Here are a few more examples of what we have blooming here right now.
Really? I thought. Black eyed Susans already? I like these flowers but at the same time I’m never in any hurry to see them because to me they represent the top of the hill we have been climbing since the last of the snow melted. Once Black eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) bloom we start down the other side of that hill towards autumn, and I’m in no hurry to get there. These plants are native to the U.S. anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, and introduced west of them.
Dry, sunny, sandy roadsides suddenly turn blue when blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis) blooms. Tiny, pale blue and white flowers sit on thin, wiry stems. This native plant was introduced to Europe and has naturalized in some areas, including Russia. It is in the snapdragon (Scrophulariaceae) family. Toadflax boiled in milk is said to make an excellent fly poison.
I’ve tried several times to get a photo that shows the waxy shine on common buttercup (Ranunculus acris) petals, and I think this one might be it. This shine is caused by a layer of mirror-flat cells that have an air gap just below them, and just below the air gap is a smooth layer of brilliant white starch. All of these layers act together to reflect yellow light while blue-green light is absorbed.
The orchid-like flowers of the northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) tree have opened. These native trees grow to 70 feet or more and often the branches are so high up that you can’t see the flowers closely, but I was lucky to find an immature tree. Each flower is made up of petals that fuse to form one large, frilly petal. Yellow, orange and purple can be seen in the throat. Flowers will give way to long, thin pods that we used to call string beans when I was a boy.
Crown vetch (Coronilla varia) has an interesting flower head made up of up to 25 individual flowers. The standard is upright and deeper pink than the 4 lighter petals that make up the keel. Flowers have a typical pea-like shape. This plant was introduced as a forage crop and has escaped to the point where it is found regularly along sunny roadsides.
The flowers of Indian cucumber root (Medeola virginiana) can be challenging to photograph. Out of more than 20 shots this is the only one worth posting. It shows how the yellow-green petals curve backwards to reveal a long, spidery style and 6 stamens, all in crimson and plum. When these plants aren’t flowering they are sometimes mistaken for starflower because of the way the leaves whorl around the stem. The root of this plant tastes like cucumber and Native Americans used it for both food and medicine. People seem to feel the need to taste the plant’s root and because of it Indian cucumber is now endangered in many areas. Please admire them and let them be so the rest of us can also admire them.
Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) is supposed to be toxic to dogs so the Apocynum part of the scientific name means “Away dog!” The second part of the scientific name, cannabinum, means “like hemp,” which helps explain the plant’s other common name of Indian hemp. Dogbane has white, sticky sap that is toxic, so animals avoid it. Native Americans made thread and cord from dogbane and used it for nets and snares because the fibers hold their shape and do not shrink when they get wet. Dogbane fibers have been found in archaeological sites that are thousands of years old.
Our woods are full of native blooming mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) right now. Many believe that these evergreen shrubs are related to rhododendrons, but they are actually more closely related to blueberries. The white to pink flowers of Mountain laurel each have 10 pockets or depressions in the petals that the anthers bend to fit into. When a pollinator lands on the blossom the anthers spring from these pockets and dust the insect with pollen.
This view of the back of mountain laurel blossoms shows the unusual pockets that the anthers fit into. Mountain laurel is very toxic and has been known to kill livestock that have eaten it.
Yellow rattle box (Rhinanthus crista) is a very strange plant that is, in botanical terms, “hemi parasitic” on pasture grasses. This means that even though it creates its own food through photosynthesis its roots attack the roots of other plants and literally suck the life out of them. If enough of them grow in a pasture they can destroy the grasses in it. This plant is from Europe and gets its common name from the way the dry seeds rattle around in the round, flat pods that form behind each flower.
There are so many lobelias that it is often hard to tell, but I think this is pale spike lobelia (Lobelia spicata.) Lobelias usually prefer moist places so I was surprised to find it in a small, dry clearing on the side of a hill. I was also surprised that the flowers on some plants were such a deep blue, because they usually range from pale blue to white. Flowers are found on a thin, wiry stem. When I was looking for information on this plant I was surprised to find that it is listed as rare in New Hampshire. In my experience it is quite common. Lobelias are toxic so no part of the plant should ever be eaten.
Each flower of Lobelia spicata has an upper lip that is divided into 2 lobes and a larger lip that is divided into 3 lobes. A dark blue stigma sits between the upper 2 lobes. The petals are fused and form a tube. At a glance it might be easy to confuse this plant with blue toadflax.
The petals of our native flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) always look like somebody forgot to iron them before they put them on. If this flower reminds you of a rose, that’s because it is in the rose family. The 2 inch wide flowers are fragrant and attract butterflies. If pollinated, they are followed by large berries that are said to taste good, but have too many seeds to be useful. The red to orange fruit is shaped like a thimble and that gives this plant another common name-pink thimble berry.
Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin
Thanks for coming by.
I just discovered your Blog, Awesome just awesome. Thanks for sharing the beauty of nature today!
Thank you Gary, for the comment.
A nice roundup. Crown Vetch is quite common here in Ohio- it gets planted along freeways to deter erosion if I remember right.
Yes, they do the same think here. It’s also used for forage, I think.
Beautiful images, Allen…I especially like the catalpa this morning…..
Thanks Scott. It’s a beautiful tree.
I’ve never seen the northern catalpa, but it looks gorgeous! There is a great ‘forest’ of mountain laurel in Milford, behind the Markey Basket. I came across it a few years ago. Great post. I feel they same way about summer solstice as you do about black eyed susans! Like you, no rush to get to fall!
Catalpa trees are beautiful when they’re flowering. I can’t think of where there are any in Peterborough though. I didn’t know that there were mountain laurels in that spot in Milford, but I’m not surprised because that area seems to be the kind of place they like. If only winter would go by as fast as summer does, then I wouldn’t mind, but it seems to drag on forever when summer passes in the wink of an eye.
If only my 40’s would go by as fast as my teens!
I know-that too.
Great harvest of June blooms. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome Grampy!
It fascinates me that you see so many of what I considered “garden” plants growing in the wild. I am very impressed by your buttercup photograph. I find photographing anything shiny very challenging. Using automatic exposure control, I think the shine can confuse the reading, and then there is the angle which you cannot always change outside.
It really is amazing how many garden plants started life as lowly “weeds.” I took many, many photos of buttercups before I got the petal shine in the way that I was happy with! I think you might be right about auto exposure-I’ve all but given up on it and adjust the controls manually quite often now.
The year is speeding past! Good shot of the blue toadflax and Indian cucumber root, two tricky plants to get good pictures of. I haven’t ever seen Yellow rattle box, maybe it doesn’t grow here in Michigan. Is that the plant with the dried, square “rattles”?
Thanks, Allen, another fun post.
Thanks Chris. Yellow rattlebox “rattles” look kind of round to me. You can see them in the photo-they are the roundish, green pods that the flower looks like it’s coming out of. When dried the seeds fall away from the sides of the pod and rattle when shaken. According to the USDA this plant doesn’t grow in Michigan.
Some lovely photos again, especially that buttercup. I never knew that was why they shine as they do and it does make taking a photo of them difficult. 🙂
Thanks! I know-buttercups can be the bane of nature photographers.
Last winter, I scattered several hundred grams of yellow rattle seed into the meadow where I work, Allen so that it can get to work on reducing the vigour of the grasses (which swamp out many wildflowers). It has germinated and I have several patches now – bees seems to like the flowers too which is a bonus. Dave
From what I’ve read it should do exactly that Dave. That’s interesting that it can be put to good use like that-it sounds like it would be perfect for what you want it to do.
This is a very pretty collection of flowers! I fell in love with the catalpa. I’ve never seen that before.
Today when I was down by the river and saw a lot of milkweed in bloom I had a similar thought to what you mentioned when you saw the black eyed susans: is it already that late in the summer!
Catalpas are beautiful, but very messy trees whose flowers, huge leaves and long seed pods rain down throughout the year.
One thing I’ve learned is that the old wive’s tale about time passing faster as we get older isn’t an old wives tale-it’s true!
Nothing makes a goat projectile vomit quite like mountain laurel.
I never thought of that-and goats will eat anything. I would think you’d want to keep the two as far apart as possible.
Nice haul! I’ve been wanting to try making cordage from dogbane. There’s some growin along the road on my property, so I might get the chance. If I can’t find instructions I guess I will just have to experiment.
There are a lot of instructions online-everything from you tube show and tell to written instructions, and it sounds fairly easy.
The ‘orchid like’ flowers are sensational.
They are beautiful. I’ve never seen another tree flower quite like the catalpa.
I feel the same way about Black Eyed Susans, the days are getting shorter, and fall will be here all too soon. So, it’s time to get out and enjoy the summer while it lasts. Thanks for another lesson in flowers, but I’m a poor student, so I’ll have to return to this if I spot any of these flowers. 😉
It’s hard to believe that time can go by so fast! I hope you’ll be able to ID some flowers using this post-that’s one of the reasons I do them.
Well, I can’t ID any of the flowers that I have in the queue right now, but I haven’t gone through your past posts from this time of year yet either.
You might find them in last year’s posts. I showed a lot more flowers then.
Gorgeous, gorgeous photos; the color and detail you capture really shares the joy of summer.
Thank you Charlie.
I have many of yours in recent posts now to figure out what some of the green growth is that is taking over my place 😦
Beautiful work!
Thanks!
Beautiful shots and fascinating information. I especially like the beauty of the flowers of the northern catalpa and the mountain laurel that you featured.
Thanks Mike. I’m pretty sure that you can find both the catalpa and Mountain Laurel there, but you might have to go into the woods to find the laurel.