The first month of summer has been marked by very, very dry and hot weather. The stress on all plants (except trees) of both weather factors over the past several weeks has been readily apparent. Nevertheless, I have found these blooming beauties during my ongoing wildflower inventories along the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail in the City of Cohoes and Town of Colonie and along the trails comprising the Swatling Falls Nature Trails in the Town of Halfmoon.
Hope you find time soon to take a relaxing stroll along either of these trails or your own local favorite to view these and other blooming wildflowers.
This week, I’m featuring Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
If you have ever seen this plant in bloom with dew hanging on it, the reason it is called Jewelweed is obvious. That appearance is due to tiny hairs on its thin, delicate leaves that catch the water and enmesh air bubbles, allowing it to gleam.
Pale Jewelweed
This soft-stemmed annual is less common than the very similar Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) and it tends to tolerate drier soil.
Identification Tips:
This wildflower is a summer annual typically about 3-6′ tall, branching frequently. The somewhat succulent stems are light green, hairless, and often translucent. The erect stems with their easily distinguishable swollen joints (first image below) often persist after the growing season and aid in the winter identification of Jewelweeds (second image below).
Their alternate ovate leaves are up to 5″ long and 2″ across and hairless with slender petioles up to 2″ long. Jewelweed leaves are serrated along their margins, and a helpful but not always reliable distinction between Pale and Spotted is that the former most often has more than 10 teeth along each side of its leaves, whereas the latter most often has fewer than 10 per side.
Leaf of Pale Jewelweed – typically > 10 teeth per side of leaf
Pale Jewelweed has two different types of flowers, each of which is located on a different part of the plant. Chasmogamous flowers (those requiring a pollinating agent) appear on branching stems in the upper part of the plant and cleistogamous flowers (self-pollinating) appear individually in the lower leaf axils. In early autumn, the production of chasmogamous flowers ceases, however, cleistogamous flowers are produced until the plant dies off as a result of frost.
Single chasmogamous flowers (or groups of up to 3) are tube or funnel shaped, resupinate (upside down), 1 to 1½ inches long and nearly as wide as long, with a narrow spur at the back that bends down. Nectar is stored in the spur. The tubular corolla consists of 2 wrinkled round broad lower lobes and a much smaller upper lobe (or hood) with 2 small lateral petals defining the sides of the corolla opening. Color is yellow with reddish (or reddish brown) spots on the interior, especially near the base of the lower lobes, but the spots are sometimes absent. The upper 2 sepals are light green and ovate in shape; they are located at the top of the corolla, rather than behind or underneath. Each flower dangles from a slender pedicel about ¾” long.
The cleistogamous flowers are tiny (only 1-2 mm in diameter) and are found singly in the lower leaf axils. Since these flowers only require a couple of weeks to mature, they are usually produced later in the season. These flowers produce seed when, through stress or other climatic conditions, the chasmogamous flowers are few or cannot be pollinated.
Each fertilized chasmogamous flower is replaced by an ellipsoid seedpod up to 2″ long. This seedpod is broadest toward the middle, tapering toward its tips; it has several dark green lines along its length. As the seedpod ripens, it splits open and ejects the seeds. Or, when ripened, the pod explodes at the slightest touch, sending seed in all directions.
Touch-me-not seed dispersion: 1st photo is the seed capsule approaching maturity. When the capsule is ready, touching it with slight pressure will cause the plant material inside to suddenly form a twisted coil (2nd photo ) and disperse the seeds to quite a distance. Photo Credits: (c) G.D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/palejewelweed.html
“Touch-me-not seed vessels, as all know, go off like pistols on the slightest touch, and so suddenly and energetically that they always startle you, though you are expecting it. They shoot their seed like shot. They even explode in my hat as I am bringing them home.”
Still others have been moved to write poetry:
Source: The Secrets of Wildflowers (2014) by Jack Sanders
The root system consists of a shallow branching taproot.
Pale Jewelweed is able to discern whether the roots near its are those of relatives or unrelated competitors. It cooperates so that its kin has good access to light and food. But, when different species infiltrate its territory, this clever plant increases resource allocation to its leaves and roots, hogging sunlight and soil nutrients. Read more about this phenomenon.
Culinary and Medicinal Uses:
Caution:Calcium oxalate is found in Jewelweeds and can be harmful raw, but is destroyed by thoroughly cooking or drying the plant. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones and hyperacidity should take special caution if including this plant in their diet.
The young leaves and shoots of Jewelweeds can be boiled (with two changes of water) as a potherb.
The Cherokee, Potawotomi, Chippewa, Meskwaki, and Omaha used Jewelweeds for a variety of pruritic dermatitis (itchy skin), including treatment of insect bites.
In New England‘s Rarities Discovered (1672), John Josselyn reported that the colonists considered Jewelweed a “sovereign remedy for bruises of what kind soever.” The 21st edition (1926) of the Dispensatory of the United States[1] mentions the experience of practitioners in Philadelphia in treating hemorrhoids with an ointment made by boiling fresh Jewelweed in lard. Potter’s New Cyclopaedia of Medicinal Herbs and Preparations (1972) mentions this use and reports the herb’s reputed effectiveness as a topical treatment for warts and corns. A study at the University of Vermont (~1950) showed Jewelweed to have potent antifungal properties, confirming its use as a treatment for athlete’s foot, ringworm, and dandruff.
Jewelweed’s reputation in treating a wide variety of external ills has landed it in many herbals and folk remedy books as well as in some commercial poison-ivy preparations. It has been a widely held belief among herbalists that Jewelweed is an effective treatment to prevent against poison ivy rash. While this belief appeared to be supported by clinical trials conducted in 1957, it has been repeatedly refuted thereafter (including this 1991 study conducted by the Albany Medical College).
The sap of Jewelweed continues to be a traditional external remedy for skin rashes employed by herbalists. Indeed, it is an effective and immediate antidote to the burning sensation on bare skin after one encounters Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) outdoors. Therefore, it is important to remember that Jewelweed and Stinging Nettle often grow together or at least nearby to one another.
Wildlife Value:
Nectar spurs are tubular elongations of petals and sepals of certain flowers that usually contain nectar. Flowers of Pale Jewelweed have nectar spurs which are thought to have played a role in plant-pollinator coevolution. Most of its nectar spurs are perpendicular, but some of them are curved. The specific pollinator is determined by the curvature of the nectar spur. Since most plants have perpendicular nectar spurs, bees are the main pollinators. However, Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) is another important pollinator of this plant. By inserting its long tongue into plants with a curved nectar spur, the spur is pushed away with each lick of the tongue and then the spring-like action of the flower stem (pedicel) brings the flower back toward the bird causing the anthers or the stigma to contact the back portion of the bird’s bill, thus transferring pollen.
Please note the change in date for my next Photogenic Wildflower Walk, featuring Cardinal Flower. That walk will now occur on August 2 (not the 4th) at 5:30pm. Please see the Events page for details. I apologize for any inconvenience.
This week, I’m featuring Trumpetweed (Eutrochium fistulosum) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
Joe Pye has been associated with an American Indian healer, possibly named Jopi, who used the plant to cure typhoid fever; he is also credited with having halted a typhus epidemic in Colonial Massachusetts. A peer-reviewed study suggests that Joe Pye was indeed a Mohegan sachem (a chief) named Schauquethqueat who lived in the mission town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 1740 to 1785 and who took as his Christian name, Joseph Pye. Read more about the history of this man and how his name became associated with this plant.
Identification Tips:
Trumpetweed is a long-lived clump-forming native herbaceous perennial typically found in the low moist ground of meadows, woods, and fields. It is an erect plant that usually grows to 4 to 7 feet tall and, as such, it is the largest of the Joe-Pye weeds. The central stem is hollow, giving the plant another of its common names: Hollow Joe-Pye Weed.
Hollow stem and underside of leaves Photo Credit: johnboback CC BY-NC 4.0Trumpetweed
The plant has one simple erect stem, which is green with purple dots or longitudinal dashes. The upper stems are reddish or purplish. Leaves and primary subdivisions of the flower head appear in whorls of 3–5 (rarely 2 or 6). Leaves are elliptic or lance-shaped, up to 9″ long, and sharply toothed with sturdy, purple petioles. The leaf surface is often rough.
Trumpetweed stem
The huge, dome-shaped flower head is composed of several branches bearing long-lasting, tiny pinkish to rosy-mauve florets, which in turn are composed of 4-7 disk flowers (ray flowers absent).
Trumpetweed flowers
The flowers are followed by seed heads (which persist into winter). Seeds are small, bullet-shaped achenes with tufts of bristly hair for wind distribution in fall.
Huron H. Smith, an ethnobotanist who worked with several North American tribes during the nineteen-twenties and thirties (and who authored several compilations, including Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians), was told that the Meskwaki used the root as a sort of “love medicine” nibbling it when speaking to an intended and that the Potawotomi used the flowers as a good luck charm (talisman).
Culinary and Medicinal Uses:
There are no reported edible uses of this plant.
North American Indians use a tea of the roots is used to treat fevers, colds, chills, sore womb after childbirth, diarrhea, and liver and kidney ailments. A wash of the root tea is also used for rheumatism. Often used as a kind of tonic the Cherokee gave it to women during pregnancy.
The United States Pharmacopoeia (1820-1842) and the King’s American Dispensatory, a book first published in 1852, each listed a variety of medical uses for Joe Pye Weed, including treating urinary tract pain and incontinence, reproductive issues, and stomach disorders. Some herbalists have considered this species similar in action to those in the genus Eupatorium by using the roots of these plants as a diuretic (increases production of urine) in treating urinary problems (such as kidney stones) and also as a diaphoretic (inducing perspiration).
Wildlife Value:
The flowers are visited by honeybees, bumblebees, and other long-tongued bees.
“On cool, dewy mornings you can find that some insects have turned its inflorescences into a bed and breakfast.” – Native Plants of the Eastern Woodlands, Hungry Hook Farm Photo Credit: http://www.hungryhookfarm.com/avb/eutrochium-fistulosum.html
Butterflies (including Monarch, Danaus plexippus), skippers (including Silver-spotted Skipper, Epargyreus clarus), and moths also visit the flowers.
This week, I’m featuring Common Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris ssp. macrorhiza) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
The genus Utricularia is named from the Latin word utriculus, meaning “a small bottle.” This refers to the insect-trapping bladders on the leaves of all bladderworts.
Identification Tips:
An aquatic carnivorous perennial plant with highly divided, underwater leaf-like stems and numerous small “bladders;” thus, it is free floating and has no roots. Leaves are mostly submerged though this species can grow above the waterline in wet muck. Underwater stems are green to reddish, up to 8 inches long with few branches, and often zigzag between the alternate leaves. Flowering stems have a few widely spaced, alternately attached, scale-like leaves. All parts of plant are smooth.
The “bladders”, from which the common named is derived, are used to capture small aquatic organisms.
Utricularia macrorhiza is pictured maintained indoors in small containers in a close up view of a single bladder with trap chamber and trigger appendages labeled (a), expanded view of the plant cutting (b) and with Utricularia macrorhiza close up with bladders on stems digesting Aedes aegypti larvae indicated with red asterisks (c) Source: Couret, Jannelle & Notarangelo, Marco & Veera, Sarashwathy & LeClaire-Conway, Noah & Ginsberg, Howard & LeBrun, Roger. (2020). Biological control of Aedes mosquito larvae with carnivorous aquatic plant, Utricularia macrorhiza. Parasites & Vectors. 13. 10.1186/s13071-020-04084-4.
(Read promising research on the potential use of Common Bladderwort as a biological control agent of mosquito larvae.)
Triggered by protruding hairs on its door, a bladder opens in about 0.5 milliseconds, sucking the organisms in like a vacuum, and closing in about 2.5 milliseconds. (View a brief video of the bladder trap in action.) That’s about three thousand feet per second, which is nearly three times the speed of sound! Enzymes or bacteria inside the traps aid in digestion. Warning: The plant’s tiny stinging hairs contain an acid that can cause a severe, burning skin irritation.
A raceme of 6 to 20 bright yellow ½ to ¾-inch snapdragon-like flowers appear at the top of a stout reddish green erect stem, emerging up to 8 inches above the waterline. Flowers are generally globular; the broad lower lip angles upward, the smaller upper lip fans above it, erect or angled towards the lower lip. A stout spur is below, at least half as long as the lower lip, extending out horizontally and curving upward. Flowers have fine red venation on the protuberance of the lower lip. Behind the flower are 2 small, egg-shaped, green sepals, the lower with a rounded or notched tip, the upper slightly larger than the lower and with a more pointed tip. Each flower has a short green stalk.
Other than use of its leaves as a poultice, there are no known medicinal uses for Common Bladderwort.
Wildlife Value:
Even though Common Bladderwort is far-ranging, there is little known regarding its pollination biology and pollinator visitors. However, Hoverfly (Helophilus intentus) is believed to be a regular visitor.
While Utricularia are considered carnivorous plants, the means by which they acquire nutrients is much more complicated than carnivory alone. Algae are often observed inside their bladders. This has caused a close and complex relationship to develop between Utricularia species and algae. Individuals trap and digest algae for nutrients, and also host algae and other microorganisms that live within traps, creating an elaborate food-web community. Fungi, bacteria, and protozoa (single-celled organisms that consume organic matter) are cultivated within traps and help to break down algae into a state that can be digested by this unique plant. According to a 1995 study, Utricularia species use a positive feedback loop (when the product of a reaction leads to an increase in that reaction) in order to survive in an oligotrophic environment (having a deficiency in plant nutrients and accompanied by an abundance of dissolved oxygen) in which other aquatic plant species would be nutrient stressed. By acting as a physical structure for periphyton to grow on, they attract the organisms that graze on periphyton which they will then feed upon.
If you enjoy the flavor of Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), now is the time to grab your berry-picking pail and head to your favorite patch(es). If you want to sample them for the first time, I found these ripening fruit along the 1825 Erie Canal Towpath Trail at Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve in the Town of Clifton Park. Last year, I found ripening fruit at this time along the Bird House Trail.
Read my prior post, which includes a variety of recipes for how to enjoy these tasty berries. View a short video to learn how to identify this plant.
This page provides you a detailed “sneak peak” of this ~8-mile segment, which goes from the City of Cohoes through the Town of Colonie. I am conducting a wildflower inventory along this trail and that is part of a larger effort spearheaded by Kevin Kenny encompassing a 16-mile portion of this trail.
To learn more about how to forage for and prepare these unique wild edibles, please view my “Our “Sichuan Peppercorn” presentation that is available as a FREE download from the Foraging for Wild Edibles page. That presentation also includes some recipe suggestions.
Today, I visited the preserve to scope out the specimens each of which we’ll be giving an up close and personal inspection next Saturday afternoon. Here’s my sneak peak:
In all, I found 28 plants with at least one bloom, many of which were already open!
About half of the plants had one bloom and the other had two; however, one specimen will be displaying a two-tiered floral arrangement resembling a candelabra!
This week, I’m featuring Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
PLEASE NOTE:Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses: The plant has a wide variety of medicinal uses, especially to treat catarrh due to the aromatic nature of the volatile oil contained in the leaves of this plant. Read more about this plant.
The common name Bergamot comes from its fragrance resembling that of Italian bergamot orange (Citrus bergamia).
Identification Tips:
This herbaceous perennial plant is 2½–4′ tall, branching frequently in the upper half. The four-angled stem is somewhat hairy and its color may vary from light green to reddish-brown. The opposite leaves are broadly lancelike to ovate, and vary in color from light green greyish-green to dark green, sometimes with yellow or red tints. These color variations are in part a response to environmental conditions. Leaves are coarsely toothed, 1-4” long and up to 2” wide, rounded at the leaf base and tapering to a point at the tip, on leaf stalks up to 5/8 inch long. Leaves are always hairy underneath and smooth or hairy on the upper surface.
At the top of major stems are rounded heads of flowers about 1-3″ across. The flowers begin blooming in the center of the head, gradually moving toward its periphery, gradually forming a wreath of flowers with a bald spot in the center. Flower clusters look like ragged pompoms. Each flower is lavender or pink, and about 1″ long, with an irregular shape. The corolla divides into a tubular upper lip with projecting stamens, and three slender lower lips that function as landing pads for visiting insects. Each flower head is subtended by (rests upon) a whorl of showy, pinkish, leafy bracts.
Wild Bergamot
The plant is noted for its fragrance (minty-oregano aroma), which is caused by volatile oils that are on the hair-like trichomes. Read more about the source of this plant’s aromatic qualities.
The flowers drop off leaving the calyxes behind in which the seeds develop. The button-shaped flower head turns dark brown as the seed ripens and it persists through winter aiding in its winter identification.
In the language of flowers, Wild Bergamot’s pink flowers symbolize friendship.
Culinary and Medicinal Uses:
Wild Bergamot has been used as food seasoning and as a tea by American Indians and colonists.
Wild Bergamot is considered a medicinal plant by many American Indian Nations including the Menomini, the Ojibwe, and the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk). It is used most commonly to treat colds and is frequently made into a tea for such use. The tea may be sweetened with honey, as it tends to be quite strong.
In addition to treatment of colds, American Indians used leaf tea for colic, flatulence, fevers, stomach aches, nosebleeds, insomnia, and heart trouble. A poultice made from its leaves was used to treat for headaches and sore eyes as well as for acne. Oil extracted from the plant was inhaled with steam to relieve bronchial disorders and sore throats. Wild Bergamot is a source of thymol, the primary active ingredient in modern commercial mouthwash formulas. View a recipe for a homemade herbal mouthwash using Wild Bergamot – note: the author of the recipe suggests that for daily use, you should omit the salt.
Several bees specialize in the pollination of Monarda flowers, including Beebalm Shortface (Dufourea monardae), Perdita gerhardi, and Protandrena abdominalis.
In the late fall, the seed will be sought out by chickadees, sparrows and American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) pecking patiently at the tiny seeds in the spent flowerheads.
Mammalian herbivores usually avoid this plant as a food source, probably because of the oregano-mint flavor of the leaves and their capacity to cause indigestion.
Curious By Nature 