|
|
Tales from the deep--What was that big rock looking thing?By Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension agent, agriculture It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's a prehistoric dinosaur egg! Let's plant it and see if it grows. Man, if that's a seed, it might grow to the sky like in the Jack and the Bean Stalk story. Alright, enough hype! Some of you may remember that back in September, there was a front page story in the Great Bend Tribune about a large organic object found in the sandy soil south of Dartmouth. It had been dug up from a depth of 4 or 5 feet below the ground by a backhoe doing some excavating. The title on the photo and story by Dale Hogg read: What the Heck? So in memory of Paul Harvey, here's the Rest of the Story. Brent Foelgner, a gentleman from Great Bend, had brought in this large organic object into my office to find out what it was. I examined it but didn't know and after a couple of phone calls to K-State really couldn't come to any conclusions. I thought it was rather unusual due to both the size and the depth at which it was found. So I called Dale and asked if he could come over and maybe do a story on it and so he did. This prompted several phone calls and e-mails from various citizens around the area offering their opinion as to what it might be. For those of you who didn't see it, this thing weighed in at 14 pounds on the scales in our office. It was dirty white or sandy cream in color and was 15 inches long by 6- to 8-inches wide. It looked like a rock and felt like one when you lifted it. But when you scratched it, you could tell it was like a tree root or even softer tissue. It wasn't really soft but you could penetrate it. What's even more fascinating is that they dug up four to five of them, but this was the only one he saved. Through all the possibilities from Ward Upham horticulturist at K-State, the fact that they were so large and so deep, basically eliminated everything suggested. I really thought it was an old tree root or Native American artifact that had been covered up over the years by soil erosion and maybe 200 years old or more. Then came along Brian Anshutz, a farmer friend of mine from near Seward, down in Stafford County. He had called one day but we missed each other trying to play telephone tag. Then I saw him at the local Ampride station and he said he knew what that object was for sure. He said morning glory and I'm thinking no way, morning glory is a puny little annual vine with a pretty purplish pink flower. No he says this is a different kind of morning glory. I was still somewhat skeptical that there could actually be a vine with roots that large that deep. Granted there are some perennials like field bindweed with roots which grow that deep and more, but not of any density. Brian tells me that he knew what it was because they encountered them every once in a while "down in the sand." He said they were usually below the plow layer but sometimes closer to the surface. I looked on the Internet and also called Dallas Peterson, K-State weed specialist. Dallas had decided that the two most likely possibilities were buffalo gourd and big root morning glory. I had read about big root morning glory from some Ohio information but he thought we were out of its range, in that southeast Kansas was as close as it got to us. Buffalo gourd really didn't fit in my mind because of Brian's insistence that it was morning glory only with large flowers. Then I had a breakthrough that I found on the Kansas Wildflower website. It was bush morning glory or if you prefer the Latin name for genus and species--pomoea leptophylla. The picture that was shown came from Ottawa County, Minn., which is not that far away. Here is the description they gave: --Also Called: Big-root morning-glory. --Stems: Erect to decumbent, bushy branching, glabrous. --Leaves: Alternate, simple, short-stalked, ascending, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2 to 6 inches long, less than 1/3-inch wide, glabrous; margins entire; tips tapered to points. --Inflorescence: Clusters of one to three flowers, stalks 3 to 4 inches long, in leaf axils. --Flowers: Calyces 5-lobed, sepals unequal; corollas funnel-shaped, 2 to 3.5 inches long, somewhat 5-angled, pinkish lavender to purplish red, throats darker; stamens five, unequal. --Fruits: Capsules, egg-shaped, long-pointed, smooth; seeds one to four, densely hairy, brown. --Habitat: Dry prairies, disturbed sites, and roadsides, on sandy or gravelly soils. --Distribution: West two-thirds of Kansas. --Uses: Great Plains Indians used bush morning-glory as an emergency food source. The roots can be boiled, baked, or roasted. --Comments: Bush morning glory is related to the sweet potato. It has a large, edible taproot that is usually 6 to 8 inches in diameter, up to 4 feet long, and can weigh 20 to 40 pounds. The bushy, upper portion of the plant can grow to several feet in diameter. Bush morning glory is very drought resistant due to its large root system. Lateral roots can branch out 10 to 15 feet. When I read the part about being found in sandy soils in the west two-thirds of Kansas and about the roots system, I knew we had found a suspect. However, if you read about buffalo gourd, which I will write about next week, it also could be a possibility. It should be noted that the one in Ohio is a different species--Ipomoea pandurata. This is why you have to be careful using common names.
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2011. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
|
