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Blue False Indigo Flowers in Spring

April 18, 2013June 12, 2010 by wilde

Blue False Indigo is a very attractive plant that blooms in the middle of Spring. A perennial that sports large clover-like leaves in light green flowers quite beautifully in dark blue and deep purple.

So far, I’ve only seen it in flower beds and not in the wild anywhere. As a matter of fact, the blue false indigo photographed here grew from seeds collected from seed pods of a group that had flowered so nicely the spring before. Blue False Indigo, Baptisia australis, is a member of the Pea Family that is native to North America.

My introduction to this deep purple flowering perennial were a dozen or more plants that were part of the landscaping at the local college library. I made a mental note to myself to return to the scene of the lovely deep purple flowers when the seed pods seemed to be ripe and rattle with seeds.

When I went back there it must have been the end of the summer. The seed pods had turned their faded purple color and the seeds rattled in their pods. Took out my trusty pocket knife, sliced off a few flower stems and slipped them in my backpack. Each one had a half dozen or so seed pods.

A couple years later the seeds were finally planted in a flower bed next to the house. What you see in the image below is a cluster of plants that are about six years old. No flowers appeared the first year on the scant foliage, only a few blooms opened the second year. I’m sure the plant would be considered mature now as the deep purple to blue flowers have been outstanding for the last four years.

Look for the blue false indigo to start blooming in the beginning of May.

Purple flower spikes and clover-like leaves of blue false indigo.

The pointed, oval leaves appear in threes, and they start out in an accordian shape, all folded up. The clover-like leaves are widest near the tip.

Long flower spikes rise up above the foliage.

Violet and indigo flowers command attention in the bright May sunshine. Once the blooming is in full swing the spikes tend to arch over with the weight of the flowers and developing seedpods. Photos above taken 2 May 2010.

The same false indigo plant flowered beautifully last year, as seen in the photo above taken 23 May 2009.

Pea-type flowers produce several seeds inside elongated seed pods.

Photo above taken 23 May 2007.

In the image below taken 23 May 2009 is a fertilized false indigo flower. Note that a seed pod is growing out of the flower and that the side wing petals have fallen away to leave the broad purple standard petal at the top and, in this case, a white keel at the bottom of the bloom. Stamens are usually tucked inside the keel.

By the end of May the flowers are past done and all seed pods are well-formed. The pods will turn a deep purple to black as they ripen. The stalks of colorful seed pods can be used as points of interest in flower arrangements.

Peterson’s Medicinal Plants Guide indicates that Blue False Indigo, as well as other species of Baptisia, are potential immune system stimulants. Native Americans used the roots in treating inflammation.

Once the stems get 3 feet tall or so it only takes a brief storm to knock them over. We’ve tried different ways of staking up the greenery of false blue indigo and so far we like this little fence idea the best. Small slats of wood were interlaced to form a sort of fence to hold up the stems.

Primitive wooden fence for holding up false blue indigo stems in summer.

Black Cherry Trees Flowered Beautifully in 2010

June 18, 2012June 10, 2010 by wilde

: Image by stephenccwu via Flickr

I’m wondering if the wild temperatures we had this spring affected the blooming time of our Black Cherry trees. We know that extremes in weather conditions will alter blooming times for many flowers and prohibit flowering altogether in some cases. Each year we wonder if the cherry blossoms will bloom during the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.

2010 has been a wild roller coaster ride as far as temperatures go. We’ve had swings from 20 degrees above to 20 degrees below the average high temperatures. Surely, the blooming times of some plants were affected. A point in case is the Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida. Its flowering was next to nil for 2010. Very few wild flowering dogwood trees bloomed in our immediate area. The same observations were seen as far away as Virginia, where the dogwoods did not bloom heavily as in previous years, if at all.

It’s easy to draw conclusions, but we really don’t know for sure what causes certain plants to really put on a show one year and barely be apparent the next. Without a proper study one can always find an alternate explanation. Perhaps the accumulation of necessary nutrients takes longer in some years affecting their reproductive cycles. Is that why we have bumper crops of acorns in some years and not so many in other years?

Last year was a great year for the Maple-Leaved Viburnum in our forest. They flowered most beautifully.

Certainly, temperature does have something to do with blooming times, at least for some plants, like cherries. By the way, the cherry blossoms in Washington were right on time for 2010 with a 10 day blooming period and a blooming peak on March 31.

At any rate it is interesting to see changes from year to year. Just observe the same plants over a several year period, you’ll be able to learn a lot from your little green friends.

2010 was a great flowering year for the wild cherry trees of the genus Prunus.

Saplings that are about an inch in diameter and about 12-15 feet tall, flowered the most this May that we have ever seen them. Perhaps these little trees just got big enough to flower that much. Maybe the rain and temperatures were optimal for flowering of the cherry trees in our locality. We can’t say with certainty what caused the exquisite blooming, but we can say it was a good blooming year for our little wild cherries.

Black cherry flowers in elongated clusters.

We were lucky to see so many blossoms of wild cherry this year.

Flower buds opening on a cluster of black cherry blossoms.

Two similar wild cherry trees grow in the same type of habitat at the edge of the woods or in recently cleared areas. To decide whether the flowering cherry trees we’re looking at are Black Cherry or Common Chokecherry, we need to look at the margins of the leaves. Are the teeth sharp or blunt? If the teeth are sharp, we have the Common Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana. If the teeth are blunt, we’re looking at the Black Cherry, Prunus serotina.

Consider the overall shape of the leaf. Is it elongated and pointed, or more squat with a short tip? Black cherry leaves are elongated, lance-like, and have 13 or more lateral leaf veins. Common chokecherry leaves have fewer leaf veins, 8 – 11, and are short-pointed at the tip.

To verify these identifications, note whether the fruits retain the calyx lobes (of the old sepals) at the top of the fruit next to the stem. If the cherry does not retain the calyx lobes, it is a common chokecherry. If the cherry retains the calyx lobes, it is a black cherry.

Common Chokecherry	Black Cherry
leaves with sharp teeth	leaves with blunt teeth
leaf vein pairs 8-11	leaf vein pairs 13+
short pointed leaf tip
fruit with no calyx	fruit retain calyx lobes

Fruit from either tree is edible, if somewhat bitter. Grolier’s Field Guide to North American Trees tells us that every three or four years black cherry trees have a bumper crop of fruit. If the birds let you have enough, why not make some wild cherry jelly?

Our black cherries here are gaining size, but they’re still green. It seems that many of the flowers don’t produce fruit at all because of the few number that reach maturity. Has anyone seen a cluster of wild cherry fruit that was as long as the flower cluster? Typically, you’ll see two or three ripe berries for each cluster of a few dozen flowers.

The green cherries aren’t ready to eat of course, but you can see the retained calyx lobes at the top of the fruits, near the stem. Photo above taken 31 May 2010. Note the blunt teeth at the leaf margins and many side veins in the leaf, which indicate this to be a Black Cherry.

In reality you’ll probably never get enough wild cherries to make jelly. Besides many kinds of birds, raccoons, rabbits, squirrel, deer and bear will eat cherries. One of our black cherry trees didn’t bear any more fruit than three cherries on the whole tree, even though it flowered beautifully as seen in the first two images in this post.

I’m curious…does anyone out there use wild cherries for food or to make jelly?

Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom (cbsnews.com)
Map of ancient cherry trees to save traditional fruit from extinction (telegraph.co.uk)

Native Yarrow Patch Yields Bountiful Flowers

February 6, 2016June 8, 2010 by wilde

A couple of years ago I found a cluster of yarrow growing in the backyard. I noticed the foliage when the plants were small, maybe half a foot tall. Rubbing a leaf released the “flower arrangement” scent that confirmed I was looking at Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.

Learning the scents that plants make is only secondary to learning their physical characteristics to identify them. Sometimes you can cut to the chase by smelling the flowers or leaves, but if you can recognize a plant’s scent then you’re probably already familiar with it in other ways.

The yarrow plant has very highly divided leaves. The leaves are soft to the touch and arch over instead of being erect. The fern-like leaves are probably how most people would identify yarrow, instead of using its smell.

Foliage and flower buds of native yarrow.

Yarrow that was transplanted into a flower bed has flourished into many plants from the original few. Note the foliage in the image above, taken 2 May 2010.

Flowers and leaves share the same stem. Yarrow flowers seem to be formed early and rise up higher as more leaves continue to develop. When the plant gets 1 – 3 feet tall the blossoms will be fully formed into a slightly rounded cluster of what appears to white, five petal flowers. The flowers are actually composite flowers with only a few broad ray flowers, most often five of them.

A side view of a patch of yarrow flowers.

Two photos of yarrow flowers taken 31 May 2010.

Yarrow is a plant that is used widely in flower gardens and in fresh-cut and dried flower arrangements. White is the original, native flower color, but other colors have been propagated.

Peterson’s Edible Plant Guide indicates that yarrow leaves are often used to make tea. The pleasant flower arrangement scent is a nice addition to other herbs or used alone. Check out yarrow herbal remedies to learn more about how others use yarrow in herbal remedies.

Perfoliate Bellwort Flowers at the Edge of the Woods

June 18, 2012June 7, 2010 by wilde

: Image via Wikipedia — Large-Flowered Bellwort

The bellworts seem to be delicate flowering herbs because of their dangling, single flowers and small size.

The image to the right is of a Large-Flowered Bellwort, so named for the size of its single flower. The yellow petals have a twist which helps to separate this kind of bellwort from other bellworts.

One bellwort in particular is a unique little plant. Its pointed oval leaves are pierced by the stem, except for the terminal leaves. The pierced leaves are called perfoliate leaves, which give the plant its name, Perfoliate Bellwort, Uvularia perfoliata. The stem and entire plant reaches about a foot tall at the most.

The Perfoliate Bellwort with its pierced leaves and single flower.

If you follow the stem of the perfoliate bellwort from the bottom up in the image above, you can see that a couple side stems branch off the main stem. However, only one of these forks will have a single terminal flower.

The lone lemon yellow bell-shaped flower hangs downward. Six elongated petals indicate the bellworts are members of the Lily Family, Liliaceae.

The flower is not as long as the leaf directly under it, which differentiates it from the large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora. Also, the leaves of the large-flowered species are downy underneath unlike the smooth leaves of the perfoliate species.

A lemony yellow single dangling flower of perfoliate bellwort. — A lemony yellow, single, dangling flower of perfoliate bellwort.

Another example of perfoliate bellwort. Photos above taken 2 May 2010.

A couple weeks earlier the bellwort started blooming. Its leaves still retained some of the curl from opening up when the images below were taken 23 April 2010.

Fresh new leaves of perfoliate bellwort.

Two bellwort plants in the image above still retain a little curl in their leaves, signaling that these plant leaves are fresh and new.

Another sign that we are looking at Perfoliate Bellwort instead of Large-Flowered Bellwort is the rough, orange center of the blossom. The large-flowered species has a smoother and more yellow center to the flower than the perfoliate species.

Eight or nine plants typically come up in this same area each Spring.

The Perfoliate Bellwort is a perennial herbaceous plant native to North America. In eastern woodlands it grows in the understory in the same types of places that you find black raspberry, blackberry, pasture rose, Solomon’s seal, Virginia creeper, poison ivy, and ferns.

Peterson’s Medicinal Plants Guide indicates that Native Americans used tea made from the roots to treat coughs, sore mouth, sore throat, and a number of ailments that appear to have inflammation at their root.

Yellow Flags Flower Down by the River

June 18, 2012June 3, 2010 by wilde

A friend gave us a few plants a couple of years ago, but not a store-bought variety. His property is next to the Juniata River and one of his favorite past times is to go down to the river and see what he can find. Sometimes he’ll come back up the hill with buckets of minnows or baby catfish that would then be raised in fish tanks. River rock and driftwood are common finds and so are plastic chairs and other sundry items that get washed downstream during heavy rains. Once in a while he’ll venture far enough to dig up flowering plants that he usually transplants near his goldfish pond.

We were lucky to receive these beautiful yellow flags or yellow irises. The plants get about three feet tall, but many of the sword like leaves arch over to a foot or two tall. From year to year the iris plants get bigger and this year they flowered the most in their three years here on the mountain ridge. I think last year each plant had one flower stalk with 1 – 3 blooms. This year there are five flower stalks among two clumps of iris planted in different areas. Each flower stalk had 1-5 flowers.

Three flower buds of the yellow flag or yellow iris.

Three flower buds are apparent in the images above. Photos taken 2 May 2010.

Beardless yellow iris flowers. Photo taken 7 May 2010.

The yellow flag is typical of Iris species, where the large yellow “petals” that are veined with purple and that arch downward are really the sepals. Smaller upward pointing petals are the true petals. Inside to the petals are three styles, which look like smaller erect petals. The yellow flag has purple lines on the large bright yellow sepals and a lighter yellow color on the other flower parts.

Even though the yellow flags, that were found down by the river, seemed to be a natural plant there, the Iris pseudacorus is not native to the United States. Yellow irises are native to Europe and the specimens that we find along rivers and creeks are garden escapees. We could also say the yellow flags are naturalized to our area in South-central PA.

Somehow it feels good to have re-captured a wayside plant. We can enjoy its beautiful yellow blossoms and sword like foliage whenever we’re outside the house.

There is no indication in Peterson’s Edible Plant Guide or Peterson’s Medical Plants Guide that the yellow flag has any edible or medicinal value. Beyond its appeal as a garden member, its long linear leaves could be used to make small baskets for collecting berries and cones. The leaves also lend themselves as natural additions to cut flower arrangements.

In the autumn the iris plants can be separated into individual fans and re-planted. Use a sharp spade to slice through the roots in between the small groups or fans of leaves. Or, dig up the entire plant and use a sharp knife or shovel to separate the fans, roots and all. Transplant to new area, water and mulch. Look forward to next year’s blooms!

The Showy Orchis That Wasn’t

June 18, 2012June 1, 2010 by wilde

Walking the woods is a favorite activity for many of us forest wanderers. We go in search of different things. Some of us look for wild herbs that we might use and flowers to appreciate and take delight in. Others look for trails of animals and their tracks, for better hunting when that time comes. Regardless of your reason to take that walk in the woods, keep your senses aware as you never know what you’ll find.

A few weeks back I spoke with a land manager at a local park. He was more than a little disgusted by the work performed by people over a year ago when an extra large drainage pipe was installed at the creek, without apparent need for it. Although the installation of the pipe seemed to be ok, we may never know as the size of pipe installed wasn’t warranted by the water flow of the creek – the pipe is just too big for the location.

During the drainage pipe installation no care was taken to protect the plants that naturally come up in this area. The land manager told me there were a handful of showy orchis – orchids – that were destroyed in the laying of the pipe. He had known of three plants that used to appear in the area where gravel had been laid during the pipe installation.

Hearing the news that the only known plants in the whole park were now under a bed of gravel, I had little hope of finding showy orchis at the park. Even so, I took a little extra time combing the area adjacent to the place where the showy orchis used to appear. The efforts were worth the time as I did find three little beauties – what a pleasant surprise!

Showy orchis, a member of the Orchid family, is probably one of the most common orchids in Pennsylvania. Something about orchids makes them seem rare and mysterious. We do have orchids here in the temperate zone, but many more kinds of orchids grow in more tropical locales. The orchids are noted for their odd flowers and many are cultivated by true afficinados.

So, what does showy orchis look like? Two basal leaves lie opposite one another, while the flower stem has smaller, oval-shaped ‘leaves’ that are pointed on the end. Basal leaves are broadly oval and may be slightly pointed to blunt-ended. One to five prominent veins are visible on the thick leaves.

A succulent flower stem rises up from the middle of the two basal leaves. Along the flower stem are what appear to be several smaller leaves, each having a single flower in the leaf axil. These small leaves associated with individual flowers are more properly called bracts. The presence of flower bracts can be used as an identifying feature of showy orchis as several related species do not have flower bracts.

Flowers are bicolored in white and light pink to magenta. Petals and sepals are fused to make a flower with only two petals and a spur. The broad, wavy-edged lower lip petal and long spur are white. The smooth-edged upper petal which forms a hood is usually somewhat pink to darker pink or magenta, but sometimes it appears to be white making an all white flower.

Photos here were a little too early to capture the flowers open. When opened, the orchid exhibits a pinkish hood and white lip and spur. The white spur is slightly longer than the flower bud. The flowers here present as all white. Perhaps the purple-rose color will develop as the flower matures.

Showy Orchis, Galearis spectabilis, once known as Orchis spectabilis, is called showy orchis, even though this plant was moved from the Orchis genus to new genus called Galearis. This is a particularly silly example of how confusing common names can be. The showy orchis isn’t an orchis at all, yet we still call it showy orchis.

An example showy orchis with three flowers in the image below seems to be a young plant of about 3 x 5 inches with a 2-inch flower spike.

Two broad, linear-veined leaves of showy orchis shine in the sunlight.

Note a second and third plant hiding to the left and behind of the flowering showy orchis. The blooms appear to be all white at this point.

The single flower stem has a leafy bract for each flower.

Another showy orchis hides among the wild ginger.

In the center of the photo above a Showy Orchis orchid hides among the wild ginger and ferns near the creek.

These showy orchis weren’t very showy at all. The flowers weren’t open and the pink to magneta color wasn’t there either.

The image above shows a typical bicolor flower of white and pink. The flowers are open and more clearly show their hood and lip shapes.

The Showy Orchis orchid can be found in rich woods and near water, especially creeks and springs that run through woodlands. Look for this flowering orchid during the first two weeks of May or perhaps a little later in more northern or mountainous areas.

Privet Shrub Smells Like Spring

August 14, 2012May 25, 2010 by wilde

Early in the day during my walk at the Box Huckleberry Natural Area I was stopped in my tracks by nice sweet smell. It smelled like a spring day and that’s about all I can say to describe the lovely scent.

I looked around and the thing was I couldn’t find the source of the smell. I did see some pinxter flower, the wild pink azalea. It was barely blooming yet with flower buds formed and only one of them open. It looked like they may even open later in the day but only one of them was opened so far and I can’t think the scent that I smelled was due to a single flower down the trail.

Smokey says the pinxter flower doesn't have a lovely scent.

There was hardly any of the box huckleberry still blooming so I wasn’t sure where this lovely scent came from. The neat thing was it stopped me in my tracks, so I took a moment to look all around me. I couldn’t find what was blooming to make such a nice scent and then I spotted them – I saw a whole bunch of moccasin flowers or Pink Lady’s Slippers. They don’t have any smell of their own, but I was truly appreciative of the pretty scent having helped me find them.

Later in the same day I was over on the Middle Ridge Trail at Little Buffalo State Park when I came across the same lovely smell. This time it was easy to find the scent producer. A Privet shrub, Ligustrum vulgare, had taken up residence some years ago right next to the trail and now it was tree-sized, probably twenty feet tall.

Privet shrub blooming with 3-4 inch long oval pointed leaves. The four pointed trumpet-like blooms were opening in all their glory.

Trumpet-like four-pointed blooms of Privet.

Tubular blossoms open to show four points. Note there are still some unopened flowers in the bud stage.

A couple years ago I saw a privet shrub right next to a stop sign. In the adjacent meadow there were a dozen or more privet shrubs that you could readily see during their bloom time in mid-Spring. The white blossoms just about cover the little shrubs. Well, being at a stop sign I guess it was noticed by someone else. When I went during the autumn to collect the scented shrub, it was gone. Perhaps the road crew beat me to it.

It was stopping at the stop sign and smelling the lovely privet blossoms that introduced me to Privet. Even though it can be invasive, I will continue to enjoy its scent when I smell it.

Privet is a shrub native to Europe and alien to the U.S. Most wildflower guides don’t have information on Privet, due to its being a shrub and not an herbaceous plant, except the Newcomb Wildflower Guide which does cover some shrubbery.

Hedge or fence? (telegraph.co.uk)

Downy Yellow Violet Flowers in Moist Woodlands

August 14, 2012May 21, 2010 by wilde

Probably the first thing noticeable about yellow stemmed violets would be their heart-shaped leaves. The leaves branch off each other which gives a nice effect of producing a clump of heart-like leaves. Each leaf stands apart from the other as to make the heart-shaped outlines very obvious.

Heart-shaped leaves of Downy Yellow Violet.

Stemmed violets have both flowers and leaves produced on the same stem. The differences between several yellow-stemmed violets come down to leaf shape.

The yellow stemmed violet that we have here is called the Downy Yellow Violet, Viola pubescens. Two identifying characteristics are first, the downy or softly hairy surface of the stems and leaves, and second, the toothed stipule, which is like a tiny leaf at the base of the heart-shaped leaves.

Toothed stipules of downy yellow violet.

Note the yellow circle around the toothed stipule (hard to see the teeth in this image) and the downy hair on the leaves and stems.

The flowers appear differently depending on the angle that you view them at. Looking down on the violet you’ll see four petals, sideways you can see the spur and straight on gives you a look at the lined lower petal.

Looking down on the yellow stemmed violets.

Top-side view of the Downy Yellow Violet.

Yellow violets seem common in low-lying areas near creeks or wetlands. Blooming cohorts included white violets, the common blue violet, miterwort, wild ginger and wild stonecrop. Bloodroot and trout lily had already bloomed in this area. Photos were taken 30 April 2010 near the Day Use Area of Little Buffalo State Park in Newport, PA.

These pretty violets – and all members of Viola – are edible, but the Peterson Edible Plants Guide tells us that the yellow species may be mildly cathartic, which means that they may act as a laxative. The young leaves and flowers can be added to salads. The leaves can be used to thicken soups, boiled as a cooked green, or dried to make tea.

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