American Lotus, a rare and protected plant in some of our lakes, begins to bloom in late July and early August. By summer's end the broad flattened seed pod looks like a small circular Chinese checkers board on a stalk held above the water. Each of the holes on the upper surface carries a smooth hard seed about the size of a cherry. When it's dry, the pod detaches from the stem and floats away like a boat carrying seed passengers to new sites. It's peak bloom time for fields of common sunflowers.
Chipmunks harvest the unripened seeds in our butterfly garden and rob the birds of a feast.
Goldenrods are starting to turn the fields yellow, while on the prairie blazing stars bloom in drifts of purple festooned by monarch butterflies on their way to Mexico. Sweet clover seeds are ripe and ready to fall to the ground, where they will lay for years until the field grasses are mowed, burned, or tilled. Then there will be enough light for them to sprout and grow a new jungle of sweet clover plants. Bobolinks gather at sweet clover seed sources in mid August to gorge and fatten up before flying off to the prairies of Brazil and Argentina. Late August Apples are getting ripe their brown seeds indicate maturity.