sneezeweed

Sneezeweed Helenium autumnale, a late-summer bloomer, will feed bees and butterflies and unfold their blooms continuously until the first freeze here.  Sneezeweed can be identified by the wings in each stem; the base of the leaf extends down the stem to the next leaf.  

mountain mint

Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum virginianum  is blooming in the marsh around the pond.  

It offers very fragrant leaves and many small flowers that attract bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, and beetles.

yellow loosestrife

Small yellow wildflowers, brightening the green grasses and rushes around the pond now, are River Loosestrife Lysimachia hybrida, or Lowland Yellow Loosestrife. This plant bloomed last year, and came back stronger with more stems this season.  Lysmachias produce floral oil rather than nectar.  These plants are also pollen hosts for Macropis bees; the bees specialize in using a mixture of pollen and floral oil to produce offspring.  read more at U of MN Extension