From this point on there will be fewer and fewer flowers appearing but for now a nice drift of black eyed Susans peeked out from under a stand of Japanese knotweed. They add a bit of cheer in the fall and that’s why I always think of them as fall flowers, and it’s for that reason that I’m not always so happy to see them in June. It always seems to me like they’re rushing summer along when they bloom so early.
This nodding bur marigold plant (Bidens tripartita) grew along the river’s edge where there would normally have been water but this year because of our extended dryness it miscalculated by about a foot and a half. For a plant that likes wet feet it was obviously having a tough time of it, but it was still blooming.
As they age the flowers of the nodding bur marigold nod towards the ground and that’s how the plant comes by its common name. The flowers look something like a miniature sunflower and are supposed to be good for honey production. I like their deeply pleated petals. The plants grow to about knee high, often in standing water at the edges of rivers and ponds.
Blue stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia) appears early on in summer but waits until September to bloom. Its stems grow vertically until the flowers begin to open and then they fall over into a more horizontal position, as if to show off the yellow blooms that grow in tufts all along the stem. This plant isn’t considered rare but I know of only one or two places where it grows. It is also called wreath goldenrod.
The stems of blue stemmed goldenrod get their blue color from the same natural wax coating that is found on grapes, plums, blueberries and other plants. The coating is called a bloom and plants use it as a form of protection against moisture loss. It’s made up of tiny powdery, whitish crystals which reflect and scatter light in ways that can make the surface that they cover appear very blue. I couldn’t find a stem that was blue this year because the wax crystals can be washed off by rain or melted by the sun, and we’ve had some very hot weather this summer. All of the stems were green this time, so I used this photo from last year to show you what the stems would normally look like. .
Lady’s thumb (Polygonum Persicaria or Persicaria maculosa) gets its common name from the dark spot that appears on each leaf. Legend has it that a lady with a dirty thumb (apparently) left the smudge like mark on a leaf and it has been there ever since.
The tiny flowers are packed into a long raceme and can be white, red, pink, or a combination of all three. This plant is originally from Europe and Asia and is considered a noxious weed. It was first seen near the Great Lakes in 1843 is now found in nearly all of the lower 48 states. It likes to grow near water and is usually found along pond and stream banks.
I came upon a large stand of jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) recently and it was so dry that every plant had wilted badly. There were just a few flowers left and this was one of them. The drought is ongoing and most of the state has now been declared a natural disaster area, mostly so farmers can receive financial aid.
Narrow-leaf cow wheat (Melampyrum lineare) is having a banner year; I’ve never seen so many plants and they’re all blooming heavily, so I’m guessing that it likes dry weather. The plant is a thief that steals nutrients from surrounding plants, even though it can produce its own. A plant that can photosynthesize and create its own food but is still a parasite on surrounding plants is known as a hemiparasite. Its long white, tubular flowers tipped with yellow-green are very small, and usually form in pairs where the leaves meet the stem (axils). I find this plant growing in old, undisturbed forests.
Cow wheat’s long white, tubular flowers tipped with yellow-green are very small, and usually form in pairs where the leaves meet the stem (axils), but on this example I saw only single blossoms. I find this plant growing in old, undisturbed forests in sandy soil.
Though its flowers resemble those of boneset, which flowers at the same time, white snakeroot’s (Ageratina altissima) large heart shaped, toothed leaves look nothing like boneset leaves. This plant is very toxic and in the early 19th century it killed thousands of settlers in the Midwest. A compound called trematol is passed from the plant to cows that graze on it and when humans drank the milk or ate the meat before too long they started to show signs of what was called “milk sickness.” In a week or less most would die of heart or liver failure. Abraham Lincoln’s mother died from what is believed to have been milk sickness when he was just 9 years old. All parts of the plant are toxic to cattle, horses, sheep, and humans. Today’s farmers eradicate the plant from their pastures and mix the milk from many cows together, so milk sickness is almost unheard of. A Native American woman from the Shawnee tribe is credited with finally warning settlers about this plant and most likely saving thousands of lives.
Individual white snakeroot flowers are small, bright white, and fuzzy. The plant seems to prefer moist, shaded locations and doesn’t mind disturbed ground. It can often be found quite deep in forests and blooms from August to September. If you should happen to have farm animals you should know it well.
Though I have two examples of orange flowers in this post in the form of the jewelweed we saw earlier and this orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum,) orange is a hard color to find among wildflowers in this part of the world. Other than orange daylilies, which really aren’t wildflowers, I can’t think of another orange wildflower.
Sand jointweed (Polygonum articulatum) is a curious little plant that gets its common name from the way it that grows in pure sand, and from its many jointed stems. I know of only one place where it grows but each year there are many new plants there. It is an annual so each year’s plants have to produce plenty of seed. They grow to about knee high and this year there are plenty of tiny white blooms, so hopefully strong seed production will continue.
The flowers are tiny enough to always convince me that I have no hope of getting a good photo of them but each year I try again. One of these times I’ll get it right.
How small are they? About 1/8 of an inch across, or about the same size as Abraham Lincoln’s ear on a penny.
About 2 years ago I got excited when I found what I thought were bottle or closed gentians along a dirt road up in Nelson, but they turned out to be narrow leaf gentians (Gentiana linearis.) They were still very beautiful and I wasn’t disappointed, but I recently found bottle gentians (Gentiana andrewsii) growing along a trail in Keene that I’ve hiked probably a hundred times or more. My only answer for having never seen them is I must have always been there at the wrong time of year. In any event these examples had just started turning and were a beautiful cornflower blue. Their usual color when mature is a very beautiful deep violet purple. The flowers never open beyond what is seen here so it takes a strong insect like a bumblebee to pry them open and get at the pollen.
Nature holds all the answers – go outside and ask some questions – open your heart and listen to the response! ~Anonymous
Thanks for stopping in.
The gentian discovery is really exciting.
Thank you, I agree. I’m going to see if they’re still blooming this weekend.
Keen eye from the man from Keene. Wonderful finds and photos.
Thanks Grampy!
You mention not many blooms, but you found some interesting ones. Thanks for the information.
You’re welcome. They’re getting increasingly difficult to find, so flower posts will be slowing down soon, I think.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix.
Thank you John.
Lot’s of interesting plants in this one, I had never heard of white snakeroot or of milk sickness before. Are all the variations of jewelweed the same species or are the spotted ones a different species from the plain orange or plain yellow ones?
I’ve given up trying to get photos of flowers as small as the sand jointweed for the time being because I can’t get close to as good of a photo as you do. Maybe I should try again soon.
As much rain as we’ve had here since the later half of July, it seems that some of it would have made it as far as New Hampshire. We got dumped on again today, that’s several times this week. I do hope that you see some rain soon, if jewelweed is wilting, the drought has to be bad!
Thanks Jerry! I think the orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) can be spotted or unspotted, but the pale yellow variety (Impatiens pallida) is a different species. The yellow one is very hard to find here; I’ve only seen it once.
I hope you don’t give up on small flowers. You’ve gotten some great shots of some, like the motherwort you showed recently. It can be a lot of work though!
We haven’t had a real old fashioned rainy day in so long I don’t remember when the last one was, and the dryness is causing some strange problems, including falling trees. The woods are suddenly full of fallen trees and branches because the dryness weakens them. Even the toughest plants are wilting, including large stands of jewelweed. We’re bound to see moisture sometime but I’m hoping it doesn’t come in the form of snow.
Thanks for the reply to my question about the jewelweed. The orange ones are more common here, but I see the yellow ones from time to time.
I think that after seeing some of the insect macros that I’ve shot recently, I’ll have to give the small flowers another go. I do hope that you get some rain soon.
You’re welcome and thank you Jerry. If you see the yellow blossoms they would make a good photo because they aren’t seen very often for some reason.
I agree-that macro lens of yours can handle them!
I haven’t seen a gentian or a jewel weed in a long time. Beautiful flowers! Thank you.
You’re welcome. I’m sorry that you don’t have them there!
I keep hoping to hear that you have had some good quantities of rain! I love the nodding bur-marigold flower; such an attractive plant. I think you’ve done an excellent job getting such a good photo of those tiny sand jointweed flowers!
Thank you Clare. No real rain yet I’m afraid, though we do get passing showers enough to make the mushrooms want to fruit. The disaster declaration was made by the US department of Agriculture because of all the failing crops. Ponds have been pumped dry trying to water them, so there isn’t any way left to save them.
The bur marigold is like a miniature sunflower, but one of the last of our flowers to bloom.
The light choice the day I shot the sand jointweed was harsh sunlight or deep shade, and either way had many challenges. White flowers are always tough!
I have never yet photographed a white flower well.
I’m rarely happy with my photos of them but then again I’ve never really been 100 percent happy with any photo I’ve taken. There’s always room for improvement!
I am not an expert by any means but I think that most if not all of your shots are very beautiful.
Thanks very much. It’s the perfectionist in me that drives it all.
I love those bottle Gentians, but don’t have any. Lots of Rudbeckias and Blue Stem Goldenrod, though.
I think gentians are fairly fussy about where they grow but they must sell them at nurseries by now.
How about butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) as another example of a native plant with orange flowers?
That’s a great example but I never see it in the wild here. I’ve always wondered why. Another example I remembered today is purple stemmed beggar’s ticks (Bidens connata.)
The northern rail trail between Danbury and Grafton has a nice stand of polygonum articulatum blooming there now. And Knights Hill Nature Park in New London has hundreds of bottle gentian growing along the pond. Just in case you’re ever up in the Upper Valley area 🙂
Thank you for that information. I don’t get up that way very often but hundreds of bottle gentians just might be enough to change that next year!
They’re still blooming! I’ve never been to Keene or the Monadnock area, though we’ve lived in NH for 7 yrs.
I believe that! I never knew how many places I had never been to in the state until I started reading Laura’s blog, Touring New Hampshire. You might want to take a look. It’s an eye opener! https://touringnh.com/
Thanks for the photograph of the black eyed susan.
You’re welcome Susan. I wish I could find the origin of the name.
Enjoyable post, thank you.
I have a snakeroot that showed up outside my back door a few years ago. I let it stay as I like the white flowers this time of year. Luckily, I don’t have livestock to worry about.
I love gentian – it is such an unusual and beautiful plant.
You’re welcome Eliza, and thank you. No, if you don’t keep livestock snakeroot is nothing to worry about. It’s fairly rare here; I’ve only seen it twice, so I don’t think it presents any real problems.
I love gentians too. They’re another rare plant in these parts, so I always get excited when I find them. I’d love to find some fringed gentians.
There were fringed gentians near our town pond and then they did an ‘improvement’ project and I haven’t had the courage to go back to see if they are still there, afraid that they might have been wiped out. Humans!
That would be too bad. I’ve only seen them once in my life!
Maybe I’ll go look just to see…I’ll report back if I find any. 🙂
I hope you do!
Sadly, it was as I feared. They bulldozed the whole area and made one of those rain run-off catch ponds at the end of the parking area where they used to be. Sad. But at least they planted natives around the pond. There were some nice blue lobelia. As Joni Mitchell sang, “Pave paradise and put in a parking lot.”
That’s too bad. I don’t know why they can’t study the plants and animals in an area before they go in and do something like that. I’ll be surprised if the gentians grow back, but stranger things have happened. At least they had sense enough to plant natives.
True. The reality is that the people in charge of these things are often engineers and have no training in ecology. Nature lovers like you and I have a deep understanding about the web of life. Progress is being made, albeit slowly, along those lines. One can only hope.
And I do keep hoping! I think education is the only answer.
Yes, indeed. Keep blogging, my friend!
I hope to!
I’ve never heard of milk sickness. The sand jointweed is really neat looking. The drought is really affecting everything. I could walk across the river by my house now.
Milk sickness isn’t something you hear much about these days. I think ranchers are pretty good at watching for toxic plants.
The Ashuelot is about as low as I’ve ever seen it right now, but at least it hasn’t dried up like some of the streams. I hope we’ll see a shower or two this weekend!