AUTUMN'S ROADSIDE FLOWERS

      Five kinds of common, flowering plants, including Canada goldenrod, white asters, Jerusalem artichokes, morning glories and smartweeds bloom beautifully along certain rural roadsides in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland during September into October.  And their lovely blossoms are as attractive as any blooms in flower gardens, and free to see.  

     Perennial, native goldenrods usually are the first to bloom abundantly along many country roads in early September.  Each goldenrod stalk bears a clump of yellow "fingers" pointing in all directions, and each "digit" is covered with tiny, golden florets.  Larger patches and strips of goldenrod are particularly striking and lovely along country roads, and in abandoned fields. 

     Patches of perennial, native white asters, with white flower petals and yellow flower centers, bloom attractively from mid-September into October, often with goldenrod, along many farmland roads, and in deserted fields.  These asters, and other kinds of asters, are a last source of nectar for a variety of bees and other species of nectaring insects.             

     The perennial, native Jerusalem artichokes are a magnificent type of wild sunflowers that grow about eight feet tall.  They grow, here and there, along country roads where their large, attractive, yellow blooms are readily seen from the second week in September to the end of that month.  These sunflowers were grown by Native Americans in this area, who ate the large roots of the sunflowers as we, today, consume potatoes.  

     The annual wild morning glory vines spiral up weeds, corn stalks, trees, fences and other objects, here and there, along rural roads to receive sunlight and display their strikingly-beautiful, nearly two-inch, purple, pink or blue blossoms.  Morning glories bloom from late September into October.  I would like to see morning glories clinging to the tall stalks of Jerusalem artichokes for the double beauty of their blossoms. 

     Late in September, and well into October, patches of prostrate, native, annual smartweeds turn some country roadsides pink.  The innumerable, tiny, pink flowers of smartweeds are the agents that turn those roadsides into lovely, pink carpets.

     Several kinds of insects, including bees and butterflies, visit the flowers of goldenrods and, particularly, asters to sip their sugary nectar, making those blossoms humm with intense activity in fall.  Pearl crescent butterflies are especially common among aster blooms, partly because pearl crescents are a common butterfly, and they were larvae eating aster stems and leaves.  Nectar gathering by the insects also pollinates the blossoms, allowing them to grow seeds. 

     Mice and seed-eating, small birds, including sparrows and finches, ingest many goldenrod and aster seeds through winter.  But some of the seeds that survive the hunger of rodents and birds, sprout the next spring, often far from the parent plants.

     Goldenrod and aster seeds are tiny, light and fluffy, and are easily carried away on the wind.  Wind is one way of seed dispersal, along with going through the digestive tracts of birds, or clinging to animal fur or being mechanically expelled from seed pods, depending on the types of plants.

     Goldenrods, asters, Jerusalem artichokes, morning glories and smartweeds all have beautiful blooms that add much intrigue to country roadsides in September and October.  Look for these lovely flowers during walks and rides through the countrysides.