Blue-stem Goldenrod, Babcock

Today was dump day—well, Transfer Station and Landfill day, since we no longer have a dump—and after I sent the outright trash and the recyclables packing, I took advantage of a break in the weather to revisit an old haunt: Babcock Ridge. I hadn't been there since Lyme kicked in, and I was eager to see if the vernal pools had started to take on water. Turns out they had just begun to fill, and, with any luck, the hidden eggs of the Marbled Salamanders I suspect had already courted and made hidden nests under the leaf litter would soon start hatching, so a return visit—many return visits—would be in order. In the meanwhile, I scanned the trail for late-season wildflowers, and both a bumblebee and I found a species of goldenrod that didn't quite look like the usual forms. This Solidago bore its flowers in the leaf axils rather than in showy clusters at the top of each plant, and after a thorough run through my Peterson wildflower guide, I settled on Bluestem Goldenrod. Solidago caesia seemed the likeliest of suspects, even though I couldn't detect any blue in the stem. The bumblebee didn't seem put off by any lack of taxonomic color. The flowers were just fine for its purposes. Mine, too.