Roadside Wildflowers

I've had enough free time this summer to get to know more of the wild plants with which I share this part of the planet. Here's some of my more recent photos and what I learned about them. This plant, obviously in the mint family (square stems, opposite leaves, tube shaped flowers with upper and lower lips), but I've never found it in my field manual or online. This year, however, I really, really searched and finally found it in the "Pink or Red Flowers" section. I'd previously only looked in the "Blue and Purple Flowers" section because that's what they look like to me. It is called Motherwort and probably originated in Europe and southern Asia. Now, however, it is considered invasive, though the bees sure like it.

I've previously photographed the minuscule Least Hop Clover, but this one, growing by my barn door, was bigger and I assumed it was (regular) Hop Clover. When I looked it up, though, I learned that it wasn't big enough and was therefore Smaller Hop Clover. It's nice to know there are bright yellow clovers:

A favorite of mine, Ladys-Thumb Smartweed:

Another common mint which I've never been able to identify before. This time, however, I tracked it down and decided it was Hemp-Nettle":

Springing up all around my house and barn are these Smooth Hawksbeard flowers. These only get to about 12" although taller, related species along many roadsides grow to over three feet tall:

Another of my favorites, Jewelweed, has begun blooming in wet places. The sap of Jewelweed plants is soothing for Poison Ivy, Nettles and bee sting irritations. I'm sensitive to Stinging Nettles and luckily, they tend to grow together in wet soil. Jewelweed's leaves shine like silver foil when submerged in water. If you scratch off the seed coat, Jewelweed's seeds are a bright blue color and, I've read, White-Footed Mice feeding on them develop blue bellies. Also called Touch-Me-Not, their ripe seed pods explode when touched, scattering their seeds up to six feet away and leaving tightly curled shreds of pod:

You've no doubt seen this plant all over waste areas where not much else will grow. Its seed pods turn dark brown when ripe and cling to the stalk. We used to think they looked like coffee grounds when we were kids and would strip them off the stalk and pretend we were going to make coffee. Apparently the tender young leaves are edible for humans, but cattle, sheep and chickens find the leaves and seeds toxic:

Queen Anne's Lace, of course, but surrounded by a Wild Cucumber Vine in full bloom:

A wildflower tableau: Northern Bedstraw, Butter-And-Eggs and Orpine:

I've seen Sedum plants growing along a drainage ditch in front of my house for years and assumed they had been planted by someone. This year I looked them up and discovered, to my surprise, that they are an alien wildflower which grows in some rather cold, northern locations:

Orpine looks for all the world like someone planted it here, and it looks even better with a bumblebee atop its bright pink flower head:

Goldenrod began blooming early in August and will continue right through autumn. There are over 60 species and I haven't even tried to learn them. I just enjoy their beauty, at least when they are not in my pastures:

One of the first flowers our mother taught us was Nightshade, a relative of potatoes, peppers and tomatoes. Our mother allowed a wild plant to grow in her flower garden just because we kids liked it so much:

Fields And Wild Turkey On Beebe Hill

I was hiking up Beebe Hill with my four younger dogs on a hot, sunny mid-week afternoon. We took the old service road instead of the forest foot trails and this was providing me with lots of wildflowers to photograph and attempt to identify. This one was easy - Yarrow, Achillea millefolium:

And there were lots of ripe raspberries to eat. And eat I certainly did:

And then I encountered yet another flower with which I wasn't familiar. This plant was one I don't think I've ever seen before. It looked vaguely like what we used to call Yellow Rocket or Wild Mustard. I've looked it up now and decided that it is absolutely, positively - a mystery to me:

The dogs ran happily into a clearing, full of playfulness, and I followed them:

Now this may look to you like a picture of not much of anything, but that's only because I was too slow getting my camera out. A very large turkey was standing in the field and all my dogs were uninterested (or at least came when called) except for little Clover. She wanted to chase the turkey which jumped up and down but either wouldn't or couldn't fly (it was HUGE!). Finally the turkey ran off into the woods with Clover on its heels. The turkey easily weighed 10 times what Clover weighed and could have put a real whoopin' on her. Perhaps she'd have learned a lesson if that had happened. As it turned out, I fear she learned that chasing wildlife is fun and I'm now going to have to somehow train her otherwise:

The turkey crisis over, we continued on the trail up Beebe Hill and I kept watching for wildflowers such as this Red Clover, Trifolium pretense:

Another abundant Clover was this Smaller Hop Clover, Trifolium procumbens. I also saw many much smaller Hop Clovers and assumed they were the same species. But I just learned, while searching my Field Guide, that the tiny ones were most likely Least Hop Clover, Trifolium dubium:

Despite it being such a hot and sunny day, I stayed out of the woods and continued on the service road. The temperatures were nonetheless a good 10 degrees less than what I'd left behind in Albany. Oh, the wondrous benefits of forests:

There were lots of Dragonflies, but only this emerald and black jeweled beauty held still long enough for me to get a photo:

I passed by lots of Steeplebush, Spiraea tomentosa. This attractive flower was new to me a few years ago when I discovered it on Harvey Mountain, just down the road from Beebe Hill:

I'm afraid my photo of this plant was not good enough for a real identification, but I was sure it was in the Mint family and a very common lawn weed. I'm reasonably sure it's Heal-All, also known as Selfheal, Prunella Vulgaris. Wouldn't Prunella Vulgaris be a wonderful name for a female villain? Anyway, we were well on our way up Beebe Hill by this time and approaching an important decision. I'll post more tomorrow: