10 August 2024

This week a flower garden caught my attention with bright yellow-orange cosmos flowers. The plants were in three stages: flowering, going to seed, and seeds formed.

Cosmos suphureus petals are quite showy to attract pollinators to the central disk. When the small flowers inside the disk are fertilized the petals fall off and the disk begins to develop into long thin seedpods.

When complete the seed pods resemble the hitchhiking seeds of beggar ticks (Bidens frondosa). Both are in the Coreopsideae tribe along with coreoposis, dahlias and many others.

Also seen …

It’s August and, as expected, deer are more visible in Schenley Park. Two does and two fawns approached Panther Hollow Lake on Friday. We can expect to see lots of deer lounging in the city parks in the days ahead. It is The Calm Before The Rut.

On the cloudy morning of 6 August, daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) was still opening its flowers in Frick Park. Fleabane petals respond to light levels. It’s part of Fleabane’s daily exercise program.

After all these years I’ve just discovered that horseweed (Erigeron canadensis) is a fleabane. (That’s what comes of learning plants on the fly.)