The Corona Diaries Vol 32: Botanic Man

I love flora and appreciate its role in the ecosystem. I really do. While keeping flowers alive is a skill I do not possess, I enjoy looking at them, smelling their sweet scents. Trees. I love trees! They provide shade in the summer and leaves to clog my gutters in the autumn. Although it has been a while, I have tapped maple trees and boiled their sap until it was transmogrified into a delicious syrup. I am definitely pro-plant. I'm just not very good at identifying them.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, I went on a nature walk back in August at Owen Conservation Park on Madison's west side. I have walked it before but in the early spring and late autumn so I was looking forward to seeing the place in all of its verdant aestival glory. As a treat, there would be a naturalist leading a tour who specialized in the flora.

OK. Like an old BBC period drama, I am going to give you the ending up front: I cannot recall the names of most of the plants that the guide identified for us. I need a book or a recording of her commentary and to be tested on it so I can study for the exam and commit all of that botanical knowledge to memory.

The park was formerly the summer home & farm of a University professor named – quelle surprise! - Edward T. Owen. If you wander the western part of the park near the parking lot, you'll find the farm's root cellar and the terraces Owen had constructed. Today the fields are given over to savannah and prairie restoration.

There were yellow flowers everywhere and these I do recall the name of – Rudbeckia.

We learned that there were 3 types of this flower to be seen in the park but I cannot remember which variety this is. There were brown-eyed Susan, black-eyed Susan, and sweet brown-eyed Susan, if I recall correctly. I am not impressed with whomever came up with this bit of nomenclature as it is blatantly unhelpful to the budding floriculturist in distinguishing amongst the varieties.

Our guide pointed out some Goldenrod to the side of the trail and I think I caught a couple bugs mid coitus.

In addition to lots of yellow flowers, there was purple thistle everywhere. Its proper name escapes me but wouldn't be at all surprised if it was simply "Purple Thistle".

Apparently, the park is replete with whatever plant Monarch butterflies like to dine on because our guide noted how they can be seen every once in a while during the summer and then in greater numbers in September as they are migrating south to Mexico or wherever they go where it doesn't snow and polar vortices don't bring the temperature down to -60 degrees.

We saw some off in the distance.

Our guide noted that the park would have been inundated with Monarchs in September 30-40 years ago but today, you see more like 50, if you're lucky. I was completely unaware that their population is dwindling. That's the problem with these kinds of nature walks, you always learn about how we are carelessly destroying one habitat or another and thusly killing off creatures because we can't get enough McMansions and malls. And we get into our cars afterwards and drive off in a sulk as we exacerbate global climate change.

I have to look at the city parks calendar to see what walks are coming up. There could be a walk again through Owen but with someone who knows the fauna. Or perhaps a stroll through a different park with a mycologist who will point out all of the varieties of mushrooms and tell us which ones are edible and which ones will take you on a far-out psychedelic trip, man.

Speaking of psychedelics, I have read that it is a burgeoning area of research for treatment of psychological disorders such as depression. The university has just created the UW–Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substance where they seek to help people with careful administration of magic mushrooms or at least the psylocibin found therein. There is also a private company in town called the Usona Institute doing the same kind of research.

Well, no doubt you will hear about my next nature walk in a future entry.

There is a new book out that is of special interest to Wisconsinites.

It is a biography of Mildred Harnack, a Cheesehead who joined the resistance against the Nazis in Germany.

She was born in Milwaukee and studied at UW-Madison where she met her husband, Arvid Harnack in the 1920s. Harnack hailed from Germany and the pair moved there. They witnessed the rise of Hitler and were appalled and brave enough to join the resistance movement. The Harnacks helped Jews escape Germany and relayed intelligence to the Allies. In 1943 they were captured and executed. Mildred must have been a big thorn in the Nazi's side as she was beheaded at the direct request of Hitler himself.

Some members of the Madison media are frustrated with as well as laughing at larger media outlets that are reviewing the book. Many of these newspapers – usually on the coasts, of course – are portraying Donner's book as dragging Mildred's story from the dustbin of history and ignoring the scholarship that has already been done here in Wisconsin.

Mildred Harnack is not a particularly well-known figure, I grant you, but Donner's book is hardly the first time someone has told her story. Wisconsin Public Television did a show about her back in 2011.

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Bonus photos – a then & now set. Not a perfect match but good enough.