This is the start of prime time along the canal. The area I walk is just west of Harrison Street. All the classic floodplain wildflowers are blooming. Just finishing up are tall meadow rue, lizard's tail and buttonbush (white flowers), and purple-headed sneezeweed (yellow). Just coming on is the small forest of cutleaf coneflowers (yellow) that grow up to 8 feet high. Though fewer in numbers, you may see JoePyeWeed, swamp milkweed, and fringed loosestrife.
The purple spires, mostly along the canal, are purple loosestrife, a highly invasive exotic. Tyrol knapweed, also an exotic, has violet flowers.
The blackberries are abundant and ripe, and shrubs like elderberry, Arrowwood Viburnum (photo) and silky dogwood are heavy with ripening berries for the birds.
