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)
At the Dover Farm, I was wading out into the field to pick some cherry tomatoes, and noticed this plant with distinctive arrow-shaped leaves. It’s Buckwheat! Cultivated as a crop, but this one is an escapee. Buckwheat has been grown as a crop in the U.S. since colonial times for livestock feed and for flour. Also a honey crop (used to supply nectar for bees) and a smother crop (a quick germinator that creates a dense leaf canopy to smother weeds).
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum)
Bonus picture to contrast with the farm: we were just in Manhattan. Drive-by shot of a grocery store in the Washington Heights neighborhood that is open to the sidewalk. It’s the sort of colorful outdoor display where you expect produce… but it’s all cans.
Similar to Lady’s Thumb but a more extravagant outsized version. 1 to 6 feet tall. A big patch of them at the Dover Farm. Buckwheat family. Can be pink, white or purple.
Nodding Smartweed, Pale Smartweed, Dock-leaved Smartweed (Polygonum lapathifolium)
There is a little weed charmingly called Lady’s Thumb, which is very common and looks a lot like this. It took me a while to notice that all these varieties of smartweeds and knotweeds are NOT Lady’s Thumb. There are about 35 varieties in this area. This one is a paler pink. Also, Lady’s Thumb has a dark smudge on the leaves. Buckwheat family. Native.
Pink Knotweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)
Came up uninvited with a potted tomato plant. Beautiful form. Contains a toxic white sap, so mostly avoided by mammals, but visited by insects. Native perennial. Bellflower family.
Pale-spiked Lobelia (Lobelia spicata)
Big shrubs (4-8 feet tall) with great arching branches with spikes of white flowers at every axil. Native to Asia, introduced to the U.S. as an ornamental. Considered a noxious weed in some west coast states. Young shoots can be eaten like asparagus. Seeds are eaten by birds.
Japanese Bamboo, Japanese Knotweed, Rice Cane (Polygonum cuspidatum)
This is at the edge of the Charles. White blossoms, nodding. The stem has prominent joints. Buckwheat family. Native.
Pale Smartweed, Dock-leaved Smartweed (Persicaria lapathifolia)
The only non-golden goldenrod! White flowers, and look how they grow in the axils all the way up. Blooms through October. Another gift from the meadow of wonder, while most of the flowers there are wilting down and going to seed. Aster family. Native.
Silver-Rod (Solidago bicolor)
Autumn can’t take you by surprise if you’re paying attention to the wildflowers; the passage of time is well-measured by their progress. They’re moving into fruiting and seeding overdrive… at Charles River Peninsula, the milkweeds have developed their giant seedpods, and the horse nettle has set on its tomato-like fruits. These are toxic to humans, but many other creatures eat them. Nightshade family. Native.
Horse Nettle (Solanum carolinense)
As we approach the end of summer, it was great to get this surprise– a really showy new flower. It looks a lot like purple milkweed, but has distinctive succulent leaves that are very regular and same-sized all the way up the stalks. An unusual characteristic: the leaves can be alternate or opposite. It’s named Live Forever because it’s very persistent and can grow from any small bit. We saw just a couple of plants in this whole field of other flowers– I wonder if this is the beginning of a big colony.
It has several intriguing common names that come from this: put the leaf in your mouth until it’s soft, and when the membranes are sufficiently loosened, you can inflate the leaf like a little balloon. Crassulaceae (Stonecrop) family. Native to Europe.
Live Forever, Witch’s Moneybags, Midsummer-Men, Orpine, Aaron’s Rod, Pudding-bag Plant (Sedum purpureum)