Mid August

Mountain Mint

Mountain mint

Pyncanthemum virginianum

18" to 24" tall
Fine foliage in fine straight stem
Fragrant foliage

Spreading airy plant

Attractive to a great many pollinators such that the plants can be abuzz with life:  Bees, bumblebees, wasps, flies, butteflies, clearwing moths.  Often visited by beautiful blue mud dauber wasps.

 

What Is This?

Taken in mid August, this plant has a late flower and a developing seed pod. The leaf is a compound leaf with many paired tiny leaflets.

Illinois Bundleflower

Illinois bundleflower

3' tall
but flops over for lower effect
'Bundleflower' actually refers to this, the seed head, made up of tiny pods curled together
Actual flower is iny white ball

Rattlesnake Master

Rattlesnake master

Eryngium yuccifolium
Foliage waxy blue 2' tall
Flower 3' tall

Pale Indian Plantain

Pale Indian Plantain

Cacalia atriplicifolia

5' tall
Red to purple waxy coated stem

Modern House in the Prairie

Urban Rattlesnake Master

Rattlesnake master

30" tall with a lower basal clump of bluegreen foliage

Sculptural branched heads of spherical flowers

Contrastiing white to the black fence

Cream Gentian

Cream gentian

Gentiana flavida

2' tall

Leaves shiny and opposite, with each layer rotated 90 degrees from the last

Bumble bees struggle to get inside for the nectar

White Wild Indigo

White Wild Indigo

Baptisia leucantha

Foliage 24" to 30" tall

Flower stalks 30" to 42" tall

Blue green foliage stands out from green of other prairie plants

Flowers followed by deep blue black pods

Wild Quinine

Wild Quinine

Parthenium integrifolium

3' flat topped flower cluster over 2' cluster of long oval leaves

Long flowering period

Rattlesnake Master

Rattlesnake Master
Eryngium yuccifolium
Flower 3' tall
Leaves 2' tall

Yes, these white 'balls' are the flower clusters of this pretty stately plant.  The leaves are pretty on their own, a blue-green that stands out nicely from other green-green foliage.  Because the ball is a cluster of individual white flowers that mature into individual seed over time and then linger on into winter, these have the appearance of a very long bloom time. 

Nodding WIld Onion

Nodding Wild Onion

Allium cernum

15 inches

Late July

Rattlesnake Master

Rattlesnake Master

Eryngium yuccifolium

Foliage 18"

Flower Stalk 30"

Elderberry in Flower

Elderberry

Woody plants that spread by underground runners often thrive in the prairie in small patches, because even thought the prairie fires kill back the tops, the protected roots sprout new stalks. In the years after a burn, the new twiggy shrubs often produce many more berries than in years where no fire preceeded.

White Wild Indigo

White Wild Indigo

Baptisia leucantha

or

Baptisia alba

24" to 30"

Blue Green foliage

Blue black seed pods often are inhabited by a weevil specific to baptisia plants.