Mid-Summer Roadside Blooms

     In mid-summer over the years, I've seen many kinds of blooming roadside plants in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland.  Together the beautiful flowers of those plants create the prettiest bouquets  anyone could hope to see, free.  Most roadside vegetation is originally from Europe where it long ago adapted to cultivated ground.  Of all those plants on the shoulders of country byways, and I've counted at least 24 kinds early in July in Lancaster County alone, only common milkweeds and dogbanes are native to North America.  All other species were brought to America by European colonists, either accidentally or purposefully.  Today those plants, alien and natives alike, brighten rural roadsides with their lovely blooms, where they aren't mowed off, making a walk or ride in croplands more interesting and enjoyable.
     Delightfully, chicory with its sky-blue blooms and red clover that has hot-pink blossoms dominate many roadside bouquets.  And these two species, along with Queen-Anne's-lace and evening lynchis with white flowers are patriotic- red white and blue.
     Some of the alien plants have a bit of European history.  Chicory roots can be roasted, crushed and used for coffee supplement or substitute.  Queen-Anne's-lace is the ancestor of domestic carrots.  The two plants look similar, smell the same and have almost identical flowers.  The dead, dried stalks of common mullein, that produces yellow blooms, but later are amply dotted with empty seed pockets, were dipped in animal fat and lit to be used as torches at night in Europe.  The stiff spines of teasel seed heads that protected tiny, lavender blossoms, were used in Europe to tease out wool.  And the leaves of bouncing bet, that has pale-pink flowers, were used to make soap lather.
     None of these species grow everywhere along country lanes.  Each community of roadside plants is unique and all vegetation in each patch competes with its vegetative fellows for space, water and sunlight.     
     Some roadside plant communities are thin because some farmers cultivate right to the roads.  These roadsides have few kinds of plants which usually get mowed anyway.
     Unfortunately for these plants, insects and other creatures, and us, many roadsides get mowed close to the ground, eliminating their beautiful flowers we could have enjoyed.  And that mowing deprives invertebrates, field mice and certain birds of food.  But, fortunately, mowing only cuts off the plants, but doesn't kill them.  The plants grow back and many produce blossoms on short stems close to the ground, benefiting themselves, wildlife and people who enjoy the flowers. 
     Some mowing of roadside vegetation is interrupted by poles, signs, rocks, the steepness of the banks, ditches and other things.  There the plants can grow, mature and produce flowers and seeds.
    Canada thistles, nodding thistles, common milkweeds and red clover, all of which have pink blossoms, yellow sweet clover with yellow flowers and white sweet clover with white blooms are particularly noted for attracting pollinating insects to their blossoms.  Their flowers are often swarming with a variety of bees, small butterflies and other types of insects that sip sugary nectar, pollinating those blooms in the process.  Cabbage white, sulphur, skipper and other kinds of butterflies visit the blooms to get nectar.  Monarch butterfly females lay eggs on milkweed plants, the only food of their caterpillars.  And dogbane beetles live on and eat dogbane plants.
     Japanese honeysuckle with white and beige flowers and bind weeds with white blooms are vines that attach to plants, poles and other objects, or sprawl across the ground. The blossoms of those plants add beauty to the edges of many rural roads.
     Some other plant species along country byways are daisy fleabanes and moth mulleins with white flowers, viper's bugloss with blue ones and buttercups, corydalis and butter and eggs that have yellow blooms.  Buttercups were everywhere abundant in May, but now only some persist.  Butter and eggs are wild snap dragons and have flowers like those on domestic snap dragons in gardens.
     When walking or riding along rural roadsides in the heart of summer in the Mid-Atlantic States, and elsewhere, look for these lovely flowers, most of which came from Europe.  And watch for the many kinds of invertebrates that get food from that road edge vegetation.  Though only a few feet deep, roadside shoulders are miles and miles long, harboring plants and animals in abundance.