As if someone flipped a switch, all of the sudden New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) are blooming everywhere. Though they’re usually a light purple color I’m seeing more of the deep purple ones that I like so much this year. Asters are very beautiful things that provide one last ecstatic pollen gathering fling for the bees.
But the bees aren’t choosy and this bull thistle blossom (Cirsium vulgare) was as good as an aster, even though the asters bloomed just a few yards away. Last year I was in a field where light and dark colored asters grew side by side and I saw bees go for the lighter colored aster blossoms nearly every time as they all but ignored the darker blossoms. I’ve wondered since if that’s why I don’t see as many of the deep purple asters.
Johnny jump ups (Viola tricolor) have bloomed quietly all summer; so unobtrusive but always able to coax a smile and warm a heart. Maybe that’s why they’re also called heart’s ease. Long used medicinally in Europe, here it is a welcomed alien. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare wrote that the juice of this plant placed on the eyelids of a sleeping person would cause that person to “dote upon the next live creature that they see.” In that play it was also called “love-in-idleness.”
Johnny jump ups might have some historical baggage but humans have used common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in various ways for thousands of years. It is mentioned in the Chinese I Ching, which is said to pre date recorded history, and yarrow has also been found in an excavation of a Neanderthal grave site. Yarrow was known as the soldier’s woundwort and herbe militaris for centuries, and was used to stop the flow of blood. It was a valuable healing herb, one of the nine “holy herbs,” and was traded throughout the world since before recorded time, and that is believed to be the reason for the plant being found in nearly every country on earth today. Native Americans used it for everything from snake bites to deodorant.
According to one source each tiny yarrow blossom is supposed to have 5 ray floret “petaloids” but I can count more than that on some of these so I checked another source, which said 3 to 8. That seems more like it. 15 to 40 off white or pale yellow disc florets fill the center.
Beech drops (Epifagus americana) grow in deep shade and can be hard to photograph. This isn’t a good shot but it does show the plant’s growth habit and lack of leaves, which is what I’d like you to see. Beech drops grow near beech trees and are a parasite that fasten onto the roots of the tree using root like structures. They take all of their nutrients from the tree so they don’t need leaves, chlorophyll or sunlight. Beech drops are annuals that die off in cold weather, but they can often be found growing in the same place each year.
The root like structures on beech drops, called haustoria, can penetrate a beech root. Once inserted the plant takes nutrients from the tree.
Tiny pinkish purple flowers with a darker purplish or reddish stripe are the only things found on a beech drop’s leafless stems. On the lower part of the stem are flowers that never have to open because they self-fertilize. They are known as cleistogamous flowers. On the upper part of the stem are tubular chasmogamous flowers, which open and are pollinated by insects and are shown in the above photo. This example had what looks like a yellow pistil poking out of it; the first time I’ve seen this. Science doesn’t know much about which insects pollinate this plant.
Beech drop blossoms are quite small and hard to get a good photo of because they grow in such deep shade. No plant can live in complete darkness though, so they usually have a sunbeam or two that finds them at some point each day. You just have to be lucky enough to find the plant and sunbeam at the same time. It’s not as hard as it sounds if you’re willing to wander a bit.
Balloon flowers (Platycodon grandiflorus) get their common names from their buds, which look like small, air filled balloons. It’s an Asian native that apparently doesn’t escape gardens, at least in this area. It is also called the Chinese bellflower and is in the campanula family. I love its blue color. This one had beautiful blue veins.
I thought this was hairy goldenrod (Solidago hispida) but its stems and leaves aren’t hairy. Instead the leaves have a downy coating, so I think it must be downy goldenrod (Solidago puberula.) Both plants reach about a foot and a half tall on a good day, but some books say they will reach 3 feet. The narrow, stalked flower heads (panicles) grow on plants that live at the edges of forests in dry sandy soil.
Though still small the bright yellow 1/4 inch flowers of downy goldenrod seem big when compared to other goldenrod flowers. 9-16 ray petals surround the central disc. Native Americans used goldenrod for treating colds and toothaches and it has been used for centuries in to treat kidney stones and urinary tract infections. In colonial times goldenrod growing naturally by the cottage door meant good fortune.
This isn’t much of a photo of a bindweed blossom but I wanted you to see it because of the tiny black dot just to the right of center. It’s a deer tick. Adult ticks will climb onto grasses, plants, and shrubs and perch there sometimes for months waiting for an animal or human to come by. We have two kinds of common ticks in New Hampshire; deer ticks and American dog ticks. Adult deer ticks are about the size of a sesame seed and dog ticks are about the size of a watermelon seed. Ticks carry many diseases including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. If you spend most of your waking hours outside as I do, ticks are impossible to avoid and I’ve been bitten several times. I’m very thankful that I’m still healthy.
Friends of mine grew sunflowers from seed and they all looked like sunflowers except this small pale one, which decided it wanted to be a dahlia.
Red clover (Trifolium pretense) is originally from Europe and was brought to this country by English colonials, who used it medicinally and agriculturally. It is a very beautiful thing that glows with its own inner light, and I have to stop and admire it every now and then. Had I been an early settler I surely would have had a few of its seeds in my pocket.
Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom:
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here.
~ Zenkei Shibayama
Thanks for stopping in.
Lovely flowers, very nice shot of the red clover. Viola tricolour still in flower, one of my favourite wildflowers.
Thank you. I’m still seeing violas. They bloom right up until a hard frost.
Exactly right, like someone flipped a switch and suddenly there are asters blooming everywhere. I wonder if they respond to cool nights or just day length changes, because they certainly are synchronized.
I think it must be day length because it was in the mid 90s here when they started to bloom in earnest.
Very warm for fall in NH, it’s much cooler here now.
a great gathering of lovely photos, wow
Thanks very much Eddie.
How fortunate we are here that we only have one native goldenrod and two native asters! We do have a few garden escapees that confuse me though! I love your photo of the balloon flower! I have grown them in the past and this year my mother has had them in a container just outside her french doors where she can see them from her chair.
I have never been bitten by a tick and hope I never am! There is always that danger when we work in the garden or go on our walks.
Thank you Clare. Yes, you are fortunate! We have so many different asters and goldenrods here even the experts get confused. I know a few by sight but to learn them all would take longer than I want to spend.
I love the color of blue balloon flowers and that’s why I grow them. I’ve never seen one with such veined petals as this one had though.
Tick bites aren’t at all painful. In fact sometimes you don’t even know they’ve bitten you, and that’s where the danger lies. I have to check myself every time I come in from outside these days. It takes a very cold winter to kill them off and we haven’t had one in a while now.
I love the natural world in general but there are a few creatures that I think we could well do without and ticks are in that group!
I agree. I’m sure they’re here for a reason but I haven’t figured out what it is yet!
Beech drops sound like a cousin to dodder, vampires of the plant world.
Golden rod is one of my favorites. The ones I have here are from a nursery. Same for yarrow. I have not seen either one growing wild here in my area.
Yes, dodder and beech drops are much alike! They take without giving anything in return.
I like goldenrod too. The USDA map shows goldenrod native to all 48 lower states, but that doesn’t mean it grows in your town. Both yarrow and goldenrod like full sun and dry, sandy soil so that could have something to do with it.
An interesting sunflower.
It’s an oddball, for sure.
Sweet images….
I’ve never noticed a tick on a flower. Always at this time of year I see ticks stuck on the heads, often near the eyes, of sparrows. They must rub their beaks on twigs and get infected that way but they cannot remove them. Amelia
I never knew they attacked birds. Our moose population has been almost wiped out by ticks because the ticks are living through the now mild winters. It takes a lot of cold to kill them.
We have a lot of sparrows in the garden and usually find a few dead with ticks on the head at this time of year. Sparrow populations are dropping in the U.K., I wonder if there could be a connection?
There might be. Ticks are literally sucking the life out of the moose population, especially the yearlings. I don’t see why it couldn’t happen to birds as well.
Such pretty flowers, every one. I didn’t think the Johnny jump up would be blooming this late in the year, though.
Yes, I’m seeing quite a few!
Never heard of beech drops – very interesting! The asters here are really hitting their stride now.
I’m not sure if you’d see beech drops in an urban setting but you never know.
It’s definitely aster time. Asters and goldenrod are everywhere you look.
Beautiful flowers!!!
Thank you Rexlin!
Thanks for sharing the fascinating info about the Beech drops. Love your closing quote!
You’re welcome, and thank you. I like that quote too!
With as many beech trees as we have here, and as much time as I used to spend near them hunting squirrels in the fall, you’d think that I would have seen beech drops before, but I don’t recall ever seeing them.
I loved the sunflower that decided to be a dahlia, it looks like it succeeded, and also the ballon flower. We used to grow the balloon flowers in the garden and the kids loved “popping” the balloons.
It is as if the asters all begin blooming after some one flips a switch, I saw a few last weekend, today, they were everywhere. I know that there were several species blooming from your blog, but darned if I can remember the names of any of them while I shoot photos of them.
Thanks Jerry! Beechdrops are easy to miss. They look like sticks coming up out of the ground.
I still grow balloon flowers and my kids used to do the same thing!
Asters are one of the toughest plants to identify and if it wasn’t for the blog I wouldn’t even attempt it. Most guide books have an entire section devoted to just asters-that’s how many there are. If you’re going to try identifying plants I wouldn’t start there!
I always enjoy sharing your rambles, seeing the flowers and learning a bit. this time you threw me a curve. I’m not much for poetry, but the quote at the end simply stopped me right there. It was so perfect as poem and observation. Thank you.
You’re welcome and thank you Cat. I often use these quotes because they say something that I can’t, but this one makes me think a little deeper, and that’s good too.
Such beautiful fall flowers. The beech drops are strange. Ticks and I DO NOT get along! I have a bad reaction every time I’m bitten!
Thanks Laura. Beech drops can be found just about anywhere that beech trees grow.
Each time I get a tick bite I wonder, but so far I’ve been lucky. I take every precaution and use bug spray too!
What a series of beautiful images, I loved the heart’s ease best.
Thank you Susan. I like them too and see them frequently. They come in so many different colors!
Once again you have introduced me to something I didn’t know, another plant without chlorophyll, the “beechdrops”. A google search revealed the term Mycotrophic Wildflowers. I believed that Indian Pipes were the only one, you have shown me another.
Thank you John. We have another one called pinesap (Monotropa hypopitys) which looks a bit like honey colored Indian pipes, but with more flowers. I haven’t seen them yet this year.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Read about the “Beechdrops” another Mycotrophic Wildflower
Thank you John.