Autumn Insect Flowers

     Gatherings, even swarms, of bees and butterflies congregate on a variety of beautiful pink and purple flowers during September, into October, to sip sugary nectar.  Some of the last blooms of the year in southeastern Pennsylvania that produce copious flows of nectar that attracts multitudes of insects, they include the pink blossoms of red clover, ironweed and purple loosestrife, and the lavender flowers of alfalfa and New York asters.  All these blossoms are appealing in themselves, and intriguing in the many insects that are attracted to them during warm, sunny afternoons in fall.  Together, they make autumn fields, meadows, lawns and roadsides, all of which are human-made habitats, more enjoyable to experience.  
     Red clover is a kind of hay crop originally from Europe.  The lovely flowers of this species cover acres of farmland between cuttings during summer and autumn, and many stretches of rural roadsides that are not mowed.  Periodic cutting of the plants in the fields causes them to produce more, and more, blooms, spangling those fields with pink and the fluttering of colorful butterflies of several kinds.  Plus white-tailed deer, wood chucks and cottontail rabbits from nearby thickets and woods ingest red clover plants, the chucks during the day and the other species at dusk and dawn mostly.
     Native ironweed grows up to five feet tall in the damper parts of sunny pastures, and they have hot-pink blooms on top of their stems from August into October.  Those attractive flowers are often nearly covered with a variety of butterflies, including a few swallowtail species, cabbage whites, yellow sulphurs, monarchs, silver-spotted skippers and others, helping make those meadows be more alive.
     Purple loosestrife is an alien, invasive species originally from Europe.  Though abundant in many parts of the eastern United States, I don't see much of it here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  This plant can grow to five feet high in moist, sunny habitats, including cattail marshes, and has pretty, pink flowers all along its stems.  And those plants swarm with bees and butterflies during late summer into fall.
     Originally from Europe, alfalfa is an abundant hay crop that covers thousands of acres in southeastern Pennsylvania.  This plant has pale-lavender blooms that have a sweet scent.  And, of course, gatherings of buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies move among those lovely, innumerable blossoms to sip nectar all summer and deep into autumn.       
     New York asters are a native species that has deep-purple flower petals and yellow stamens in each bloom, making a striking contrast of colors from late August into October.  This beautiful plant grows in abandoned fields, often with the golden blooms of goldenrod, making a lovely combination of colors, here and there along country roads, and in some lawns of people who appreciate them.  And like all the blossoms in this grouping, these asters are attractive to many bees and butterflies and other types of insects seeking nectar.
     These flowers bloom late in summer and into fall.  They are beautiful in themselves and intriguing with swarms of insects of several kinds that get the last flows of nectar of the year from them.  Readers should try to get out and enjoy those lovely blossoms, and the multitudes of interesting insects that visit them.