Wildflowers of Early Fall

People, what is with me?  I lived 56 years and flowers never caught my attention.  Then just a few weeks ago, I saw the bushy round pinkish-purple heads of the Joe Pye weeds nodding along a rural roadside...  My conversion was instantaneous.  I stopped and picked a few.  Now I'm learning to identify them and dry them.  I've stopped picking them because I actually do have more than enough.  This low-growing plant is called heal-all.  I learned some years ago that it's used in herbal medicine to treat wounds, skin conditions, and sore throats.

I think this is white snakeroot, but it could be boneset.  It's blooming everywhere right now, even as the Queen Anne's lace and Joe Pye weed are fading.

No idea what this bedazzling creature might be...

The Joe Pyes are all fading to brown.

Asters and goldenrod.

And another kind of aster.

Jewelweed.  My brothers and I used to rub this stuff on our skin if we ever got stung by nettles.  It actually works!  Some people apply it to poison ivy.  They're wild impatiens that contain a lot of fluid.

I was surprised to learn that this is a wild sunflower.  Contrary to myth, sunflowers do not turn their heads to follow the sun.  My wildflower guide, which I bought used for $3, says that every part of this plant is edible except the roots.

Click on this photo.  Does it seem like this stuff used to be everywhere, and now it's not?  This is called smartweed.  No idea how it got its name.  When I was a kid, it seemed like it was in every lawn and green space.  Now I rarely see it.

Like I've said in previous posts, it amazes me that I can still be taking on new interests at my age.  But in a way it makes me sad to realize that I was missing out on so much beauty and joy for all these years.  Ah well, you could only have been who and how you were because that was the road that got you to who and how you are now.  True?

I mean...look at this weirdness.  I've got wildflowers hanging from the rafters of my basement up north.  After they dry, I spray them down with hairspray to keep them from falling apart, and in the winter I'll put them out in vases.  How did this become my life?  (Did you know they're still manufacturing hairspray?  It's used quite heavily up in the North Country...)