As the summer heat and smoke dissipated at the end of August, drought conditions carried on, with dry vegetation, shrinking lakes, dried-up wet zones, and wildflowers going to seed.    A few late-flowering species could still be spotted (curlycup gumweed, white prairie aster, sweet clover, and others), but the usual summer annual weeds also seemed to take over disturbed areas.    In sheltered damp zones a few late summer flowering plants could also be spotted.   

Shared here are some of the plants spotted by the side of the trail in Dallas – Barnhartvale nature Park, and in the open forests near Lac du Bois and Lodgepole Lake:  red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea), chicory (Cichorium intybus), white prairie aster (Symphyotrichum falcatus), rabbitbrush (Chyrsothamnus nauseosus), bitter nightshade (Solanum ducamara), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), a late-blooming sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum), small pussytoes (Antennaria parvifolia), mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), wild raspberry (Rubus idaeas), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), and alder scalycap? (Pholiota alnicola) .  

Daily hikes and paddling the lakes will continue through the fall.     ÿλ