What’s been happening on the trails during the first half of August? You might have noticed that the trails have been maintained recently. What I mean is, the lawn mowers have come through and cut a few feet on either side of the trail. I get a little discouraged when I finally see flowers starting to come back after some much needed rain, only to find them cut down by the lawn mower. I understand that the trails need to be kept clean, though.
The most exciting thing I’ve seen in the last couple weeks are the cranefly orchids. I wrote more about them here. The common partridge peas, reclining St. Andrew’s cross, common elephant’s foot, and swamp sunflowers are really taking off right now. I found a few pencil-flowers, Japanese clover, and doveweed starting to bloom on the Shiloh Greenway. You might have noticed the winged sumac starting to flower in the last week or so, too.
I was surprised to see the whorled coreopsis flowering again. I usually see the plant bloom in May and then it dies down. Several plants in different areas are blooming again right now. I guess they can put out a second round of flowers if conditions are right.
I took a walk in Bond Park earlier this week. I saw a beautiful field filled with starry rosinweed on the Black Creek Greenway under the power lines. I also saw two hairy leafcup plants in full bloom in the woods along the same trail.
I was also on a small portion of the American Tobacco Trail recently. There, I saw several bicolor lespedeza bushes, little ladies’-tresses, and more common elephant’s foot.
What are you seeing on the trails?