Warming Chicago temps

[Arecaceus]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:42 AM, ChicagoPalma said:

Once it is summer the yuccas look like they grow on steroids and everything becomes over grown

I can imagine. I mean we have a very long vegetative season for non tropical climate. But the most happens just within a few months. You only notice when you take pictures throughout the year. Because in autumn/winter you see the growth of the whole year but when you look at pictures you see that most of the growth was happening within a couple of months.

[westfork]

2 minutes ago, Hortulanus said:

Wow I love stories like those. Doing local research on your own. So with explode do you mean that those grasses are pyrophytes?

They just provide so much fuel that they become almost unstoppable.  One spark blown ahead of the front will immediately turn into a twenty foot tall wall of flames.  Tallgrass prairie in this area is now just in conservation areas as the soil produced by them easily produces 250 bushel /acre corn.  We choose our days carefully when burning off these areas.  The early stories tell of men on horseback that could only see where cattle were by the movement in the grass.  Heading to favorite fishing spots we go through thick prairies much taller than our heads, and it gets spooky when you hear large groups of Iowa whitetail deer (big!) running nearby but you can't see them and they can't see you.

[ChicagoPalma]

1 hour ago, Hortulanus said:

Wow I love stories like those. Doing local research on your own. So with explode do you mean that those grasses are pyrophytes?

We do have the same plants and pretty much prairie styled habitat here in the midwest with @westfork

Edited April 24, 2023 by ChicagoPalma

[westfork]

13 hours ago, ChicagoPalma said:

We do have the same plants and pretty much prairie styled habitat here in the midwest with @westfork

Yes and no.  We are at the opposite ends of the tallgrass prairie region and you receive at least half again more precipitation than we do.  Your climate is influenced by your proximity to the Great Lakes and we are on the edge of the shortgrass prairie.  You probably receive rain some winters and often have snow cover.  Our areas of poorer soil a bit to the west have a definite western feel to them.  Here is a pasture where we run some cattle a couple hours west of us - Note the native yucca glauca.