Flowers, fruits, insects and other animals do not all get along, but each needs the other to make a community.

Wild, cropland and garden flowers are well on their way to becoming fruits and food for wildlife and people. Many progressed with needed assistance from pollinators. Most fought with foes — insects, viruses, fungi, herbivores, and weather extremes and are showing the wear and tear of growing up. Some have died or been eaten, at least partially.

Gatherers have picked, preserved and eaten mulberries, wild black raspberries and a few chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms. Some poisonous Amanita mushrooms have been feasted on by squirrels, who are waiting for the first hazelnuts, wild apples (good luck finding these), grapes and some larger stick tights to bulk up.

Farm crops, mainly alfalfa and soybeans, garden vegetables and greens, are now favorites of deer, including fawns. Turkeys and squirrels are waiting for something with a bit more fruity bulk before bothering to gnaw.

More than one person has questioned the banana-like fungus disease on elderberry stems and leaves.  These yellow growths are not poisonous but do make the shrub look rather grotesque. Sumac has a similar reddish gall appearing later in summer.

Goldenrods, not yet in bloom, are showing insect galls; ice fishermen know them as fish bait containers.  When they do flower, don’t tag them with hay fever.

Butterflies are landing on a variety of prairie blooms, while Japanese beetles are beginning to hit garden and field plants, particularly pole beans, but few growing stems and leaves are immune to the jaws on this metallic monster.

Most of the hitchhiking plants are blooming and looking wonderful.

If autumn attire could curse, most will turn blue when burdocks’ purple flowers matured its Velcro-like hooks. (The phrase should give the credit to burdocks that gave the idea to the inventor of Velcro.)

Stay away from most things with three leaflets, namely poison ivy growing as an herb, vine or shrub, says Doug Williams at DW Sports Center, Portage. It seems to be everywhere, is pretty, but can cause problems for many (poison oak does not grow in Wisconsin). Poison parsnip is another bad one that can burn the skin after contact and sun exposure — its harm is known as phytophotoderatitis referencing plant, sun and skin.

 “Other than those two, there are a lot of pretty flowers out there, including Queen Anne’s lace and blue chickaree,” Williams said.

Williams recommends downsizing lures now that there have been some mayfly hatches. “Deer are feeding in soybean fields and take a break of a week after hay has been harvested,” he said.

Bait sales are good as long as Don Martin, in Monroe, can get worm supplies in and berry talk seems to be hush-hush deals.

Perch fishing, according to John Borzick in Boscobel, is good on the Mississippi River, with catfish, bass and sand sturgeon trailing along but still fair. “There are a lot of blackcaps with the recent rains,” he said. “Size has been pretty good, too.”

John Arthur, property manager at Yellowstone Lake in Lafayette County, is bracing for the busiest time on area campgrounds. “Warm weather has slowed fishing on our shallow lake due to warm water,” he said. “Berry picking is peaking and should be good for another week and then the blackberry season will begin in a month. Prairies are in bloom in remnant and restored prairies in the area.”

Be alert for young animals; they seem to be everywhere. Insects are likely to follow this population boom, too.

Remember a deciduous forest is usually cooler and more pleasant than most areas on warm days.

— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.