The Unique Wonder of Late Summer on the Prairie

I find late summer a fascinating time on the prairie. As the seasons wax and wane, the prairie is always a changing phantasmagoria of color, sound, smells—of life making its annual bloomings and dyings. And late August to early September perhaps most dramatically show us that our land is abundant with renewing life at the same time that the passage into dormancy is never far from us.

On a late August day, I experienced Belgum Grove awash with the dry-sounding stridulations of the grasshopper chorus, thousands of mature males seeking mates. Goldenrod is starting to flare out in its shower of yellow. New purple colors dot the landscape as asters come into their own.

The golds of silphium and sunflower still hold forth, but their petals show their age in jagged edges and withering stamens. The rattlesnake master heads are still large and green, though their tiny white flowers are wilted. The majestic big bluestem spikes stand proudly still, their turkeyfoot seed heads in full resplendence, though many stalks are showing the maroon of impending autumn.

Spiderwort and shooting star are merely memories now long past, but I’m excited by the prospect of possibly spotting deep blue-violet prairie gentian.

I meander through Belgum Grove’s trails, enjoying many of the beauties of summer’s plenty. But my legs brush past plenty of dried, crackling stalks and stems of grasses and flowers past their prime. Fall’s coming asserts itself boldly amidst the ongoing florescence of summer.

We know that the life cycle is always about coming and going, a round of life and death. But during many parts of the year, we tend to be in one part of the cycle or another, feeling the passing away of the year’s bounty, the promise of nature’s coming abundance, or the fullness of the world’s plenty. Late summer is a unique time on the prairie, though. Life and death, summer and fall, live together in unique balance under our feet, before our eyes, and even in our ears. Now is a marvelous time to experience the world in simultaneous full bloom and fading splendor.