Late Flowering Dates of Some Common Plants of Rockland County, New York

The earliest flowering dates of spring plants seem to have interested naturalists more than the latest dates of autumn species, with the result that records of fall-flowering species are probably less complete than those of the vernal ones. Of some twenty plants which may bloom well past the middle of November in the environs of New York City, three that I have found are given credit for that ability in the new eighth edition of Gray’s Manual of Botany. The common dandelion is dated “March-September, and more or less through winter”, the goldenrod, Solidago ulmifolia Muhl., is listed as flowering in August through November, and the witch-hazel, Hamamelis virginiana L., September-November.