Before the Fall

While pedaling past endless fields of our native goldenrod (Solidago) on my beloved Ebike, “September’s Idyllic Berkshires” struck me as an inspiring title for a new piece. Back home, all excited, I mentioned it to my husband, David who suggested instead:“Before the Fall”. This struck me as a rather sobering thought since the Equinox isn’t even upon us. Leaves are only hinting at what’s to come and the frost hasn’t wiped out the basil or white impatiens in my garden.

Still, a shift in seasons is occuring. While relishing in the crisp coolness of the air, I could breathe a sigh of relief from August’s hot and humid, claustrophobic days relieved by diving into a lake, or my backyard swimming pool. While so much evidence of climate change is depressing, even overwhelming, the presence of seasons, like the phases of the moon, bring a sense of continuity, of “normalness” to our planet. Migratory creatures such as warblers, honking geese, monarch butterflies and hummingbirds are, once again, heading south, taking their cue from shorter days now upon us.

September and June are my favorite months of the year. June offers a portal to a lush summer; September a hint of what’s around the corner: brilliant colors, outrageously shaped gourds and monstrous pumpkins and breezes filled with leaves falling like confetti.

Fortunately we can also enjoy by the roadside fields of wildflowers such as goldenrod, milkweed, Queen Anne’s Lace, native asters, and the invasive, but striking amethyst purple loosestrife, among others. Once sold in nurseries as an ornamental, it pops up quite uninvited by rivers and in the middle of fields.

A few closeups of autumn bloomers below including the “trashy” but striking purple loosestrife.

When it comes to another yellow and purple combination, goldenrod paired with purple fall asters, also native, is a winner. Robin Wall Kimmerer author of “Braiding Sweetgrass”, stated when asked by an interviewer why she chose botany as a major in university she responded: “because I wanted to learn why asters and goldenrod looked so beautiful together.” See for yourself the purple aster:

Another knockout that seems to emerge overnight are the burgundy red, velvety sumac fruits called “drupes” once used for culinary and medicinal purposes by Native Americans. I hear they make for a great lemony type of tea — as well as for dyes.

Below, we have first the dark pink-flowered Joe-Pye weed, (Eutrochium purpureum) and milkweed (Asclepias) both splendid in different ways from summer through fall. I particularly love how milkweed displays its pods now which then “explode” as little tufts of white cotton. It is an essential plant to monarchs as they transition on their migration north from Mexico in the spring. Traveling thousands of miles to return once again to their same winter abode in the Oyamel forests of Michoacan, their four stages life cycle goes from egg to larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and finally, adult butterfly which knows how to return to the same site, 2000 or so miles away.

Milkweed acts as the unique host to the females laying their eggs and then to the caterpillars relying on the milkweed’s leaves for nourishment and later for much needed nectar for their long trip south.So sad not to see many these days…