By Mary Beth Pottratz
Dwarf bush honeysuckle leaves are green and bronze-magenta, even though the bright yellow flowers have just started to bloom. Young oak leaves seem unaffected by the recent drought, and glow lime green in the shade. Many weeks of poor and even dangerous air quality due to many wildfires in Canada and the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness kept me indoors.
But yesterday’s rains scrubbed the smoky air almost clean. And today’s sunny heat combined with the rain to open flower buds and lift their scents on each breeze. I inhale the sweet smells of swamp milkweed and the heady, powdery common milkweed. I hear a bluebird chortle. Common yellowthroats call “wickety-wickety-wickety” across the landscape, warblers sing and finches serenade.
White wild indigo are literally dancing throughout the Bennett-Johnson Prairie, tall white spires reaching straight up. A grasshopper stares at me wide-eyed. Miniscule balls of yellow form tiny explosions about to erupt on golden Alexanders.
Bright orange butterfly weed pops against the lush green, and sure enough, monarch butterflies flit around it like moths to a streetlamp. Ironwoods are fruiting, with little cascades of seed hulls resembling papery pine cones.
Deep purple buds peek out from spiderwort calyces. Stalks of beardtongue decorate the Prairie with delicate white tubular flowers. Wild quinine is just starting to open. Dragon- and damselflies dart over flowers.
Back in the woods I seek shade. So does a red-eyed vireo who sings, “Here-I-am, where-are-you, over-here, in-the-tree!” Canada anemone are in flower. Red osier dogwood’s white petals have fallen, and its fruits are starting to swell green.
A velvety black butterfly with blue markings along its scalloped edges fans its wings under the shade of a leaf. Its outer wings are dotted with orange. Could it be a red-spotted purple?
Mary Beth Pottratz is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer. More information about the program is at Minnesota Master Naturalist.