Wildflowers: August 06, 2010

I am behind on Wildflowers, what with tree coffins and wood carving and sweet corn coming out my ears.  

Swamp Milkweed or Asclepias incarnata a native plant is in full bloom.  Milkweeds are the only host plant for the Monarch Butterflies.  In our area there are five different kind of Milkweed.  The Monarchs are few and far between around here even though the food is plentiful.

The Prairie Onion or Wild Onion or Allium stellatum is a native plant in the Lily family.  Pioneers probably used this plant in their cooking.

Yellow Water Lily also called a Bullhead Lily or Nuphar variegatum is a native plant.  It is the only yellow pond lily in Minnesota.  The flowers open only on a sunny day. 

Tansy or Tanacetum vulgare is a non native. It has little button like disk flowers, a very cheerful plant that grows quite nicely.  Far Guy has a personal war going on with this plant at the moment..he has been weeding it out of the wildflower gardens. 

 Butter and Eggs or Toadflax or  Linaria vulgaris is another non native plant.  It is quite invasive too, if it wasn't a favorite plant of the Hummingbird Moth..I would try to get rid of it.

Yellow Wood Sorrel or Oxalis stricta is a lovely little native plant with three heart shaped leaflets.  It has tiny bright flowers, and produces lots of seeds for the birds.

Field Sow Thistle or perennial Sow Thistle..of the genus Sonchus and questionable species can grow two to four feet tall.  It might be a noxious weed. I thought it was lovely, but than I enjoy most yellow flowers.

Stiff Goldenrod or Solidago rigida is a native plant and it is common in our area in the ditches and the open prairie. Goldenrods blooming always signal the coming of fall for me,  we already have cooler nights.

Well I am caught up with wildflowers for a day or two.  The mosquitoes have been just terrible, there was finally a decent hatch of  Dragon Flies...it is about time they showed up.  The miserable mosquitoes have been holding Chance and I hostage in the evenings, and on evenings when the wind is blowing hard enough to keep the skeeters at bay it is really difficult to get photographs that don't end up blurry:)