Monthly Archives: June 2021

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (June week 4)

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This week, I’m featuring Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

Identification Tips:

Blue Vervain is a slender, but erect, herbaceous perennial plant that grows up to 5′ tall.  It branches occasionally along the upper half of its length with green to reddish stems that are four-angled, often with white hairs pressed against them.  The opposite leaves are up to 6″ long and 1″ across, which are lancelike and conspicuously veined with short petioles.  Leaf margins are coarsely toothed.

The lance shape lower leaf with the outward facing base lobes – from this leaf design like the halberd of a sword comes the species name hastata. Photo credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/swampvervain.html

The upper stems end in clusters of flowering spikes up to 1′ long and about half as wide.  Individual floral spikes are up to 5″ long, and densely crowded all around with numerous blue-violet flowers.  Individual flowers are up to ¼” long and similarly across with a blue-violet corolla with 5 spreading lobes.  Flowers open individually on the densely packed spike from bottom to top with only a few open at one time on each spike.  There is no noticeable floral scent.

The seed pods are 4-angled and only 4mm long, each containing 4 of the brown oblong 4-sided 2mm long seeds. Photo credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/swampvervain.html

Folklore:

Some believe that wearing a necklace made from the bruised plant as a charm can cure headaches, prevent snake bites, and bring general good luck.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

Suffice it to say that, practically speaking, Blue Vervain has no “real” culinary uses.  Due to its widely reported bitterness (which actually segues into why the plant has medicinal qualities), I found the following passage from a post entitled “Wild Flours” on Green Deane’s blog, Eat The Weeds, and other things, too, to be both helpful and telling:

Truly Desperate

Blue vervain, Verbena hastata, seeds soaked in several changes of water then roasted and ground make a bitter but edible flour.

(NOTE:  This is the last of six categories that he uses to distinguish the level of palatability between flours made from wild edibles.  The category immediately preceding this one is entitled “Famine.”  Good to know!)

The name vervain is derived from the Celtic ferfaen, which means ‘to drive away a stone.’  The plant was once believed to treat afflictions of the bladder.  The Chippewa reportedly used its dried flowers as “snuffed” to cure nosebleed.  When medicines were in short supply during the Revolutionary War, doctors used Blue Vervain as an emetic (causes vomiting) and expectorant with favorable results.  Blue Vervain was once considered to be an antidote for poisoning arising from the ingestion of the fruit of American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana).

This plant has been used for many years as a medicinal herb for treating people recovering from an illness or operation and others suffering from depression.  Externally, it has been applied to wounds, ulcers, and acne.

More recently, research has shown that using Blue Vervain for medicinal purposes can interfere with blood pressure medicines and hormone therapies.

Wildlife Value:

The flowers of Blue Vervain attract many kinds of long-tongued and short-tongued bees, including Bumblebees (Bombus spp.), cuckoo bees (Triepeolus spp.), digger bees (Melissodes spp.), Halictid bees, honeybees, Andrenid bees, and Verbena Bee (Calliopsis verbenae).  These bees seek primarily nectar, although some species collect pollen.  Other floral visitors include Checkered White (Pontia protodice), Skippers (Family Hesperiidae), Sphecid wasps, Swallowtail Butterflies (Family Papilionidae), Syrphid flies, thick-headed flies (Physocephala spp.), thread-waisted wasps.  This plant is the larval host for the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis), Verbena Bud Moth (Endothenia hebesana), Verbena Moth (Crambodes talidiformis) and Wavy-lined Emerald (Synchlora aerata).

Mammalian herbivores usually avoid eating this plant because of its bitter leaves – an exception is the Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus), which may eat the foliage of young plants to a limited extent.  Also, various songbirds occasionally eat the seeds, including the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), and Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana).

Where Found Locally:

Welcome to Summer!

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With the extended daylight that the summer solstice brings, it offers the best opportunity of the year to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

Want to observe the solstice from the comfort of your home?  Then sit back and enjoy a full day celebration online by checking out the virtual summer solstice celebration that Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will conduct today.  Or, if you prefer to add some history and culture to your viewing experience, you could alternatively watch the summer solstice live from Stonehenge; you can view that on Facebook.

Observe nature at a local preserve.  Listen to the calls and songs of birds in your backyard.  Go fishing.  Forage for some wild edibles.  Take a tour of any of the area bike trails.

ripe Highbush Blueberry fruit

Ripened Highbush Blueberry fruit

To celebrate and enjoy all those hours of daylight, we all should consider the opportunity to observe nature in a variety of sunlit settings: dawn, mid-day and twilight. Each will offer unique lighting (great for photography) as well as contrasting opportunities to view wildlife.

With the likelihood of the continued relaxing of social distancing and other safety protocols associated with the global pandemic, there may be additional in-person gatherings and events conducted by more and more hosts as summer 2021 unfolds.  Please be sure to check in with any organization or community that previously offered outdoor events of interest to you.

Happy trails!

A pair of yellow blooms now on display

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While continuing my wildflower inventory of the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve (located in the Town of Clifton Park) today, I came across this pair of yellow bloomers in aquatic habitat:

Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris)
Common Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris ssp. macrorhiza)

However, there is an easy way for you to get a “closeup view” of both while keeping your feet dry. Take along a pair of binoculars to the preserve and then take the short walk straight over the Whipple Bridge and continue straight ahead on the crushed stone pathway.

This particular segment of trail is actually part of two different trail systems: (1) a portion of the Bird Watching Trail at Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve, but also (2) a portion of the Community Connector Trail (note the yellow traffic signs). (FYI: You’re now walking along the approximate mid-point of the Community Connector Trail, which runs for nearly 9 miles from the Lock 7 Overlook in Clifton Park to Route 9 in Halfmoon.)

When you reach the intersection of this crushed stone pathway with the Bird House Trail (a mowed grass pathway on your right), look closely at the open area of shallow water adjoining the stone pathway on your left. You should first see the taller Swamp Candles. Then continue another 100-150 feet and look for small yellow flowers that appear to levitate just above the water’s surface – those are Common Bladderwort. Try to view the submerged bladders beneath the yellow blooms of Common Bladderwort – some interesting plant architecture awaits your visual discovery!

Read more about Swamp Candles. Read more about Common Bladderwort.

Happy viewing!

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (June week 3)

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This week, I’m featuring New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Tribes of the Missouri River region used the leaves for tea and the roots for fuel on buffalo hunting trips when fuel wood was scarce.  Read more.

The roots of this small shrub are reddish, and another common name for the plant is Red Root.  New Jersey Tea can be used in making a light green dye from the flowers, red dye from the roots, and the rest of the plant yields a cinnamon red dye.

Identification Tips:

This shrubby perennial grows up to 3¼’ tall with multiple stems that are erect to ascending.  The lower stems are persistently woody with the upper herbaceous branches dying back annually.  Alternate (or sometimes opposite) leaves occur along the entire length of each stem.  Leaves are up to 3″ long and 2″ across; they are ovate in shape and their margins are smooth to finely serrated and slightly hairy (ciliate).  The upper leaf surface is pale-medium to dark green, and smooth to somewhat rough from minute stiff hairs.  The lower leaf surface is pale green and pubescent with hairs typically more abundant along the lower sides of the veins.  Each leaf has a prominent central vein and two primary lateral veins; the upper leaf surface is often wrinkled along these veins.  The petiole of each leaf is short, light green to light yellow, and pubescent.

The upper stems terminate in clusters (panicles) of flowers and other panicles of flowers also develop from the axils of upper leaves.  The peduncles (basal stalks) of these panicles are 2-8″ long, light green to light yellow, relatively stout, and pubescent.  Individual panicles are 2-5″ long and 2-3″ across; their lateral branches are up to 1½” long and widely spreading to ascending.  Each flower has a pleasant floral fragrance and is up to ¼” across, consisting of 5 white sepals and 5 white petals.  The sepals are triangular-ovate and folded inward, while the petals have long narrow bases and widened tips folded upward.

After blooming, the flowers are replaced by 3-lobed seed capsules up to ¼” across.  At maturity, these capsules become dark brown or black, and they split open to mechanically eject their seeds up to several feet.  Each capsule contains 3 seeds that are 2-3 mm. in length, brown to dark brown, glossy, and ovoid in shape.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

Leaves are collected and used to brew a tea whose flavor is very similar to the true tea brewed from the Asian tea tree (Camellia sinensis).  However, these leaves are devoid of caffeine.  After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, patriotic colonists devised a substitute for true tea called Liberty Tea, which is made from equal parts of Sweet Goldenrod, Betony, Red Clover, and New Jersey Tea.

Tea made from a plant or shrub (Ceanothus americanus) grown in Pearsontown about 20 miles from Portland, Maine, was served to a circle of ladies and gentlemen in Newbury Port, who pronounced it nearly, if not quite, its equal in flavor to genuine Bohea tea. So important a Discovery claims, especially at this Crisis, the Attention of every Friend of America. If we have the Plant nothing is wanting but the Process of curing it, to have Tea of our own Manufacture. If a Receipt cannot be obtained, Gentlemen of Curiosity and Chymical Skill would render their Country eminent Service, if by Experiments they would investigate the best method of preparing it for use.

– Boston Gazette, November 21st, 1768 –

The Menominee Indians used a decoction of the root for coughs.  A staple of American folk medicine for many years, Red Root is used to treat a wide variety of ailments including high blood pressure and lymph system problems.  Alkaloids from the root have been demonstrated to exert a mild effect in lowering blood pressure.

Wildlife Value:

The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract a variety of insects.  Floral visitors include Halictid bees, Andrenid bees, plasterer bees, metallic green sweat bees, bumblebees, small resin bees, Lasioglossum sweat bees, Sphecid wasps, Vespid wasps, Syrphid flies, thick-headed flies, Tachinid flies, flesh flies (Sarcophaga spp.), and Muscid flies.  Hairstreak butterflies (Satyrium spp.), Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius), Northern Broken Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet), and Hoary Edge (Achalarus lyciades) all feed on nectar from this plant.

The larvae of several moths and butterflies rely on New Jersey Tea as their host plant, including the Broad-lined Erastria (Erastria coloraria) (which, sadly, is deemed critically imperiled or imperiled in New York), Red-fronted Emerald (Nemoria rubrifrontaria), Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia), Mottled Duskywing (Erynnis martialis), and Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus).

The foliage and stems are readily consumed by Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) and White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).  Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) are known to eat the seeds.

Where Found Locally:

 

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (June week 2)

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This week, I’m featuring Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

The Foxglove portion of this plant’s common name comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for foxglove plants, Foxes Glofa, because the bloom resembles the glove of a fox.  However, the similar resemblance of this plant’s flowers to those of true foxgloves (of the genus Digitalis) is the only characteristic it has in common with them; Penstemon digitalis is not poisonous.

The other portion of this plant’s common name (Beardtongue) is because the sterile stamen in each flower is covered in small hairs.

Identification Tips:

Prior to developing its flowers, this perennial plant consists of one or more rosettes of basal leaves that are clustered together.  Leaves are medium green and somewhat shiny, sometimes with reddish tints.  They are variable in shape, but tend to be ovate, obovate, or broadly lanceolate, and are up to 6″ long and 2½” wide.  Leaf margins are usually smooth.  One or more flowering stalks emerge from the clustered rosettes during the spring, which are about 3′ tall.  In the fall, the plants exhibit crimson-colored leaves.

Fall color of Foxglove Beardtongue

The white flowers occur in a panicle at the top of each flowering stem, and bloom during late spring or early summer for about a month.  Blooms are tubular in shape and about 1″ long, with the corolla divided into a lower lip with 3 lobes and and an upper lip with 2 lobes.  Sometimes there are fine lines of dark pink or violet within the corolla, which function as nectar guides to visiting insects. There is no floral scent.  The entire plant is hairless, except on the outer surface of the flowers.

Each Foxglove Beardtongue flower is bisexual, but, in practice, it is actually sequentially unisexual.  The flowers first become staminate (male), developing pollen on their anthers; when the stamens decline, the small pistilate (female) flowers mature and the sticky stigma of each curves down from the roof of the flower tube ready to receive pollen.  Individual plants or individual flowers on any given plant exhibit different phases of sexual sequencing at once to help ensure that some flowers are offering pollen while others are ready to receive pollination.

A flower in the staminate phase drops pollen on a bee’s hairy body as the insect jostles the anthers in seeking nectar from the base of the flower tube.  In doing so, some of the pollen adheres to the bee’s back, which is a difficult place for the bee to reach when it combs itself to deposit the pollen upon its return to the hive.

The pollen on the bee’s back, however, most likely will not find its way back to the hive because it will likely be rubbed off when the bee visits another Foxglove Beardtongue flower tube in search of nectar.  That’s because the pistil of a female-phase flower will partially block the bee’s entrance into that particular flower tube causing the bee to brush past the sticky stigma near the top of the flower tube and deposit at least some of the pollen adhering to its back.  The plant’s sequential sex change is called protandry and this process helps ensure cross-pollination.

The flowering stalk eventually turns dark brown, developing numerous oval seed capsules, each containing numerous seeds. These seeds are gray, finely pitted, and irregularly angled. Fruit is a teardrop-shaped capsule containing numerous brown, angled seeds.

Foxglove Beardtongue seedpods

Folklore:

This plant is said to symbolize courage.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

No reported uses for food.

American Indians deemed Foxglove Beardtongue an important medicinal plant.  They treated toothaches by chewing the root pulp of this plant and then placing it in the cavity.  They also used this plant to prevent inflammation and to accelerate healing of open wounds.

Wildlife Value:

The tubular flowers of this plant are an early summer favorite and often attract long-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, Anthophorid bees, Miner bees, Mason bees (e.g., Bufflehead Mason Bee (Osmia bucephala) and Beardtongue Mason (Osmia distincta)), and large leaf-cutting bees for both pollen and nectar.  To a lesser extent, Halictid bees, Sphinx moths, hummingbird moths, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) may visit the flowers, but they are not effective pollinators.  The caterpillars of the Chalcedony Midget Moth (Elaphria chalcedonia) and the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly (Euphydryes phaeton) feed on the foliage of this and other beardtongues.

Where Found Locally:

 

Self-guided Hike to ID Invasive Plants Now Available

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Through the end of June, I invite you to visit the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve located in the Town of Clifton Park.  A self-guided hike identifying invasive plants awaits your exploration.

How does it work?

First, download a self-guided hike packet onto your mobile device.  You can access the packet by either scanning the QR code shown below or using this link.

Summer Plant ID-invasive species-self-guided hike-Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve

Recognizing Invasive Species Amongst All the Greenery-self-guided hike

Go to your destination.  Open the self-guided hike packet on your mobile device, scroll to page 2 and view the designated route on the trail map or follow the description of the route below the map.

Along the designated route, you will find pink flagging ribbon tied on plants; each flag has a number on it.  Drawing from your own knowledge or the info you learned regarding the 15 species from my “Recognizing Invasive Species Amongst All the Greenery” online presentation last night, name the mystery plant before you.  Lastly, scroll to page 3 of the self-guided hike packet and press the number that matches the one on the pink flag to reveal what it is.

Recognizing Invasive Species Amongst All the Greenery-self-guided hike-index

Repeat for each numbered pink flag you discover along your way.

For example:

20210605_142512-sample

Upon a closer look, you see five numbered flags above.

The flag on the far right has a “9” on it.

Scrolling to the index of the self-guided hike packet, you then press 9 to confirm what you’ve identified this plant to be.  Then press Return to Index (upper right corner of each plant page) to go back to the index and then press the number corresponding to each of the other four flags shown above to confirm what you’ve identified each of the other plants to be.

What is each?

All will be revealed when you take the self-guided hike!  Have fun and happy trails!

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (June week 1)

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This week, I’m featuring Great Angelica (Angelica atropurpurea) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

With impressive stature, leaves that can reach two feet wide and large umbrella-like flower clusters, this species has an imposing presence.   Another common name of Angelica atropurpurea is Purple-Stemmed Angelica.

Identification Tips:

Great Angelica is a perennial plant that grows 3-8′ tall with sparse branching.  The large hollow stems are pale purple to dark purple with alternate compound leaves along them, primarily along the lower-half of each plant.  The compound leaves are ½-2′ long, ½-2′ across, and widest at their bases.  Each compound leaf has 3-5 leaflets per division.  Leaflets are ¾-4½” long and ½-2½” across, more or less oval in shape with serrated margins and some are shallowly to deeply cleft into lobes.  Upper surface of the leaflets is medium to dark green, while the lower surface is pale or whitish green; both surfaces are smooth.  The leaflets are either sessile or they have short petioles and they often have winged extensions at their bases.  Stem branches are long, stout, and conspicuously sheathed at their bases; sheaths are green to light purple to dark purple and smooth.

The plant has white to greenish flowers in umbrella-like umbels.  One umbel may have as many as 40 branches and be up to 8 inches across.  The upper stems terminate in one or more compound umbels of flowers spanning 3-9″ across; they are globe-like in shape.  Sometimes the stem (peduncle) of a compound umbel will branch and terminate in another compound umbel.  Each compound umbel has 15-40 floral branches (rays) that terminate in small umbellets.  Each umbellet has numerous greenish white to pale yellow flowers on individual flower stems (pedicels) about ½” in length.  Each flower is up to ¼” across, consisting of 5 petals.

Afterwards, the flowers are replaced by dry seed-like fruits (consisting of double achenes).  The fruits are between ¼ – 1/3 inch in length, oblong ovoid in shape, and slightly flattened with 3 longitudinal ridges on each side.  Immature fruits are greenish yellow, turning brown at maturity.

Folklore:

The aromatic root of angelica has widespread use as a purification herb among the Native American cultures.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

Caution!  All members of this genus contain furocoumarins, which increase skin sensitivity to sunlight and may cause phytophotodermatitis.

The leaves, stalks and seeds are edible with a liquorice-like flavor; stalks contain the strongest flavor.  Use stems in salads and leaves in soups, stews, and teas.  Young stalks and young shoots can be consumed cooked or raw, but should be peeled.  A tea can be made from the leaves or seeds.

Early American settlers prepared a gourmet confection prepared by sugaring the boiled stems.

American Indians used a decoction of the plant as a general tonic to treat anemia, colic, flatulence, gout, indigestion, and respiratory and urinary disorders.  Herbalists have used the root, which was official in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1860, as an aromatic, tonic, stimulant, carminative (relieves flatulence), diuretic (increases the flow of urine) and diaphoretic (causing perspiration).

Wildlife Value:

Great Angelica flowers attract Syrphid flies, bee flies, and Andrenid bees.  These visitors are attracted primarily to the nectar of the flowers.  Great Angelica serves as the host plant for caterpillars of Umbellifer Borer Moth (Papaipema insulidens), Cow Parsnip Borer Moth (Papaipema harrisii), Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polyxenes asterius), and Short-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio brevicauda).

Where Found Locally: