Despite the heat and dryness many flowers continue to appear. Daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) started blooming a while ago. This plant has a very long blooming period; I see them in early June blooming profusely and then sporadically through the following months, even into November. I usually find more of them in waste places but I see them just about everywhere I go. It is considered a pioneer species, meaning it is one of the first plants to grow in unused pastures, or cleared or burned areas. Woodchucks and rabbits will eat the leaves and stems. Native Americans made a tea from the plant which was used as medicine for digestive ailments. Fleabanes get their name from the way the dried plants repel fleas.
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of my favorite summer flowers because of its large, easy to see flowers and beautiful blue color. It also comes with a message of summer’s passing because summer is just about half over when it blooms, and it is a reunion that is both happy and wistful for me each year. Unfortunately it likes to grow in places that get mowed regularly, like along our roadsides. I’m always dismayed when I see such beautiful flowers being cut down but I have seen normal size flowers blooming on a plant no more than three inches tall, so though the plants may get mowed they aren’t being killed.
Another plant that comes with a message of summer’s passing is the black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta,) and that message came earlier each year for a while. I think I saw it blooming in early June last year but this year it waited until July, and that’s more to my liking because I have always thought of it as a fall flower. It has a very long blooming period; often well into November, so I guess that’s why it says fall to me.
I don’t know what to say about this flower. It came as a surprise when it came up in a gravel parking lot where I work. I can say that it’s obviously in the same family as black eyed Susans (Rudbeckia,) but its flower is 4 times bigger with a lot of red on it. It’s quite pretty for a “weed.”
I have trouble seeing red against green due to colorblindness and that’s why you don’t see much red in these posts, but bee balm blossoms always stand high enough above the surrounding foliage to be clearly visible. The name bee balm comes from the way the juice from its crushed leaves will soothe a bee sting. Our native scarlet bee balm (Monarda didyma) is also called Oswego tea, because the leaves were used to make tea by the Native American Oswego tribe of New York. Early settlers also used the plant for tea when they ran out of the real thing. It’s a beautiful flower that I’m always happy to see. Hummingbirds and butterflies love it too and will come from all over to sip its nectar.
Blue, bell shaped flowers all on one side of the stem can mean only one thing; creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides.) The pretty flowered plant was introduced as an ornamental from Europe and has escaped gardens to live in dry places that get full sun. It is a late bloomer but is usually finished by the time the goldenrods have their biggest flush of bloom. It is considered an invasive plant in some places because it is hard to get rid of once it has become established. It can choke out weaker native plants if it is left alone. It isn’t considered invasive here in New Hampshire though, and in fact I usually have to look for quite a while to find it. When I do it is usually growing on forest edges.
The flowers of creeping bellflower are obviously in the campanula family, if you’re familiar with that family of plants.
Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) blooms in the tall grass of unmown meadows, and this one was blooming in what is a large colony near a pond. This plant isn’t covered with sharp spines like the larger bull thistle but it does have small spines along the leaf margins and stem. Despite its common name the plant is actually a native of Europe but has spread to virtually every country in the northern hemisphere. It has a deep and extensive creeping root system and is nearly impossible to eradicate once it gains a foothold. For that reason it is considered a noxious weed in many states.
I’m seeing a lot of pale spike lobelia (Lobelia spicata) this year. The plant gets its common name from its small flowers, which are usually a pale blue to almost white, but I’ve seen many that are darker like these examples. There is also a purple variant but I’ve never seen it.
Native Americans had many medicinal uses for lobelia and one of them was as a treatment for asthma. The plant must have worked well because early explorers took it back across the Atlantic where it is still used medicinally today. It has to be used with great care by those who know how to use it though, because too much of it can kill.
This shy little Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria) peeked out of the tall grass from under a tree. They don’t always grow in the same large clumps as their cousins the maiden pinks (Dianthus deltoids) do, but I saw a few this day. They also don’t have the same bold, jagged, deep maroon ring near their center as maiden pinks do, and that’s a good means of identification. Both plants are originally from Europe and have escaped cultivation. Maiden pinks seem to prefer open lawns and meadows while Deptford pinks hide their beautiful little faces in the sunny edges of the forest.
No matter how many times I see the Allegheny monkey flower (Mimulus ringens) I don’t see a monkey, but whoever named it obviously did. This plant gets about knee high and likes to grow in wet, sunny places, and isn’t all that common. I usually have a hard time finding it. This year I’ve seen exactly one plant and I hope nobody picks it so it will get pollinated and go to seed.
Allegheny monkey flowers have square stems and are also called square stemmed monkey flowers. The throat of this flower is partially closed and bumblebees are one of the few insects strong enough to pry it open to get at the nectar. Native Americans and early settlers sometimes used the leaves as an edible green.
Showy tick trefoil (Desmodium canadense) is a legume in the bean family. This plant gets part of its common name from the little barbed hairs that cover the seed pods and make them stick to clothing like ticks, much like enchanter’s nightshade. The “showy” part of its common name comes from the way that so many of its small pink flowers bloom at once. As the plant sets seeds its erect stems bend lower to the ground so the barbed seed pods can catch in the fur of passing animals. I saw these examples in an unmown meadow.
Showy tick trefoil has pretty flowers that are obviously in the pea / bean family. It is also called Canada trefoil. One odd fact about this plant is that there are no known uses of it by Native Americans or colonials. From my experience that’s rare among native plants in this area. Maybe they just picked the beautiful flowers and used them to decorate their homes.
I know a place where the wild thyme grows sounds like something out of Shakespeare but I do know such a place and the thyme is blooming. Bees love thyme so I’m sure they are just ecstatic.
If you want to drive yourself crazy for a while try getting a shot of a single thyme blossom. Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming and the ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage, so it has been with us for a very long time.
Vervain (Verbena hastata) is described as having reddish blue or violet flowers but I see a beautiful blue color. Somebody else must have seen the same thing, because they named the plant blue vervain. Vervain can get quite tall and has erect, terminal flower clusters. The plant likes wet places and I find it near ponds and ditches.
Vervain flowers are quite small but there are usually so many blooming that they’re easy to spot. The bitter roots of this plant were used medicinally by Native Americans to relieve gastric irritation, as an expectorant, and to induce sweating. The seeds were roasted and ground into a flour or meal by some tribes, and the flowers were dried and used as snuff to treat nose bleeds. Natives introduced the plant to the European settlers and they used it in much the same ways.
There are enough goldenrods (over 100) that look enough alike to make me absolutely sure that I don’t want to invest much time in trying to identify them all, but some are easy. Gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis) is one of those. It’s one of the earliest to bloom and always looks as if a strong wind has blown all of the flowers over to one side of the stem. Even though it is one of the earliest to bloom this year it’s blooming even earlier than usual. Goldenrod blooming alongside purple loosestrife is a beautiful scene that I look forward to seeing all summer.
Almost every person, from childhood, has been touched by the untamed beauty of wildflowers. ~Lady Bird Johnson
Thanks for coming by.
I also was intrigued by your mystery flower. As well as Gailliardia it also looks a bit like a red and yellow Coreopsis/tickseed – but of course, the leaves are different. The centre of the flower is evidently ‘coneflower’!
Thank you Clare. I’m not sure what the plant is but if you cut the flower off it would look exactly like a black eyed Susan, with the same leaves and stem.
Lots of delicacy here.
Thank you Ben. Yes, many of these aren’t what you could call tough.
It’s the time of year when you never know what you’ll see in bloom, with some plants being early and others being late. Some are large and showy, others are small and humble, but they’re all pretty in their own way. I loved all of these, especially the unknown weed and the creeping bellflower.
You visit certain places year after year to see specific plants from what I gather. It’s funny, I know of places that I’m likely to see one species of flower that you have featured in this post, but only one place. Like the monkey flower, I’ve only seen it near a small pond at Pickerel Lake, or the scarlet bee balm, I’ve only seen it along the road to the Haymarsh State Game Area, and no where else. Some plants must have very specific requirements for where they will grow and spread. For as many places in Michigan that I go, I find it interesting that the plants aren’t more widespread between places that look very similar to each other.
Thanks Jerry! Yes, I do visit certain places to see certain plants. Today for example I saw the only Asiatic dayflower I’ve ever seen. Exactly one small 6 inch tall plant with one tiny flower surrounded by plants 3 feet tall. Some plants are very fussy about conditions and if they aren’t right they just won’t grow there. Orchids are like that and that’s why I have to spend so much time searching for them. It’s all about the soil and the microbes and bacteria that live in it, as well as moisture and humus content and the amount of light reaching them. I know places where plants grow on one side of a road but not on the other.
Lady Bird Johnson was so right! Chickory is one of my favorites.
Thank you Laurie, I think so too!
Chicory is always worth waiting for. There isn’t another flower like it around here.
I love it!!!!!
The bellflower is sure pretty! I enjoy seeing all of the flowers, especially the ones that we don’t have here. I see quite a few pinks here and I have always thought they were deptford, but the have more spots on the one in your photo and a distinctive jagged red ring, so they must be the maiden pink?
Thanks Montucky! I like the bellflowers too but they can be a real pest.
Yes, I think you have maiden pinks by the sounds of it. They bloom earlier and usually grow thickly in good size clumps, while Deptford pinks bloom in twos and threes and don’t have that distinct red ring.
Interesting. I’ve never seen these in groups though, just ones and twos and spread far apart. Sure is a pretty blossom!
That is odd. Ours are from Europe. I wonder if you might have a native example there. or a third alien that I haven’t heard of.
If you Google “maiden or Deptford pink” you might see shots of them side by side, which would make it easier.
Creeping Bellflower is such an evil plant, and almost impossible to get rid of. I don’t even try – I just pull the stalks when they show up in the beds and borders. They grow back, then I pull them again.
Yes, they break off right at ground level. Canada mayflower is still worse though!
I perked up when you mentioned lobelia as a cure for asthma but got a bit discouraged when you added that it might kill me. I’ll stick to my puffer.
There are quite a few plants that are said to help with breathing problems but I’ve never tried any of them. I have a puffer too but I’m hoping for a better one.
Your unnamed flower looks like a blanket flower (Gaillardia). Over the years I’ve been establishing large patches of thyme instead of a useless lawn, Much nicer to walk on.
Thank you John. I agree that it does resemble a gallardia, but the leaves and stem look just like a black eyed Susan, and it’s two feet tall.
A thyme lawn is a very old fashioned thing but I wish more people would grow them. It’s much less work and you never have to fertilize it.
A very informative post! I feel the same about chicory and Queen Anne’s lace. But mostly when the wild cucumber blooms. Summer is passing!
Thank you Cynthia. Yes, wild cucumber too!
Spike lobelia, Deptford pink and the tick trefoil all have such beautiful shapes to their flowers. I loved your close ups of them. I enjoyed the quote too, so true I thought.
Thank you Susan. It really is amazing how many shapes and colors flowers have evolved into.
I like that quote too. I can’t imagine anyone not being touched in some way by flowers.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos of these beautiful little flowers and so much interesting information about them. Some of them are familiar to me, but most of them are ones that I have either not seen or did not recognize.
Thank you Mike. The two you’re probably most likely to see are the monkey flower and vervain. They like the same areas as dragonflies.