Mississippi wildflowers

Home again from our trip through Mississippi, visiting with family and friends there. We make this trip at this time every year and it is always a pleasure to see these folks again.

One of the pleasures of driving through the countryside in north Mississippi at this time of year is that so many of the roadside wildflowers are at their peak.

This meadow is typical - native grasses interspersed with Queen Anne's lace, coreopsis, tickseed, and black-eyed Susans.

Queen Anne's lace is the dominant wildflower in the mix at this time. The smaller white flowers you see in the background here are one of the fleabanes.

Here's a close-up of the fleabane - pretty and dainty little flowers.

Stands of black-eyed Susan are common.

Uncommon but always striking is the native butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa. It likes the soil in this part of the world and grows readily here, but you never see large stands of it as you do of other wildflowers. It's always just one or two or three plants standing out as bright accents among the other wildflowers and grasses. Driving along, one sees these accents every mile or so. Their gaudy color makes them hard to miss.

Not actually a wildflower but a plant that you see everywhere in the wild here is the old tawny day lily. It escaped captivity many, many years ago and has made itself quite at home in Nature.

And, of course, there is that ubiquitous wildflower, the dandelion, growing here in a cemetery.

The countryside there was especially beautiful this year. They have had plenty of rain this spring and Nature has responded with a burst of blooms. I couldn't help but notice that vegetable gardens, too, looked especially healthy and productive. Mississippi plants have had a good year so far and it was a pleasure to view them.