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A friend collected a roadside passionflower a few years ago near the northern state line of Maryland, probably along Route 15. For several years he’s kept the plant going strong enough to take cuttings each Spring. I was a lucky recipient of one cutting that accepted RootTone’s magic and it started growing very well.

Palmate leaves of the passion-flower alternate along a vine-like stem with two small half-moon shaped leaves clasping the main stem. The palmate leaf fingers are skinny.

At the leaf and main stem junctions tendrils coil out to anchor the plant to anything within reach. It would be important to trellis this plant to keep it growing where you want it to stay.

I did not expect it to bloom the first year, but there are half a dozen blossoms already in development. Flowers rise up from the leaf axils, one blossom per leaf.

I’ll get more pics when the blooms are out. Stay tuned!

We’ve had some really hot weather lately, and with the nightly downpours, that was enough of an excuse that I’d stopped mowing the lawn for about a month. Yes, the grassy areas did get deep and I know I’ll regret it when I have to twice-mow that long grass to get it back into shape. But there’s a silver lining to that cloud – I’ve met a few more meadow plants!

In the front yard we have Indian-tobacco, a type of Lobelia. I remember seeing it last year there, but didn’t take any pictures then.

Indian-tobacco, Lobelia inflata, is the most common lobelia and it can be found along roads, at the edge of woods, and in meadows, like where the front yard meets the woods in our case.

Lobelias are characterized by their flower shape, having five petals joined at the base so they form a tube, or corolla. Two upper petals can be thought of as ‘ears’ and the three lower petals as ‘lips’. Different Lobelia species vary in their overall flower and leaf shapes, as well as the placement of the blossoms.

Flowering from July to October, Indian-tobacco has its flowers in the leaf axils.

After flowering the blossoms swell at the base into pea-sized seedpods with the remnants of the flower sepals at the top of the round pods.

Alternating leaves are toothed, oval shaped, and larger than the leaves of most Lobelia, especially nearer the ground.

Looking down on this common plant, you can see that blooms further down the stem are on longer stems that hang over the leaves. Further up the top of the stem the blooms are nearer the main stem, and at the top they’re right on the stem.

You can see that flowers are blooming at the top and sides of this Indian tobacco.

The bright sun blanched out the pale blue color of the flower petals, but you can see the progression of budding flowers to opened blooms to swollen seedpods.

Not too many flowers are found in Pennsylvania woods in the summer months of July and August. Most of the Spring flowers have now turned into berries and fruits. In a few days the elderberries should be near ready to harvest and the blackberries have been yummy this week!

One group that does flower in the heat of the summer is the Rattlesnake Plantains that flower in July and August. We are fortunate to have the most common species blooming in our woods called Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens, a member of the Orchid family, Orchidaceae.

A single, fuzzy flower stalk tipped with a compact group of white flower buds rises up from a basal rosette of mottled leaves. The quarter-inch long flowers will open into the typical orchid-like irregular shape, having a large lower lip overshadowed by a group of fused petals.

Leaves in a basal rosette are oval in shape. The strong silver-white midrib contrasts with the dark green leaves. Veins that cross the leaf and run the length of it are all silver-white giving the leaf a unique, variegated look. The name “rattlesnake plantain” comes from the suggestion of rattlesnake skin by the pattern on the leaves.

Flower spike appears fuzzy or woolly, thus the “downy” part of its name. A few scale-like bracts are seen on the flower stalk.

Downy rattlesnake plantain leaves and roots were used by Native Americans for a number of ailments, but its collection and medicinal use are discouraged today due to its rarity.

Driving up through the Pennsylvania mountains today we saw that the redbud trees were in full bloom. What a beautiful sight to see their purple blossoms all along the highway. Keep your eyes on the road, but look for nature’s beauty – she’s everywhere!

Common cinquefoil is beautifying our backyard this morning. For a week or so there will be these little bright yellow spots dotting the landscape. Of course I could go out and pull it up after the flowering so that more grass could grow on the lawn, but we don’t care too much for mowing the grass. The cinquefoil stays.

I actually look forward to all the wild flowers that spring up in the yard. We’re located on a mountain ridge in a forest clearing so there’s plenty of volunteers that come up in the areas without trees. I delight in seeing them all – No planting needed!

The series of spring flowering volunteers include

• dandelion

– Is this the most commonly recognized flowering plant on the face of the planet?

• ground ivy
• Pennsylvania bittercress
• thyme-leaved speedwell
• garlic mustard
• northern downy violet
• arrowleaf violet
• common blue violet
• cinquefoil
• mustard
• strawberry
• yellow hawkweed

Ok, some of my happy volunteers are aliens, but now they live here, too. The true American yard should be a melting pot, don’t you think? I admit to pulling up the really invasive garlic mustard every chance I get because I don’t want it to totally take over our spaces.

We’re not in the right ecosystem to have a perfectly manicured grassy lawn. For that you’d have to be back in the UK where the weather is much more conducive to keeping the grass green.

In the interest of going green I’m not going to spread chemicals and work my hands to the bone trying to force the grass to grow. Save your money, your water and your time and let the natives take over the landscape.

If I lived in a planned neighborhood and everybody on the street had nice green lawns, I’m sure that mine would stick out from the rest. As it stands now our vegetable garden is in the front yard as that is where the best sun shines. I say, “Dare to be different!” – it’s the only way to make progress in the war against the lemming-like behavior of suburban inhabitants.

One of my favorite scenes in Spring is the return of the coltsfoot. Driving down most any country road in central Pennsylvania you can see these early “dandelions” before anything else is blooming.

Of course coltsfoot is an entirely different plant than dandelion, but many people will mistake it for such. Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, does look like dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, in that the yellow flowers have many rays, but that’s where the similarity ends.

The flowering stems of dandelions are thin hollow tubes, where the coltsfoot stems have noticeable scales.

Coltsfoot flowering along a country road in Pennsylvania.

When coltsfoot flowers its leaves are hardly noticeable as they are just beginning to be formed, whereas dandelion leaves are present before it flowers. A dandelion’s basal leaves are narrow, lobed or cleft and at ground level, while coltsfoot leaves are roundish, broad, held high and their shape suggests a colt’s foot. When flowering is over for the season coltsfoot leaves continue to grow until they’re larger than your palm.

Another similarity between the two is the white, fluffy seed head produced by the spent flowers. Pictures to come later.

I mentioned that coltsfoot is the only thing flowering now, but that is not quite correct. Maybe it’s the first noticeable, native flower. A couple of very small flowers are out now too, namely Pennsylvania Bitter Cress, Cardamine pensylvanica, and Purple Dead Nettle, Lamium purpureum. And the natives are being out done right now by the flower garden bulbs. Check out this nice purple and white crocus!

Purple and white crocus blooming in the flower garden. Another crocus is about to come up, you can see its bud on the left at the base of its white-striped linear leaves.

Stay tuned for more flowering beauties and look around your neighborhood for what’s coming up!