In my Joe-Pye weed post last week I said I had two favorite late summer flowers. Here’s the other one: Tall Ironweed (Vernonia altissima).
Deep magenta-purple flowers in a showy flat-topped cluster at the top of a 10-foot plant. The stem is so tough – like iron – that cattle won’t browse it in the fields so it stands as an ornament. It’s so large you can easily see it from the highway, so beautiful it’s worth stopping to take a look.
(photo by Chuck Tague)
Hi, thanks a lot for ID, photo and info about this beautiful flower! I had often wondered about it.
Oops, I had not seen the ‘leave a tip’ part. Though I would like to make a gift to this beautiful blog (birds and plants are my favourite interests), I don’t give out my card details. Not to worry, I know many who do, and I’ll send it through one of them.