Let It Be Native – Please

First, purple is my absolute favorite color. Let that be known.

There’s a wildflower which grows around our property that blooms at this time of year. It has the most interesting pineapple inspired buds that burst into brilliant purple blooms which look like an amazing fireworks display. Since the birds haven’t been very abundant lately, I have had to turn to other lovely creatures like the butterflies that flit about as I wait for a special bird to pop out of the brush. These incredible purple flowers are quite attractive to the butterflies that are working hard to consume nectar at this time of the season.

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The Monarch butterfly – Illinois’ State Butterfly – is easy to spot with it’s deep orange hue bordered with black, stained-glass-window like sections. The yellow butterfly I filmed is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. It’s just as beautiful as the Monarch, even if less easy to remember by name. Truly, tigers aren’t yellow! But, the Monarch butterfly sure looks like a tiger!

When I decided to create this post, I thought it would be prudent to determine the actual name of the plant which explodes in my favorite color, but I was worried. I feared I would discover that it was an invasive species that should be eradicated for its lethal strangle of some other indigenous species. I love these purple blooms so much that I actually found myself chanting, “please, please let it be native.” I also engated in the head-talk, “even if it’s not endemic, I’m not going to dig it up. I love it!”

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to learn that this favorite prairie flower of mine is called Ironweed and it is native to my area – and many other locations. It gets its name from its very tough stem.

The color opposite purple on the color wheel (an artists’ tool to understand color pairings) is yellow. Even if yellow and purple didn’t complement each other in such a formal way, my eye has always appreciated the pairing of the two hues. Perhaps, that’s why I appreciate that the ironweed and bright yellow wildflowers bloom around the same time. Here’s a few photos of a stand of black-eyed susans that grow wild on our property.

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There are also tall stands of sunflower-like blooms around our pond at this time. Here are a few images of those plants, which I have not been able to identify, yet.

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The ironweed, which by the way has many varieties (Missouri, Giant, Smooth etc…) is a perfect compliment to these cheery, sunflower like plants, and it feeds the winged jewels, too!

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I’m so pleased that this purple beauty is a native species. I actually found that it’s considered a cultivar, as well. If you want to add some to your garden and attract butterflies and other nectar loving insects, look for it at your local or on-line nursery.