thistle instead...it seems to me milkweed pods open later in autumn and that i may have mistaken matured thistle for something else...there is surely quite a bit of thistle out there...whichever it is, perennials are on the move as the next succession takes hold.