Krigia virginica

549. That's the number of plants on Sheep Pasture's list since the "discovery" this week of Krigia virginica. Your intrepid reporter spotted the little plant growing at the edge of the driveway outside the Parker Room. It had been missed by all the famous botanists who have surveyed plants at Sheep Pasture. It's easy to overlook-the common name is Virginia Dwarf Dandelion so it's litty-bitty and looks like one of our most common weeds. Right now we have a botany student from Stonehill interning with us. Mr. Doofus thinking the little plant was Hawkweed picked some leaves and a flower, and the intern made the identification.

The little plant is an annual and may be in trouble. It has disappeared from Maine and is listed as threatened in Ohio and endangered in Iowa. We have no idea how common it is in Massachusetts although its reasonable to assume, since it was missed by some pretty high powered botanists, that it is fairly rare at Sheep Pasture. We'll collect a few seeds and plant them near the original.

The magic number 549 is a little misleading. It includes plants from Olmsted's original planting list some of which may never have been planted and many of which have not been seen in years. The list also excludes cultivated flowers like those in our butterfly garden and in the new Eagle scout garden being planted now behind the Carriage House. Cultivated plants that manage to escape and survive on their own are listed.

The little triangle in the driveway that held our 100 foot tall pine will be replanted to Mr. Olmsted's original plan. He put wild rose (Rosa lucida) at the points of the triangle and filled with Japanese barberry. We're going to use a hardy rose, but the barberry is an invasive that can no longer be planted here so we are going to replace its red berries and small leaves with a dwarf cotoneaster or a dwarf firethorn. The cotoneaster was not on Olmsted's original list, but a variety of firethorn apparently made the list. I say apparently because while the common name matches the scientific name indicates Olmsted might have been thinking of a hawthorn. Cotoneaster, firethorn, and hawthorn are closely related. It will be fun to recreate part of the original look of the estate "after the Fair."