Downhill From Here

Sunlight has a major effect on living things.  Plants, of course, use the energy in sunlight to make sugar.  But animals and plants alike respond to the amount of light we receive.

Plants use photosensitive chemicals to determine when to bloom.   Some bloom as the days get longer.  Daisies are a good example, responding to the lengthening days in June.

Other plants don't bloom until the days start to get shorter.

Early Goldenrod is one of those plants.  They have spend months storing up food and as the summer wanes they use that stored energy to produce flowers and seeds.  I saw early goldenrod in bloom last week, 2 weeks after mid-summer's eve.  Summer is drawing to an end.