Happy Weed Appreciation Day!

March 28 is National Weed Appreciation Day.

What is a weed?

A definition:  a plant that is not desired where it is growing.

A perspective: “A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

For a little insight on the secret origin of weeds, view this.

Read this helpful article that provides some clarifying distinctions between “weed,” “native,” “wildflower,” and “invasive.”

As to ‘appreciation,’ I am referring to the “a full understanding of a situation” definition of that word.

To that end, each of the following plants has ‘weed’ in its common name.   As we reflect upon such plants on this day, read some curious factoids about these particular “weeds.”

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) **Invasive species**

Photo Credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Common_Knapweed_(Centaurea_nigra).jpg

• Where Found: Successional fields, roadsides, and disturbed areas (much less common than the similar Brown Knapweed (Centaurea jacea), but growing in similar habitats)
• Folklore: Young women once wore knapweed flower buds underneath their bodice, believing one would open should they chance meet their future spouses.
• Edible and Medicinal Use: Add fresh flower petals to salads.  The roots and seeds are diaphoretic, diuretic, tonic and vulnerary.  The plant once had a very high reputation as a healer of wounds.  In 17th century, it was used for many purposes including wound healing as noted in this excerpt from page 103 of Nicolas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal:

“This Knapweed helps to stay fluxes, both of blood at the mouth or nose, or other outward parts, and those veins that are inwardly broken, or inward wounds, as also the fluxes of the belly; it stays distillation of thin and sharp humours from the head upon the stomach and lungs; it is good for those that are bruised by any fall, blows or otherwise, and is profitable for those that are bursten, and have ruptures, by drinking the decoction of the herb and roots in wine, and applying the same outwardly to the place. It is singularly good in all running sores, cancerous and fistulous, drying up of the moisture, and healing them up so gently, without sharpness; it doth the like to running sores or scabs of the head or other parts. It is of special use for the soreness of the throat, swelling of the uvula and jaws, and excellently good to stay bleeding, and heal up all green wounds.”

• Wildlife Impacts: Knapweeds displace native vegetation, which can negatively impact and threaten populations of Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) and other meadow birds.

Field Hawkweed (Pilosella caespitosa)

• Where Found: Roadsides, lawns, pastures, successional fields, disturbed areas, gravel bars and thickets of streams, and less frequently in rocky woodlands (as with most other Pilosella spp., this species stays mainly on roadsides and fields)
• Folklore: In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder wrote:  “Among these plants there is one with round, short leaves, known to some persons as “hieracion;” from the circumstance that the hawk tears it open and sprinkles its eyes with the juice, and so dispels any dimness of sight of which it is apprehensive.” (NOTE:  His comment about a hawk’s use of this plant is preposterous; thus, I have listed it here as ‘folklore.’)
• Edible and Medicinal Use: In the 17^th century, used for healing eyesight (see above).
• Wildlife Value: The flowerheads attract bumblebees (such as Flavid Cuckoo Bumble Bee (Bombus flavidus), Tricolored Bumble Bee (Bombus ternarius), and Yellow-banded Bumble Bee (Bombus terricola)), other bees, butterflies, skippers, and Syrphid flies.  Hawkweeds are suspected host plants of the larvae of Bina Flower Moth (Schinia bina).  Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) feed to a limited extent on young leaves and seeds and the American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) also eats the seeds.  Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) and White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browse on the bitter foliage sparingly.

New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)

Photo Credit: Jim Stasz, https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/4453

• Where Found: Wet successional fields, stream banks, and wet forests (fairly limited in distribution in NY)
• Folklore: It is believed that the person carrying a portion of this plant inside of a purple flannel bag will gain control over others.
• Edible and Medicinal Use: No known edible uses.  American Indians used ironweed for medicinal purposes, making teas from leaves to provide relief from childbirth pain and as a blood tonic.  Root teas were used to treat loose teeth, stomach ulcers, menstrual cramps, and hemorrhaging.
• Wildlife Value: Floral visitors suck nectar from the flowers and bees also collect pollen. Long-tongued bees (such as Triepeolus cressonii and  Triepeolus remigatus) and Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee (Bombus citrinus) are known visitors, but, for members of the genus Vernonia, a bee specialized for these plants is the predominant visitor:  Eastern Ironweed Longhorn Bee (Melissodes denticulatus).  Butterflies and moths also visit these flowers for their nectar, including Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele), Monarch (Danaus plexippus), Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius), Silver Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus), and Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon).  It is a host plant for American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) and Crossline Skipper (Polites origenes) butterfly caterpillars.  Any fluffy seeds that may persist on the plants into winter are picked clean by songbirds, such as American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), and Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

• Where Found: Marshes, swamps, edges of ponds, wet depressions or drainages in fields, and stream banks (does best in non-forested wetlands)
• Folklore: It is believed that adding milkweed fluff to dream pillows will make one dream of fairies.  It is also believed that for each milkweed seed floating in the air that one catches and releases, a wish is granted.
• Edible and Medicinal Use: Although milkweeds are poisonous raw, the young shoots, leaves and seed pods are all edible cooked.  In the past, the roots of Swamp Milkweed were simmered to make a tea taken in small quantities both as a general purge and to destroy and expel parasitic worms.
• Wildlife Value: Swamp Milkweed is a nectar plant for bumblebees (like Brown-belted Bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis)), Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan), Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele), hairstreak butterflies, Halictid bees, honey bees, hummingbird moths, long-horned bees (Melissodes spp., Svastra spp.), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), skipper butterflies (family Hesperiidae, such as Tawny-edged Skipper (Polites themistocles)), Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis), Sphecid wasps, Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus), Spider wasps, Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops), Tachinid flies, thick-headed flies, and Vespid wasps.  Caterpillars of Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and Queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) feed on the leaves of this plant.

Join me, won’t you, in raising a glass of Pineapple Weed Liqueur…or…a shot of knotweed-infused vodka, in celebration of National Weed Appreciation Day!?!

Happy trails!