Fiber One sample cereal box.

I wouldn’t have purchased the small boxes because they have too much packaging to throw away. Different from the scored boxes we had as kids that doubled as bowls, this one had no scoring, and instead, the cereal was safe inside a heat-sealed plastic bag. Eating milk and cereal right from the box was fun - probably a memory from my childhood that today’s little ones won’t experience.

As I munched on the surprisingly sweet cereal right out of the bag, I just had to read the ingredients to see which sweetener was inside…sugar (second ingredient), fructose and dextrose. There’s little surprise there. Maybe it’s a great source of fiber with 9g per 1 cup serving, but the carbs, at 41 g, might be a little high for a diabetic.

Here’s the ingredient list for those of you trying to find a healthy alternative to Sugar Smacks:

whole grain wheat
sugar
corn bran
chicory root extract
maltodextrin
rice bran and/or canola oil
fructose
salt
dextrose
trisodium phosphate
soy lecithin
natural and artificial flavor
bht added to preserve freshness
enriched with a host of vitamins and minerals

There’s some whole grain goodness inside, but probably too much sugar to earn a gold star.

Surprised by the fourth ingredient, chicory root extract, I’m wondering if that is the ingredient responsible for the “caramel delight” flavor. What gives the natural and artificial caramel flavor? Perhaps the chicory root provides the light brown color. Before reading it on this cereal label I’ve only heard of roasted chicory root being used as a coffee substitute. It has to impart some taste to the cereal, doesn’t it? I wonder what other foods contain chicory root extract.

Chicory, Cichorium intybus, is in bloom all along the country roads in Pennsylvania. The sky blue blossoms are really pretty especially when a lot of chicory grows together.

Chicory flowers along the Pennsylvanian country roads.

Up close you can see that the petals are fringed at the ends. The chicory flowers are sessile and appear to be attached right at the stem. Leaves are few and variable along the stem and basal leaves are similar to dandelion. Long, arching blue stamens stand out nicely.

Fringed petals of chicory give its flowers a unique look.

Queen’s Anne Lace seems to be chicory’s main cohort. I see them together everywhere along the country roads and in empty fields.

The long tap root of chicory can be roasted for use as a beverage like coffee and, as I’ve read more about it, chicory leaves can be used in salads. Commercial growers in Michigan and a few other states in the Midwest now provide most of the chicory consumed in the U.S. It is an alien plant that European settlers imported into their new country.

Chicory root contains a sugar-like compound that is most likely used for soluble fiber content in my morning cereal.

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.

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.

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.

Last year I had been watching this plant grow up through the summer. Taking pictures all along I was really curious what it would develop into, but there was to be no flowering. What drew my curiosity to it was the whorled leaves. I was unfamiliar with this plant and eagerly awaited its bloom time.

It turned out that the season was too dry for me to see anything. The small flower buds simply dried up and the plant stopped growing.

The small flower head dried up after these photos were taken on 12 July 2007. You can see the whorl of large leaves quite clearly where they attach to the main stem.

This year, being a wet one, is different. The terminal cluster of flowers is still developing. As I recall, it seems like a smaller version of a plant that I have been seeing by the roadsides along country roads of Central PA.

Tall pink flowers along a Pennsylvania country road.

Coming home from town this morning I pulled over near a patch of these very tall pinkish flowers. Right away I could see the large lance-shaped leaves in whorls. Indeed, the leaves can be seen from the road, as can the cluster of pink-to-white flowers. These plants towered over my head as they stood 8-10 feet tall, but a few were reaching only about 4 feet high.

The flower parts are indistinguishable, which helps to identify this plant as being a Eupatorium species.

A close-up photo shows a couple of white stamens, but that’s about all you can see.

To further identify this plant, you’ll need to look closely at the main stem. Are there purple spots or is the stem green with a white, waxy appearance? Is it a hollow stem? The different Joe-Pye weeds are distinguished like so:

1. Sweet Joe-Pye Weed, Eupatorium purpureum, - green stem, purple at leaf joints vanilla odor of crushed leaves.
2. Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, Eupatorium maculatum, - purple or purple-spotted stems, flat flower cluster.
3. Hollow Joe-Pye Weed, Eupatorium fistulosum, - stem may have a tinge of purple, hollow stem, domed flower cluster.

Our plants are the Hollow Joe-Pye Weed, sometimes called Trumpetweed, due to the dome-shaped flower cluster, hollow stem, and no odor of vanilla. Areas that get lots of sun have the Joe-Pye weeds in full bloom and they’re very tall, too. Our smaller plants are in part shade all day long.

Interestingly enough, I found the same cohorts growing by the JoePye weed about 7 miles away, in full sun. I easily spotted Boneset, White Snakeroot, Spotted Touch-Me-Not and Blackberries - the same troupe that’s growing along our lane.

Don’t these blackberries look delicious? They’re quite large from all the rain and now they’re in my belly!

A fault, I find, of many field guides is that the neighboring plants of the one you’re reading about are not usually mentioned. OK, maybe it’s not a fault, but it sure would make a nice addition to list some of the ‘cohorts’ or associates that may be found with a particular plant.

I suppose the lists of associated plants would become too long to be useful. The plants growing alongside Boneset here may not be in the locations where you see it. Still, I can see that if you recognize the habitat where your plant is growing, you can learn about other inhabitants of that ecosystem. Then it would be easier to recognize individuals in that community of plants in the future.

Take our perennial Boneset, for example. At three to four feet tall the clusters of white blooms really stand out. Even more recognizable are the opposite pairs of perfoliate leaves that appear to be joined at the base. Once you see those leaves as the plant is growing, there’s no mistaking it. Boneset grows up in July and flowers in August to September.

Three perennial boneset plants starting to flower.

Flowers starting to open on the Boneset.
(Photos taken 2 August 2008.)

Growing along the lane our Boneset is growing in a wet area, often near running water as rain water and runoff is funneled off of the dirt road in that location. We’ve had a relatively wet year as the spring at the lower section of the lane has not totally dried up as it often does by this time of the year. Not such an excess of rain, but often we’ve had night-time downpours.

Growing around Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, we have White Snakeroot, Jewelweed or Spotted Touch-Me-Not, and Blackberries. White Snakeroot, Eupatorium rugosum, and Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis, are described in the Peterson Field Guide on Eastern-Central Medicinal Plants as growing near running water.

The last two years were much drier and I don’t recall seeing Boneset flowering at all. Snakeroot did, but not with as much gusto as I’m seeing this year.

The blackberries are more aggressive and will grow in drier locations in the woods as long as they can get the sunshine they need. Plants that might be called generalists, those that can live in many places, like the berries, are not good cohort indicators. Although you have to take caution here as this wetter year has produced an abundance of huge, sweet berries in the locations near the Boneset. We’ve enjoyed the blackberries thoroughly!

WildeBerry Ice Cream, anyone?

Key for identifying common broadleaved weed seedlings in PA

Getting a few steps into the key, here’s where johnsongrass and shattercane are differentiated:

6A. Thick, white rhizomes just below soil surface…..Johnsongrass, Sorghum halepenese, a perennial

6B. No rhizomes, fibrous root system like corn…..Shattercane, Sorghum bicolor, an annual

Check out this free resource from the National Park Service and the
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s called Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas. You can download the publication or read it online.

Briefly, you’ll get info on 49 of the top invasive aquatic plants, herbs, shrubs, trees and vines, along with a list of native alternatives that you can use to replace the invaders on your property.

Invasive Plants of the Mid-Atlantic U.S.

(Covering Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia)

Aquatic Plants

Eurasian watermilfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum
Giant salvinia, Salvinia molesta
Hydrilla, Hydrilla verticillata
Parrot feather watermilfoil, Myriophyllum aquaticum
Water chestnut, Trapa natans

Herbaceous Plants

Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata
Japanese knotweed, Polygonum cuspidatum
Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum
Lesser celandine, Ranunculus ficaria
Purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria
Bamboos, exotic, Bambusa, Phyllostachys and Pseudosassa
Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense
Chinese lespedeza, Lespedeza cuneata
Chinese silver grass, Miscanthus sinensis
Common daylily, Hemerocallis fulva
Common reed, Phragmites australis
Giant hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum
Giant reed, wild cane, Arundo donax
Marsh dewflower, Murdannia keisak
Spotted knapweed, Centaurea biebersteinii

Shrubs

Autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata
Bush honeysuckles, exotic, Lonicera
Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii
Multiflora rose, Rosa multiflora
Privets, Ligustrum spp.
Wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius
Winged burning bush, Euonymus alata
Butterfly bush, Buddlejac spp.
Japanese spiraea, Japanese meadowsweet, Spiraea japonica
Jetbead, Rhodotypos scandens

Trees

Bradford pear, Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’
Norway maple, Acer platanoides
Princess tree, Paulownia tomentosa
Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima
Silk tree, mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissin
Paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera
Sawtooth oak, Quercus acutissima
White mulberry, Morus alba

Vines

English ivy, Hedera helix
Kudzu, Pueraria montana v. lobata
Mile-a-minute, Polygonum perfoliatum
Oriental bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus
Porcelainberry, Ampelopsis brevipedunculata
Wisterias, exotic, Wisteria sinensis, W. floribunda
Creeping euonymus, Euonymus fortunei
Five-leaved akebia, Akebia quinata
Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica
Louis’ swallowwort, Cynanchum louiseae
Periwinkle, Vinca minor

At first glance we have seven of these invaders on our property, so we’ll be looking into how we can best deal with each one.

What about your land? Are you harboring any alien invaders?

The main problem with introduced plants is that they often go wild, literally. Typically, no pests or predators consume enough of the plant or control it by other means, so the new kid on the block acts like an invader. Seeds are easily spread by animals, birds or the wind. Runners and suckers help the aliens invade new territory.

Invasive plants crowd out native plants and the problem with that is that we lose biodiversity. A highly diverse ecosystem has been shown scientifically - over and over again - to be more stable than a less diverse ecosystem. What that means for all of us is that when we lose biodiversity we lose a little stability. When nature becomes unstable, bad things happen.

So far, we’ve done some really bad things, like polluting the waterways so badly that a river actually caught fire in the 1970s and fish populations in the Great Lakes were totally decimated to recover some decades later. Enacting legislation, like the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, to right these wrongs aided in the recovery.

Looking at things long-term, one sees that it would be much better for us, as the human race, to strive to stabilize our environment.

Perhaps an over simplification, but the endpoint is clear. We need to keep our environment of a high quality and stability if we are going to survive.

Concerning plant invaders, the worst of the bunch has been identified and legislated against. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has compiled a list of links to federal and state noxious weed lists.

Pennsylvania’s Noxious Weed List names 13 plants that are illegal to propagate, sell or transport in PA:

1. Canada Thistle, Cirsium arvense
2. Multiflora Rose, Rosa multiflora
3. Johnsongrass, Sorghum halepense
4. Marijuana, Cannabis sativa
5. Mile-a-Minute or Tear-thumb, Polygonum perfoliatum
6. Kudzu-vine, Pueraria lobata
7. Bull or Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulgare
8. Musk or Nodding Thistle, Carduus nutans
9. Shattercane, Sorghum bicolor ssp. drummondii
10. Jimsonweed, Datura stamonium
11. Purple loosestrife, including all cultivars, Lythrum salicaria
12. Giant hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum
13. Goatsrue, Galega officinalis

I’ve seen many thistles growing by the roadsides in the country out here and probably at least a few of them are on this weed list. The Mile-a-minute and Loosestrife I’ve seen in nearby areas, but I only recall seeing the Kudzu vine in Virginia and places further south.

We have Multiflora Rose growing all along the dirt road up to the house and I do think it grows very quickly judging from the last three years changes. We’re going to tear some out this fall and replace it with raspberry plants. That way, we can still enjoy the flowering, have some delicious fruit for the picking, and help reduce the invasive plant burden on the Pennsylvania natives.

Where you live, do you see any of these bad weeds?

I read an article in a recent Conservationist magazine, from New York State, that addressed an additional problem with Giant Hogweed. Some people are so sensitive to the plant that contact with it produces blisters. Kind of like the burns you can get from parsnips in the garden if you handle them with the morning dew still on them! If you’re going to get rid of some Giant Hogweed, send me a picture first and I’ll post it here for all to see. Oh yeah, wear long sleeves and gloves, too!