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Lariope-Liriope is a Tough Plant

February 6, 2016June 9, 2010 by wilde

However you spell it, liriope or lariope, is a very tough plant. It can survive and grow in many types of soil and various habitats. It’s used in flower beds as border plants and on hills to aid in erosion control.

: Image via Wikipedia…one tough plant!

A while back someone found their way to wildeherb while searching for the proper way to trim their liriope plants. Read on to see why I say, “Mow them down!”

Apparently, liriope is relished by deer. Well, perhaps relished isn’t quite the right word. I’ve been watching these lariope plants that we brought back from NC years ago. They seem to have adapted to our climate just fine. Each year these perennials come back stronger than the previous year. Liriope flowered in 2006 after having been transplanted two years prior.

Early this spring I was shocked to see the foliage was eaten down to the nubbins. Since the foliage went missing in early Spring, instead of during the growing season, I would think that liriope isn’t first on the relish list of deer. Perhaps it was a rabbit or another animal, but judging by the amount of vegetation that was eaten whoever it was certainly was hungry. I’m still curious about it because I’ve read that lirope is deer resistant.

It was a bummer to think that we might lose the lariope plants, but we needn’t fear about that. It turns out that the foliage came back with a vengeance, as they say. Today, the greenery looks full and lush, and we look forward to another round of deep purple flowers this summer.

Even after the leaves from last year were eaten, lariope leaves grew out strong this spring.

If you have liriope or lariope plants in a garden or along a walkway, you can trim them back in early Spring simply by mowing them down. The vegetation will come back to provide for another year’s enjoyment.

Liriope muscari is native to Asia and it goes by several common names, like monkey grass, spider grass and lilyturf.

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.

Rolled Leaves of False Solomon’s Seal Unfurl One By One

June 5, 2010 by wilde

Finding a plant that you’ve never seen before can be exciting and even exhilarating, depending on the rarity of the plant and the likelihood of ever seeing it again – and on the efforts taken to observe such a thing. Finding a plant that you already know, but haven’t seen in the flowering or fruiting stage, or locating a flower in a new location can be just as exciting.

Once you’re familiar with some perennial plants, and if you know where a perennial plant comes up in the Spring, you can watch these plants change through the seasons. The same can be said for planting annuals by seed.

A fun project to do with interested children is to keep a photographic record by clicking a few photos each week as your plants develop. Compare the growth of your plant by comparing photos as you go along. You might learn a thing or two about your favorite perennial or wild herb.

A fairly common plant of our mixed-hardwood forest is a flowering herbaceous plant called False Solomon’s Seal, Smilacina racemosa. It’s noted for its similarity to Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum, except for its terminal flower stalk and lack of dangling bell-shaped flowers.

Leaves of both False Solomon’s Seal and Solomon’s Seal are linear-veined oval leaves that alternate along a single arched stem. As the plant emerges from the ground the leaves are already forming.

False Solomon's Seal leaves sprouting from the ground.

A closer look at the twisted stalks of False Solomon's Seal emerging from the ground.

The twisted stalks of the perennial False Solomon’s Seal coming up at base of an oak tree.

Frontal view of False Solomon's Seal leaves unfurling.

Leaves are rolled together at first and unfurl as the plant stalk grows, about 8 – 12 inches tall in these images, taken 2 May 2010. The main reason we can confidently state these are False Solomon’s Seal plants is that we’re familiar with these perennials that come up in the same place each Spring.

Pink Lady’s Slipper Moccasin Flower Blooming in Pennsylvania

August 14, 2012May 16, 2010 by wilde

: Image via Wikipedia Lady Slipper

Pink Lady Slipper or Moccasin Flower Blooming in Pennsylvania, 30 April 2010.

Checking on the huckleberry plants the other week I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pink Lady’s Slipper or Moccasin Flower, Cypripedium acaule. After I saw one I looked for more lady slippers and found a number of them right along the trail near the stone monolith.

Stone monolith to mark the Natural Historic Landmark.

Pink lady slippers don’t bloom every year. Typically a third to a half of the plants in an area will bloom while the others just display their two thick leaves.

Pink Lady's Slipper young bloom and leaves.

The flower starts life with a light pink or cream color that darkens as the flower matures.

Pink flower or pouch of the Pink Lady's Slipper.

Three orchids in the image above with one mature flower.

Two orchids and one of them blooming. Note the brown to maroon sepals and light green bract at the base of the flower head in the image above.

The pink lady slipper is fairly common in our territory here in the Appalachian Mountain ridges. I’ve seen them blooming plenty of times, but never saw one that formed a seed head. That may be a result of searching them out when they’re blooming and not paying much attention to them the rest of the year.

Here, there were two plants that must have formed seed heads the prior year. The brown seed heads were still attached to the plants.

Note in the image above that the brown seed head rose to about 16 inches.

Looking down on the seed head of pink lady's slipper.

In the image above a young orchid flower is on the left and a seed head formed the prior year is on the lower right. Note that the seed head is slotted, apparently for releasing the seeds.

A second pink lady's slipper went to seed last year.

The pink lady’s slipper was also flowering along the slope of the trail on the east side of the Box Huckleberry Natural Area.

Each Mother’s Day I look forward to seeing the native moccasin flowers blooming. Since Mother’s Day was celebrated on May 9, 2010 the Pink Lady’s Slippers bloomed right on time.

Police Set Up Patrol for Britain’s Rarest Wildflower, a 100-Year-Old Orchid (treehugger.com)
Britain’s rarest wild flower gets special police protection (telegraph.co.uk)

Blooming Huckleberries and Pink Lady’s-Slippers

August 14, 2012May 15, 2010 by wilde

The Box Huckleberry Natural Area in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania has more than one special plant flowering in April.

The Box Huckleberry, Gaylussacia brachycera, continues to bloom with many white, bell-shaped blossoms opening up to the warmth of the day.

Evergreen oval leaves and white blooms of Box Huckleberry.

White blueberry-like flowers on the New Bloomfield Box Huckleberry.

The huckleberry blooms are pink in the bud stage and white as they mature.

Box huckleberry flowers in white and pink.

The oldest blooms have fallen away while others still flower.

They don’t all bloom at once. Note in the image above, taken 18 April 2010, that several blossoms have already fallen away, yet there are still many flowers blooming.

Lots of fresh huckleberry flowers at the tips of the stems.

A couple weeks later, 30 April 2010, there were still a few flowering huckleberries, but most had already flowered. Little green berries could be seen at the tips on some stems.

Flowers and tiny green berries of box huckleberry.

Green huckleberries at the tip of the stem show that these blossoms flowered first, even though the plant is still flowering further up the stem. (Photo taken 30 April 2010.)

The Box Huckleberry propagates via growth of lateral shoots.

Huckleberry new growth arises from projections along older stems. (Photo taken 30 April 2010.)

Lateral growth of new shoots of the box huckleberry. — Lateral growth of new shoots of the box huckleberry plant.

New light green foliage grows vertically from many places along a single stem. (Photo taken 30 April 2010.)

Continuing down the trail I had a nice surprise when I saw a Pink Lady’s-Slipper, Cypripedium acaule. Since I was so focused on the box huckleberry plant, the lady slipper practically jumped out at me. The shape and color were so different from the evergreen ovals of the huckleberry.

A young pink lady slipper orchid also known as the moccasin flower.

An orchid known as Pink Lady’s Slipper or Moccasin Flower due to its pouch-like flower. Stay tuned for photos of pink ladys slippers.

Even though we have seen the pink lady’s slipper flowering on the mountain ridges in this area, I was delighted to see this pretty orchid here in a protected forest setting.

Wild Ginger Blossoms Touch the Earth

May 8, 2010 by wilde

It’s mid-Spring now and the assembly of plants in the woodlands have made the scenery quite green compared to a month ago. The trees are leafed in for the most part, although a few oaks still have small leaves. Shade is dappled under the trees that don’t have all their leaves emerged just yet.

Walking in the woods now has a different feeling. Sure, there are still plenty of crunchy leaves to trod upon, but the view is quite different. With all the trees, shrubs, vines and herbs growing up and pushing their leaves out, the woods have a closed-in feeling. It feels like there is less room in there compared to a few weeks ago when you could see all the way through the woods.

Since each season is about three months long, we can say that each season has an early, middle and late period with each period lasting about a month.

During early spring Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense, emerged from the ground with their leaves a bit crinkled. Wild Ginger is a woodland perennial native to the Eastern US. Its leaves rise up from an underground stem, or rhizome, and the plant spreads out from this rhizome each year. It’s blossoms should be visible during mid-Spring.

Colony of wild ginger growing next to a creek.

The rounded, heart-shaped leaves of wild ginger rise up in pairs from the rhizome. Two leaves are connected to each other in a Y-shape.

Wild ginger spreads out and makes a nice ground cover with its leaves reaching a height of only 4 to 10 inches. A patch of wild ginger is eye-catching in a native plant garden.

Flowers of wild ginger must be sought out or you’ll never see them. The leaves hide the flowers out of sight and the flowers are not where you might expect them – at ground level. Sometimes the flowers don’t even push out of the ground all the way and remain partially covered by a layer of soil or old leaves. There is a single blossom that sits in the crotch of each pair of leaves.

A pair of wild ginger leaves and one flower.

The two leaves of wild ginger often hide its single maroon to brown blossom from view.

Wild ginger blooms are cup-shaped with three lobes giving it a triangular appearance. The flower stalk and flower are covered with hairs that make it look quite fuzzy. The flowers are light-colored on the outside with a maroon interior. They must be pollinated by ants or some other ground-wandering insect.

Note the soft hairs all over the leaves of wild ginger.

Looking down on the heart-shaped leaves and maroon flower of wild ginger.

Wild ginger flowers are coated with long hairs. The leaves and stems are covered with short hairs.

Wild ginger plant growing at the edge of a creek.

The flower of wild ginger rises out of the crotch of two leaves.

Wild ginger requires a moist to wetland, woodland habitat. Places like the edges or lowlands of creeks or rivers are good places to look for wild ginger.

Photos were taken 18Apr2010 at Little Buffalo State Park. Wild ginger can be seen in many places in the Day Use Area, near the covered bridge, along the Mill Race Trail, and at the upper west end of Middle Ridge Trail.

A few years ago I bought a wild ginger plant at a Native Plant Sale and planted it on the east side of our house, right next to the house in an area that receives mostly shade. Each year the ginger has come up a little bigger than the year before. This year there are seven pairs of leaves.

If you are lucky enough to find wild ginger for sale try planting it under a tree to mimic its native habitat. It would make a nice ground cover and at the same time it would receive the shade it requires to thrive.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit A Wetland Spring Ephemeral

May 6, 2010 by wilde

Spring ephemerals are the hit of the season right now. For the past few weeks they have taken turns blooming in the eastern forests of North America.

One such Spring Ephemeral is Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisema bulbosa. A unique and irregular flower, Jack-in-the-Pulpit can be found in moist and wetland areas, such as lowlands, river bottoms, creeks and drainage areas.

Creek at the location of Jack-in-the-Pulpits.

Creek side habitat where Jack-in-the-Pulpit can be found. Cohorts included Miterwort, Wild Ginger and Spring Beauty.

The flower is actually a colonial one with an odd construction. the flowers are covered from view inside the spathe, which is the outer cup-shape that has a striped hood. Many small yellow flowers cover the bat-shaped spadix that sits in the spathe. The spathe protects the group of flowers on the spadix.

The spathe is streaked with brown to maroon lines, the top of which forms a hood over the club-like spadix. In the image above you can see two of three leaflets of the compound basal leaf.

The spathe in the image above is marked with light green lines. The plants without brown or maroon markings appear to be smaller, perhaps younger ones.

A closer look at Jack, the club-like spadix.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is so named because the spadix (Jack) appears to stand inside the spathe (pulpit) in just a way that preacher might stand in a pulpit.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit emerges from the ground with fully formed leaves. The leaves emerge rolled up and folded. A single, basal compound leaf is usually present that gets to be about a foot tall. Three leaflets are oval in shape and come to a point. One leaflet points up and the other two point down so the leaf appears to be triangular. Small basal leaves, a few inches tall, may also be present. The flower stem arises separately from the leaf stalk.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit leaves and flowers emerging from the ground.

Note the wrapped up look to the leaves of Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

When you see new plants from different angles it helps to illustrate the true structure and dimensions of what you’re inspecting.

Looking down on a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant you can see three basal leaves in threes and one spathe in the center of the three compound leaves. Other plants growing in the same habitat include ferns and other allies that need moist conditions.

Looking at Jack-in-the-Pulpit from the side.

In this sideview of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, photo taken 30Apr2010, you can see that Jack’s head doesn’t touch the hood of the spathe. Note that the round or heart-shaped leaf on the left is wild ginger.

These photographs of Jack-in-the-Pulpit were taken at Little Buffalo State Park, Newport, Pennsylvania. All other photos taken 18Apr2010.

Spring Beauty Claytonia Blooming in Open Woodlands

August 14, 2012May 5, 2010 by wilde

Spring beauty, Claytonia virginica, is one of the first Spring Ephemeral flowers that I learned to recognize. It is a dainty little flower with five petals and stamens. The anthers at the tips of the stamens are pink, which seems to add to its delicate nature.

The loose clusters of spring beauty flowers may have one or more open blossoms and several other blossoms hanging down that are either spent or have yet to bloom.

Blooms of spring beauty. Note the pair of linear leaves on each plant.

Blossoms have five white rounded petals, many that have gray to pinkish lines, like the flowers in the image above. The whole flower may have a tinge of pink in addition to the pink anthers at the top of the five stamens.

Locally plentiful!

Spring beauty can be found blooming en masse from middle to late April in central Pennsylvania. The dandelion was included in the image above for scale.

Group of spring beauties blooming at the base of a big tree.

(Click on any of the images to see a larger view.)

Spring beauty flowers opening up for the day.

Spring beauty gets about as tall as the grass and its linear leaves help to hide it among the grass. The flowers in the image above seemed to be coming out of hiding as they started to bloom for the day. Their blossoms weren’t all the way open, yet. Note the pink anthers and lines on the petals in these loose clusters of spring beauties.

Photos of this common spring ephemeral flower above were taken 18Apr2010 at Little Buffalo State Park near the covered bridge.

Beautiful grouping of Spring Beauty blooming in the grass.

I was a little surprised to see it still flowering a couple weeks later. The above photo was taken 30Apr2010 in the same area. That makes the little spring beauty one of the longest lasting spring ephemeral flowers that I’ve ever seen.

Claytonia, what a delight!

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