"September may be described as the month of tall weeds;" says John Burroughs."Where they have been suffered to stand, along fences, by roadsides, and in forgotten corners,- redroot, ragweed, vervain, goldenrod, burdock, elecampane, thistles, teasels, nettles, asters, etc.- how they lift themselves up as if not afraid to be seen now! They are all outlaws; every man's hand is against them yet how surely they hold their own.They love the roadside, because here they are comparatively safe and ragged and dusty, like the common tramps that they are, they form one of the characteristic features of early fall."Yet the elecampane has not always led a vagabond existence.Once it had its passage paid across the Atlantic, because special virtue was attributed to its thick, mucilaginous roots as a horse-medicine.For over two thousand years it has been employed by home doctors in Europe and Asia; and at first Old World immigrants thought they could not live here without the plant on their farms.Once given a chance to naturalize itself, no composite is slow in seizing it.The vigorous elecampane, rearing its fringy, yellow disks above lichen-covered stone walls in New England, the Virginia rail fence, and the rank weedy growth along barbed-wire barriers farther west, now bids fair to cross the continent.
CUP-PLANT; INDIAN-CUP; RAGGED CUP; ROSIN-PLANT(Silphium perfoliatum) Thistle family Plower-heads - Yellow, nearly flat; 2 to 3 in.across; 20 to 30narrow, pistillate ray florets, about 1 in.long, overlapping in 2 or 3 series around the perfect but sterile disk florets.Stem:
4 to 8 ft.tall, square, smooth, usually branched above.
Leaves: Opposite, ovate, upper ones united by their bases to form a cup; lower ones large, coarsely toothed, and narrowed into margined petioles; all filled with resinous juice.
Preferred Habitat - Moist soil, low ground near streams.
Flowering Season - July-September.
Distribution - Ontario, New York, and Georgia, westward to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Louisiana.
It behooves a species related to the wonderful compass-plant (q.v.) to do something unusual with its leaves; hence this one makes cups to catch rain by uniting its upper pairs.Darwin's experiments with infinitesimal doses of ammonia in stimulating leaf activity may throw some light on this singular arrangement.
So many plants provide traps to catch rain, although fourteen gallons of it contain only one grain of ammonia, that we must believe there is a wise physiological reason for calling upon the leaves to assist the roots in absorbing it, A native of Western prairies, the cup-plant has now become naturalized so far east as the neighborhood 6f New York City.
FALSE SUNFLOWER; OX-EYE
(Heliopsis helianthoides; H.laevis of Gray) Thistle family Flower-heads - Entirely golden yellow, daisy-like, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2in.across, the perfect disk florets inserted on a convex, chaffy receptacle, and surrounded by pistillate, fertile, 3-toothed ray florets; usually numerous solitary heads borne on long peduncles from axils of upper leaves.Stem: 3 to 5 ft.tall, branching above, smooth.Leaves: Opposite, ovate, and tapering to a sharp point, sharply and evenly toothed.
Preferred Habitat - Open places; rich, low ground; beside streams.
Flowering Season - July-September.
Distribution - Southern Canada to Florida, westward to Illinois and Kentucky.
Along the streams the numerous flower-heads of this gorgeous sunbearer shine out from afar, brightening a long, meandering course across the low-lying meadows.Like heralds of good things to come, they march a little in advance of the brilliant pageant of wild flowers that sweeps across the country from midsummer till killing frost.Most people mistake them for true, yellow-disked sunflowers, whose ray florets are neutral, not fertile as these long persistent ones are, But no one should confuse them with the dark cone-centered ox-eye daisy.Small bees, wasps, hornets, flies, little butterflies, beetles, and lower insects come to feast on the nectar and pollen within the minute tubular disk florets.The bright fulvous and black pearl crescent butterfly, with a trifle over an inch wing expanse; the common hairstreak; the even commoner little white butterfly; and the tiny black sooty wing, among others, appear to find generous entertainment here.The last named little fellow, when in the caterpillar stage, formed a cradle for himself by folding together a leaf of the ubiquitous green-flowered pigweed or lamb's quarters (Cizenopodium album) and stitching the edges together with a few silken threads.Here it slept by day, emerging only at night to feed.Usually one has not long to wait before discovering the white-dotted sooty wing among the midsummer composites.
BLACK-EYED SUSAN; YELLOW or OX-EYE DAISY; NIGGER-HEAD; GOLDENJERUSALEM; PURPLE CONE-FLOWER
(Rudbeckia hirta) Thistle family Flower-heads - From 10 to 20 orange-yellow neutral rays around a conical, dark purplish-brown disk of florets containing both stamens and pistil.Stem: 1 to 3 ft.tall, hairy, rough, usually unbranched, often tufted.Leaves: Oblong to lance-shaped, thick, sparingly notched, rough.
Preferred Habitat - Open sunny places; dry fields.
Flowering Season - May-September.
Distribution - Ontario and the Northwest Territory south to Colorado and the Gulf States.