The bright, pure yellow of these ubiquitous roadside flowers is hard to equal. Close up, the perfect little pea flowers reveal contrasting red stripes.
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Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
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Rough-Fruited Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta)
An upright cinquefoil with pale primrose-yellow flowers, probably the showiest of our native cinquefoils. It’s a common wild flower along trails and in vacant lots.
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Rosa multiflora
It has no common name, at least no name fit to print. For most of the year this invasive pest is a curse on the landscape. For two weeks in June, it is a heavenly delight, covered with sweet-smelling white roses.
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Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
No matter how much suburbanites hate dandelions in their lawns, anyone with any aesthetic sense must grudgingly admit that the common dandelion is one of our most perfectly beautiful flowers.
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Heal-All (Prunella vulgaris)
If it lived up to its name, it would be priceless. Heal-all grows at the edge of the woods, or in your lawn, or anywhere else it can find space. It’s a very common weed, but surprisingly beautiful close up. This specimen grew in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon.