What is blooming on the trails right now?
The ditch daisies are reaching their peak bloom this week, along with the bonesets. The goldenrods are slowly coming out. Golden asters will be opening this week. I haven’t seen any of the white or purple asters yet. I’ve found a stray bunch of purpledisc sunflowers, blue mistflowers, eastern oxeyes, perennial sand beans, agrimony, American burnweed and Spanish needles. False nettle can be found in the wet areas along the Crabtree Creek and Hatcher Creek greenways. I’ve also seen some camphorweed, beefsteak-plant and ironweed along these greenways. There are many different types of tick-trefoils that are blooming now. Look for their pink pea flowers and leaves in sets of three. Common partridge pea flowers are dying back now, but the sensitive partridge peas are in full bloom. You can also find common and leafy elephant’s foot on most trails. I’ve seen spotted beebalm and Carolina silk grass on the Shiloh greenway. Ragweed is in full bloom and can be found everywhere.
Many plants are putting out fruit right now. Look for Virginia creeper, pokeweed, fringe trees, grapes, porcelain berries, persimmon trees and jack in the pulpits. You might also come across the large fruit of the painted buckeye trees. They always surprise me, because the small trees tend to lose most of their leaves by now, leaving only the fruit behind.
What are you seeing on the trails?