Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series-Goldenrod or Other Autumn Flowers

A Story about Goldenrod told by Anna Botsford Comstock to her students, from her Handbook of Nature Study:

There are flowers which live in villages and cities, but people who also live in villages and cities are so stupid that they hardly know a flower city when they see it. This morning we are going to visit a golden city where the people are all dressed in yellow, and where they live together in families; and the families all live on top of their little, green, shingled houses, which are set in even rows along the street. In each of these families, there are some flowers whose business it is to furnish nectar and pollen and to produce fruits which have fuzzy balloons; while there are other flowers in each family which wave yellow banners to all the insects that pass by and signal them with a code of their own, thus: 'Here, right this way is a flower family that needs a bee or a beetle or an insect of some sort to bring it pollen from abroad, so that it can ripen its seed; and it will give nectar and plenty of pollen in exchange.' Of course, if the flowers could walk around like people, or fly like insects, they could fetch and carry their own pollen, but as it is, they have to depend upon insect messengers to do this for them. Let us see who of us will be the first to guess what the name of this golden city is, and who will be the first to find it.

Joining in with Barb at Handbook of Nature Study today, we were on the look out all week for the golden city. Luckily, Big Daddy (Ryan) has the green thumb in the family and was able to pick out a nice golden city for us to go and explore. Our "challenge" was to:

Take a "field excursion" to look for goldenrod. In my research I discovered that there are over a hundred species of goldenrod in North America and they can be found in meadows, pastures, and alongside roads and in ditches. Their brilliant yellow color will alert you to their little "golden cities".

The Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 506 to notice where you found the goldenrod growing. Did you find more than one kind of goldenrod? How many insects did you find visiting the goldenrod's flowers? Did you find any galls growing on the goldenrod?

Anna Botsford Comstock says to not worry so much about identifying a particular species since they are difficult to distinguish.

After reading up, we were all ready to find this interesting flower. The weather was cloudy and only 50 degrees when we went out on this fall afternoon.

As always, food is the first thing on our list...

These girls were proud of the tea biscuits they made this morning from their cookbook Tea and Cake with the Saints by Alice Cantrell...

Benny got all tuckered out on the drive to the park...

Seany started jumping off the bleachers...

Apparently, it was the cool thing to do...

On to the Golden City...

Oh my goodness. The cuteness is unbearable...

Joz found the entrance to the Golden City...

Uh-oh. Look who woke up!

AW! I'm tellin'!

B-Rad flies across the monkey bars!

By: Rayzor

By: Seany

By: B-Rad "A goldenrod, it looked yellow, big"

By: Ev

By: Joz