Wildflower Walk

Meet Helenium autumnale - named after Helen of Troy and the autumn time of the blooms -  commonly knows as Sneezeweed. 

It is not a weed - it is a member of the vast family of Asters (Asteraceae).

It begins blooming late summer and persists into the fall with sometimes as many a 100+ flowers on each plant.  Multiply that by many multiple plants and it puts on a stunning display of blooms.

It grows throughout the wetter clay soils of our rain garden.  While there is no way to know for sure it might have been included in a native wildflower mix I threw down following the installation of the rain garden.  It's also entirely possible the seeds came in with the ducks.  It's anybody's guess.

The deer appear to avoid it so if anyone wants to propagate it in their yard come by this fall to shoot some deer and collect seeds.  It is a maintenance-free and lovely flowering native plant.  And the pollinators go nuts for it.

 

Here's a historic tidbit about this plant that you can use to amuse and impress your friends.  Back in the day the early settlers collected the leaves and flower petals of this plant, set them aside to dry and pulverized it into a powder that was utilized as snuff.  Hence the sneeze.

 

Fall Flowers - Part 2

From our walk there continue to be opportunities to exercise an immersive experience in the natural world around me.  

Lygaeus Kalmii - the Small Eastern Milkweed Bug – is found throughout the US. This critter dines on milkweed but is immune to the toxic chemicals in the plant.  And just as with the monarch butterfly the regular diet of milkweed also endows this beetle with the same properties making it toxic to other predators. Who knew? 

Of course there are New England asters as far as they eye can see.

Nevertheless, some golds of autumn too. 

Stiff goldenrod .....

And ginormous patches of sneeze weed....