Ironweed

The fields are full of this stuff in late summer and autumn.   It's ironweed [and Queen Anne's lace].  

I looove that color.  

The butterflies must, too, because they're all over it. 

It's a tough plant, with roots to China - hence the common name, Ironweed.   The Latin is Vernonia altissima, which pretty much means Vernon's tall stuff.   It gets between 4 and 6 feet tall, not quite as tall as Joe Pye weed. 

Click the pic for an up close look at the flowers.   Notice the old spent flowers at the bottom of the cluster [they're brown], the bloomers in the center and the buds near the top.     Each little floret makes a lot of seeds.

A Lot.   

Which is why we have ironweed everywhere out here.  

Early Fall Wildflowers

It's beautiful this time of year.  

 We found this colony of Great Lobelia [Lobelia syphilitica] with some Missouri Primroses [Oenothera missouriensis] along a wet spot on one of our back roads.   It's glorious.  

These plants are about 24 inches high.   They like calm damp places and the blue fades right into the green.   It's hard to get a pic that captures how beautiful a whole stand is.  


I love that blue.

 And I love, love, love this fuchsia.  This is Vernonia altissima - Tall Ironweed.   It's called ironweed because the stems are like iron.  Almost impossible to pull up and you have to cut the stems to collect them.    We have this everywhere out here.  Cows and horses won't eat it, but they do fertilize it.   Which is why we have fields full of it.  

Glorious fuchsia fields. 

The bugs love it, too.  

Each of those little petals becomes a seed.   They spread like crazy. 


These plants are 4' - 5' high.  If you try to mow them, they'll just come back.   Shorter.   It's kind of not worth the effort. 

Nestled low in the grass, like pools of floral liquid, are large colonies of Blue Mist Flower.   It's one of many Eupatoria that are native here.  This is Eupatorium coeruleum.   It gets about 12 inches high.   I like it because it volunteers in nice places, but is easy enough to pull out where you don't want it.