Here is a roadside scene that is typical in this area at this time of year. There are dark and light purple New England asters, white asters which I haven’t identified, and of course plenty of yellow goldenrod.
New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) are everywhere now and as I’ve said in previous posts, they are our biggest, most showy aster. Some tower up over my head.
A goldenrod that I see a lot of is downy goldenrod (Solidago puberula.) The leaves have a downy coating and that’s where its common name comes from. They 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, often in colonies of 15-20 plants. The bright yellow 1/4 inch flowers of downy goldenrod seem big when compared to other goldenrod flowers. 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.
Black eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are another flower with a long bloom time but they’re getting sparse now and you have to search to find them in this area. Though they start blooming in June I always think of them as a fall flower, so when I see them in June I always have to ask them do you have to remind me so soon? Summer just started! I forgive them for trying to make time pass so quickly though because they’re so cheery, even in June.
I wanted to show purple stemmed beggar’s Ticks (Bidens connata) again because the last time I showed it here you couldn’t see the purple stem. This is a plant that teaches patience because it suddenly appears in late July and grows for several weeks before it flowers. There are nearly 200 species in the genus and many of them look nearly identical. In this part of the state this plant grows side by side with the nodding burr marigold (Bidens Cernua,) which is also called smooth beggar’s ticks and looks very similar. The plant gets its common name from the way its barbed seeds cling to clothing. Books say that it reaches 3 1/2 feet tall but I’ve seen some get close to six feet. The one in the photo is more typical of its often sprawling habit. I’ve also seen these plants growing in water at the edge of ponds.
Here is a purple stemmed beggar’s tick blossom fully opened. I think.
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.
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. Though the flowers have reproductive parts science doesn’t know much about which insects pollinate this plant.
The pink turtleheads (Chelone lyonii) are blooming in my garden; one of the very last plants to do so. A friend gave me this plant many years ago and I think of her every time I see it bloom. That’s one of the best things about giving and receiving plants; they come with memories. I don’t know the origin of this plant and have never known if it was a native or a cultivar but it does very well and asks for nothing. Pink turtleheads are native to the southeastern U.S. and don’t seem to mind dryness in spite of naturally growing near water.
It’s very hairy inside a turtlehead blossom. The hairs remind me of the beard on a bearded iris.
Most purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) plants pretty much stopped blooming a couple of weeks ago but I still see them blooming here and there. This is an invasive perennial that came over from Europe in the ballast of a cargo ship in the 1800s. The beach sand ballast, loaded with purple loosestrife seeds, was originally dumped on Long Island, New York. The seeds grew, the plant spread and now it covers most of Canada and all but 5 of the lower Untied States. It likes wet, sunny meadows but will grow just about anywhere. It’s hard to deny its beauty, especially when you see a meadow full of it growing alongside yellow goldenrods, but the plant chokes out natives including goldenrod and creates monocultures.
I don’t know if it’s the unusual hot temperatures we’ve had or if there is another reason but I’m seeing a lot of summer flowers that I shouldn’t be seeing now, like this St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum.) It usually blooms in June and July and should be long since done by now but I guess it can do whatever it wants. In any event it’s a pretty thing and I was happy to see it. Originally from Europe, St. Johnswort has been used medicinally for thousands of years. It likes to grow in open meadows in full sun.
Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) still blooms here and there but it’s pretty well finished for this year. Its final act will be to drop millions of seeds before it dies back completely until spring. This plant was brought to Europe from Japan sometime around 1829. It was taken to Holland and grown in nurseries that sold it as an ornamental. From there it found its way across the Atlantic where we still do battle with it today. It is one of the most invasive plants known and the only plant I have ever seen overtake it is purple loosestrife, which is also an invasive weed. Japanese knotweed is also a tough plant that is very hard to eradicate once it has become established.
Japanese knotweed does have pretty flowers but they aren’t enough to convince people that it’s a plant worth having on their property. It can take over entire yards when left alone.
I can count the number of times I’ve found Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) growing wild on one hand, but this year I’ve found it three times. Tansy is a European native that has been cultivated for centuries. The flat flower heads are made up of many button like disc flowers; almost like a daisy without the white ray flowers that we call petals. Tansy is a natural insect repellent and was used as such in colonial times. Dried tansy added to the straw in mattresses was said to keep bedbugs away. Most tansy plants are seen in gardens but it had naturalized itself in New England by 1785 and can still be occasionally found growing along roadsides. It’s a good plant to use in vegetable gardens for pest control. The ancient Greeks grew tansy for medicinal use but modern science has found it to be toxic.
You’ve never seen sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) on this blog because I’ve never found it in the wild. The odd thing about them appearing now is that I check the place where I found them each year at this time and last year they weren’t there. This year the perennial native grew in 7 or 8 spots. How it got there or when I don’t know, but I was happy to see it.
In the past sneezing was thought to rid the body of evil spirits, so both men and women used snuff to make them sneeze. Dried sneezeweed was one of the ingredients in snuff, and that’s how it comes by its common name. The plant wants wet soil and these examples grew on the earthen dam that dammed up a pond. It did not make me sneeze.
Sneezeweed has curious winged stems and this is a good way to identify them. It is a poisonous plant and no part of it should be eaten. It also contains compounds that have been shown effective in the treatment of tumors. The Native American Cherokee tribe used the plant medicinally to induce sneezing and as an aid in childbirth.
Fragrant white water lilies (Nymphaea odorata) are still in bloom. There are certain flowers that are beautiful enough to make me want to just sit and gaze at them all day, and this is one of them. Some say the scent of fragrant white water lilies reminds them of honeydew melon and others compare the smell to other things, like anise. Each blossom lasts only 3 days before the stems coil and pull them underwater to set seeds, so if you see some and come back a week later and find that they’re gone, you aren’t imagining things.
I thought I’d show a roadside scene that I drive by every day on my way to work. Most of the fall flowers are in full bloom right now and seeing them each morning is a beautiful way to start the day.
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. ~Luther Burbank.
Thanks for coming by.
There is a white flowered goldenrod, but looking at the picture, the white flowered plant does not look like it. (And I’m sure you knew that! 🙂
Crushed Goldenrod leaves are great for bug bites! Three times this summer I was with friends who were bitten – or complaining about a bug bite iching. I crushed up some leaves and they rubbed them on the bite and that fixed it! Even better, all goldenrod leaves have a distinctive smell. Once you learn it, you can find the plant at any stage.
I think many flowers are blooming again in the fall because they sense things are changing. Diversity is nature’s insurance policy!
Thanks again for all your nature sharing! Love your blog!!
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
Thank you Cindy. Yes, silverrod and I go back a long ways and it looks nothing like the nightshade.
I didn’t know about the goldenrod leave properties. I’ll have to give them a try!
That is a beautiful shot of the waterlily! I also think your first photograph of the asters and goldenrod is just perfect!
Thank you Clare. There will be plenty more asters to see but I doubt ther will be any more waterlilies this year. We had temps in the 40s F. this morning!
We have had some near freezing nights too with 39 F last night and tonight is meant to be even colder. Much too soon!
Yes, and that’s cold. We haven’t even fallen that low yet. I hope it doesn’t last!
It got a couple of degrees colder last night and some parts of Suffolk got below freezing. The coldest September night for 15 years apparently. It’s warming up again now.
I hope you didn’t lose any plants!
No, not this time. I lost a few in the drought this summer and in March when we had very cold weather.
When I saw your Downy Goldenrod I thought it was Zigzag Goldenrod (S. flexicaulis), which has a very similar habit .
This one has a more or less straight stem and branches occasionally.
Wonderful post of Mid September flowers, especially those roadside flowers! Those could be framed, art. We see many of the same plants you are seeing, and we are just starting to see the color in some leaves here in Michigan.
Thanks Chris!
It sounds like we’re about even on foliage but it seems to be happening faster each day now.
Thank you for identifying the purple stemmed beggar’s Ticks for me, I saw large numbers of them at a park, and the bees and other pollinators seem to love them, but I wasn’t able to get a good photo of them.
I think that it’s sneezeweed that I find growing in another park, I’ll have to look for the oddly shaped stems the next time I see them. That may be difficult, as I’m constrained by being on a boardwalk over the edge of the Muskegon River where I see the plants in question.
Beech drops are flowers that I should be able to find here in Michigan, as we have plenty of stands of beech trees, but I don’t recall ever seeing those flowers here.
In some ways, your photos of the roadsides remind me of Monet paintings in the way that you’ve captured the color combinations of the various flowers in the photos.
Thanks Jerry! Bees do seem to love the odd, tiny flowers of beggar’s ticks. They grow all over the place in varying conditions, so I’m betting you’ll notice more and more of them.
The big seedhead in the center and the scalloped edges of the “petals” are also good clues to sneezeweed. We used to sell that plant in a nursery I worked for!
If you want to find beech drops look in the darkest part of the woods where there is little undergrowth.
Spring and fall flowers can make this place look like a Monet painting, and how lucky I am to live in it!
Your are ;lucky to have such good roadside colour. Our verges have been mowed to death this year and are very dull. The square flowers of the purple stemmed beggar’s tick blossom are interesting.
Ours have been mowed too but there are some that were missed. Some were missed on purpose, I think.
Yes, I’ve never looked that closely at those tiny square flowers before. I can’t imagine why they’d be square but I’m sure there is a good reason.
It’s amazing to see the flowers that you still have blooming. In the valley here even the Tansies have dried up although there are still a few blossoms at higher elevations.. I was intrigued by the Beech Drops. I had never seen or heard of them before.
Thanks Montucky! I’m sorry that most of your flowers are already gone. We still have quite a lot and will until a freeze. That usually happens in October but even then a few make it through.
Beech drops are a very unusual plant!
You might report the sneezeweed to GoBotany. Their map shows NH as the only state in the continental U.S. where the plant is not native. (Maybe yours is a garden escapee?) I thought the beech drops photo was excellent — they are SO hard to capture.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
Thank you. I know that some of the people who work for the New England Wildflower Society read this blog because I’ve sold them photos of flowers, so they’ve probably already seen this post. Just to be sure though, I’ll send them a note telling them where I found the plants. I have no idea how the seeds could have gotten there!
Yes, I usually have to try a few times to get a good shot of beech drops because it’s always so shaded where they grow. LED light helps a lot!
You are seeing summer flower blooming in September, and I have a Magnolia tree that has quite a few blooms on it. I’ve never seen flowers on that tree except in the spring before. Very concerning when Mother Nature is responding to the climate like this.
Thank you JUdy, I agree. Sometimes a spring flowering shrub or tree will flower again in the fall after a cold period but I don’t think we’ve had one.
Wonderful roadside scenes at this time of the year, I loved the water lily too. Thanks for all that colour.
You’re welcome. There will be lots more color coming up but most of it will be in the trees.