Steel, that tall plant you reference was quite likely white sweet clover, a tough invasive species. We mow that stuff down within our prairie plantings whenever and wherever we can-just to set it back as more desirable species colonize any given site. Not a perfect solution by any means, but over time, we get good results. I disagree with the poster above in his blanket condemnation of herbicide use. Applied with care and precision, they are collectively one of the key tools we have to restore land to a more "native" condition. At this point, I guess I'd be wondering if there isn't some ecological consultant you can have visit your site, with a goal being to make recommendations. You might be surprised at how much good could come of such a visit. There's people that do this sort of thing every day. They might have ideas you'd not even thought of. Depending on where you are, and this does tie in with what the other fellow was saying, prairie/meadow-type species and plant communities may themselves just be a temporary waystation on the way towards whatever climax vegetation community would normally occupy your region. So, by this, I mean, for example, all the prairie plantings we have installed-around our stormwater ponds, etc-are really not what nature would have left us with in this area. It was all wooded at one time, but through a combination of the prairie lobby being loudest, and the engineers not having a guy like me onboard until just the last few years, this thing has a big headstart. But it has advantages that a fully wooded site would not-ease of maintenance when that becomes necessary, a plant community type which is itself of value and in short supply (prairie), and a repeatable, well-understood installation and maintenance cycle. But I digress. You could indeed kill of small areas of the grass matrix with glyphosate, plant plugs of the forbs you want to have in the mix, and still retain 99% of the grass you have now. It's simply not an all or none proposition. +oM

I think so, and the habitat is right. It grows in wet ditches here. Also called tickseed sunflower, because of the way the seeds cling to clothes and fur. Walk through the middle of a patch after the seeds mature and you'll spend an hour or two pulling them off.

I used to have a small prairie in my 0.5+ acre suburban backyard. Wasn't a real prairie, but I liked it. I also had daffodils planted in it for some spring zing. All the neighbors came over for free black-eyed susan plants, even the ones that didn't like us or our prairie. Even in that small space the purple monarda formed drifts, which I also have here in a much more naturalized prairie situation on my current 5 acres. In front of the house I had more formal flower beds with a few prairie plants snuck in here and there. I used to work at a multi-building AT&T complex in Naperville, IL, the ultimate yuppie suburb. I and my fellow environmentalists worked on them for YEARS to get some of the huge lawns turned into prairie, and to get them to recycle. Alas, the person in charge of building management was opposed to both. Finally the key person left and someone more openminded came along. Since we had been planning and making proposals for years, recycling and prairie areas went into effect fairly quickly after that. AT&T claimed to be worried that people would think the prairie area was messy or complain about it. Instead there were unforeseen traffic problems. People kept parking on the side of the road and getting out to walk around and take pictures, or at the very least drove by VERY SLOWLY admiring the flowers. A wedding party even came to take photos there. AT&T also saved a HEAP of money by having many fewer acres to mow and water and spray crap on (and saved heaps on the recycling too.) So yes upstate IL is pretty keen on prairies, quite a few large businesses have them, although they vary in 'authenticity.' Regardless of what is planted, it saves on watering, runoff, use of chemicals, etc. In fairness I should add that a friend in Naperville had his whole front yard in prairie, quite lovely, and he got a LOT of flack about it, including a neighbor who put up a fence/wall between their yards. I lived in Warrenville which isn't so formal and yuppie and Chemlawn-y and had enough sense to put my prairie in the back. Marcia

Orchids produce asymmetric flowers with the pollen borne in "packets" near the base rather than in sacs at the ends of filaments, arranged around a protruding stigma.