Bird’s-foot Trefoil stands her ground.
After the dandelions are gone, the next yellow that appears along the trail are these carefree clusters of bright flowers with whorls of 5 to 8 sunshiny petals at the top of a long stalk. They make me happy. When the fruit pods ripen and mature they turn into thin purplish-brown legumes - the clustered seed pods resemble bird feet, and so the plant’s common name.
“Nature rarer uses yellow Than another hue; Saves she all of that for sunsets, Prodigal of blue... Spending scarlet like a woman, Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly, Like a lover’s words."
Emily Dickinson
Emily claims that nature is most frugal with yellow, thoughtfully saving it for very specific occasions such as sunsets. But you’d never know that walking the trail. Happy clusters of bird's-foot trefoil romp alongside the path for miles, massing in flat spaces, navigating around ponds and fallen logs and reassembling in lavish displays of yellowness.
Too bad the DNR identifies this pretty lady as an invasive. 🙁
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