Chicory is a common sky blue wildflower well established along country roads and disturbed areas.  It's blooming most every place now in the closing days of August and will continue to flower into early September. The flowers - in the undisturbed wilds - appear all along the stems, stems that reach over three feet high. That is nature's way. None bloom next to the ground. But at the Madison Heights Civic Center Park, in highly urbanized SE Michigan where the field is closely mowed this plant has adapted to a new reality: Bloom low or be decapitated by whirling blades of slashing steel.  The top photo is a close up of a blossom just barely one inch from the ground in Madison Heights, beneath the height of a mower's blade. The bottom photo is from the edge of the road across from my house in much wilder Brandon Township. It's good to know that nature can at times evolve quickly to a new reality in a human alterted world.