Partridge Pea is blooming, most notably, just as you enter Catch the Wind from Explore the Wild on the back side of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. Note the fern-like compound leaves and the five yellow, different-sized petals on the flowers (image here). The flowers often appear as if they’re not quite fully opened.

Besides being an easy plant to look at, Partridge Pea serves as the host plant for certain sulphur butterflies in our area: Little Yellow, Sleepy Orange, and Cloudless Sulphur. Bend down and have a look – you may find a caterpillar or two on the plant.

A plant named for its seeds’ ability to cling to your clothing is Tick-seed Sunflower (see Showy Tick-trefoil, Explore the Wild Journal, June 16-30). It’s in bloom throughout Catch the Wind. This rather attractive 1-5-foot plant can sometimes be seen in spectacular concentrations in overgrown fields during early fall. Here, you can find clusters of the plants next to, appropriately enough, Traveling Seeds, Dancing Plants, and the Bird Feeder Exhibits.