happy spring equinox!

the sunshine has real warmth now. the snow is melting fast. we are nearing the end of winter and winter stems. only a few years ago did i learn this was bush clover. of course it’s clover. look at it. how did this escape me for so long? i guess i just assumed all clover grew in clumps low to the ground. these are bush clover. bush-clover grows on erect stems up to one meter tall. while i may have been ignorant to it all these years, the natives americans certainly were not. from wiki:

This plant had a number of medicinal uses for Native American groups. It was used as a moxa to treat rheumatism. The Comanche used the leaves for tea. The Meskwaki used the roots to make an antidote for poison. The Pawnee people referred to the plant as rabbit foot (parus-asu) on account of the shape of its fruits and made a tea from the dry stems and leaves when coffee was not available. Among the Omaha and Ponca peoples, it was known as the male buffalo bellow plant.

round-headed bush clover in winter (Lespedeza capitata)