Small-flower False Foxglove
Agalinis paupercula loves moist sandy or peaty soil, which is why I found this Minnesota native flower growing along the lakeshore by the beach. It was late August, a hot day perfect for swimming with an audience of late summer flowers (such as common boneset and jewelweed). These dainty flowers can start blooming as early as July and go well into September. Funnel-shaped and less than 1″ long, the flowers are tiny and pink with 5 lobes, hairy around the edges. The inside of the tube is white with darker reddish-purple spots and usually a pair of pale yellow stripes. The 4 hairy, white-tipped stamens and a single white style are about as long as or shorter than the floral tube.
Small-flower false foxglove flowers don’t last long before they detach from their calyx and fall to the ground, as this photo depicts in the fallen blooms on the sandy soil beneath. The fruit capsule looks sort of like a space module to me, a spiked round capsule about ΒΌ inch across, and inside the fruit will form and ripen into tiny, dark brown seeds.