pasque flowers

American Pasqueflower or Eastern Pasqueflower (in the Buttercup family) provides a large amount of pollen for pollinators, an important early-spring resource for female bees to provision their nests.

culver's root

Culver's Root Veronicastrum virginicum is found growing in wetlands and wet prairies.

The individual flowers are comprised of four fused petals up to a half an inch long. A main spike at the top of the plant is surrounded by several other spikes of flowers. The flowers bloom from the bottom of the spike up.  Culver's Root is not bothered much by leaf-chewing insects or mammalian herbivores. The seeds are too tiny to be of much interest to birds.  However, many varieties of insects visit the flowers to collect pollen or drink nectar. 

(above left)  Culver's Root just before it blooms.

(above right) A Black Wasp drinks nectar from the flowers while hunting for prey items; their bodies are covered in fine hairs that also collect pollen.

(below) A Bumble Bee with bulging pollen pockets stops for just a few more from this blooming Culvers Root.

early purple ivy blooms

These lovely purple flowers are loved by bees. The early blooms help feed insects before a lot of other flowers open. This 'ground ivy' has a long history of medicinal use. It is usually evergreen throughout winter if covered by snow. Part of the mint family of plants, it is also aromatic.  

Some lawn owners know it as a pest, and call it 
creeping charlie, gill-over-the-ground, alehoof, 
tunhoof, catsfoot, field balm, or run-away-robin.
I admire the shape and texture of the leaves, and 
used them in a botanical design project.

nectar and pollen

Before June, dandelion flowers are one of a few important food source for pollinators, providing both nectar and pollen for bumblebees and honey bees. Other various insects like beetles, hoverflies and butterflies use the nectar as food. Some birds eat the seeds. 

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 

September wildflowers

 Coneflower, Mountain Mint, Sneezeweed, Ironweed, Asters, Goldenrod.

goldenrod

 

To complement all the blue and purple flowers around the pond this week, the Goldenrod has unfurled its blooms.  Solidago species, commonly called Goldenrods, are in a genus of more than 100 species of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae.

Goldenrods are often blamed for allergies, but they have sticky pollen and rely on insects to move most of it.  The wind borne pollen of ragweeds and pigweeds are to blame for 'hay fever' in late summer.

These plants are habitat for a large number of insect species. Blooming in late summer, they are a critical nectar source for many bees, butterflies, and moths to fortify themselves before freezing weather comes. 

ironweed

The tall, stately plants topped by brilliant purple flowers -- blooming now by the pond -- are Common Ironweed Vernonia fasciculata.  Each 5- or 6-foot tall plant has a purple-green stem, dark green toothed leaves along the stem, and clusters of flowers at the top. Clusters are made up of many flower heads, each about 3/4” across. After the flowers open and mature, each becomes a fruit that is composed of a dry seed with a tuft of coppery brown hair. 

This is a host plant for the 'American Painted Lady' butterfly and also has value to native bees.

Ironweed got its common name because of several qualities: tough straight stems like iron rods, fading purple flowers become rusty-tinged, and seeds are colored like rust.

Ironweed is one of about 500 species of perennial plants constituting the genus Vernonia of the family Asteraceae; it's species are distributed throughout the world.

Monarch butterfly caterpillars

The  rose flowers of Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata plants are blooming in several places along the shore around the pond.  Actually, the flowers can vary in color from soft mauve to dusty pink to soft crimson violet.  This milkweed attracts a profusion of butterflies and other pollinators who lap up its nectar.  The Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus uses the milkweed as its host plant. A host plant is where the butterfly will lays its eggs exclusively, because the larvae that hatch will have a ready supply of the only plant they will eat.  This Swamp Milkweed had two different size caterpillars feasting on leaves.  (In these photos, golden aphids share the sweetness of the plant.)

bees on thistle

nectar

White Sweet Clover is a another plant brought to North America as a green manure for fields and as a forage crop for livestock. And it is another plant that quickly escaped cultivation, now growing in disturbed areas as a weed.

It can be a nuisance because the seeds can persist in the soil for several decades and remain viable.

But it is considered an excellent nectar plant by beekeepers, especially for Honey Bees.
Many kinds of insects feast on the nectar, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, beetles, and plant bugs.  Short-tongued bees also collect and transfer its pollen.

Both the foliage and flowers are mildly fragrant. White Sweet Clover Melilotus alba blooms from early summer to fall.

Monarda - Bee Balm

Wild Bergamot Monarda didyma is blooming now in the buffer around the pond.
Also known as bee balm, horsemint, oswego tea, bergamot, wild bergamot, mintleaf beebalm, horse-mint, purple beebalm.

Monarda species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species.

Even before it blooms, the plant becomes colorful and promises its flowers will be interesting in structure (below).

Ironweed ready to bloom

Ironweed Vernonia fasciculata is growing tall in the buffer around the pond.  Soon, it will open its brilliant purple aster-like flowers in clusters at the top of each regal plant.  The name 'Ironweed'  becomes this plant because the stem is tough, straight, and strong, up to 6 feet tall.  It is very attractive to butterflies and native bees, and is a host plant for the American Painted Lady butterfly.
In the photo below, you can see the upper 12 inches of a six-foot tall specimen with flower buds.

Vervain blooming

Blue Vervain Verbena hastata is a graceful plant in the wetland, with numerous crowning spikes of blossoms that give a candelabra-like appearance.  Each tubular, blue-violet flower is only about 1/4 inch.  They bloom on spikes held on the very crown of the plant, opening from the bottom up in July's heat.

Both short-tongued and long-tongued bees visit Vervain for nectar.  Later, the seeds will be a staple food for many small mammals and birds like Cardinals, Sparrows, and Juncos.

Mountain Mint blooming

Blooming now in the riparian buffer around the pond - -  Virginia Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum.  Look for them as  2 or 3 foot tall bushy plants.  Because the individual flowers are tiny, this plant is an important food for short-tongued bees.  They can reach into the flowers easily to drink the nectar.  In the photo above, you can see the clusters of tiny white flowers with delicate purple spots.  The flowers open one at a time, providing nectar over many days.
Below, this subtle plant grows among yellow Birdsfoot Trefoil and daisy-like Fleabane.

swamp milkweed blooming

Last summer, a few Milkweed plants were blooming on the wetland surrounding the pond.

This is Swamp
Milkweed Asclepias incarnata; it thrives in wet soil, and we encourage it here for the pollinators who thrive on the flowers' nectar.

It usually blooms pink, on two foot tall stems. There are some white blooms also.

This fall, we will try to coax the seeds of these plants to sprout new plants for more blooms in future seasons.

alfalfa

Alfalfa Medicago sativa is another forage crop grown around the world. But it escaped and now commonly sprouts along roads and degraded or disturbed areas.  Also called lucerne or purple medic, Alfalfa adds its deep purple blooms to the wildflower palette around the pond.  Known for the remarkable productivity and quality of its herbage, the plant is also valued in soil improvement and is grown as a green manure.  We are glad it is present here to add its color and value to the pond area.

Alsike Clover

Clover is a forage crop around the world.  But it readily escapes cultivation, so it is common in meadows and in disturbed places.  This pond and surrounding wetland was disturbed during transition to a neighborhood, and some native plant seed was sown.  So, we have clover.

Alsike Clover Trifolium hybridum flowers are light pink turning darker pink with age, giving the head a distinct two-tone color pattern as lower blossoms on the globe mature first.

Clover is one of the main nectar sources for honeybees.  The resident Muskrats are very fond of clover.  We see them swimming across the pond, picking a bunch of clover stems and leaves with flowers, then swimming back across the pond to their burrow.

bee on cranesbill

While admiring the Cranesbill 'Karmina' in the gardens today, I noticed a fuzzy bee hurrying from one to another of the blooms that are just beginning to open.  I believe it is a Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica, commonly a nester in various types of wood; they eat pollen and nectar.

germander

Germander Teucrium canadense self-seeded a few years ago where the slopes drain rainwater down to the swale and into the woods.  Tiny 3/8" flowers cluster on spikes that stand six inches above green leaves.  Bees collect pollen and suck nectar from Germander.  The leaves are bitter, so the rabbits and deer do not browse these plants.