Fall Wildflowers

The last wildflowers of the year are holding on blooming their all until a hard frost puts an end to their parade.

These Aromatic Asters have flowers no bigger than the tip of your finger, but they make up for it by putting out hundreds of flowers. The honeybees adore them.

For the Hairy Aster, it’s the same story: tiny flowers but a lot of ’em.

Showy Goldenrod lives up to it’s name with bright yellow flowers atop 5 foot stems.

I love the way this sways in the breeze, and the honeybees love all the nectar it provides.

Native Americans used the roots to treat burns, difficult childbirths, and lung hemorrhages. They used stems and roots to make a warm poultice for sore muscles. The roots and stems were also mixed with bear fat to make a hair ointment.

Burgundy Blanketflower, a relative of Indian Blanketflower, a wildflower, blooms all summer and into the fall.

The blooms are 2 -3 inches across.   The Kiowa Tribe thought the flowers brought good luck.

Surprisingly, all of the flowers in this post belong to the sunflower family. I knew the asters and the blanketflower were from the sunflower family, but had no idea goldenrod, with it’s itty bitty yellow blooms each about the size of a small peppercorn was a member of the family.

Did you know sunflowers come in such a wide variety of sizes and colors? I didn’t.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ad name=”Google Adsense”]