On Sunday I went to Jennings to see the prairie in bloom. The colors are at their peak right now with flowering Ironweed, Culvers root, Goldenrod, Blazing star and this enormous plant, Tall or Giant sunflower (Helianthus giganteus).
There are many yellow composite flowers at Jennings and I find them hard to identify. Dianne Machesney helped me with this one by pointing out that some of its leaves are opposite but most are alternate. The big clue for me is that the stem is red-purple and the plant is very tall.
Tall is an understatement. Because it’s growing right next to the trail I could easily compare it to my height. It’s probably 9 feet tall.
And the wonder of it is this: It grew from ground level to 9 feet in only four months.
(photo by Kate St. John)
Another clue I use in plant identification is texture. Feel the leaf of the sunflower.
We have Century plants, or Agave Americana out here and they put up quite the flowering stalk. I saw one that was 2 stories high. But the thing about the Agaves is that they only bloom once, at the end of their life. We’re going to plant some in our front yard, but we may not even be living there when they bloom. Or my daughter could be married and have kids by then!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_americana