Wildflower Mania

A.k.a. Part 2 of my photo op-seeking drive this past Sun...after stopping along the Mickelsen Trail near Rochford, I headed back E on CR 237, and along the way I pulled over at an old logging road to look at some wildflowers...and found a lot more varieties than I expected, which is typical with wildflowers...there is always more than meets the eye from the road when taking a few steps beyond the road's edge...

The marsh hedgenettle has joined the ranks of the mints growing near creeks in the Hills...

The black-eyed Susans are everywhere...you can see it had rained the night before...

The smooth beardtongue, aka blue penstemon, grows in dry, rocky soil...oopsie, seems I barged in on a yellowjacket pair...

There are several cinquefoils (rose family) growing wild in the Black Hills, some hard to ID due to sameness...but below is the shrubby cinquefoil; we have the cultivated version in our backyard...above is the sulfur cinquefoil with a matching yellow and black beetle-type bug...as yet un-ID'd...

I was excited to discover a whole field of Columbia monkshood across the road from where I'd stopped! Last year I didn't see the monkshood other than two-three scraggly flowers in one spot...below you can see how it got its name...from the buttercup family.

The candle anemone flower, also a buttercup...

Lavender hyssop, another mint...

The Richardson's geranium is growing strong now, pretty w/ its purple veins...

The harebell is really abundant in the Hills, hard to photograph, drives me nuts...like the loosestrife...opaqueness, light, shape, angle? All of the above? Yeesh...

The showy deathcama is a lily, but like its name implies, it's poisonous...so I don't nibble on it...

A ladybug on fleabane...

Blanketflower comes in a lot of variety of coloring...this one a pale orange...later I'll post the more showy dark red variation most easily found in Vanocker Canyon...

Last but not least, the prairie smoke is always a welcome sight...I've seen very little this year and most was past its prime...it's clearly a unique flower, and it's a rose!  :o)