This time of year the eyes is drawn, well, to eye-level and above, where so many tall plants are blooming along the trail with their bright-yellow Silphium faces aimed at the sun. Cup Plant and Compass Plant everywhere, with Tall Coreopsis and Prairie Dock getting started. Some pinkish Purple Coneflowers dot the scenery, along with some late blooming (reblooming?) orange Butterfly Weed.
Pretty little Prostrate Vervain (Verbena bracteata) has pale purple flowers similar to its taller cousins, but its inflorescences tend to lay flat along the ground rather than being held aloft in elegant spikes. It is a native that is found throughout the continental U.S., often in urban areas where the soil is poor and gravelly. Small bees may forage at the flowers, and birds will eat its seeds.
Another mat-forming plant with tiny flowers is Spotted Spurge (Chamaesyce maculata), also a weedy native that thrives in those urban wastelands with poor soil. Even more subtle of flower than the Prostrate Vervain, this member of the Euphorbia family bleeds a milky sap when its stem is broken. The tiny white "petals" are actually parts of glands: Euphorbias have structures called cyathia, which contain the minimal male and female floral parts along with nectar glands that may have petal-like appendages. Like the Prostrate Vervain, Spotted Spurge is visited by small bees, as well as flies and wasps, and its seeds are also eaten by many types of birds.
So while we're busy admiring the the burly prairie denizens towering over the Greenway, spare a moment to appreciate the lower-profile plants that thrive under our feet. Resources/Further Reading:
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