Summer Flowers (And Friends)

The goldenrod is blooming and that means the beginning of a time of transition. The leaves of plants that grow on the forest floor like sarsaparilla, false Solomon’s seal, Jack in the pulpit, deer tongue grass and many others will begin yellowing and dying off and their fruits will ripen. Fall always begins on the forest floor and August is when it really starts to show. There was a lot of knapweed growing near the goldenrod and these plants had many bumblebees all over them. I didn’t see a single one on the goldenrod so clearly, they preferred the invasive over the native when they grew side by side. I saw quite a display of yellow toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) recently. Its flowers are pretty, wearing two shades of yellow as they do. I read once that if you put your thumb on one side of the flower and your finger on the other and squeeze you’ll see the toad’s wide mouth open, so I went and found some and did just that and I did indeed see the toad’s mouth open. The flax part of the…