Monthly Archives: September 2012

Calico Aster

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It’s like someone checked the calendar and then flipped the Autumn switch. Labor Day weekend was summery beautiful, then suddenly Tuesday was cool and rainy. Today plenty of yellow leaves are plastered to the wet black driveway. Now we just need some bright yellow school buses to rumble by to complete the portrait of September.

Aster family. Native. The central disk starts out pale yellow but matures to brown or red-violet– this color variety is evidently the source of the calico name. Rays can be white or purple-tinged.

Calico Aster, Starved Aster (Aster Lateriflorus)

Great Blue Heron

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I happened to take Lucy for an early walk and lo, there was a big heron on the other side of the pond. It looked very slate blue. This is about one minute from our house… I feel lucky to live here and see this!

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Common Beggarticks

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Another tall plant in the Centennial meadows. Like the other plants with tick in their name, this has barbed seeds that attach to passing creatures for distribution. Aster family.

Common Beggarticks (Bidens frondosa)

Pigweed

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I realize this is a lot of not very pretty pictures in a row. Pigweed, ragweed and mugwort are the main big bushy plants near the parking lot at Centennial. They look kind of pretty really, feathery and tall. The top two pics are pigweed, and the last photo shows pigweed in the front, ragweed on the left, and mugwort behind. Pigweed is cultivated in Asia as a food crop for people and livestock. Can be up to 9 feet tall. Wikipedia: “archeologists analysing carbonized plant remains found in storage pits and ovens at Iron Age and Roman sites in Europe have found its seeds mixed with conventional grains and even inside the stomachs of Danish bog bodies.” Native to Europe but widely distributed. Amaranthaceae family.
Pigweed, Lamb’s Quarters, Goosefoot (Chenopodium album)

Ragweed

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This is the plant that you hear about because it’s a major cause of hay fever. I never knew what it looked like, and now that I know, I see it is growing like a house afire all over the meadows at Centennial. Up to 6 feet tall. Aster family. Native.

Common Ragweed, Bitterweed, Roman Wormwood, Stammerwort (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)

Common Mugwort

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A tall bushy, silvery plant that is growing in all the open meadows now. It’s prominent around the lower meadow at Centennial (along with pigweed and ragweed). The leaves remind me of rosemary. They’re green above and silvery underneath, aromatic. Mugwort has been used to flavor drinks since the Iron Age. (How do they know that?) Also used in food, herbal medicine, for smoking, for magical protection against evil spirits and wild animals, and to repel moths from gardens. Roman soldiers lined their sandals with mugwort to ward off fatigue. Mugwort pollen is a major source of hay fever. Native to Europe, Asia, Africa and Alaska.

Common Mugwort, Common Wormwood (Artemisia vulgaris)

Sumac is the first to change

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A couple of weeks ago, the trees were green, but I noticed that the sumac was sporting a few red leaves… (Lucy’s white feet are in the background of that shot.) But now there is no denying that the leaves are changing. Lots of yellow leaves everywhere.

Fernleaf False Foxglove

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Even as most of the wildflowers are looking toasted or wilted, I’m still coming across new and unfamiliar flowers. These blossoms are not so pretty, but the buds are very distinctive and beautiful. False foxgloves are partially parasitic on oak trees, and therefore always grow near oaks. Figwort family. Native.

Fernleaf False Foxglove (Aureolaria pedicularia)