LATE-SUMMER, ROADSIDE EDGES

      Many sunny, un-mowed edges of country roadsides grow tall with plants by August in southeastern Pennsylvania.  These long, lean, human-made habitats are interesting oases of tall, dense vegetation growth and small creatures.  Lovely bouquets of flowers perch obviously on tall plants adapted to disturbed soil, including white flowers on Queen-Anne's-lace, blue blooms of chicory, yellow ones on evening primrose, Canada goldenrod and velvetleaf, and pink blossoms on red clover and brown knapweed.  There are pink or white flowers on bindweed vines that crawl up the many tall foxtail and redtop grass growing thickly along these same roadsides, and corn stalks on the sunny edges of cornfields.  Goldenrods' innumerable, tiny golden blooms are particularly attractive to bees and other kinds of nectar-seeking, pollinating insects.  And by the second week in September, patches of that wild, ten-foot-tall sunflower, with large, yellow flowers, called Jerusalem artichoke, will be blooming beautifully, here and there, along rural roadsides.

     Other common plants in those slender, miles-long, roadside edges that bear innumerable seeds and become attractive in autumn include foxtail and redtop grasses, red root and lamb's quarters.  They feed seed-eating field mice, house sparrows, savannah sparrows and horned larks through winter.  Foxtail grass leaves turn yellow in fall, while the seedy tops of redtop become red or purple.  The foliage of red root and lamb's quarters becomes red in autumn.  All these grasses and weeds are more colorful and striking when seen with sunlight low behind them.  

     Mulberry trees and poison ivy vines are common along country roadsides.  They are planted by birds perched on roadside wires and relieving themselves.  The birds ate berries from those plants, digested the pulp of those berries, and passed the seeds, some of which sprouted along roads.  

     Several kinds of small critters inhabit these overgrown, built habitats along rural roadsides.  Field crickets and a few kinds of grasshoppers eat the grass and other plants there.  I see many hoppers, especially differentials and red-legged, leaping away into the high grass when I walk along some country roads in August and September.  I see a variety of butterflies and small moths along these roadsides in August and September, including attractive monarchs, yellow clear-wings and a variety of petite, big-eyed skippers.  Honey bees and bumble bees busily visit flowers there as well to get some last stores of nectar for the year.  And during September and October, I see several cute, little woolly bear caterpillars undulating across rural roads from one edge jungle to another on the other side.  They are seeking shelter for the winter.  

     A few larger creatures inhabit these jungle roadsides, and hunt food there, too.  Wood chucks and cottontail rabbits each ingest the vegetation there.  Chucks dig burrows in those roadsides where they spend nights and winters in safety.  The rabbits hunker down in the tall vegetation.  Striped skunks hunt invertebrates along overgrown roadsides and live down abandoned chuck holes. 

     These are just a few of the plants and animals along weedy, country roadsides by late summer.  These long, lean, built habitats are relatively stable oases for critters living in farmland where cultivation constantly disturbs these creatures' life histories, and safe places to feed, rest and produce offspring.  And we can enjoy the beauties and intrigues of nature right along country roads close to home.   

         

         



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