I had a full day to drive to the coast last week. As I often do when I don’t have to get to some place in a hurry, I avoided the interstates and took a leisurely drive on several South Georgia country roads running through picturesque farmland and sleepy little towns.
The rural roadsides were magnificent, ablaze with thick, lush growths of bright-blooming fall wildflowers. Yellow was by far the predominant color. From the Piedmont to the coast, masses of wild, yellow blooms seemed never-ending.
Producing the splendid color were various species of goldenrods, sunflowers, tickseeds, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, rosinweed, wingstem, leafcup (bear’s foot), bitterweed, crownbeard and others.
Along Ga. 26 in Pulaski County, entire fields of goldenrods seemed lit up because of their intense yellow. Etched against a sunny blue October sky, the yellow fields took my breath away. I found myself pulling off along other rural lanes in Ben Hill, Coffee, Dodge, Wilcox and Telfair counties to take pictures or just to drink in the splendor.
Botanists are not sure why yellow dominates fall wildflower color, but it probably has something to do with attracting the various bees, wasps, flies and other insects that pollinate the plants in autumn. Indeed, on sunny afternoons, buzzing bees at goldenrods may be almost as loud as they were at clover blooms in spring.
Yellow, though, was not the only wildflower hue I encountered. Mixed in with the yellow blooms, in stunning natural displays, were white-colored boneset and fleabane, purple aster, purplish iron weed and Joe Pye weed, blue-flowered blazing star, lavender-hued morning glory, pink-colored smooth marshmallow and other colorful wildflowers. An exceptionally beautiful sight was the bright red flowers of the cypress vine morning glory clinging to roadside farm fences.
The wildflowers should still be in bloom for another couple of weeks or until first frost. The fall wildflower show, though, is only the opening act for the really big show that will start shortly — the fall leaf color spectacular.
IN THE SKY: The Orionid meteor shower will be visible Saturday night through Wednesday night (Oct. 23) with a peak of about 25 meteors per hour on Sunday night, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the east from midnight until dawn.
This weekend’s full moon will “shrink” into a last quarter moon by next weekend. Mercury and Saturn are very low in the southwest just after dark and set shortly thereafter. Venus is in the west just after dark and sets about two hours later. Mars rises out of the east about three hours before dawn. Jupiter rises out of the east just before midnight.
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