Sorry, but I can’t help it.
This is an exciting time of the year. I can ride the same roads each day, and see new roadside flowers each time out. It makes the same out routes new and exciting again!
Here are some of the latest to have appeared (click to view higher-resolution images):
Black-Eyed Susan — Not 100% sure of this identification, but it looks close.
In this photo, I love that the center of the flower looks glossy and waxy, the stem, leaves, and bracts are “fuzzy” and that the petals of the unopened blossoms appear to be curled inward like tubes.
Carolina Horse-Nettle — This is not a “pretty” flower, even under the best of circumstances, and this one’s bug-eaten and partially dried. And yet those orange berries are quite lovely — though poisonous.
Deptford Pink — According to KSWildflower.org, this flower is a native of Eurasia, and “escaped” from gardens and has now “naturalized”. It’s quite tiny. I was lucky to see it.
Goat’s Beard — These have become quite numerous the past few days. Very pretty. The bracts extending out past the petals look like long fingernails. When it goes to seed, each bloom will turn into a giant puffball, looking like a big dandelion.
And here’s one post-puff. I haven’t seen one yet in an intermediary state … mid-puff.
Mock Bishop’s-Weed — So many tiny, delicate little blossoms!
Narrowleaf Plantain — For some reason, this one’s not in the kswildflower.org database, so I had some trouble identifying it. It’s kind of a wild-looking flower, and kind of difficult to get a good picture of.
Prairie Wild Rose — This one took me awhile to identify (and I’m still not sure I got it right), because most of the photos show much pinker petals. But the rest of the details look right. This is also called “Arkansas Rose”. Note the tiny little spider between the top two petals.
Rose Verbena — This is not the best picture of the blossoms; I didn’t get the right angle, and they’re washed out and out of focus a bit. But the blooms ready to pop out look cool. Not sure what type of insects those are…
Sulphur Cinquefoil — This is a really pretty flower. Love the heart-shaped petals.
Western Yarrow — Another flower with a multitude of tiny blooms.
Wild Four-O’Clock — Another not-so-great picture, but the blooms are directed downward (the alternate name is “Umbrellawort”), so it’s hard to find the right angle. It has very long and twisty stamens. each of which ends with a yellow ball of pollen.
Blue-Eyed Grass — So tiny and delicate, it’s hard to get a picture. I got lucky with this one.
Blackberry Blossoms — I was so excited to find these. This was from the same patch I picked last year, and it was good to see what appears to be a bumper crop. Most of the ones I saw were early blossoms, but this one actually had a couple green berries. It’ll still be another month or so before they’re ready.
