Posted by wilde on August 19th, 2008 — Posted in Vegetable
For three years now I have been spying on a special plant, just waiting for it to flower. We’re fortunate enough to have three members of the orchid family, Orchidaceae, on our property here in Central Pennsylvania.
Pink Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium acaule, and Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens, have already flowered this year. The Pink Lady’s Slipper, or Moccasin flower, blooms around Mother’s Day and the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain blooms in late Summer, around now.
I found a new colony of the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain yesterday near a stand of hemlock trees with four plants blooming and a large number of plants that almost formed a mat.
Downy Rattlesnake Plantain colony on the ridge near the hemlock grove. Photo taken 13 August 2008.
Our third orchid is a whorled pogonia, Isotria species, and we have yet to see it bloom. Since the greenery comes up each year, it may be Whorled Pogonia, Isotria verticillata, but I can’t rule out the endangered Small Whorled Pogonia, Isotria medeoloides, until the blossoms are visible.
Oval-shaped pogonia leaves join at their bases, each having a pointed tip. Photo taken 10 July 2008.
There are two pogonias in one location and a colony of 12-15 of them in a second location on the ridge.
Pogonias hide amongst the gaywings on the forest floor. Gaywings or Fringed Polygala, Polygala paucifolia, have a similar appearance of about five leaves joined at their bases, but if you look closely you will see vein branching in the leaves and short leaf stems. Pogonias, being orchids and therefore, monocots, have leaf veins that are parallel and no apparent leaf stem. Gaywings are dicots and have branching leaf veins.
Fringed polygala on the forest floor. Photo taken 29 July 2008.
Gaywing leaves are sturdy with an almost waxy feel. Pogonia leaves feel more delicate. Bugs do not seem to consume either of them very much.
As far as medicinal properties go, neither gaywings or any of these orchids have medicinal properties that are worth sacrificing the plants.
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Posted by wilde on August 18th, 2008 — Posted in Vegetable
A new plant caught my eye last week as I walked down the lane to pick a couple hands full of blackberries. It reminded me of Lopseed because it had a similar arrangement of very small flowers on spikes that arose from leaf axils and from its terminal stem.
No flowers were open early in the day when I took these pics as the plant was still mostly shaded, but they are tiny, white, five-petaled and joined at the base.
Several pairs of opposite leaves are toothed and egg-shaped. Stems are hairy, but not prickly.
The habitat is mostly shady where this White Vervain, Verbena urticifolia, is growing as trees are all along the lane. At the lane’s edge it receives part sun at mid-day.
Photo taken 11 August 2008 shows the flowers arranged in spikes and the opposite leaves of White Vervain.
Hairy stem and toothed leaf of White Vervain.
White Vervain doesn’t appear to have any medicinal properties, but close relatives do. Leaf tea of Blue Vervain, Verbena hastata, was used by Native Americans to treat cold symptoms and gastrointestinal problems. The seeds were roasted and ground to create flour. European Vervain, Verbena officinalis, tea is still used for a number of ailments. It has been studied in China and Russia and found to have analgesic, anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties.
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Posted by wilde on August 11th, 2008 — Posted in Vegetable
Out of curiosity I let this really fast growing plant continue growing - even though I was pretty sure it was a bad weed. I was too curious for my own good - perhaps I was a cat in another lifetime.
Anyway, this 10 foot tall plant is a giant. Some of the leaves are the size of a dinner plate. The leaves are not all the same shape, some have one lobe, others have two or three lobes. All leaves are shallowly toothed, hairy, and have pointed tips. This, plus the fact that there is no woody stem, differentiates Giant Ragweed from Sassafras.
Sandwiched between Echinacea on the left and Fennel on the right, Giant Ragweed grew as tall as the door.
Giant Ragweed reaches over three feet wide and 10 feet tall.
Giant Ragweed or Great Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida, is unmistakable once you see its size and those spikes of sneeze-producing, pollen-filled flower heads.
The flower spikes are just like those of the Common Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, which grows along roads and in fields and waste places. The flowers are green and its parts are indistinguishable, but the yellow pollen is quite noticeable.
Common Ragweed leaves have many lobes and that differentiates it, apart from size, from the giant ragweed. Giant Ragweed has single-, double- or triple-lobed leaves. The tri-lobed leaf is the most recognizable as belonging to the Great Ragweed plant.
Tri-lobed leaf of Giant Ragweed.
So, to be a complete fool, I’ll admit I could have moved the Giant Ragweed before it got to the flowering stage as it was in a pot! Now it’s in the burn pile and since the rain has stopped, it’s toast. As it grew I had this idea that I would be sorry to have let it go for so long. Next year I hope the mint will out compete new seedlings and overtake this area. If I need to pull out seedlings, that key to the broadleaved weeds might come in handy.
If it were the Common Ragweed I could just look for the highly dissected leaves having rounded lobe tips.
Common Ragweed flower spikes.
Close up view of Common Ragweed flower spikes.
Common Ragweed leaf shape is dissected.
We have marigolds in and around the vegetable garden and often find ourselves transplanting the volunteers that pop up from seeds to other areas. Their seedings look like the seedlings of common ragweed except for the fact that ragweed seedlings have an overall rounded shape to each leaf.
Common ragweed seedling or shoot sprouting up in the lawn. Notice the rounded leaf lobes.
Ragweed seedlings can be distinguished from marigold seedlings by the leaf lobe tip shape. The highly dissected leaves of common ragweed have rounded leaf lobes while marigolds have pointed ones and toothed leaflets.
Marigold leaves are dissected, like common ragweed leaves, but marigold leaves are pointed at the tips and slightly toothed.
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