Summer wildflowers in western Pennsylvania are colorful and diverse.  The fields and forests  are colored with blossoms as large as the baseball-size Turk’s-cap Lily or small as the Scarlet Pimpernel with its diameter that’s less than half a dime; tall as the eight-foot figwort or vines like the bindweeds that creep on or over anything that will support them.

    Some of the flowers have been part of  the landscape since before the last ice age, others are recent arrivals that came with the European settlers.  Many, like Blue Chicory and Bird’s-foot Trefoil, are common sights along roadsides.  Others are rare residents of shaded hillsides like the Pennsylvania state endangered Leather Vine.

    As diverse as they are, the wildflowers share a common purpose - attract animal pollinators, a set of insects and birds that are as unique and varied as the flowers they service.

Play the slideshow, sit back and enjoy a summer wildflower tour.  Then go out enjoy the real show.

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All images copyright Chuck Tague and the Nature Observer News.