KatDoc's World: Early Summer Wildflowers

Monday, July 2, 2007

Early Summer Wildflowers

Oxeye (Common) Daisies, Chrysanthemum leucanthemum

Although a very common plant, this is actually a European import, not a native. The darker green, non-blooming plant in this picture is either Ironweed or Joe-pye Weed; I always mix them up until they bloom in late summer.

a Mountain Mint

The square stem marks it as a member of the mint family. It is either Narrow-leaved (aka Slender) Pycnanthemum tenuifolium or Virginia (P. virginianum), I'm not sure which. Even my botanical guru, Jim McCormac, can't tell from this photo.

Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca

Host plant for Monarch butterfly caterpillars.

Trumpet Vine (or Creeper), Campsis radicans

This is a good hummingbird flower.

Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis

Watch this one - it is a common weed in many crop fields, and I have had bags of black-oil sunflower seeds contaminated with bindweed seeds. If you get a bad bag of seeds, bindweed can infest your yard and be hard to eliminate.

4 comments:

Susan Gets Native said...: Geoff finally started cutting the lawn tonight (until he ran out of gas) and I am going to miss my weeds. That moth mullein? Freakin' everywhere.
I have a trumpet vine waiting to be planted...but the flowers will be white. I didn't know they came in anything but red.; July 3, 2007 at 12:24 AM
NM High School Sports News said...: Oh...nice pic of the milkweed. Did you see any eggs or larvae on any of the plants? :); July 3, 2007 at 8:56 AM
nina at Nature Remains. said...: Am I the only one who finds Monarch caterpillars on Bindweed??
I haven't seen any yet this year (or on my milkweed, either for that matter) but I'm always checking the bindweed before I yank it out.; July 4, 2007 at 7:05 AM
Kathi said...: Fly-guy:

Thanks for the comment. No, I didn't see any eggs or larvae on the milkweed, but not for lack of trying. I check every milkweed I see, looking for baby Monarchs.

Nina:

I haven't found Monarchs on Bindweed, but only because I have never checked. I will definitely start looking; if I can find eggs or larvae, I might be able to forgive bindweed for its faults!

~Kathi; July 4, 2007 at 2:41 PM