Around late March every year, I eagerly anticipate the lush, colorful blooms of spring wildflowers. Now, in early August, I am just as eagerly looking forward to the wild blooms of late summer and early fall.
The beautiful display of color during this otherwise hot and dry time of the year rivals any spring wildflower. In fact, more wildflower species are blooming in late summer than in spring.
The late summer blooms are popping up all over now, in woodlands, old fields, meadows, roadsides, ditch banks and other sunny places.
The wildflowers of late summer and fall are usually larger and tougher than the delicate flowers of spring. And with their brilliant yellows, reds, pinks, whites, purples, blues and other colors, the summer blooms appear more vivid, as if to match the season’s intense heat.
The predominant wildflower color of late summer, of course, is yellow, thanks to a profusion of goldenrods. Georgia has more than 20 goldenrod species, most of which will bloom within the next few weeks.
One of my favorite late summer wild plants is red: the cardinal flower, which blooms in moist places throughout Georgia. Its tubular blossoms, a favorite of hummingbirds, are among the reddest of reds in nature, making the plant one of our most distinctive wildflowers.
Another favorite summer bloomer is purple-flowered — the ironweed, common on flood plains and stream banks. To me, the ironweed’s tall, richly-colored blooms in August are a sign that summer is at its peak and autumn is on the way.
By the end of this month, the wildflowers most often associated with early autumn, the asters, will be blooming. Georgia has more than 25 species of fall-blooming asters, which feature nearly every color of the rainbow.
So, over the next few weeks, be sure to watch as the countryside explodes with magnificent color.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The Perseid meteor shower, visible next week, reaches a peak of 50 meteors per hour on Friday night (Aug. 11) — in the northeast from 2 a.m. until dawn.
The moon will be full on Monday — the “Fruit Moon.” Mercury and Jupiter are low in the west at sunset. Venus rises in the east two hours before dawn. Saturn is high in the east at dusk.
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