My new find of late in cataloging wild flowers turned out to not be an evasive weed. That's a first for me! This beautiful yellow flower is called the Woodland Sunflower, or Helianthus divaricatus.
Unlike the other flowers I've identified this summer, this yellow beauty is actually native to North America. They are typically found in sandy areas of the midwest; Wisconsin is actually home to this perennial plant.
As luck would have it, this plant too produces pollen that attracts honey bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. I found this patch of flowers on a sandy embankment overlooking a Mississippi River "lake" on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
This is another reminder of the beauty of nature. It also was my first "native wildflower" find; thanks to a few books and my luck in identifying it with our National Audobon Society Field Guild to North American Wildflowers, I was able to figure out (I think) what I found. It's pretty close to a Woodland Sunflower, anyway!
This one is a great find for me. My method is typically to go for a hike somewhere, find a new plant or flower that I've not really noted before, take a few photos and then head home to research. Most wildflowers I've found and taken photos of I am able to ID in a weed guide; not this one though. As I flipped through that book, I had no luck in finding it...excitement built and I had to move on to another book to find it. Finally, a proper Driftless prairie type wildflower. Success!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my #amazingnature find. Hopefully more of these discoveries to come soon!