August is a month of change. The changes in August might go unnoticed because they occur so slowly. August is the beginning of the harvest season, starting with blackberries and blueberries being ready to pick.

Our gardens are beginning to produce potatoes, tomatoes, squash and more, and the farmers will be trying to get in their second cutting of hay.

August is a month in which many wildflowers appear along the roadsides and in the fields. Mary Alice and I try to identify each new wildflower as it begins to bloom, however our computer brains are getting slower with age as we try to remember the plants’ names from previous years.

In August we see Queen Ann’s lace, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, chicory and others. These fall plants are usually large and heavily stemmed because they have been growing throughout the summer, while the spring flowers have much less time to develop.

One plant known by almost everyone is the cattail. The common name comes from the shape of the plant, which reminds one of a cat’s tail. During August, the female part of the plant will turn brown. The individual cattail flowers are very small and almost indistinguishable. They cluster on a club-like stalk, with the yellow male flowers on top and the densely packed female flowers directly underneath.

The minute seeds are packed tightly inside these brown cylinders, with some large cattail heads containing as many as two million seeds. Mary Alice reminded me that in my much younger years, I tried to count the seeds but soon gave up. Cattails grow in marshy areas all over North America. They live in dense clusters in shallow water.

The plant contains both the male and female flowers, with the male flower being the spike at the top. The male flower turns to a powder and drifts golden pollen down onto the female flower, which is the familiar green cylinder. The male flower dies after releasing its pollen, leaving a bare spike at the top of the plant. As the female flower ripens, it turns brown and bursts open to release the seeds packed inside.

These small seeds are carried by the wind, with each seed suspended from fine silky hairs. Some will land in favorable areas, and presto, next year cattail plants will appear.

The Native Americans used all parts of the cattail plant. The fluff was used to stuff their moccasins to ward off the cold. Mothers padded their cradle boards with the fluff, both for insulation and as an absorbing diaper. The roots of the cattails were dug and eaten raw, dried and roasted, and also ground into a meal to use in baked cakes. The plant’s long leaves were dried and woven into baskets and seats.

After the first green leaves appeared in the spring, they were picked and cooked as a green. The Native Americans collected the pollen from the male flowers by laying a blanket on an out-rigging of their canoe. Then, while paddling through the cattail stand, they would beat the plants with the paddle. The male’s pollen would fall onto the blanket, where it was collected to be used as a thickener in soups.

Some of our first American quilts were stuffed with cattail fluff. During World War I, fluff was used as a dressing for wounds. In some places in Europe, the cattails are used as tinder to start fires. As a kid, I pretended that the cattails were torches not knowing that the pollen of the male flower is very flammable.

The cattail plant can grow to a height of six feet. Sometimes, if left unchecked, the cattail plants will spread in a shallow lake or pond, becoming so dense that they drink up all the water, turning the pond into a muddy area.

Another plant that blooms in August is the Joe Pye weed, and when mature this plant can grow as tall as six feet. If the plant’s stems are bruised, it gives off a vanilla scented odor. The upper leaves are tinged with purple even before the flowers bloom. The flowers are slightly fragrant and grow in a terminal cluster, which is made up of many small pinkish-purple flowers. The plant was named after an elderly Native American who lived in rural New England. It is told that he was a medicine man of sorts, with a special skill of reducing fevers by using the weed plant. Little is known about Joe Pye, even the date of his death is unknown. In the 1700s, local tavern records in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, show that he bought rum, which was known to be added to most of his potions.

Butterflies are the most frequent visitors to the tubular flowers of Joe Pye weed. Some bees and flies are also able to get nectar from the deep flowers. An interesting tidbit about Joe Pye weed is that if the plant is not cross pollinated by insects, the plant can cross pollinate itself. There are other plants that also have this fail-safe method. Joe Pye weed stays in bloom until the first frost and then disappears.

The Native Americans had several uses for the plant. Before courting, a young brave would chew on a wad of the plant before he went visiting. I suspect that the plant was used as mouth mint.

Well, the cattails are turning brown, Joe Pye weed is in bloom, and August is upon us. It’s summer’s last fling before the school bells ring.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.