Sep 192014
Along Piney Woods Church Road, the American Burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius) is coming into seed. The flower heads, which stay almost entirely closed while the flower blooms are bursting open to reveal a globe of feathery parachutes with seeds attached. The weed itself is a nondescript native annual with a penchant for cropping up in unmown lawns. And certainly the flower is not spectacular, and does not seem to attract many intriguing pollinators. But even though the wind will carry these seeds far and wide to many a lawn and pasture, still I find seed time among the burnweed to be a time of wonders.
