just another day in paradise

On the cool-down from this morning’s run (4.5 miles at a nice clip) I noticed several flowers I hadn’t seen before, along the side of the road. Without further ado:

This is spotted St. Johnswort. I goofed yesterday – yesterday’s was common St. Johnswort.
Do those dots look familiar? They remind me of bittersweet nightshade:

Next up, we’ve got…

Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia). This one’s easy to miss, as it’s low to the ground – unlike this next one, which ranged from a foot to five feet tall:

Some close-ups:
This is tall meadow rue (Thalictrum polygamum). I only keyed it out by chance, because I didn’t know how many petals it has – those are all stamens. The petals have fallen off.
Other tall things! Cattails! If you’re like me, when you think of cattails, you think of brown, or possibly fluffy post-explosion. Did you ever notice them when they were still green?

Starting at the base of the … flowerstalk? and traveling up to the tip, we have…

…all green…

…here’s the transition zone…


…and then the top.

It’s times like these when I thank my lucky stars that I don’t have allergies. I mean, this thing is one enormous pollen factory.
I finally figured out this new anemone-like flower that’s blooming several weeks later than the regular anemone. It is, in fact, also an anemone – “tall anemone”, aka thimbleweed. Unlike the regular kind, which has showy white petals, thimbleweed doesn’t seem to have petals at all. The tepals – no, that’s not a typo – which enclose the whole kit and caboodle – open up and boom, we’re at naughty flower bits right away.
To wit:

A. canadensis – Canada anemone	A. virginiana – tall anemone or thimbleweed. You can see it’s still opening up.

Get your thimble on.
But the regular anemone are doing some pretty fabulous things – welcome to the Battle of the Bulge:
Are you still with me? Because it was a big day, and we’re not done yet.
The Timothy grass is suddenly blooming. Not all of it, but certainly this one:

Don’t remember what this used to look like? Go here for the few-feet-away look, or here for a close-up from just a few days ago.
In absolutely wonderful news, I found a jack-in-the-pulpit that had been buried under raspberry, ferns, irises, and god knows what else, and guess what? It got fertilized!

Are you still here? Good for you! Here’s your reward:

Orange hawkweed, as usual. (Hieracium aurantiacum)