Goldenrods (Solidago) are plentiful alongside my walking paths. I was lucky to come across this patch at just the right time on a recent sunrise walk.

The Goldenrod, with its masses of cheerful deep yellow florets, isn’t just another pretty face to enhance our walking paths. It’s also among the most important wildflowers in this area when it comes to sustaining our environment.

In an article I found this morning, the author, Jackie Bragg notes these points about this vital wildflower: “It provides an abundant source of nectar and pollen for bumble bees, pollinators such as butterflies and hoverflies and other insects. It continues to provide nectar during summer and into late fall. Goldenrod provides insect food to winter birds in galls. These galls or thickenings in the stem are the result of the gall fly that spends its entire lifecycle on the goldenrod plant. In the winter these galls provide food for woodpeckers and chickadees.”

Photo Note: I tried editing out the buildings on the horizon, but because that was a busy area of the photo, I found that a lot of unwanted cloning happened during the edits, so I gave up on that idea. In the end, all I decided to do was to adjust the white balance and to add a soft contrast.

“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.”

Wendell Berry