Kaw Valley Almanac

Ashy sunflowers continue blooming this week. They are shorter perennial sunflowers with lighter green leaves than many other sunflowers.

Walking sticks are around and about, as are praying mantises, which are superficially similar. Praying mantises blend in to the vegetation to catch unsuspecting prey, while walking sticks blend in so they don’t become prey.

Pitcher’s sage, also known as blue sage or Salvia azurea, has begun to bloom in some northeast Kansas prairies and will continue to grace late summer prairies for the next month or so.

Ironweed is a sturdy perennial that attracts butterflies and other pollinators this time of year. The purple blossoms are like a daisy without the “petals” and supposedly provide a brief, sweet chew.

Pollinators and their predators are very busy these days: flies, moths, butterflies, beetles, as well as spiders, wasps and other predators. Watch a clump of flowers to catch the unfolding drama.

This spray of butterfly milkweed blossoms feeds pollinators who help it produce seed-filled milkweed pods, which open up and are carried away in the wind to produce new plants and feed new butterflies.

A hummingbird moth (top left) is working over these blooming purple prairie clovers. Pollinators will only get more active as summer progresses and nectar flow continues to increase.

This rattlesnake master emerging seedhead is something to behold. Go out on the prairie and find one for yourself!

When they first emerge, these Echinacea pallida ray flowers on the edge of the seed disk shoot skyward, then flatten out, finally relaxing enough to point down to the ground or even curve under toward the stalk.

Many roadsides are currently showcasing clusters of white dogwood blossoms. Many pollinators love their four-petaled flowers, including this summer azure butterfly.

It’s been a good year for blooming spiderworts, and you might still see a few of these, joined this week by echinacea, penstemons, daisy fleabane, and delphiniums, along with already blooming yarrows, oxeye daisy, and yellow sweet clover.