The Last, Last-Ditch Attempt

 Sweet Peas that are unattended in the wild, like on road sides, get a bit sprawled out by this time of year and begin to dry up and turn brown.  The pink blossoms are still easy to spot at 55 mph, but the overall look is not so appealing that one would be motivated to stop for photography.  That is, unless one knew from experience that, unlike football, they look prettier the closer you get.    The blossoms in the above photo look as fresh as they did when this species first bloomed in May.  However, on the same plant (below) one can find brown, emptied seed pods.  Their twisted spirals are structurally rather intriguing, and I'll bet that a time-lapse video of their maturing and releasing seeds would be quite interesting.  At this time of year the blossoms are still attracting a variety of bees and flies, so I'll continue to find interesting photo subjects among them.  However, as the title of this post implies, I'm not going to keep writing about "the way things were" but will be writing about the present and looking forward to seasonal changes that are immanent.

 I finally found both local subspecies of Madia in the same location.  The one with dark pigment near the center is Madia elegans elegans and this variety dominates the crop near the junction of Quincy Junction Road and Chandler Road where I've taken lots of pictures over the summer.

 The variety whose blossoms are entirely yellow and whose flowers are noticeably smaller is Madia elegans vernalis.  These were abundant in the open pine forest beyond Oakland Camp about 1/2 mile before Gilson Creek.  The stems and leaves for the most part have turned brown but the flowers still look fresh and are attracting lots of Deer Flies.

The Fireweeds are always impressive while blooming, but I find them exciting to photograph at this stage of life, too.  This one was among a few dozen at this stage of life along the road into Oakland Camp.  I keep telling myself that one of these summers I'm going to collect seeds from my favorite wildflowers and plant them at home, but I never follow through.  That's partly because I live in what is locally known as "Pneumonia Gulch" among other names.  Not much sun, very dry, hard soil.  It would take a lot of work and water to get things to grow here that are not native.  So, I tend to let nature takes its course.  In other words, the lawn is now brown.

After taking a close look at the Fireweeds, I found one that still had some blossoms.  The top blossom in this photo shows its relation to Evening Primrose.

The Yarrow in spring and summer tend to grow 3 to 4 feet tall before blooming.  The late summer plants that are still blooming are often the survivors of mowings and weed eater attacks and tend to bloom when only 6" to a foot tall and, if there's enough water present, the flowers look even more lush than the early season ones.  This photo shows clearly that it's in the Sunflower family.  There might even be a bug in there somewhere.

Virtually all the Common Monkeyflowers in the ditch along Oakland Camp Road have gone to seed, but I found one flower.  Here it is at the tip of a stem loaded with emptied seed pods.  Despite the drying of the ditch and the seasonal shrinkage of its vascular system, this one remaining flower looks quite fresh.

The Goldenrod, one of the last survivors of a dry summer, is still looking fresh in lots of roadside ditches where most other species have turned brown.  And, they're still hosting lots of interesting bug activity.

I believe the Star Thistle best exemplifies the comment I made above about football.  The closer you get, the prettier it seems.  That is, if you're focused on the blossom itself, as opposed to the spines, or have developed an aesthetic appreciation of the spines.  When I see a successful adaptation in the plant world, I find it inherently beautiful.  Science and aesthetics can merge.

The White Sweet Clover (above) and Gum Plant (below) are among the roadside attractions that display all stages of their reproductive life on a single plant.  Buds, flowers, seeds, all present and extended over a relatively long period of time.  They keep producing new blossoms and seeds until the fall weather shuts them down.

The last of the Chicory (above) and Hooker's Evening Primrose (below) are just now starting to wilt.  Still attractive at the roadsides, but a close inspection shows a slight wilting at the petal margins.  For the next few weeks, expect to see some photos of seed pods here.  And, maybe I'll start collecting and labeling seeds.

Yesterday, I posted a single Redneck Flower.  Here is a Redneck Garden.  Today I'm taking my camera on an outing in search of "other people's flowers."  I'll be looking for aesthetic possibilities in objects I tend to ignore or look down upon - after all, that's what I'm asking people who are aversive to bugs and weeds to do when they look at my blog.