{"id":87,"date":"2024-10-17T20:33:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T20:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/?p=87"},"modified":"2024-10-25T01:33:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T01:33:33","slug":"a-field-of-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/2024\/10\/17\/a-field-of-red\/","title":{"rendered":"A field of red"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
A serene landscape.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I stayed in New Jersey last week, and one of the more important stops I made was to visit my Dad, who passed away a few years back and now rests amidst a serene landscape of vast, well maintained lawns and a few stately trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was cold, and windy, but I had been to this place many times before, and the peacefulness of the setting never failed to induce a profound calm in my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A red field of Schizachyrium scoparium<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But this time I felt some excitement stirring within me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s been awhile since I have concentrated on the Poaceae, as my work has shifted to being a pheidologist<\/a>, but I certainly paid attention when I noticed a vast and searingly beautiful field of red grass behind the stately mausoleum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The field stretched seemingly from horizon to horizon, a never-ending swathe of red that sat beneath an azure sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A field of Schizachyrium scoparium<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I walked the lawn and came close to the field, and realized that its main component was my old friend, Schizachyrium scoparium<\/em> (also called little bluestem in the USA)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had been to this location many times before, and even during this time period, but this was the first time I had seen this species, and in such staggering numbers. It was a pity that I had not brought my DJI drone with me, or I would have viewed the field from above, if only to gaze in awe at its expanse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was this species always here? Or did it somehow expand dramatically due to some change in the environment? I seem to remember the field was a bit more diverse in the past, and certainly less monotypic, so perhaps S. scoparium<\/em> had indeed surged forth and vanquished its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look forward to seeing it again the next time I am here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stayed in New Jersey last week, and one of the more important stops I made was to visit my Dad, who passed away a few years back and now rests amidst a serene landscape of vast, well maintained lawns and a few stately trees. It was cold, and windy, but I had been to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal","category-species-observations","tag-schizachyrium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}