Native smooth sumac shrubs can light up Minnesota roadsides and arc along bike trails with orange to deep-red leaves, often providing the first wave of fall colors. But even longtime residents might be surprised to know that their dark red clusters of berries are edible. Their tart flavoring has been used in Indigenous cooking for thousands of years and can be made into a lemonade-like drink. They also anchor the Middle Eastern spice blend of za’atar. The plant has many traditional medicinal uses, as well. Warning: There is a poisonous sumac, but it’s uncommon, prefers wet areas and features white, drooping clusters of berries — easy to distinguish from the safe upright red ones.

With the speed and synchronization of a school of fish and the whirl-swirl of a dust storm, a murmuration of European starlings can amaze onlookers with aerobatics. Murmuration, the technical term for shape-shifting clouds with hundreds of thousands of speckled black birds, helps them elude predators while migrating. Starlings crowd out native bird species during nesting season, but they provide a seasonal spectacle each fall.

Study groups of late-season flowers, and you’ll find more than the better-known bumblebees and non-native honeybees burrowing in to collect pollen and nectar. Native sweat bees, part of the Halictid family, are smaller and thin but boast shimmering emerald heads and thoraxes above striped abdomens. It can be fascinating to see how many types of pollinators one flowering plant can support.

Lisa Meyers McClintick of St. Cloud has freelanced for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2001 and volunteers as a Minnesota Master Naturalist.