Pretty in Purple and a Bonus Critter

We are getting into the heart of summer now, here in upstate NY.  There is so much in bloom right now I could wear myself out trying to identify it all.  Since I'm on a mission to learn more about wildflowers (and share the results with my readers) I decided that one Wildflower Wednesday wouldn't be enough this week.

So today....still more wildflowers.

Today, I wanted to share some pretty (mostly) purple wildflowers now in bloom.  And a little surprise visitor to the Vestal Rail Trail, where I took some of these pictures.

When my spouse saw this first one, he exclaimed, "Look at the maple like leaves!"  I'm glad he did, because those leaves made this first wildflower very easy to identify.  The first two photos are different specimens of the same flower....

Rubus odoratus (Purple-flowering Raspberry, Flowering Raspberry, or Virginia raspberry) 

It's funny that (to me) the leaves look different in the two different plants but I think they are the same species.

These are not raspberries, despite their name (true raspberries are ripe for the picking right now.).  Reading up on these, I think the reason they are called purple flowering raspberries is that the fruit looks like raspberries.  I'm not sure they are edible, and I am not going to try them out.  I will have to visit this patch again in a month or so, though, and see what the berry looks like.


For the next two, I will have to appeal to my readers.  This first one, I thought, was Joe-Pye weed.  However, it appears to be too dark in color.  So could it be ironweed? I wasn't able to get close to this patch and I hope someone can make the ID.

Then, this next one is small and low growing.  My wildflower expert and I disagree.  I thought it looked like a phlox but my friend totally disagrees, and in doing further research I have to agree with her.  The flowers are not in clusters.  Because of my back and knee, I didn't get down to the ground to look at this one closely.  I will probably need to do that.  Unfortunately, there is no scale here.

This next one is Calystegia sepium, or Hedge Bindweed.  It is a type of wild morningglory.  Some of the wild morning glories do have light purpleish flowers but this one was white.

Last but not least, I had to share this little bunny photo with you.  I couldn't resist although rabbits are apparently eating up all of my bean plants.  That isn't very cute at all.  But this little one was munching on weeds along the Rail Trail, and I hope that is where he/she stays.

So....now what?  Do you want to see still more wildflowers?  Do you want to help me identify any?

Or, do you want to see pictures of the Binghamton Community Garden?  Or pictures of roses?

I'll let my readers decide!