Butterflies of Iowa, rejoice! Come the last week of July, common ironweed bursts into purple-fuchsia bloom to attract your eyes and fill your bellies.
Of course, this year it attracted my eyes too, so I shooed the butterflies away from a few stalks to bring back to the studio. And it was there in the studio that I learned that bumblebees enjoy common ironweed too – and that the dense clusters of flowers could provide enough cover for an unseen bumblebee to hitchhike a ride home with me.
After spending a lively few minutes ushering the disoriented bumblebee out of my basement, I returned to the business of photographing ironweed. Visually, the main challenge was to sort out the mishmash of textures – each flower cluster was a mix of currently-blooming flowers (pretty) and pre/post-blooming buds and seed heads (distracting). To put the fabulously-colored blooms on center stage, so to speak, I selectively removed quite a few of the seed heads and some of the flower buds while leaving enough behind to give a sense of all three stages of development.
Common Ironweed, Vernonia fasciulata
Shoot date: August 1, 2019
Possible use as a cut flower: Yep, for a few days.
