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Cardinal Flowers and Hummingbirds

  • Bruce Ause
  • Aug 17, 2016
  • 1 min read

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.


 
 
 

Bruce Ause was the Director of the Environmental Learning Center in Red Wing, MN for 30 years. Currently, he volunteers at Frontenac State Park as an Interpretive Naturalist.

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