Autumn in Iowa Part 2

The wildflowers of summer are beginning to fade as fall approaches. They kind of bloom themselves to death! Growth during the hot, humid, rainy summer runs rampant...it's almost a relief to watch it slow down as it cools off. I know I really appreciate being able to mow the yard every 10 days instead of every 5-6 days during the height of summer. Most of what is blooming now is yellow; I don't have a clue about the real names. When I was in Yellowstone, yellow flowers were all lumped together as "DYC's" or damned yellow composites. No one else could remember the yellow names either. So here are some DYC's growing the ditch along the road where I walked Lucie yesterday.

Here are photos of other ditch plants. The yellow one is goldenrod more commonly known as ragweed. It causes a lot of grief this time of year in the form of sneezing, stuffy noses and teary eyes...not a favorite flower of very many people!

The seed pods are from the milkweed plant.

They swell and burst in late summer spewing their seeds in cottony fluff that gets caught on passing animals or drifts on the wind to new ground.