Today's image is of wild lupines in the Oak Savannah of High Park. This was a first for me - I had no idea we had native lupines in Ontario. These are small plants - maybe up to 12 inches tall.
Here's the description from the website www.highparknature.org:
"About 1/3 of the park’s natural environment consists of nationally rare oak savannah, an open, park-like landscape that contains widely spaced black oaks, scattered low shrubs and a rich variety of prairie grasses and wildflowers.
Of the over 2 million ha of prairies and savannahs that once covered southern Ontario, less than 2,100ha (0.1%) remain today.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has identified approximately 44 hectares (110 acres) of the park's natural environment as significant oak woodlands. Experts consider the oak savannah at High Park to be "continentally significant" because it occurs near its northern limits in the park and because of the size, nature and characteristics of the remnant ecosystem.
High Park shelters 41 rare plant species, 32 of which appear in the savannah. Among these plants are nationally rare woodland fern-leaf, wild lupine and cup-plant.
Savannahs are dependent on periodic fire to maintain their open character and rich variety of plant species."
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