LATE SUMMER WILD FLOWERS

      Being an agricultural county, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has many cow pastures in moist bottomlands, many of them along streams.  Some of those meadows are heavily grazed and only have short grass.  But other pastures are seldom grazed and harbor several kinds of beautifully flowering plants by late summer.  All these flowering plants flourish best in damp soil and full sunlight, both of which pastures have in full.  

     Those wild, meadow plants bloom beautifully from August, through September and into October, but not all at once.  Each species has its time to blossom, bringing changing beauty to overgrown meadows for a couple of months each year.  

     Many of these moist, bottomland pastures have some of the prettiest blooms in natural flower gardens a person will ever see.  And no two meadows are alike, each one having its own combination of pretty blossoms.  One pasture has lots of ironweed and loosestrife.  Another one has much ironweed and Joe-pye weed.  Other meadows have an abundance of bur-marigold and sneezeweeds.   

     All these flowering plants are native to eastern North America, except purple loosestrife, which can be invasive.  And all their lovely flowers have nectar, which attract hungry bees, butterflies and other kinds of insects, all of which add more beauty, liveliness and interest to overgrown pastures.   Mice and small birds eat their seeds through winter, adding more intrigue to the meadows in that harshest of seasons. 

     These meadow plants' flowers have a variety of lovely colors that many people enjoy.  Ironweed, Joe-pye weed, swamp milkweed and purple loosestrife flowers have a variety of pretty, pink colors.  Ironweed is the most common and widespread of these flowers, flourishing in most every let-go pasture.  And swamp milkweeds bloom the earliest.  

     Boneset and arrowhead flowers are white.  Boneset is also an abundant plant, while arrowheads emerge from the shallows of small waterways.  Arrowhead plants have large, arrow-shaped leaves and their roots are eaten by muskrats.      

     Blue vervain, forget-me-nots and great lobelias have lovely, bluish-violet blooms in cow pastures.  Vervains grow up to five feet tall and have flower stems arranged like candleabras.  Forget- me-nots are small and have tiny, light-blue blooms with yellow centers.  Associates of arrowheads, they grow on the edges of small waterways in meadows.  Great lobelias begin to blossom in damp pastures by the end of August.  

     Evening primroses, goldenrods, bur-marigolds and dark-eyed sneezeweeds have striking, yellow blooms in abundance in August and September.  Bur-marigolds and sneezeweeds almost choke some clear-running brooks with their innumerable, golden flowers.

     Spotted jewelweeds have many red-spotted, orange blooms on long stems that migrating hummingbirds visit to sip nectar.  Jewelweed plants grow up to five feet tall and become bush-like, providing cover for wildlife.  

     The beautiful flowers in overgrown cow pastures add much beauty to the green, lush Lancaster County farmland in late summer and autumn.  When out for a drive or a walk, look for these pretty flowers in certain meadows.  They will lift one's spirits.

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