We're hungry for reports for our Phenology Talkbacks segment. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with your observations, nature tales and insights! Get in touch with me (smitchell@kaxe.org), John Latimer (jlatimer@kaxe.org), or text "phenology" to 218-326-1234.
It’s TYF time! (Tall yellow flowers)
Late July and early August is peak time for tall yellow flowers! These flowers bring particular joy to John’s heart, as the first flowers John ever learned to identify as a kid were yellow. He learned the dandelion first, followed by the black-eyed Susan. Black-eyed Susans start the mid-summer parade of yellow flowers, with their distinctive yellow petals and brown center. They are the shortest members of John’s unofficial “tall yellow flower” grouping.
The invasive common tansy is slightly taller than the Black-eyed Susan, and it grows in huge clumps in disturbed areas. The plant has bright yellow clusters of 20-30 small, pill-sized flowers, with small, fern-like leaves. It’s also strongly scented- if you want to confirm your identification, pluck off a leaf and crush it! If it has a strong odor as well as the other characteristics, you’ve found a tansy and can start the eradication process (or not. I’m not your boss).
One reason that tansy is found in such large patches, and is so hard to eradicate, is because it spreads through its rhizomes (or roots). As the roots spread out, they send up shoots which form new plants. Those plants then spread the roots even wider, and eventually form an entire thicket of tansy.
Slightly taller than the tansy are the evening primrose and common mullein. These plants aren’t closely related from an evolutionary perspective, but they’ve evolved to have similar structures. Both plants have clusters of small yellow flowers at the top of a prominent permanent stalk. The flowers themselves are small, just an inch across, but the stalk is visible from a distance.
These plants are less likely to be found in dense clusters, and the individual flowers on the stalk don’t all bloom at once. Instead, 6-8 flowers will bloom at a time. The stalk will have open flowers throughout August and into the fall.
The next tallest plant on the list looks like an overgrown dandelion: the sow thistle. There are a few species of sow thistle in Minnesota, but the most prevalent in Northern Minnesota is the common sow thistle. It’s 4-5 feet tall, with a bright yellow dandelion-like flower. The leaves resemble those of a thistle, and close examination of the leaves can help you distinguish between the different sow thistle species.
The tallest yellow flowers of this season are the sunflowers. The most common ones around John’s house are sawtooth sunflowers, but he also finds 4-5 other species frequently in his area. All of them resemble commercial black oil sunflowers on a smaller scale: they are bright yellow disc flowers with big, petal-like rays.
Plant progression
- Fruiting: Red elderberry, blackberry, pin cherries (also known as fire cherries), northern gooseberries
- Unripe fruit: Round-leaved dogwood, bluebead lily
- Peak flowering: Common arrowhead, hedge bindweed, flat-topped goldenrod (also known as grass-leaved goldenrod), Canada goldenrod, early goldenrod, boneset
Species spotlight
Round-leaved dogwood fruits are green, with some turning a pale sky blue. The small, hairlike stems holding the berries are turning red.
Red elderberries are falling off the stem. When he first noticed that the plants were bare of berries, John suspected that they were getting picked clean by birds. On further consideration, he decided that there were so many berries it’d be impossible for the birds to eat them all. Sure enough, as they ripen, the red elderberries are released from the stem and fall to the forest floor.
Common arrowheads are sending up stalks of three-petaled flowers. Look for them on water edges.
Hedge bindweeds have flowers reminiscent of morning glories: large, trumpet-shaped blooms. To distinguish the two, look at the leaves. Morning glories (which are domestic and non-native to Minnesota) have heartshaped leaves, while the native bindweeds have arrowhead-shaped leaves.
Flat-topped goldenrod, also known as grass-leaved goldenrod, has distinctively long, thin leaves and a flat-topped flower cluster. The leaves resemble stalks of grass, just 0.125-0.25 inches across and 2-3 inches long.
Boneset, a white flower with leaves that are joined at the base, is blooming. This flower gets its name from its traditional use in mending broken bones.
Blackberries are ripening! If you find a patch that’s delicious, make note of it: varieties of blackberries readily intermix, and the quality of the berries varies greatly from patch to patch.
Proud Grandpa John
On a recent trip to the lake, John was proud to see that his wildlife neighbors have had successful families this year! The three Trumpeter Swan cygnets are almost the size of geese, and his local loon family has a healthy chick for the first time in several years. John’s says he feels like a proud grandfather! (I happen to know that he’s also the proud grandfather of human grandkids, but that’s less relevant to the phenology show.)
What to look for in August:
- Male hummingbirds and rose-breasted grosbeaks disappear mid-month
- Nighthawks fly through in mid to late August
- Robins become scarcer, begin to move in flocks
- Dog bane turns yellow
- Gray and zigzag goldenrods begin to bloom, as well as many asters
- Tawny cottongrass comes to seed in swamps (other species of cottongrass set seed earlier)
- Black ash turns yellow
- Fireweed goes to seed
- Red maples have a few red leaves
- Fawns lose their spots
That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
