Life at Plant Speed - a Close Look at One Hilltop

The only way to understand a grassland is to get up close and personal with it. In June 2022, I did exactly that. Marisa Diaz-Waian invited me to take a look at a rocky hilltop near Marysville, Montana, where she hopes to boost native plant diversity and create excellent habitat for lots of insects and other critters. This is a story about the beginning phases of a restoration project - and learning from what's already there. It's a sketch of the plant community on a single hilltop, from the thrips on the woolly groundsel (Senecio canus) flowers to the mystery of the glandular hairs on the fuzzytongue penstemon (Penstemon eriantherus).