Monday, July 25, 2016

Changing Seasons

My image of the changing seasons over the summer is composed of several things, the colour in the garden, the maturing crops in the fields, and the changing species that dominate our meadow.  The big signal that we're getting into late summer is the spreading yellow of the Goldenrods which is now just starting.

If there's a dominant colour in the meadow right now, it's the white of the Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot.

Parts of our meadow are looking white indeed.

Bird's Foot Trefoil, a widely escaped pasture and forage plant, brightens parts of our meadow, many roadsides, and a few front lawns with its yellow pea-like flowers.

If you wonder how it got its "Bird's Foot" name, this is its seed pod, looking indeed like a big bird's foot.

I have to go out in the early morning to catch the Yellow Goat's Beard in bloom.  It opens in the morning sun, always turning to face the sun, and closes again by noon.  I have the impression that these blooms are smaller than usual, due to the dry summer we're having (and our sterile clay soil).

It's seed head is like a giant Dandelion.

The Evening Primrose is sharing its yellow flowers.  I once took a botany course where we had to pick a wild plant and grow it from seeds under different experimental conditions.  I chose Evening Primrose and gathered the seeds down in the floodplain of the Thames River in London, Ontario, where I went to university.  It was more about learning experimental design than about the plant!

I even found a Sow Thistle in bloom, just outside the front door.  How it escaped my attention when I was weeding I don't know.

 Along the driveway I spotted this Bush Clover, an unusual very dark purple colour, a plant I don't actually remember seeing before

One that Idon't really like is the Spotted Knapweed, which is pretty, but is a vigorous weed, with tough wiry stems that are hard to walk through.  It often forms dense patches along the trail and is somewhat invasive.

I wonder if you'll recognize this one.  One of our most common burs, those pesky small balls of stick-ums that grab your clothes in the fall, this is the flower of the Common Burdock, actually very pretty when its in flower.

But this one is the one that made me think of the changing seasons, one of the goldenrods.  By mid-August our meadow will be a sea of yellow as these all flower, and it means that summer is coming to an end.  I'm never too happy to see the first goldenrod bloom!

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17 comments:

  1. Beautiful, everyone of them, but especially the first one of the Queen Anne's Lace!
    Your photo of the Goat's Beard does indeed look like mine. Thanks for helping ID it for me.
    Hope you have a great week!

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  2. Hi There, I love seeing all of the different wildflowers blooming in different areas around our country (and yours)... You captured some beautiful colors today... I especially like your first picture of the Queen Anne's Lace... GREAT close-up...

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. Lots of late summer flowers, every one a picture of lovely colour.

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  4. I, too, am watching the wildflowers. So pretty. You did a great job with these photos.

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  5. So many beautiful wildflowers, and so much yellow! One of my other blogging friends wrote about her wildflowers today, too. The seasons come and go, change is constant. I am glad for it myself. Fall is my favorite season. :-)

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  6. Yes, Golden Rod means the end of the summer holidays to me. Not that I get summer holidays these days since I haven't been at school for many years... I get a holiday when I can.
    Anyhow, don't you find that you can smell autumn in the air? It's come around about halfway through August in the last couple of years. Suddenly the air smells quite different to summer air.

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  7. Your seasonal pictures are always wonderful. I enjoy see the different plants and also some of the same we have.

    Blessings.

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  8. Beautiful! The wild things are always my favorite.

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  9. Lots of beautiful wildflowers growing in your area! Thanks for providing us a sample.

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  10. The Queen's Anne lace is particularly a delightful sight.

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  11. Oh everything is gorgeous. The Queen Anne's lace photo is fabulous.
    And now I must catch up on blog reading, as I'm so far behind after a week of vacation.

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  12. Nice to see your photos. It is so hot here that I have not ventured out in days!

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  13. The years roll by faster as we get older, but the flowers still bloom and are just as beautiful as ever.

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  14. I always look forward so much to the early changing of seasons at this time of year. It's when I begin to hear the late summer Crickets in another few weeks that I really begin to get excited. And oh I love to see the cone flowers coming into bloom.

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  15. What awesome flowers! I love all the bright colors since it's winter here in New Zealand and the colors are still in hiding.

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