Prickly lettuce

Prickly lettuce.  What this picture doesn't quite convey is how very tall these guys are - at least four feet, maybe five.  The flowers look a bit like dandelion, but lots of them branch off of each long stalk.

This plant has a couple similar-looking relatives, but we think it is probably prickly lettuce because of the very spiky serrated edges of the leaves.

Growing near the northwest exit from the Ramble, via the bridge over the upper lobe of the Lake, Central Park.

Indian strawberry

This yellow flower is closed up in the picture, but notice the little pedestal it's on, with three-lobed leaves underneath and extending beyond the sepals.  This is indian strawberry.  Whence the name, you ask?

Amazing!  But sadly, unlike cultivated strawberry, they are not edible.

Growing in the middle of the Ramble, Central Park.

Creeping buttercup

Creeping buttercup.  There are many types of buttercups in our area, but this one is easily distinguished because of the light spots dappling its leaves.  You can see this on the leaf in the bottom center of the picture (it looks a bit like a carrot leaf).  This flower sprouts up from a vine that grows horizontally along the ground, thus the "creeping" in its name.

Growing in the marshy ground at the margin of the west side of the Lake, Central Park.

Yellow goatsbeard

Yellow goatsbeard.  I was excited when I looked this plant up because it is one type of a familiar edible plant:  salsify.  Salsify root is sold in the greenmarkets, and it's said to taste a little like oysters, thus another name for these flowers - oyster plant.  The cultivated edible salsify has pink flowers, but otherwise looks similar to this one, and the two kinds often hybridize when growing in waste places like this.

It's unique-looking because the green sepals grow all the way past the flower, making them look spidery.  The leaves are long and grassy-looking.  These flowers also have the amusing habit of opening up for the morning sun but closing by the afternoon.

Growing behind a chain-link fence in a gravelled lot on Adam Clayton Powell in Harlem.

Field sow-thistle

Field sow-thistle.  Consider me schooled: I thought that everything that looked vaguely like a dandelion must be a dandelion.  Not so.  There are not only several kinds of dandelions other than the common one, but there are also some other flowers that look similar.  Sow-thistles have dandelion-like flowers, but have extremely jagged leaves that look very different:

Dandelion for comparison: notice how the leaves' serrations point back toward the plant.

This is a field sow-thistle, not a common sow-thistle, because rather than being smooth the stem is covered with tiny prickly hairs.

Growing out of the stones comprising the south staircase up to the western 116th street exit from Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Japanese honeysuckle

Japanese honeysuckle, a climbing vine.  These flowers are unmistakeable with their long, curved stamens and their pretty fluted shape.  They can be buttery-yellow to white, depending on their age.  Honeysuckle is invasive and hard to eradicate, (it is even completely banned in New Hampshire despite being used as a garden plant elsewhere,) but I'm still fond of it because it attracts so many butterflies and hummingbirds, and has a pleasant sweet smell.

this little black bug liked the flowers too

Growing on the shrubs on the east side of the highest, westmost path around 117th street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Yellow sweet clover

Yellow sweet clover.  This is a big, beautiful plant with lots of spikes of yellow flowers and little three-part leaves.  It looks like it could be a cultivated flower.

Growing in an empty lot in Harlem.

Field mustard

Field mustard.  This pretty relative of the cultivated mustards is actually edible, too, and is sometimes sold at the greenmarket.

Growing near the 72nd Street entrance on the west side of Central Park.

Columbine

Columbine.  They look like little paper lanterns.

In the shrubs on the north side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Yellow wood sorrel

Yellow wood sorrel.  It looks a little bit like clover, but with those cute unmarked, heart-shaped leaves.  The blooms here are closed.  There is also a variety with purple flowers, which has leaves with violet undersides.  Both kinds are edible and taste sour, like the sorrel vegetable (which they are not, however, related to).

Alongside the Reservoir, Central Park.

Addendum: here is an example of an open flower.

Bittersweet nightshade

Bittersweet nightshade.  If you see this plant, leave it alone - like many nightshade relatives, it's very poisonous.  But very unique looking, with its weird curled-back petals:

Alongside a path just south of the North Woods in Central Park.