Little Blue Stem

Years ago, I learned how to identify grasses. I did this mostly to put an end to an embarrassing and stubborn ignorance I'd embraced for far too long. When someone on a nature walk I was leading would ask for the name of one of those ubiquitous members of the Gramineae, I'd shrug my shoulders and sigh, "Oh, it's a grass... they're almost impossible to ID." Well, they're difficult enough, but they're hardly impossible, and once I got some basic taxonomy into my head, identification became a lot of fun. Grasses can also, it turns out, be quite pretty and intricate in bloom. This is Little Bluestem, a prairie species that is now at home in the Northeast. When it starts putting on a floral show in October, I'm ready for a delightful photographic, as well as a taxonomic, challenge.