Wildflowers of Mid-July

The alfalfa is blooming right now.  Its blossoms range in color from pale yellow and white, to a variety of purples and lavenders. When the wind blows, its sticky saccharine scent carries in ambrosial waves.  When cut at the right time, alfalfa can make tremendous hay. 

This year, the yellow sweet clover is abundant. It looks much different from clover varieties I am accustomed to from growing up in Iowa, a state of tall-grass prairie, marshes, and woods. I am told yellow sweet clover is usually biennial and largely dependent upon moisture. With the unusually wet spring, the clover has taken off.  It grows like a small bush aflame with yellow pinpoint blossoms and is a beautiful contrast between green grasses and bright blue sky.  Because of its height along roadways where it will seldom be cut, it provides a thick hiding place for deer and other animals. 

Cheerful yellow sunflowers are blooming wild along the roadsides right now, too. Their heavy blossoms follow the sun like a penitent pilgrim. They will not likely be cut by the swather or mower.  Instead, a few flowers were harvested by my scissors and happily fill a stoneware vase on my kitchen table. 

Walking yesterday afternoon, my copper-colored dog nearly swimming in the green waves of roadside grasses, I saw each of these plants plus many more I cannot yet identify.  My husband and father-in-law seem to know the names each of the multitudinous grasses, herbs, and wildflowers in the fields and along the roadsides. They know which are good for grazing, which are weeds in a wheat field, and which are simply wildflowers doing no harm, nor good for farming, but provide beauty to this great northern landscape.  I have much to learn.