Conditions this summer have been ideal for cardinal flowers like this concentration in the silver maple bottomland forest adjacent to Wacouta Bay.
As a part of my interpretive work as a volunteer naturalist at Frontenac State Park, I inform visitors that most woodland wildflowers bloom in the spring because of available sunlight before the canopy development. The two exceptions to that rule are the bright red cardinal flower {Lobelia cardinalis) and obedient plant (Physotegia virginia). Both can be found in mid-August along the Sand Point trail leading out to the shore of Lake Pepin.
Here is a close-up photo of the obedient plant (Physotegia virginia). These flowers are pollinated by bees.
Cardinal flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds.
Hummingbird feeding frenzy
Close up of female ruby-throated hummingbird.
On the morning of August 11 following a major deluge of 5 inches of rain overnight, as many as a dozen hummingbirds were attacking our feeder at the same time. Evidently the heavy rains had washed away the supply of nectar from nearby flowers.