Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Orange Trail, Late Summer

Off we go again, into another season.  Autumn is coming quickly, and the Great Meadow is showing it.  The goldenrod is in full bloom, casting its golden glow over the meadow.
There are autumn flowers in bloom.  This is turtlehead.  It's not a good picture because it was quite a distance off of the trail.  Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a rule follower.  I really, really wanted to walk over and get a better picture of this.  They're a really neat flower.
The Evening Primrose is blooming.

The Bur Cucumber is in glorious flower.

And, thanks to Woodswalker, I knew a Giant Ragweed when I saw it.

Well, OK, it looks like I don't know Giant Ragweed when I see it.  This is just a really big regular ragweed plant.  See, all you people who think I know so much, I really don't.

But, the day really belonged to the fruits of Autumn.  How do you like these little tomatoes?
Actually, they're not tomatoes.  They are the seed pods of Horse Nettle.  Here's the flower, still blooming.

So many other flowers that we saw earlier have now set seed.
Privet
Autumn Olive
Wild Rose Hips
Blackberry
Silky Dogwood.  I didn't start walking here until after the dogwoods bloomed.  It will be something to look forward to next Spring.
Panicled Dogwood.
And, I'll leave you with a fruit of a very different kind.  I don't know what this fungus is, but I though it was very beautiful.

10 comments:

Sharon said...

Oh, what a wonderful variety of foods for the birds and critters! Our blackberries have been gone for a couple of months already.

Gerry's Soap N Stuff said...

Louise, I love your pictures and descriptions of the plant life. I could never learn it all. Gerry

Terry said...

Oh, nice! I love following the seasons with you, Louise.

barefootheart said...

What a great show of diversity! Autumn olive and the horse nettle pods are new ones for me. The giant ragweed may just be big regular ragweed. We have a lot of giant ragweed around here and it has big leaves with deep lobes, sort of tulip shaped. Wild cucumber is a favorite of mine, it looks so frothy and happy.

John Going Gently said...

we "almost" had a frost last night..winter is just a stone's throw away!!!!!!!

IsobelleGoLightly said...

I'm coming up there someday for a nice snack! Thank you for identifying lots of plants for us. My lady has many of those down here.

Vicki Lane said...

A nice walk -- we have many of the same wild things here.

Inger said...

What a lovely walk and how fun it will be to walk with you through the seasons. Thank you for learning so much and sharing it with us.--Inger

Jim said...

What a beautiful walk you take.....all the plants. Love those blackberries. They are ready here in Nova Scotia as well....had a 'feed' of them yesterday in a park. Love this time of year.
Jim

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow! There is such an abundance of berries and fruit.
Thanks for sharing your lovely photos from your nature walks.


~Lisa