Plant Sightings

A purple cone flower, Echinacea sp., growing adjacent to the front door had a bad habit last year of drooping onto the doorstep. To keep the four feet tall stems from falling over into our entryway, we simply placed a small tomato cage (31″ tall) over the perennial cone flower as it started to come back to life in the early Spring. As the stems grew we tucked them inside the cage and yes, it did look strange for a couple weeks. Now it looks great! You can’t even see the cage and the stems are all held upright for the butterflies and bees and us to appreciate — and not trip over!

Echinacea blooming near the front door.

It’s fun to watch the blossoms develop. Here is the purple cone flower blooming as it starts out with greenish petals and as the outermost flowers bloom first followed by the inner flowers. As a member of the composite family, each blossom is actually made up of many very small flowers grouped together. Notice the yellow pollen emitted from each individual flower in bloom. The cone or composite of flowers starts out flat and attains the cone shape as it matures.

Early purple cone flower.

Outer-most flowers blooming as noted by the yellow pollen.

Inner cone flowers blooming.

Lavender is in bloom along the walkway near the front of the house. This plant will have to be divided and planted elsewhere as it has grown too big for its present location. The garden hose keeps tripping over it!

Lavender blooming next to the oregano.

A unique flower has started to blossom in the flower beds — the spider-flower. Not the spider plant that you might have in a hanging basket on your deck or indoors, but rather an escaped alien plant, Cleome spinosa. Granted, we got a couple plants from friends to put in our garden and I think it will be here for a long time. The seeds are plentiful and the spider-flowers return year after year. Blossoms are white to pink to purple and consist of four narrow-stalked petals that are separated widely and several extremely long stamens.

Spider-flowers blooming pink above the palmate leaves.

White spider-flowers with really long stamens.

Other garden flowers that are making an appearance include several cacti, the trumpet vines and portulaca, or the moss rose.

Purple cactus flower blooming in the sunshine.

Spiny cactus leaves contrast with the delicate purple flower.

It is curious how such a mean-looking plant can produce such a delicate-looking flower!

This week was the first time this year that I noted a flowering Jewelweed, or Spotted Touch-Me-Not, Impatiens capensis, which is an annual that returns each year along the lane. Further down the lane is a patch of poison ivy that refuses to be cut back. A remedy for poison ivy rash is found in a poultice of crushed leaves or juice from the pre-flowering stems of Jewelweed. Isn’t it curious that these two plants are almost always found growing close to one another?

Asiatic Dayflowers were seen yesterday and will appear each day now for the remainder of the hot weather. They, too, are growing along the lane. Since the dog and I were taking a walk I didn’t carry the trusty camera, so I’ll have to come back for a few pictures to post here.

Another lane-side plant was noted by its terminal spike of two-petal flowers, Enchanter’s Nightshade, Circaea quadrisulcata. Each tiny white flower appears to have four petals but on closer inspection the deep clefts in each of two petals make it look like four. Isn’t it quite unusual to have a flower with only two petals? The enchanter’s nightshade is growing in a damp, shady area adjacent to the area where the spring trickles into a culvert underneath the lane. It’s much nicer having this dark green plant alongside the lane than the dreaded poison ivy!

White yarrow growing in the gravel of the lane where is gets more shade than sun. The direct sunlight it does receive is during noontime.

Some nicer pictures of the American elder and its clusters of white flowers.

Shrubbery of the American elder tree.

Elder leaves are compound with 5-7 leaflets.

Closeup of an elder flower cluster.

Clusters of elderberry flowers.

Here’s a nice grouping of the whorled loosestrife along the lane.

Several whorled loosestrife along the lane.

I’ve never eaten Poke, but people say it’s good greens — but only when young shoots are collected in early Spring. The mature leaves, roots and stems are poisonous. Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana, is quite noticeable as it has huge leaves!

Pokeweed has huge leaves!

Poke flowers appear to have white petals, but those are actually the sepals. When the fruit ripens the cluster of shiny, purple-black berries hangs downward.

Tiny white flowers for a very large plant.

Another flowering plant we found along the lane is yarrow, Achillea millefolium, a member of the composite family, Compositae. The flowers appear in flat, tight clusters and are usually white and sometimes pink.

A couple yarrow plants alongside the lane.

Yarrow, a perennial, is distinguished from other similar-looking flowers by its greenery. The narrow leaves are finely divided and remind one of a fern. Yarrow leaves are aromatic, too.

Narrow leaves with many divisions help to identify yarrow.

An interesting note about yarrow is that its use in folk medicine has been substantiated by the fact that over 100 biologically active compounds have been found in yarrow. A tea made from dried flowering yarrow is used for many maladies, including colds, fever, gastric upset, and internal bleeding. A poultice made from fresh leaves is styptic – used to stop bleeding. Indeed, legend has it that Achilles used a poultice of yarrow leaves to stop the bleeding of his soldiers’ wounds, thus the generic name Achillea. Caution: Do not use yarrow in any form if you are unsure of its identification as other similar plants are deadly poisonous, such as Fool’s Parsley and Poison Hemlock.

The tomatoes are in bloom in the vegetable garden, and the foxglove, statice, rudbeckia, tiger lilies and lamb’s ear are blooming, too.

Tiger lilies blooming in the flower beds.

This time of year we are seeing the raspberries beginning to appear as little green knobby buds. At about the time they should be ripening up, the elderberries shouldn’t be far behind. The American elder, Sambucus canadensis, grows with many shoots arising out of the ground. The elders here are growing along the lane up to the house and along the farmer’s road. As a matter of fact the first post I made here back in February was about the first green growth I saw in late Winter on the farmer’s lane. I reported that it was possibly a sassafras tree, but now have confirmation that it is an elder tree. The shoots that sprang up this year are 10-15 feet tall.

Elder trees grow from many shoots.

The elder leaves are compound, opposite leaves consisting of 5-7 leaflets about 3-4 inches long and sharply toothed. The small white flowers are now starting to come out of their buds and are arranged in large, roundish or flat-topped clusters about 6-7 inches across.

My purpose today was to chop down a large poison ivy vine but first I had to photograph the flowers. I want it gone more than I want to see the resulting ivyberries, especially since I think I’ll be back here to pick some elderberries. Here’s the typical leaves of three, so let them be! Notice the small, white five-petaled flowers arising from the leaf axils in small stalks.

Three leaves and flowers of poison ivy.

Another flowering plant that I noticed along the lane was the whorled loosestrife, Lysimachia quadrifolia, a member of the Primrose family, Primulaceae. The yellow, five-petaled flowers project from the leaf axils and lay over each leaf in a whorl on the main stem. Each whorl has typically four leaves and flowers, but I have seen a few plants with five each. This small perennial grows to 1-3 feet tall.

A day trip to the Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry Natural Area in the Tuscarora State Forest was a delight for this first-time visit. Access is about a half-mile down Huckleberry Road from Route 34, just south of New Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania.

Near the entrance path there were several Rattlesnake-Weed plants as noted by their heavy purple-veined leaves at the base of a long flower stalk. At the top of the two feet long stalk are several bright yellow flowers in daisy-like fashion indicating that rattlesnake-weed, Hieracium venosum, is a member of the composite family.

We were greeted by a nice display of Mountain Laurel on entering the easy half-mile trail. Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia, is an evergreen shrub or small tree having large oval leaves that remind one of a rhododendron and is a member of the heath family.

Mountain laurel blossoms vary from nearly all white to pink. Each stamen appeared to be placed in a pocket of the blossom where some maroon color was transferred from the anther to the petals producing a deep red spot on the blossom. A most unusual flower!

Some Mountain Laurel flowers have spots of deep red color transferred from the anthers.

Some blossoms are nearly all white.

Check out these buds waiting to open – they look like beautiful dremel tool tips! Each has ten stamens wrapped inside the 10-parted flower.

The rear of the Mountain Laurel flower has a unique shape.

The Box Huckleberry is also a member of the heath family and is a low-growing evergreen shrub. The leaves are about an inch long, oval in shape and have a glossy, leathery appearance, much like the boxwood that it is named after.

The Box Huckleberry has evergreen, leathery leaves and blue fruit.

Huckleberries can be mistaken for blueberries as their flowers and fruit are similar in appearance. The blossoms are white and bell-shaped. The box huckleberry fruit is small and contains several large seeds that make the fruit undesirable, except by grouse, turkey, and other wild creatures.

The blossom of the Box Huckleberry reminds one of blueberry blossoms, a close relative.

An interesting feature of this box huckleberry is that it is a single plant approximately 1,300 years old! The plant grows via rhizomes at a rate of only six inches per year. The size of the plant tells its age. A separate plant in the next county was estimated to be 13,000 years old – easily the oldest organism on the planet! Unfortunately, most of that large box huckleberry was destroyed in a road-building project for Route 22/322. Remnants of the original plant are said to be located on private property.

Part of the Box Huckleberry colony in the Tuscarora State Forest in Pennsylvania.

Box huckleberry is an endangered species that can only be found in 9 US states, with a most recent find of a new box huckleberry plant in the mountains of North Carolina.

As a matter of fact the Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry Natural Area is designated as a natural landmark.

Natural Landmark Register Plaque on Monolith

This little piece of land was set aside to protect the rare Box Huckleberry in 1967!

Striped Wintergreen, Chimaphila maculata, also known as Spotted Pipsissewa, is a member of the pyrola family. A perennial that attains 4-10 inches in height, spotted wintergreen can be found in colonies among the leaf litter any time of the year. The buds are relatively long-lasting and produce a nodding flower in the summertime.

Spiderwort blooms are quite attractive with the contrast of the yellow stamens and bright purple petals. Alas, they are only open in the morning and close by the afternoon.

Spiderwort flowers have three bright purple triangular petals and six bright yellow stamens.

Growth habit of the spiderwort plant shows the long parallel-veined leaves almost folded in half which is supposed to look somewhat like spider legs for which it is named. Personally, I don’t see it.

Even though the spiderwort plant has bent leaves it gets to be about three feet tall.

Partridgeberry is found along some of the trails and in open areas of the woods. The leaves are evergreen and can be found under the leaf litter all throughout the year. The new growth of opposite leaves are a lighter green color than the established leaves. Partridgeberry, Mitchella repens, is also known as Squaw Vine because it was used by Native Americans for female reproductive problems.

Partridgeberry along a trail in the woodlands of Pennsylvania.

Some red partridgeberries are left over from last autumn on the same plant that is almost in flower.

Twin flowers of partridgeberry are hairy in appearance, a characteristic that is helpful in identification.

Hairy partridgeberry blossoms.

Partridgeberry also grows among the Tree Club Moss, Lycopodium obscurum, also called Ground Pine as it looks like a miniature pine tree only about 10 inches tall. The tree club moss spreads via underground runners and so may also be called Running Pines.

Tree Club Moss showing light green new growth.

Partridgeberry growing among the Tree Club Mosses.

The miniature shiny evergreen trees are a delight to see on the path.

Violet Wood Sorrel, Oxalis violacea, is blooming profusely now with several flowers on each stalk. The dark pink flowers rise above and contrast nicely with the light green, heart-shaped compound leaves. I was happy to see this plant bloom again this year as I transplanted it from North Carolina last year. We seem to only have the Yellow Wood Sorrel, Oxalis europaea, in my area of Pennsylvania. You might be familiar with Yellow Wood Sorrel by the name of Sour Grass. The leaves and fruit capsule taste sour due to the presence of oxalic acid.

Violet Wood Sorrel blooming in pink.

It’s nice living in the mountains in a rural area. Since we are not in a housing development created by completely raping the land of all its beauty and uniqueness, we are privy to parts of nature that many people don’t see. We get the neatest volunteers!

Daisy Fleabane appearing naturally at edge of a flower garden.

The daisy fleabane is past its prime, but you can still see many smilin’ faces!

OK, so peach trees aren’t exactly wild herbs, but I wanted to show off the quarter-sized fruits! If the dog or some other wild thing harvests the peaches before we can, I’ll be mad. Never ate my own homegrown peach before!

Fuzzy young peaches in the backyard.

A wildflower that I really noticed today was the Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia, a member of the Snapdragon family. A low-growing plant that snakes through the lawn, thyme-leaved speedwell has four light blue petals with dark purple lines running the length of the petal and two long stamens that are quite noticeable. The flowers are clustered at the tops of erect stems in snapdragon-like fashion.

Thyme-leaved speedwell forms mats in many grassy lawns.

Flower spike of thyme-leaved speedwell.

Without really trying we created a purple theme in our flower gardens this year. Part of the mix includes an outstanding Calibrachoa hybrid “Superbells’ Blue” and the native Spiderwort, Tradescantia virginiana.

Superbell’s Blue hybrid Calibrachoa.

The Spiderwort flowers are only open in the morning. By the afternoon the petals have wilted into a gelatinous mass.

Spiderwort flowers closed by the afternoon.

Stayed tuned for photos of open Spiderwort blooms!