Rewilding My Lot

Last year I had a volunteer Pussyfoot (Dalea obovata) plant. I have just found another one hidden among a mass of wildflowers.

This is a useful plant because it is a legume, and thus able to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil via a symbiotic relationship with rhizobia bacteria. For that nitrogen to be available for the future benefit of other plants here, I will need to leave roots in the ground to decay after the plant has died. (If I had grazing animals feeding on legumes, e.g., clover, then their waste would more quickly process the captured nitrogen to be used by other plants, but I suspect my neighbors might object to livestock here.)

In the meantime, this is an interesting plant to watch with its complex flowers and grey-green leaves.