Stiff Goldenrod

Plant Profile: Stiff Goldenrod

Stiff goldenrod is in peak bloom in the prairies, along with many of its weedy and less desirable goldenrod cousins.  The flowers differ in arrangement from other goldenrods, with flat-topped clusters of flowers.  They flowers themselves are also quite large for goldenrods -- though they are still very tiny little daisy-like composites.  The leaves are stiffer, smaller, stouter and thicker than most other goldenrod species as well.  They are attractive to a variety of insects; I see assassin beetles on them pretty frequently.  Stiff goldenrod thrives in hard clay and generally not great soil conditions. I've actually heard tell that in really good garden soil with regular watering, the plants will bend over and suffer.  My kind of garden plant!

An interesting (to me) note on this and several other goldenrod species... I learned them as Solidago, (Solidago rigida in this case) but apparently, they have been reclassified as Oligoneuron.  No idea why.  Learning latin names is hard enough without them going and changing on me!

Prairie Plants

Peak bloom for New England aster, and clouds of bees hovering around it...

Goldenrod actually past peak, some plants are still in full flower but many, like these, aren't as bright yellow, have brown setting in...

Golden Opportunity

I started sketching this Canada goldenrod, figuring it was by far the most common flower blooming right now and it would be remiss to choose something else.  I almost immediately regretted it.  Seriously? It would take hours, and probably considerably more skill than I possess, to capture all the detail... The stem branches off numerous times in every direction, and each branch contains multitudes of individual flowers.  The top ones are in full bloom, the lower branches contain yellow-green buds.  At any rate, I tried to rescue the experience by drawing one tiny flower as seen through my 10x magnification jewelers' loupe, and I also studied the leaf venation that way... a fascinating net not really discernible without a lens.  

PS -- Today is the coolest day since summer began back in June, with highs in the low 60s.  But fear not, fellow lovers of sun, short sleeves and Indian summers, we are predicted too be back in the 80s next week!  Still, this made for quite a change this afternoon.  There's an eerie silence/stillness... even though there are plenty of noises -- wind and cars, airplanes and goldfinches... but the cicadas are conspicuously quiet.  It actually took me a few minutes to realize what it was, but it's so obviously different without that constant drone in the backgrouns.  Being cold-blooded and all, they like it to be in the 70s or hotter to make noise. I'll expect them back next week!

Letting Go

Upon returning from my trip up north, what I notice most about my native prairie habitat isn't what's here but what's gone.  When I left, there were a lot of hangers-on... plants that were well past their peak bloom, but there were still a few left.  But, despite hot weather all week, a lot of the hangers on have let go, and in their place there are only seed-heads.  Among those things that are now totally absent:

• purple coneflower (peak bloom early July, but some of those things hang on forever)
• wild bergamot (peak bloom also late June'early July, but a few lasted)
• mountain mint
• blazing stars (even the rough ones are pretty much gone)
• ironweed
• yellow coneflower
• cup plant

So now, the prairie is dominated mainly by grasses and DYCs, especially goldenrod.  A lot of goldenrod this time of year!  A few NE asters (DPCs?) add a little purple color to the mostly yellow hues.

Here's one exception... I just this weekend noticed this boneset in bloom.  Either it really just started (Several Eupatorium species do bloom late!) or I missed it for all the other things going on! 

Daily Discoveries

Rough blazing star is the last of the Liatris to bloom

Red Osier Dogwood has very striking berries at this time of the year.  

This fellow's short adult life is over, but you can hear his cicada brethren singing, their droning song accompanying the late summer heat.

Stiff goldenrod -- many people's choice for most desirable Solidago...

School's Back -- Better Start Recording!

This is one of those phenological occurrences that get people more upset than excited.  Pictured in the foreground is ragweed, and the yellowish tinge comes from pollen, and ragweed pollen causes lots of folks allergy issues.  Pictured in the background is newly flowering goldenrod.  Being a much more showy flower-er that happens to flower concurrently with ragweed, goldenrod often takes the heat for the sniffling and sneezing.  Many people who think they are allergic to goldenrod are actually reacting to the ragweed.

On the other hand, the flowering and subsequent seeding of the prairie grasses is one of my favorite late summer happenings.  The flowers are diminutive -- tiny little dangling jewels atop some of the prairie's tallest residents -- and so are often overlooked.  But they are truly lovely... brightly colored and dancing in the breeze.  I am always fascinated by the colors of the prairie grasses this time of year.  Grass is green, you say?  Not so if you look closely... There are many shades of yellow and purple, orange and red along with that green.  (Everything but true blue -- which is funny because, you know, bluestem.)

Indian Grass flowers

Big Bluestem flowers

In insect news (no photos, sadly), monarchs abound both in their adult form and in their larval stages. We found a mid-sized caterpillar munching away yesterday!

And personally, I am LOVING the year of many dragonflies that we are having... Here's just one of many articles about the phenomena; any long time readers that have stuck with me through my breaks in coverage know I love odonata, and I certainly have been enjoying watching them this summer... and it's not just vast quantities, I feel like I've seen a lot of dragonfly biodiversity recently, too.   

Not So Golden

This is my picture of goldenrod, crunchy and curly. It was quite difficult to draw, so many shapes and shadows and things overlapping, that I sort of fizzled out and didn't really finish. I tried to sketch a few individual curled leaves, as well. and even that proved difficult. Oh, well, they can't all be winners.

The Birds and the Trees

Acorns are littering the ground underneath the bur oak trees...
Aspen trees are yellowing and leaves are blowing off during windier moments.

This morning was a bird-heavy morning. I saw grebes in the lake, disappearing and reappearing in new spots; mallards dabbling, geese flying south, and a heron stalking some prey. RWBBs were also very active, dipping and diving as my students disturbed them. Also saw goldfinches and some other LBBs, plus a chickadee. Oh, and gulls. In less than an hour, and I wasn't looking for birds. So it's a bird-heavy day.

Other notes:

• milkweed pods are splitting open and spilling their seeds.
• Very few purple asters are left -- just a few New England's remain. A lot of white ones are still flowering, though.
• Goldenrod are also going to seed.
• Grasshoppers are sluggish but coming out this morning...

I'm Back... Sort Of

I haven't posted in a few days -- been feeling under the weather. Not terrible, which would mean staying home from work, but just the wrong amount of bad. Well enough that it would be silly not to go to school, but icky enough that being at school is not at all fun.

This is the second night in a row that it has gotten into the 40s. Our high temperatures have been about 11 degrees below average, and the lows have been ridiculous (not good for melons, tomatoes, peppers...). This morning, a thin layer of clouds blanketed open fields and yards, fog so low you could actually see the sunny sky above it. And the plants are heavy with moisture, some bending over with the weight of it, although it hasn't rained.

Bumblebee on goldenrod, which is now in full bloom.

False sunflowers, also in full bloom. The world is yellow, the color of late summer, when everything seems tinged by sunshine but yet sunshine seems further away, fleeting. Early September is a beautiful time of the year, and made perhaps more so by the fact that it is the time when its slipping through your fingers...

Some random sentences strung together this morning, with no coherent structure. I guess I'm tired.

New Blooms

Big Bluestem flowers.

Switchgrass flowers.

Goldenrod flowers. (Don't ask me what kind...)

Meadowhawk on Joe Pyeweed flowers.

Onion flowers. (The real bloomin' onion.)