More late fall color and texture

As promised in yesterday's post, here is the mystery flower that made itself known among the underbrush...


Aha! It's Bottle Gentian (or Closed Gentian). This autumn was the first time I have seen this plant in the wild, so I was very excited about this find. It grows very close to the ground, so it could easily be missed, despite its bold coloring. Let's review.


From the big picture down to the this tiny flower close to the ground. How did I find it? Luck? Good lighting? A keen eye? Or is it simply because I look at the ground a lot when I walk in the woods? All of these things contributed to my find, for sure.

Here are some other standouts from the same walk through the woods, most of which were more obvious than the cloistered Bottle Gentian.


Lady's Thumb


unknown species of ironweed


unknown species of aster


This is Virgin's Bower. I love this stuff for its fluffy seed heads. This is one plant that you can identify from far away because it is so distinct.


Here's another I love for its texture - Queen Anne's Lace. I brought this one into black and white because I wanted to emphasize that texture. This specimen looks particularly spider-like to me.

Hitchhikers on my jacket sleeve. This makes it very easy to understand how velcro was invented!

I mean, just look at the "j" hooks on these burrs!
Thanks, as always, for coming along on a discovery walk with me. I'm not sure where we're going next, but I know it will be fun!

Vernonia gigantea

The title of this post is the Latin name for my favorite wildflower - Ironweed. Specifically, Tall Ironweed. There is also New York Ironweed, which , according to my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers (Eastern Region), could also grow in these parts, but the preferred habitat differentiates them. The New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveberacensis) prefers moist low ground and streambanks, whereas Tall Ironweed grows in meadows, open woods and pastures, which is the predominant landscape in rural Athens county, and is certainly the landscape where I took these pictures.

There are other details which separate the 2 species from each other (such as flower size and type, and leaf size and type), but I don't have the flower in front of me right now to verify that information. So it's possible that my ID still isn't correct, even though the differing habitats would seem to indicate that it is. But we'll leave the challenges of flower identification to another post.

What I do know for sure is that I love this plant, with its vibrant color, tall stature, and implied hardiness (the term "ironweed" makes me think of something that is very tough and durable). I certainly never want to wish summer away, but I always look forward to the blooming of the Ironweed in August and September.