Deer-tongue Grass

If you're looking for signs that the summer solstice is nigh, well, you could certainly just check the calendar. But as a naturalist, I have another option: I can check the flora and fauna for seasonal markers. The appearance of Deer-tongue Grass is one reliable sign that we're now solidly in summer. This isn't quite as precise as the 6:10 AM beginning of the solstice yesterday, but for my purposes, the changing of the grass-plant guards in the meadows, from Orchard and Sweet Vernal to Deer-tongue and Timothy, is enough to show that we've truly left spring behind. Knowing the grasses, of course, is not that easy, but Dichanthelium clandestinum is a pretty simple species to learn. In fact, when I started my attempt at grass identification, Deer-tongue was a great beginning point, since it's distinct enough to allow the novice to just match the picture in the basic field guide with the plant. That done, you can study, with a hand lens and dissecting scope, the anatomical features that give the plant its identity and backtrack to other grasses. Even if you go no further than just calling it a grass, it does make a fine photo subject—and a great calendar image that says summer.