This crooked stem aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides) is one of the first blue asters I’ve seen this year. I found a small colony growing in a sunny spot in the woods, surrounded by many other white asters. I don’t usually try to identify asters but the one inch diameter light blue flowers and zigzagging stems made this one easier than most. The Native American Iroquois tribe used this plant medicinally to treat fevers and other ailments.
Native large leaved aster (Eurybia macrophylla) is another aster that is relatively easy to identify because of its big heart shaped leaves. The plant spreads by rhizomatous roots and can form very large colonies, especially on hillsides as these examples were. Its leaves are often as big as my hand and they can take a lot of shade. The plant seems to be blooming well this year in spite of drought so I’m assuming that they don’t mind dry soil. They don’t like being disturbed by human activity so I don’t see them close to roadsides often. These were separated from the road by a wide drainage ditch.
Most of the flowers that I find on large leaved asters are white but they can also be light blue or lavender. As in many asters the ray florets are irregularly spaced around the central disc florets. The tubular disc florets turn from yellow to orange-red as they age and then change to dark red before finally turning brown.
If the square stems and tufts of tiny pink / purple flowers in the leaf axils don’t ring a bell, then one sniff of a crushed leaf will tell you immediately that this plant is wild mint (Mentha arvensis.) Mint has been used by man since the dawn of time and Pliny, Hippocrates, Aristotle and Charlemagne each wrote of its virtues. Each time we see it we are seeing one of mankind’s earliest memories. I find it growing in the tall grass at the edge of the forest and I always have to smell it.
I never thought of speedwell as an aquatic plant until I met the narrow leaved speedwell (Veronica scutellata.) It is also called marsh speedwell and that makes perfect sense, because it grew in standing water in full sun at the edge of a field last year. This year there was no standing water but the soil was still saturated. Though most speedwells we see here are non-native, this one belongs here. Like lobelias, Native Americans used plants in the veronica family to treat asthma.
Small blue flowers with darker blue stripes are typical of speedwells, but these can also be white or purple. They are very small and only have room for two stamens and a needle-like pistil. The plants obviously love water because there are many plants growing in this very wet area. If you were looking for a native plant for the shallow edges of a water garden it might be a good choice.
Tiny eastern forked blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum) has flowers that might make a half inch across on a good day, so it’s a challenging plant to photograph. One unusual thing about the flower, other than its unique beauty, is its four long, arching stamens that dust bees with pollen when they land on its lower lip. This plant is an annual that grows new from seed each year. It seems to like sandy soil and I find it growing along river banks and sometimes roadsides. It’s a beautiful little thing that’s worth looking for, but getting a good photo of it is tricky. It took 8 tries to get this one.
Forked blue curl plants barely reach your ankle. The entire plant pictured could have easily fit inside a coffee mug.
Pilewort (Erechtites hieracifolia) is a strange plant with inch long flower buds that never seem to open beyond what you see in the above photo. Even after they open they still look like they are in the bud stage, so you have to look at them closely. This plant gets its common name from the belief that it was useful in the treatment of piles (hemorrhoids,) because the buds are the size and shape of suppositories. The Native American Algonquin people used the plant to treat poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) rashes. It has also been used as a source of a blue dye for cotton and wool.
This is all we see of a pilewort flower when it opens. It is made up of many disc florets which are pollinated primarily by wasps and hornets. Once they go to seed they will float away on the wind much like dandelion seeds. In some areas it is called burn weed because of the way it moves quickly into burned areas. I usually find it along river and stream banks.
The drought we find ourselves in is presenting many problems but also a few opportunities. Pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum) usually grows in ankle deep standing water but the water of this pond had receded enough so that I could walk right up to the plants shown without taking my shoes off. Since they grow with their lower stems submerged I’ve never been able to see the entire plant, but now I could.
I’m not sure what I expected to see but the leaves surprised me. With leaves the pipewort looked just like many other plants but its basal leaves normally grow underwater, which seems a little strange. I’m guessing that they must still get enough sunlight through the water to photosynthesize. The stem has a twist to it with 7 ridges and because of that some call it seven angle pipewort.
Most pipeworts grow just offshore in the mud and send up a slender stalk that is topped by a quarter inch diameter flower head made up of very tiny white, cottony flowers. Eriocaulon, the first part of pipewort’s scientific name, comes from the Greek erion, meaning wool, and kaulos, meaning plant stem. The second part of the scientific name, aquaticum, is Latin for a plant that grows in water, so what you have is a wool-topped stem growing in water, which of course is exactly what pipewort looks like. Pipewort is wind pollinated. It is also called hat pins, for obvious reasons.
Native wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata) is a late summer blooming vine that climbs on shrubs and trees and hangs on using tendrils like a grape. It likes to grow in sandy soil and prefers partial shade over full sun. The flower spikes (Racemes) grow to 6 inches or more all along the main stem. These plants are annuals and grow from seed each year.
The greenish white, star shaped male flowers of wild cucumber have 6 petals that are twisted slightly. The female flowers are yellowish green and not at all showy. They grow at the base of the male flower stems. There is usually only one female flower for every 5 or 6 male flowers, which is why there are so few fruits seen on each vine.
The spiny, 2 inch long fruits of the wild cucumber have a watermelon shape. Though the spines look menacing they are quite soft and children have been throwing them at each other for as long as I’ve been around. The fruit is not edible. The example shown here hadn’t grown to full size yet.
Little native blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis) has been blooming since May and is one of our longest blooming wildflowers. This plant seems to like sunny, dry, sandy waste areas or roadsides because that’s where I always find it growing. It’s always worth getting down on my hands and knees to admire its tiny but beautiful blue / purple flowers. They sparkle like sugar candy in the sunlight.
Last year the Town of Swanzey cut down all the plants and shrubs along a short stretch of the Ashuelot River and one of those plants was the chicory (Cichorium intybus) in the above photo. It gets mowed regularly now, so I was surprised to see a normal size flower on a plant no more than three inches tall. It looks a little stressed, whether from drought or being mowed I don’t know but it’s a beautiful flower, and stronger than I ever knew.
Beauty does not linger; it only visits. Yet beauty’s visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm; it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the beautiful. ~ John O’Donohue
Thanks for stopping in.
Catching up on some of your posts I missed. Always interesting to read with so many lovely photos. Love chicory.
Thank you. Blue is my favorite color, so I love chicory too.
Your macro shots are amazing! I love to see these tiny flowers in such detail. I am seeing lots of stunted chicory at the moment – it is determined to flower no matter how short it is!
Thank you Clare. I’m glad you like seeing the tiny ones because some really make me work for what I get!
That’s odd that you’re seeing stunted chicory too. I thought this one was stunted because it got mowed.
I believe ours are mowed too.
That’s too bad. It’s not a very attractive plant but the flowers are beautiful.
The Crooked Stem and Big Leaf Asters are the first to bloom here as well. I find that our Crooked Stem blooms are a much fainter blue than yours, almost a white flushed with a bit of blue. Asters seem to have a fair amount of variation in bloom color – especially the New England Aster.
Yes, colored asters vary quite a lot, from almost white to darker sky blue and deep purple. I always look for the darkest colored ones too. The almost white ones do look white to me.
I love the little toad flax that sparkles in the sunlight! All the photos are beautiful and informative, and a great quote at the end to accompany them.
Thanks very much!
I found your blog after reading your comment on Jason’ s post about birds. You have black bears visiting your bird feeder? Anyone who gardens with black bears strolling about in the garden impresses me.
A really fascinating and informative post.
Thank you Chloris. I don’t have bird feeders but I have had bears in the yard. They were just passing through and didn’t stay, but they can be a real problem if you have something they like, like birdseed.
When I lived back in Connecticut up on the Mass. border, the town urged residents NOT to put up bird feeders as the bears were such a problem. Bird feeders were known as bear feeders, as the bears had learned they were a ready source of snack food.
Nothing has changed in that respect. We’re still reminded each year when it’s time to take them down. They say it’s especially bad this year because the drought has shriveled many of the berries so the bears aren’t finding enough natural food.
Delightful macros – love them!
Thank you Eliza!
The Pilewort is a new one for me and not one I recall seeing in Ohio. Lovely shot of the wild cucumber flower!
Thanks! The USDA says that pilewort grows there but it’s an easy plant to miss. I always find it near water mixed in with other plants. It gets about 2 feet tall and is on the bushy side with all the flower buds towards the top.
The chicory is well worth a close look.
I love its color but I’ve never seen one with markings on the petals like this one.
I often visit your posts to identify something I’ve seen, but this post introduced me to several flowers I don’t think I’ve ever seen. I’m enchanted by that diminutive gem, the forked blue curls. Wow! It never ceases to amaze me when I see the exquisite details in flowers or bugs. Nature is quite the designer!
Thanks for being a regular visitor Pat. Forked blue curls are beautiful little flowers, even though they’re quite small. I almost always find them growing in sand, which seems odd but that’s what they like.
I’m constantly amazed by nature too. I couldn’t do anywhere near as good a job designing it all!
I’m glad that you had the photo of the chicory in this post so that there was one flower that I knew. 😉 I’m surprised that you don’t see it more often, it’s a tough plant that easily withstands being cut down repeatedly around here.
I may have lied, I believe that I have seen pipewort growing in the shallow water of ponds and lakes before, but never paid much attention to it because it’s so tiny. It does form large colonies that are pleasant to look at if the plant that we have here is pipewort. I’ll have to take a closer look to see if we have the same plant here.
But, that applies to many of the flowers that you highlight, I think that I overlook them because they are so small. Every once in a while I take a closer look at one of the tiny flowers that I see, and I’m always amazed at how pretty they are. I should take more closer looks.
I love asters, but I’m not ready to see them so soon. They mean fall to me, perhaps more than anything other than mums.
Thanks Jerry! Chicory seems to be very fussy about where it grows here, and I’ve wondered if it was maybe our very acidic soil. I rarely see it.
Pipewort and many other small flowers are easy to ignore, especially since they’re so hard to get good photos of, but I can’t think of a single time that I’ve regretted trying. Some are very beautiful, like the forked blue curls. I hope you’ll put that macro lens to good use!
I agree with you about asters. I want to say “Already? You have to be kidding!”
I miss seeing chicory too. It seems like it used to be common along the roadsides, but now I rarely see it. I love that blue and the details in your photo are amazing.
Thank you Pat. Every time I find chicory plants and go back the following year they’re gone, so I was surprised to see this one. I’m not sure what was going on with the petals on it. I’ve never seen one look like that!
“… this pond had receded enough so that I could walk right up to the plants shown without taking my shoes off.”
I bet you’ve had some “special moments” of being barefoot up to your calves in muck, huh? LOL.
Beautiful catalog with great pix and descriptions of things to watch for this time of the year. Thanks!
Thank you. Yes, I used to just about live outside when I was a boy and muck was my friend, be it pond, river, or lake muck.i don’t think things have ever changed much since!
Oh, the chicory flower!
I agree!
Beautiful post, Allen….
Thank you Scott!
Another great post. Thanks.
You’re welcome Paul, and thank you.
Beautiful flowers. I happy the drought hasn’t affected them to much. It always bums me out to start seeing asters, fall isn’t far away!
Thanks Laura. Some of the flowers are only blooming for a short time but at least they bloom.
I feel the same way about asters. It seems too soon!
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Late August flowers.
Thank you John!
Lots of interesting images, my favourite was the little blue toadflax. It made a beautiful picture seen by your eye through the camera lens.
Thank you Susan. I like that one too. I never knew that it sparkled like it does!