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By Greg Lecker

The clearing skies of morning are punctuated with the honking and overhead flight of Canada geese that are gathering in flocks. At the entry to the Grace Dayton Wildflowers Garden (easily accessed from the Sensory Garden parking lot), I see drifts of plantings nodding after overnight rains.

Green Headed Coneflower

Green headed coneflower are most abundant. The petals are sparser than most plant species that we commonly lump together as "black-eyed Susan" flowers. In fact, the center head of this composite (daisy-like) flower are most often green. As the flower matures, the flower center turns yellow before aging to brown seed heads. It does resemble a pin cushion – a bit more "pin-headed" than a cushion.  Overall, the plant is much taller than most yellow coneflowers.  Today however, the plant nods after being pelted with rain and winds. The big difference between this plant and other "black-eyed Susan" flowers is the shape of its leaves. The leaves near the middle to bottom of the plant stalks are lobed.  As leaves progress up the flower stem, the lobes become softer until each leaf is a simple triangular leaf.

Walking downhill into the woodland garden, one hears the welcome sound of the brook running strong. Thanks to Arboretum water management, there is no "flash flood". Much of the water is diverted underground through a storm capture system via an upstream opening topped with a metal grate, just ahead of the concrete dam and V-shaped spillway. 

Everything feels fresh and cool after several days of rain.  A welcome breeze carries the woodsy aroma of wet soil and slightly rotting foliage – a slight senescence – a word that describes loss of cell power and growth.  The word senescence (obviously more positive than the word senility) suggests a relinquishing to age. In nature, this period of short-term winter rest yields to rebirth in the spring.

In the spring, tell-tale heart-shaped basal leaves will carpet the North Shore in spring.  These are large-leaved or big leaf aster - a common plant of Minnesota deciduous and coniferous forests.  

Large-leaved Aster

One will find these asters blooming now in southern Minnesota and over the next few weeks in northern Minnesota, these pale blue to violet of nearly white flowers brighten the forest floor.  

Campers and hikers refer to these plants as "nature's toilet paper" because of the large, mostly hairless leaves (at least on the top soft surface of the leaves). Enough said about the foliage, I think.  Red berries divert my attention.

Red Baneberry

The fern-like foliage always delights me.  For most of the summer and persisting into the autumn, red berries nod above the foliage. If you find similar white berries with a small black dot, you've found white baneberry – also called "doll's eye". Neither the red nor the white berries are edible!

In the Capen display garden next to the prairie parking lot, the water features are running strong. Thanks to the rain, I'm able to capture the very tall prairie dock's flowers and leaves in one snapshot. I recall how I wrote a month ago "in August, the flower stalks will have grown to nine feet, or more – occasionally topping out at thirteen feet – stretching out of a single portrait camera frame!". Fortuitously, the plant has bowed down towards me so as to fit within a single vertical camera frame. 

Prairie Dock

Look beyond the foreground yellow flowers and arcing plant stems and you'll see the triangular basal leaves – 18" tall.  Then arching toward the viewer, stretching in a foreshortened fashion are the flowers and developing seed heads. Usually, these flowers are 8 to 12 feet above the leaves at the base of the stems. Today, the strong stems have yielded – but have not broken.  Within days, I'm sure, the stems will have largely rebounded in height with just a slight curve remaining.  The flower seed heads resemble those of other yellow prairie composite flowers:  tight and knobby.

As I returning back to the parking lot on the opposite side of the brook – I find that the flowering water plays "hide-and-seek", heard but not often found, under the lush undergrowth.  Many of the plants are red turtlehead – now faded to a pink.

Pink Turtlehead

The flower head of turtlehead resembles the smaller garden snapdragon to whose family the native plant belongs.  Flowers consist of a tight cluster of many pink to reddish flowers.  Petals are fused into a tubular flower that reminds one of a turtle's head, the reason for the flower's common name.  The plant's botanical name, Chelone (pronounced with a hard "c", (rhymes with baloney) means tortoise in Greek.  Unlike a tortoise, I make fast tracks to enjoy the rest of my late summer hike!

 Greg Lecker is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer.