The singer-songwriter Phil Ochs wrote a song which contained the line: "a journey through the universe ablaze with changes".
 I thought of it this morning when I looked at the Sumach Tree (Rhus typhina) near the back door. It's natural habitat is in North America but it springs up all over the place here. Actually it's one of those plants where it's debatable whether it's a big shrub or a small tree or possibly a giant weed. It spreads vigorously (by suckers) and grows very quickly. I pollard the one in the garden every year and it throws out branches 8 or 9 feet long in a season.
 In summer it's green with some not very conspicuous flowers and fruits but it's very deciduous. In mid-autumn the leaves really are a blaze of colour in fiery hues of yellow/orange/red. Then the leaves drop entirely leaving a skeleton of branches.
 It's sometimes called the Stag-Horn Sumach. The bare branches do have a resemblance to antlers and the bark is downy to the touch like the fuzz of fur on antlers.   

 Autumn is a somewhat melancholy time in the garden what with the last flowers fading and the leaves falling. Then again there's lots to do. Planting bulbs, dividing plants, collecting seeds, sowing and growing new plants, general pruning, mulching, tidying up, sorting out pots etc.
 It's the time to take stock of what worked and what didn't and muse upon the year to come...   

 I took a lot of photos when I was in the States in July hiking in the Crater Lake National Park. When I was sifting through them preparing my talk at the South London Botanical Institute last week I realised that a new post might be in order concerning some of them.
 For example I posted this photo previously on 5th. August but didn't identify the plant. It's Rock Penstemon (Penstemon rupicola), also known as Cliff Penstemon. I can vouch for that name as I was standing on the rim of the caldera next to a drop of about a thousand feet!

 I identified Penstemon rybergii and Lupinus latifolus in my entry dated 27th. August. Both are common in the area and as this unpublished photo shows they grow side by side quite often.

 Another Lupin -not so common- which I saw in the dry, gritty, rocky environs along the East Rim Drive. I describe that hike in my entry dated 14th. August but I didn't include this plant which I think is some variety of Lupinus lepidus.

 Certainly my favourite name of all the plants I saw: Elephant's Head Lousewort (Pedicularis groenlandica). This unpublished photo shows some growing in the mossy bog I describe in my entry dated 3rd. September.

 Erythronium grandiflorum. I saw hundreds of these growing in a moist meadow. Mentioned in my talk but not posted before.

  I neglected to include this in both my talk and the diary. A delicate beauty that I saw growing here and there along the margins of the East Rim Drive. I saw an illustration of it in a book the other day, made a mental note of what it is and now I've forgotten!

 Previously published in my entry dated 1st. August concerning the snow melt streams that run through the forested landscape. I identified the yellow flowered plant as as a Senecio but looking again I think it's Arnica amplexicaulis which appropriately enough is also known as Streambank Arnica. The splash of red is a Castilleja, one of the many varieties of "Paintbrush" flowers, this one adapted to moist habitats (perhaps C. miniata?).

 A photo from the same entry but I didn't identify it. This is Lewis' Monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii). A number of North American plants were named by the pioneering Lewis and Clark expedition as they explored "the new land" in the early 1800s. The Native Americans were there already but Lewis might have been among the first white men to see this species.

 Also from that entry. When I was there I was enchanted by the combination of yellow and blue flowers in front of a babbling brook (though the Americans would call it a creek). The yellow flowers are surely a Potentilla (eg. P. glandulosa?) but in my enchantment I neglected to get an in-focus shot of the blue flowers and I've been wondering what they could be.
 I think they might well be Aconitum columbianum, a Monkshood that enjoys growing by water. NB If so, highly poisonous like all Monkshoods!

 The Applewood Permaculture Centre is nestled in the hills of Herefordshire. I went there for a short course last week: "Learning the language of systems and patterns". Applewood is aptly named because there is indeed a large orchard (where I camped) with various local varieties. Some delicious apples and apple juice were a welcome bonus to doing the course.
 One of the tutors Looby runs the centre with her partner Chris (it's also their home). The other tutor was Aranya; I did my PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) with Aranya back in 2015 and a couple of other short courses since then.
 I will have to write a longer entry on permaculture because some very interesting ideas and practices have developed out of it from the 70s onward. Suffice to say Aranya is a brilliant communicator of some weighty concepts which sound like (and in fact are) common sense when he describes them so clearly. He is a masterful exponent of the whiteboard which he wipes down afterwards with an old sock!
 His book "Permaculture Design" is a great source book for permaculture in general and the design process in particular. He will be publishing his second book next year and it will be about systems and patterns.   

 Some plants just look plain weird. I gave my talk at the South London Botanical Institute last night about hiking in California and Oregon (the talk went well I'm relieved to say). I included a few photos of strange looking plants that haven't appeared on the blog as yet so here they are.
 At the top is Bear Grass (Xerophyllum tenax) which I have read is still used by Native Americans for basket making.
 The next may be of the Castilleja genus which is known for the very colourful "Paintbrush" species but there seem to be some where the bulbous heads don't open. Actually I'm guessing here, more research needed.
Finally a Coralroot- Corallorrihiza maculata or mertensiana perhaps? These are of the orchid family and do not photosynthesize or produce chlorophyll relying instead on a symbiotic relationship with mychorrhizal funghi for nutrition.
 In the background is Wizard Island on Crater Lake. It seems more than a few months ago that I stopped to take this photo as I hiked around the rim of the caldera. It was nice to do the talk yesterday and encapsulate some of the memories and feelings about that trip.      

 The South London Botanical Institute is in Tulse Hill, a slightly unexpected part of town to find a botanic garden.
 I'm giving a talk there next Tuesday 17th. October at 7pm about my hiking trips to Crater Lake in Oregon and Mount Shasta in California. All welcome.
 The SLBI is something of a gem, run by a dedicated bunch of people who do it because it matters. Every now and then I lend a hand in the garden, for example putting up the wigwam in the photo! When I first came across this place it gave me hope that my own interests in "wild gardening" weren't entirely an act of folly.
 The Institute was founded by Allan Octavian Hume in 1910. He was one of those Victorians whose life reads like a character from a novel.
 He was an ornithologist and botanist who amassed huge collections. He was a member of the Imperial Civil Service in India at the time of the Raj yet went on to be one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, precursor of the independence movement. Among other things he oversaw the development of the Great Hedge of India, an impenetrable thorny barrier over a thousand kilometres long.
 Along with his social concerns he was for a time associated with Theosophy. He created the South London Botanical Institute towards the end of his life and took a particular interest in wild plants and invasive species. The author of an article of the period referred to it (disparagingly?) as "a garden full of weeds".
 The SLBI's current president is Roy Vickery (see also my entry on May 15th). He once mentioned to me that he was disappointed the local newspaper had described the Institute as being "slightly eccentric" because he considered it to be very eccentric. He's probably right.

 The South London Botanical Institute is located at 323 Norwood Road, London SE24 9AQ. www.slbi.org.uk  The talk is £3, free for members.

 The shingle of the Chesil Beach is home to some tenacious wild plants which can cope with the harsh conditions. I took a walk along a stretch of it a couple of weeks ago when I made a flying visit to Dorset for an overnight stay.
 The top photo shows clumps of Sea Kale (Crambe maritima); the white flowers have faded to brown stalks.
 In the middle is Sea Mayweed (Matricaria maritime) which is rather reminiscent of chamomile and flowers prolifically even in late September.
 The last plant -also past flowering- looks like it might be Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum).  NB a different plant to Marsh Samphire (Salicornia europaca) which is much liked by wild foodies, though if it is Rock Samphire that too has a history as an edible.

 The late flowering Agastache Blackadder is popular with bumblebees searching for food as autumn closes in.
 On the whole I prefer the original species of plants rather than cultivars derived from them but there are several very attractive Agastache hybrids. 
 Blackadder is a cross between the North American A. foeniculum and A. rugosa which hails from Korea and Japan. Their respective common names Anise Hyssop and Korean Mint indicate the plant's aromatic qualities.