The Last Bites

 

A last blast of summer heat this week and dry weather made for some crispy leaves when fall officially arrived this week. A lingering Covid infection restricted me to watering the plants on the deck and sweeping off the early fallen leaves. Yet the buds on the asters and the drooping clusters of viburnum fruits (Viburnum dentatum and prunifolium, in particular) remind me that there are still two months of eating.

Fruits of Viburnum prunifolium ripening

Now is a good time to take stock of your fall garden, evaluate whether it still has something to offer for the critters that might come through before the year is done.

• Insects finish up their life cycle: bumble bees are still gathering pollen and nectar to provision the next generation; the last of the caterpillars (future moths and butterflies) are still eating some foliage. Some of those caterpillars will yet become bird food for warblers.

• Some birds fuel up to migrate: they eat high fat fruits like spicebush (Lindera benzoin), wax myrtle (Morella cerifera), Viburnum, black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), dogwood (Benthamidia florida, formerly Cornus florida). Did you leave your pokeweed up all year? If so, leave the fruits for the birds!*

 

Asters, even the small ones, provide much help to bees
and their seeds feed birds

It’s important to have high quality vegetation in September-October. This includes late-blooming annuals and perennials like native asters, blazingstars (Liatris), goldenrod (Solidago), and boneset/thoroughwort (Eupatorium). I’ve linked some of my earlier blogs on these plants so that you can get ideas and species names. Many folks are leery of introducing goldenrod to their garden, but my post provides information on garden-friendly ones that won't overrun your space.

Seasonal fall sales are happening now in Georgia. It’s a good time to pick up things to fill any gaps you may identify in your bloom timeline. I also encourage you to visit some of the smaller native plant nurseries in the state; they are run by families dedicated to bringing native plants into the landscape. Look for the column marked “Primarily Natives” in this table to find them.

*Other ideas for fall fruit can be found in this post.

 

Annuals Fill the Gaps

 

The abundance of plant life seems to be at its peak in late summer. My beds are full of foliage, and the stems spill out onto the path to the front door, no doubt vexing the folks who deliver packages. One such person told my husband that it looks ‘snaky,’ but I rarely see snakes in my yard.

Bidens aristosa in my yard

The roadsides are also lush with plants and I delight in trying to figure out what’s there as I drive by. In both cases – the roadside and my yard – much of the vegetation belongs to native annuals. In the case of roadsides, there is a lot of ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). In the case of my yard, it is partridge pea and tickseed (Bidens aristosa).

The phrase “nature abhors a vacuum” is perfectly appropriate here as bare ground sprouts whatever seeds it can. Annuals are often the first to take over, helping to prep the area for the grasses, perennials, and woody plants that follow the path of plant succession.

Partridge pea on roadside, mixed
with a little ragweed

Soon, these guys will be gone, leaving an abundance of seeds to carry on the role next year. I clip a lot of the seedheads and share them with friends (or throw them in ditches to get them started elsewhere!). The bees are happy to see these plants wherever they bloom.

Bidens aristosa in my yard with a happy bee

September 2022 Moment in Nature

This month’s #amomentinnature celebrates one of those happy moments when one of your plants looks awesome! My hearts a bustin' shrub (Euonymus americanus) is under constant deer pressure. I'm used to finding only a few clusters of fruit on a plant that has been heavily browsed.

This year was different and when I walked past this particular plant, I was so surprised and grateful. This photo doesn't do justice to the dozens of fruits it was sporting.

Euonymus americanus

This is a great plant to support birds. This month is Georgia Grows Native for Birds, an initiative sponsored by Georgia Audubon. For more bird food ideas, visit my earlier blog for suggestions.

Is Tall Really Different from Giant?

 

I love learning new things, especially about Georgia’s native plants. It’s the beginning of goldenrod season and for years I’ve assumed (yes, assumed!) that all of the spreading roadside goldenrod near me is the species known as tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima) – now considered Southern late goldenrod (Solidago altissima var. pluricephala). Several things happened recently that made me take a look at a species I’d never considered: giant goldenrod (Solidago gigantea).

On a long roadside near my house - the same one with the elderberries that I wrote about in June - I noticed a tall, blooming goldenrod in the early part of August (which is early). I also noticed that the infloresence shape was different. These plants had a more openly branched inflorescence. When S. altissima blooms, its inflorescence has more of a pyramidal shape.

S. gigantea with smooth stems

The next thing that happened is that someone mentioned finding Solidago gigantea in a county near me, specifically saying that they identified it because of the smooth stem. So that started a thought in my head that maybe I was seeing something different.

Finally, while that thought was still percolating, I went to visit a friend’s garden and she had a large blooming goldenrod (again too early for normal tall goldenrod). We examined it and indeed the stem below the flowers was smooth. I stopped by the roadside near me on the way home to compare stems and – sure enough – they were smooth as well. I snagged a stem to take home for further inspection.

After further research (Weakley’s Flora, the awesome Astereae Lab at the University of Waterloo, and other references including range maps), I have decided that we do have Solidago gigantea nearby. It’s always exciting to find new species in my area!

Solidago gigantea, branched inflorescence

Solidago altissima, pyramidal inflorescence

How crazy are those names, by the way? Is tall (altissima) a word that really conveys a difference from giant (gigantea) in regards to these plants? Perhaps someone ran out of adjectives and could not think of another characteristic to use for the name? There are a few sites that also refer to Solidago gigantea as ‘smooth’ goldenrod. In my opinion, that is a better name.     

Gulf fritillary stopped by to visit the S. gigantea