October's Roadside Flowers

     Several kinds of plants along rural roadsides in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania still bloom toward the end of October, adding to the beauties of that month, and autumn.  However, all these plants are still flowering from summer.  They are reminiscent of that warm season "..... when the living is easy".  And they make attractive roadside bouquets of at least a few colors that are free for the looking as one walks or drives by them.
     No one color dominates those blossoms in October, but yellow is the brightest and often noticed first.  Evening primrose, Canada goldenrod and dandelions have yellow blooms on tall stalks, if they weren't mowed, while butter-and-eggs have golden flowers on naturally short stems.  Goldenrod is one of the last sources of nectar for small butterflies and other kinds of insects in October.  Dandelion flowers still produce seeds with parachutes during that fall month.  And the last species has blossoms that look like those on snapdragons because those species are related. 
     White flowers are also readily noticeable along country roads.  Queen-Anne's-lace, evening lynchis and a kind of aster have white blossoms still in bloom through October.  Queen-Anne's-lace has tiny blooms in umbels that do look like lovely, lacy doilies.  By winter, however, those flower heads curl up and resemble small birds' nests.  The asters only begin to bloom in September, and dominate meadows and a few roadsides in October.  They also are a last source of nectar for a variety of insects in October.
     A few kinds of plants have pink blossoms, adding to the diversity of lovely flowers along rural roads in October.  They include red clover, which is still common, bouncing bet, and lady's thumb, which is an abundant type of smartweed.  Insects visit the clover flowers to get nectar and pollen.  Lady's thumb started blooming in September, but is most noticeable in October.  Lady's thumb is a short plant that doesn't get cut by mowers and has a dark pattern on each leaf- a lady's thumb print. 
     The blue flowers of chicory, and alfalfa, which is a kind of hay, are lovely on tall stems, or short ones if the roadside shoulder vegetation was mowed.  Chicory stalks are spindly, but their sky-blue blooms are spectacularly beautiful. 
     Most of these plants produce seeds by winter that field mice and a variety of small, seed-eating birds, including horned larks, snow buntings, Lapland longspurs and savannah sparrows ingest through winter.  Some of those mice and small birds get caught and eaten by American kestrels, merlins, red-tailed hawks and rough-legged hawks, the latter species wintering here from the high Arctic tundra. 
     This October, or succeeding ones, look for these roadside flowers.  They make a ride in the countryside more enjoyable.