Tag Archives: Ballston Creek Preserve

National Wildflower Week 2024 – Day 4

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Lady Bird Johnson said wildflowers “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”

Always the first full week of May, National Wildflower Week commemorates the colorful blossoms that bring our landscapes to life.

To celebrate this week, I encourage you to visit one of our area nature preserves, parks or trails to view the wildflowers now in bloom locally. Each day of this week-long celebration, I’ll feature a local native wildflower that you may find in bloom at this time.

To continue this week’s focus on wildflowers and for your self-guided search today, I suggest that you go looking for Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a perennial plant that may live more than 20 years and generally grows to about 1-2′ tall, but can grow up to 3’ tall. It consists of 1-2 trifoliate leaves with long petioles and a single flower atop a stout stalk (peduncle). The peduncle is wrapped by a sheath at its base and it is shorter than the petioles. Both have a smooth hairless surface, and their color varies from light green to reddish green or brownish green. Leaflets are up to 7″ long and 3″ across; they are generally oval with a pointed tip, finely veined, and smooth along the margins. The terminal leaflet is larger than the lateral leaflets. When the leaves emerge, they reveal the sex of the plant:  male and non-flowering plants have 1 set of compound leaves, female plants have 2 sets. Sometimes the leaves tower over the flower and hide it from view.

The cylindrical flower structure is about 3½” long and 2″ across and consists of the spadix (Jack) which is an erect 2-3” tall spike containing numerous, tiny, green to purple flowers and the sheath-like spathe (pulpit) which encases the lower part of the spadix and then opens to form a hood extending over the top of the spadix. The outside of the spathe is slightly furrowed and usually green or purple and the inside is usually striped purple and greenish white, though considerable color variations exist. Flowering plants initially produce only male flowers, but become hermaphroditic as they further age with male flowers on the upper part of the spadix and female flowers on the lower part. The male flowers have several stamens, while the female flowers have a single pistil.

Male plants tend to be smaller than females and have a small hole at the bottom of the spathe which allows pollinators to escape (with their pollen) more easily. Female plants lack the hole and pollinators are more likely to become trapped, better ensuring successful pollination. While Jack-in-the-Pulpit has both male and female plants, they can change gender from year to year, apparently in response to successful (or failed) reproduction the previous year.

Most plants in a colony become dormant and disappear by mid-summer, but the mature, hermaphroditic flowering plants will produce a cluster of red berries in mid- to late summer, which becomes visible as the spathe withers.

Each fertilized flower will develop a fleshy bright red fruit about ¼” across, each containing 1 to 5 seeds that ripens by fall.

Where Found:

Jack-in-the-Pulpit prefers to grow in partial sun to full shade in rich, moist, deciduous woods and floodplains.

Ecological Significance:

Jack-in-the-Pulpit thrives in moist, shady and seasonally wet locations and is most commonly found in floodplain forests.

The flowers are pollinated by fungus gnats (Sciaridae & Mycetophilidae) and the larvae of parasitic thrips (Heterothrips arisaemae and probably Ctenothrips bridwelli), which are attracted into the hooded spathes by the slight fungal odor emitted by this plant.

The foliage and corms (especially the latter) contain crystals of calcium oxalate, which can cause a burning sensation in the mouth and irritation of the gastrointestinal tract. As a result, animals rarely eat this plant. However, some upland birds feed on the foliage occasionally as well as its red berries, including Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), and Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina).

How to Grow Your Own:

Jack-in-the-Pulpit will spread and colonize over time from its corm. It is easier to start plants from corms, rather than seeds.

From corms –

The quickest way to propagate new plants is by splitting off the cormlets that form alongside the parent roots. Here’s how to do it:

  1. In the fall when the plants have just entered dormancy, dig up the entire root clump, using a shovel or trowel. (Wear gloves to avoid skin contact.)
  2. Break or cut off the cormlets that have formed alongside the main corm or tuber.
  3. Immediately replant the pieces (as well as the parent corm) in about six inches of humus-rich soil in a location with light shade.
  4. Water well, then cover the planted pieces with mulch for the winter.

From seeds –

CAUTION:  Leaves and fruits contain calcium oxalate that can irritate the skin, so it is important to wear gloves when collecting and cleaning the berries.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit seeds can be collected once the spathe has died back in the fall and the berries are fully ripened. Wearing gloves to protect your hands from irritation, remove the berries from the pod and clean the flesh from the seeds. Berries can be smashed with a large spoon or by hand, and the seeds separated by rinsing them in a strainer, picking out large debris. Seeds should be cleaned as soon as possible after collection as they lose viability if allowed to dry out. Following cleaning, seeds need to be cold-stratified to germinate. To do so, mix the cleaned seeds with damp sphagnum moss and placing the mixture into a resealable plastic bag or container and then store them in a refrigerator for 60-90 days. Then, sow them in a flat covered with ½” soilless commercial potting mix and keep the flat in a cool, damp place. Germination should take two to three weeks. In spring, plant the seedlings outdoors. Plants grown from seeds have only one leaf the first year and it takes them three or more years to come to flower.

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week? (late March)

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This week, I’m featuring Speckled Alder (Alnus incana ssp. rugosa) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Speckled Alder was used by American Indians in a wide variety of medicinal uses in the treatment of numerous ailments.  Read more.

Description:

Speckled Alder is a common, fast-growing, large, multi-stemmed wetland shrub, often forming dense thickets from root suckering as well as a process called “layering”, where low branches take root then detach from the mother plant and grow independently. Stems are usually numerous from the base, but individual trunks can grow up to 6 inches in diameter, occasionally taking the form of a small tree.

Twigs are brown to reddish brown to grayish, with scattered white lenticels (pores); new growth is hairy, but becomes hairless and smooth the second year. Older bark is grayish to reddish brown with pale horizontal lenticels (pores).

Leaves are alternate and simple, egg-shaped to elliptic and pointed or blunt at the tip, 1½ to 4½ inches long and 1 to 3 inches wide on a hairy stalk up to ¾ inch long. Some leaves may have shallow lobes. Leaf margins are coarsely double-toothed. The upper surface is a dull dark green, hairless to sparsely hairy, and the lower surface is paler and hairy, especially along the veins.

Alders are among the first plants to flower in spring. Male and female flowers are borne separately on the same plant (monoecious), in clusters called catkins, blooming in very early spring before leaves emerge. Two to 6 male catkins form drooping clusters at the tip of 1-year old twigs, 1¾ to 3½ inches long. Female catkins are red, oval to short-cylindric, about ½ inch, in one or more separate clusters near the male catkins on the same branch, with 1 to 4 catkins in a cluster.

Photo Credit: (c) 2015 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/speckled-alder#lboxg-1

Fertilized female catkins become stout, oval to egg-shaped, cone-like clusters up to about 2/3 inch long. These green fruits mature to reddish-brown in fall, resembling small pine cones with 5-lobed scales. They release their seed in the summer, but the cone structure generally remains intact through winter. Each cone contains two small rounded brown nutlets 1/8 inch long that may have two small leathery wings.

Photo Credit: (c) 2004 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/speckled-alder#lboxg-5
The seeds of Speckled Alder with their leathery wings. Photo Credit: (c) Steven Hurst, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/alder_speckled.html

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

No known edible uses due to its strongly astringent and emetic (induces vomiting) qualities.

Speckled Alder was widely used medicinally by American Indians who used it to treat a variety of ailments, such as anemia, internal bleeding, urinary problems, sprains, bruises or backaches, itches, and piles. A tea was made to cure diarrhea and to treat upset stomachs or rheumatism.  A mixture of root bark and molasses was used in the treatment of toothaches, and either its inner bark or a decoction made from it were applied as a compress on rashes, sore eyes, and swellings. The Chippewa mixed alder root scrapings with powdered bumblebees and fed the mixture to women whom were having difficulty during childbirth.

While Speckled Alder has been little used in modern herbalism, its bark is alterative, astringent, emetic, laxative, ophthalmic, stomachic and tonic.

Wildlife Value:

Speckled Alder is a host plant to the caterpillars of a significant number of moths and butterflies:

Speckled Alder seeds, buds and catkins provide food for small animals and birds, such as American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), American Woodcock (Scolopax minor), Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea), Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus) and Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). However, research suggests that Ruffed Grouse will typically reserve these as a midwinter survival food, consuming them only when other food sources become scarce.

More importantly, Speckled Alder thickets provide safe nesting habitat for Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum), American Goldfinch, Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), American Woodcock (when located in upland sites), Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana), White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), Wilson’s Warbler (Cardellina pusilla), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris), and Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia). In addition, Ruffed Grouse often use alder stands as drumming sites, selecting a log with good visibility around them. It’s common to find nests and broods in alder thickets on upland sites.

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), North American Beaver (Castor canadensis), and rabbit all browse the twigs and foliage.

Where Found Locally:

Speckled Alder is found in wet sandy or gravelly soils, usually along streams and rivers, but also along edges of ponds and in swamps and wetlands. It is only found in open sunny areas, being unable to compete in dense shade, and can slowly spread via runners from its extensive spreading root system.

In New York, Speckled Alder is a characteristic plant found in these ecological communities:

Locally, this native plant can be observed at any of these parks, trails, and nature preserves.

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

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This week, I’m featuring Large-leaved Aster (Eurybia macrophylla) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

Aster is from the Greek for “a star” referring the appearance of the flower head on all asters.  The species name macrophylla is the combination of macros for large and phyllos for leaf giving us the common name of “large-leaved.”  All the new world asters, formerly in the genus Aster, have now been reclassified, most into the genus Symphyotrichum; several, such as this species, into the genus Eurybia.  That word comes from two Greek words, eurys, for “wide” and baios for “few”; both together are referring to the somewhat wide flower rays.

 Description:

Large-leaved Aster is a native erect perennial with stems from 1 to 4 feet tall.  This perennial wildflower consists of a rosette of basal leaves during the spring that spans up to one foot across.  The large basal leaves of this aster are very conspicuous during the spring. 

Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/large-leaved-aster#lboxg-9

During the summer, unbranched or sparingly branched stems with alternate leaves are produced.  Flowering plants have basal leaves that wither away by flowering time; the basal leaves of non-flowering plants may persist longer.  Lowest leaves are large and heart-shaped, up to 8 inches long and 6 inches wide, on long stalks, becoming progressively smaller, more egg-shaped, and shorter stalked as they ascend the stem, with the uppermost leaves reduced to stalkless leaf-like bracts.  The upper surface of leaves is medium green and hairless to short-hairy, while the lower surface is pale green and hairy along the major veins.  The stems of the alternate leaves are up to 3″ long and they are often winged, particularly where they join the stem.  The stems of the basal leaves are up to 6″ long, light green, and usually hairy.

Photo Credit: (c) 2011, Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/large-leaved-aster#lboxg-4

Plants transition from groundcover to wildflower when erect stems emerge.  The upper central stem of each plant (and any upper lateral stems) terminates in a flat-headed panicle (corymb) of flowerheads spanning 3-8″ across.  (In a corymb, the flower stalks are of different length so that the flower heads form a flat-topped cluster.)  Individual flowerheads are ½-1¼” across, consisting of 8-20 ray florets (the pistillate or female flowers) that are irregularly spaced around the small, yellow, center disk.  The petal-like corollas of the ray florets (the bisexual flowers) are lavender or white.  The tubular corollas of the disk florets are initially pale yellow or yellow, but they later become orange-red, dark red, or brown.  At the base of each flowerhead, there are numerous overlapping floral bracts (phyllaries).

Photo Credit: (c) 2011, Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/large-leaved-aster#lboxg-1

During the autumn, both ray and disk florets are replaced by small seeds (cypselae).  Each seed is dry, brown, 2.6 to 4.5 mm long with 7-12 ribs, with tawny bristly pappus attached for wind dispersion.

The seed head, left, showing the tawny bristly pappus of the cypselae, and, 2nd photo, individual cypselae.
Photo Credits: © G.D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/bigleafaster.html
Photo Credit: https://www.prairiemoon.com/eurybia-macrophylla-big-leaved-aster

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

The Algonquin cook the large, thick young leaves and eat them as greens.  The Ojibwe use the roots to make soup.

The Iroquois use the root as a blood medicine, and they also use a compound decoction of the roots to loosen the bowels to treat venereal disease. The Ojibwe used an infusion of this plant to bathe their heads to treat headaches.

Wildlife Value:

The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract a large variety of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, beetles, and plant bugs.  Small bees, including yellow-faced bees (Hylaeus spp.) and Lasioglossum sweat bees, as well as bumblebees (Bombus spp.) and mining bees (Andrena spp., such as an oligolectic Andrenid bee, (Andrena hirticincta)) are regular visitors to these flowers.  Oligolectic species of bees gather pollen from two to several species in one plant family; many species of the genus Andrena are aster specialists.

Large-leaved Aster is the larval host plant for the caterpillars of Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) and Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) butterflies and also the caterpillars of Aster Borer Moth (Carmenta corni), Goldenrod Hooded Owlet Moth (Cucullia asteroides), and Arcigera Flower Moth (Schinia arcigera).

Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) eat the seeds and foliage, while White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) sometimes browse on the foliage.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Bulb-bearing Water Hemlock (Cicuta bulbifera) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

Description:

This native erect perennial plant grows from 12 to 40 inches high on slender hollow stems with limited widely spaced branching.  The stems are light green to slightly light reddish and smooth.

The compound leaves are up to 1′ long and 8″ across (excluding their stems), becoming smaller as they ascend the stems; they are alternate, widely spaced, green, and smooth.  The lower leaves are double-pinnate with long stalks, while the upper leaves are often simple-pinnate on short stalks or stalkless.

The leaflets are up to 3″ long and less than 1/8” across; they are linear to lance-like, have irregular, widely spaced teeth or may be toothless, and are sometimes cleft into narrow lobes. The axils of the upper leaves often have stemless (sessile) clusters of ovoid bulbils, capable of giving rise to new plants.

Bulblet Water Hemlock produces small bulbils in the leaf joints of the upper part of the plant, which is a unique identifying feature. Many upper joints will have these.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/bubletwaterhemlock.html

The upper stems terminate in a flower head (inflorescence) that is a compound umbel of many clusters on long stalks arising from the leaf axils.  The umbel can have 8 to 10+ umbellets with up to 16 flowers each, with the whole compound umbel spanning about 2 to 4 inches across.  The stalks of the umbellets are of unequal length giving the entire cluster a domed, but uneven appearance.  Each flower is only 1/8 inch wide with 5 white petals that are notched at the rounded tip and very narrowed at the base.  There are 5 stamens with white filaments that are placed in-between the petals.  There is no noticeable floral scent.

The white petals have notched tips. Between them are the five stamens which rise from a yellow-green disc. There are two styles.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/bubletwaterhemlock.html

A pair of seeds are contained in each fruit (schizocarp).  The fruits are about 1/8″ long; they are somewhat flattened, ovoid-oblong in shape, and slightly notched at their apices.  This plant reproduces by seeds (sexual reproduction) and aerial bulbils (asexual reproduction).

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

WARNING!  The foliage, seeds, and fleshy roots are highly poisonous (especially the latter) and consumption of them can cause convulsions and death. Ingestion of a small portion of the root is enough to kill an adult. The plants of the genus Cicuta are among the most poisonous naturally occurring North American leafy plants.

The plant has no known medicinal uses.

Wildlife Value:

Like other members of the Carrot family, the nectar of the flowers is accessible to insects with short mouthparts; therefore, these flowers attract visitors such as flies, wasps, beetles, and small bees.  Some of these insects may collect or feed on the pollen as well.

The caterpillars of Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polyxenes asterius) feed on the foliage.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Wild Bean (Apios americana) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Wild Bean (AKA American Groundnut, American Potato Bean, or Hopniss) was a source of food among the Omaha, Dakota, Santee Sioux, Cheyenne, Osage, Pawnee, and Hidatsa.  Read more.

Photo Credit: https://www.legumesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/legum_perspect_19.pdf

Description:

This native perennial twining vine can grow up to 7 to 10 feet in length and has no tendrils.  Although the plant does well in open areas by trailing, the vines readily climb up vertical supports such as woody or sturdy erect herbaceous plants.  

Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Katy Chayka, https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/groundnut#lboxg-3

At intervals along these stems, there occurs alternate compound leaves that are odd-pinnate with 3-7 leaflets (usually 5 leaflets and rarely 3 leaflets) and the terminal leaflet is larger and on a longer stalk.  The leaflets are 1½–3½” long and ¾–2¼” across; they are lancelike, oblong, ovate, or broadly ovate in shape with toothless margins.  The upper leaflet surface is medium to dark green and hairless, while the lower leaflet surface is either light green or whitened green and hairless to minutely hairy.  The stem (petioles, which are less than ¼” long) and the central stalks (rachises) of the compound leaves are light green, narrowly furrowed above, convex below, and hairless to minutely pubescent.  The foliage of this vine contains a milky sap.

Photo Credit: (c) 2007 K. Chayka, https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/groundnut#lboxg-5

The flowers are pink on the outside, and maroon to a rich brown on the inside.  The top of each flower has a curved horn-like structure that functions as a hood over the other floral parts.  Flowers are arranged in dense, conical clusters (racemes) 2 to 6” in length arising from the leaf axil; each is pea-like, yet unique and distinctive.  The basal stalks of these racemes are up to 3″ long, light green, and hairless to minutely hairy. The central stalk of the raceme (floral rachis) is light green, hairless to finely short-hairy, and bumpy from small tubercles; these tubercles are extra-floral nectaries that secret droplets of nectar shortly after the flowers and their pedicels become detached from the floral rachis.

The banner petal is folded along a front to back axis and is colored from creamy to reddish brown. In the forward facing flower you can see the two projecting side petals with the curved keel rising between them.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/groundnut.html

Afterwards, fertile flowers are replaced by slender cylindrical seedpods about 2 to 4″ long and 1/5” across that are light green to yellowish green.  These seedpods are often slightly curved (up or down) and slightly compressed along their sides.  However, some vines are sterile and they don’t produce seedpods after the flowers bloom.  

Photo Credit: Russ Cohen,
https://www.ecolandscaping.org/09/developing-healthy-landscapes/ecological-landscaping-101/edible-and-landscape-worthy-native-plants-of-new-england/

The seedpods each contain several seeds; eventually they divide into 2 parts, ejecting their seeds.  The smooth seeds are ~3/16” long, green, and appear inflated when fresh and then become dark brown and more chunky in appearance when dry.

Photo Credit: https://climbers.lsa.umich.edu/?attachment_id=635

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

Both the seeds and tubers are edible to humans, but the tubers were considered an excellent source of food by both early pioneers and American Indians.  The tubers saved the Massachusetts Bay Pilgrims from starvation during those first difficult winters.

Photo Credit: https://jomegat.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/img_9421_1.jpg

Wild Bean produces small tubers that are arranged along individual rhizomes like a knotted rope; however, it takes two to three years for them to reach harvesting size.  The tubers are highly palatable with culinary characteristics of a potato, although the flavor can be somewhat nuttier than a potato and the texture can be finer.  As with many other legumes, this plant can fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil through a symbiosis with rhizobial bacteria.  Therefore, compared to other commonly eaten tubers and root vegetables, the tubers of Wild Bean are unusually high in protein, containing roughly three times the protein content of a potato and 17% protein by mass.

Photo Credit: (c) 2014 Peter M. Dziuk, https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/groundnut#lboxg-5

It is not recommend to eat the raw tubers due to the presence of protease inhibitors that interfere with protein hydrolysis and act as an anti-nutrient.  Cooking the tubers destroys these compounds and eliminates this problem.

American Indians would prepare the tubers in a variety of ways, such as frying them in animal fat or drying them into flour.  The Menomini make a preserve of the tubers by boiling them in maple syrup.  The tuber can also be dried and ground into a powder that is then used as a thickening in soups or can be added to cereal flours when making bread.

While there are few known medicinal uses of this plant, the tubers were boiled and made into a plaster and used in folk remedies for the skin wound condition known as “Proud Flesh” in colonial New England.

Wildlife Value:

The flowers are visited primarily by bees for nectar and, to a lesser extent, pollen.  This includes bumblebees, Halictid bees, honeybees, and leafcutting bees.  Leaf-cutting bees are considered the most important cross-pollinators of these flowers.  Ground Yellow Jackets (Vespula spp.) have also been reported to visit the flowers, but to a lesser extent.

Wild Bean is the larval host plant for the caterpillars of Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) and Southern Cloudywing (Thorybes bathyllus).

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browse the foliage of this vine.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Many American Indian tribes ate the corms of this plant for food and also had many medicinal uses for Common Arrowhead.  Read more.

Description:

This perennial plant is an emergent aquatic forb that grows 1-3′ tall and consists of a rosette of basal leaves and one or more flowering stalks.  Mature leaves are 4-14″ long and 3-10″ across with considerable variation in length and width; they are arrowhead-shaped and smooth along their margins.  In shallow water or drier soil conditions leaves are broad, and narrow when the plant is submersed in deeper water.  However, the basal lobes are at least as long as the main bodies (or terminal lobes) of the leaves.

Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)
Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)

The leaves have conspicuous primary veins and smaller lateral veins; their venation is parallel overall.  The upper leaf surface is pale green, medium green, or yellowish green, while the lower leaf surface is pale green or yellowish green.  Both sides of the leaves are smooth.  The leaf stems (petioles) are 6-18″ long and rather stout; they broaden toward the base and become sheath-like.

The angular flowering stalks are about as long as the leaves or slightly longer and ascending to erect.  These stalks are either unbranched or sometimes with 1-2 lateral branches.  The flower cluster (raceme) at the end of the flower stalk typically has 3-9 whorls of flowers, while any racemes on branches (if present) have 2-5 whorls of flowers.  The whorls of flowers are spaced about 1-2″ apart along each raceme.  Most plants have both female and male flowers; the male (staminate) flowers are located above the female (pistillate) flowers in each raceme.  Each flower is about 1″ across, consisting of 3 white rounded petals and 3 green ovate sepals.

The male flowers have numerous (25 to 50) yellow stamens, while the female flowers have a sphere of green carpels that form a small bur-like mass.  The spreading to ascending stems of the flowers (pedicels) are up to 1″ long; they are green and smooth.  Single-day flowers open from the bottom to the top of each raceme.

Common Arrowhead female flowers
Common Arrowhead male flowers

Afterwards, the female flowers are replaced by bur-like fruits (consisting of a dense cluster of achenes) that are up to ¾” across at maturity, changing in color from green to dark brown as they mature.  Individual achenes are less than 1/8” long, about half as wide, and flattened oblong in shape; some of their margins are membranous and winged.  Each achene has a more or less straight beak about 1 mm in length that projects laterally from its upper side.  Because of the lateral beaks of the achenes, these bur-like fruits appear more streaked than prickly.

Photo Credit: (c) 2008 K. Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/broad-leaf-arrowhead#lboxg-6
Common Arrowhead achenes
Photo Credit: (c) 2003 Gary Fewless,
https://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity-old/herbarium/wetland_plants/saglat_achene01.jpg

The fall color of Common Arrowhead is a muted yellow before turning all brown.

Folklore:

The Thompson River Indians used the plant as a love charm.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

The rhizomes, young leaves, young shoots, young flowers, and seeds are all edible, but it is the bulbous corms that are most widely valued for food.  The corms are foraged in the fall by searching and raking the mud around the rhizomes of these plants, releasing the corms which then float to the surface of the water.  It is best to cook them (fried, boiled or roasted) before eating as they are quite acrid when raw.  After cooking, they may be peeled.

Some American Indian tribes raided muskrat dens for their cached tubers.  However, they often replaced the tubers taken from their dens with other foods to appease the Great Spirit.

This plant also has some medicinal uses.  Arrowheads demonstrate anti-inflammatory properties which make them useful in treating diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, colitis, Crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.  The tubers were made into a decoction for treating indigestion or as a diuretic for urinary and kidney ailments.  The tubers were also used as a poultice for treating wounds and sores.

Wildlife Value:

The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract a variety of insects, including honeybees, bumblebees, Small Carpenter Bees (Ceratina spp.), Halictid bees, wasps, Syrphid flies, Tachinid flies, butterflies, skippers, and beetles.

Common Arrowhead is the host plant for the caterpillars of Cattail Borer Moth (Bellura obliqua).

Common Arrowhead seeds are attractive to many water birds and waterfowl, including ducks, herons, Sora Rail (Porzana carolina), and Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola).  A variety of ducks are also known to feed on the tubers of this plant; hence, another common name is Duck Potato.  Waterfowl include:  American Black Duck (Anas rubripes), American Widgeon (Mareca americana), Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors), Canvasback (Aythya valisineria), Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), Redhead (Aythya americana), Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris), Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), and Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).  In addition, Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) feed on the stalk bases, crowns, and tubers, and turtles such as Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) and Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta; which is an invasive species arising from pet turtles being released into the wild) also reportedly feed on Common Arrowhead.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Water Horehound (Lycopus americanus) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

The various species of the genus Lycopus have been used in folk medicine for cough remedies.  It was this use that gave the plants the alternate name of ‘horehound’ as this references back to the Romans and the Egyptians who used a plant they called ‘horehound’ for such purposes.  Since Lycopus prefers moist environments, that gave rise to this plant being called ‘water horehound’.

Description:

This native erect perennial plant grows on a green or reddish square hollow stem up to 40 inches tall; it is usually unbranched, otherwise branching sparingly and either hairless or slightly hairy.  A vertical groove is on each side of the stem.  The sap of this plant will permanently stain linen and wool.

Opposite leaves are spaced somewhat widely along the stems and they are either stemless or short-stemmed.  Leaves are up to 3″ long and ¾” across; they are generally lanceolate in shape.  The lower leaves are narrowly lobed toward their bases, while the upper leaves are coarsely toothed all along their margins.  The leaves are hairless, except for a few hairs along the central veins of their undersides.  Leaves become progressively smaller as they ascend the stem.  The underside of leaves is a paler color than the upper surface and pitted with glandular dots.

Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/bugleweed_american.html

There are several Lycopus spp. and they can be difficult to distinguish.  However, Water Horehound is easy to identify because its lower leaves have basal lobes that are narrow and deep.  Other Lycopus spp. usually have leaves with wedge-shaped or rounded bottoms that are coarsely toothed along the entire length of their margins.  If any lobes are present on the leaves of these latter species, they are more shallow and wide.

Photo Credit: https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/am_bugleweed.htm

Dense whorls of white flowers occur where pairs of middle to upper leaves join the stem.  Individual flowers are about 1/8″ in length and each has a white short-tubular corolla with 4 spreading lobes; they often have tiny pinkish purple spots.  The flowers have no noticeable fragrance.  Flowers begin blooming from the bottom of the plant upward and usually not all flowers in a cluster are open at the same time.

Photo Credits: (c) 2006 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/american-water-horehound#lboxg-1

Afterwards, the flowers are replaced by a fruit comprised of four nutlets that are broad and flat at the top, becoming rounded and narrower along 3 angles toward the bottom; they have smooth surfaces.

Photo Credit: (c) 2013 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/american-water-horehound#lboxg-3
Photo Credit: (c) 2002 Gary Fewless,
https://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity-old/herbarium/wetland_plants/lycame_fruit02.jpg

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

Water Horehound leaves have been used as a potherb.

The whole plant is used in various homeopathic remedies including as an astringent, mild narcotic and mild sedative and also in the treatment of hypoglycemia.  The Meskwaki used Water Horehound as an analgesic and gastro-intestinal aid.  In addition, the plant has been used for soothing coughs and treating thyroid issues.

Wildlife Value:

A variety of insects visit the flowers, primarily for nectar, especially short-tongued bees, wasps, and flies. Other floral visitors include long-tongued bees, butterflies, skippers, and beetles.

Water Horehound and other bugleweeds serve as the larval host plants for the caterpillars of Hermit Sphinx (Sphinx eremitus).

Because the leaves of Water Horehound are bitter tasting, they are not often eaten by animals.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Ditch Stonecrop (Penthorum sedoides) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

Description:

Ditch Stonecrop is a native, erect perennial plant, growing on stout stems from 6 to 24 inches high.  It is either unbranched or branches occasionally in the upper half just beneath its flowers.

Photo Credit: Kirsten Johnson (CC BY-NC)

The stems are light green (becoming red in fall) with fine vertical ridges and glandular hair whose glands are reddish-brown to purple tipped.  Hair may be sparse on the lower stem.

The stem, especially the upper section, has gland tipped hairs,
sometimes with reddish-brown or pinkish tips as seen here.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/ditchstonecrop.html

The alternate leaves are up to 4″ long and 1″ across, hairless, with a pointed tip and tapering at the base.  They are elliptic or narrowly ovate and finely toothed along the margins.  The leaves have prominent midveins, and their stems (petioles) are either absent or they are short and slender.  The upper leaf surface varies from yellowish green to medium green, depending on the stage of development.

Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/ditch-stonecrop#lboxg-2

The upper stems terminate in raceme-like branching clusters (cymes) in the upper part of the plant that are about 1-3″ across.  Each cyme has 2-4 flowering stalks that spread outward with 10 to 25 flowers per branch.  The branches extend as flowers open; they are erect to ascending with a crook-shape curve, like a scorpion’s tail, at the end of the fully extended branch.  Flowers are aligned along the upper sides of these stalks.  Each flower is yellowish green to white, about ¼” across, and consists of 5 green spreading sepals, 10 stamens with creamy white tips that turn brown with age, and 5 beaked carpels that are joined together in the center shaped something like a beaker or decanter.  Petals are not usually present.

Photo Credit: (c) 2008 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/ditch-stonecrop#lboxg-1

The flowers are not particularly showy while in bloom, but during the autumn the developing seed capsules become an attractive red.

Photo Credit: (c) G.D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/ditchstonecrop.html

By winter, these distinctive capsules turn brown, they are weather resistant and aid in the winter identification of this plant.

Ditch Stonecrop in winter

Fertile flowers produce five flattish capsules which open below the style when mature.  The capsule has a distinct beak, the remains of the style.  Each of these capsules contain numerous small seeds that are narrowly oblongoid, tapering at one end and whose surface is covered with tiny bumps.

Squares = 1/4 inch.
Photo Credit: Sid Vogelpohl and Arkansas Native Plant Society,
https://anps.org/2020/11/26/know-your-natives-ditch-stonecrop/

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

The leaves have historically been used by American Indians as a fresh, lively addition to salads.  The Cherokee used the leaves as a potherb.

A tincture of the plant is somewhat astringent, demulcent (relieves irritation of the mucous membranes in the mouth), laxative and tonic.  The plant is noted for its effectiveness in treating catarrhal problems (inflammation of a mucous membrane) of many kinds and has also been used successfully in treating diarrhoea, haemorrhoids and infantile cholera (acute noncontagious intestinal disturbance of infants that is now rare).  The seeds have been used by the Meskwaki to make a cough syrup.

Wildlife Value:

Having no nectaries in its flowers, Ditch Stonecrop offers little reward to its floral visitors.  No animals are known to eat this plant.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses: People have used milkweed for fiber, food, and medicine all over the United States and southern Canada.  Read more.

Fibers from the inner bark of the stem are both strong and soft, and, together with the floss attached to its seeds, was used historically by American Indians for cordage and textiles.  During World War II, American children were enlisted to collect 1.5 billion milkweed pods that provided thousands of pounds of milkweed floss to stuff life jackets and flight suits for soldiers.  A little over a pound of the cotton-like milkweed floss could keep a soldier afloat for over 40 hours.  Read more.

Description:

Common Milkweed is a perennial forb growing up to 6’ tall whose stem is unbranched, except sometimes toward near the top of the plant where the flowers occur.  The central stem is relatively stout, pale green, and usually covered with short hairs.  The opposite leaves are up to 8″ long and 3½” wide, broadly oblong in shape, and smooth along their margins.  Leaf pairs often perpendicular to each other with short petioles.

Common Milkweed
Photo Credit: (c) 2008 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/common-milkweed#lboxg-2

All parts of common milkweed plants produce a white latex when cut.

Slightly pendulous spherical umbels of flowers, each about 2½-4″ across, emerge from the axils of the upper leaves.  A single plant may have up to three umbels and each umbel may contain as many as 100 flowers, but most contain ~30 flowers.  Flowers are quite fragrant and they range in color from faded light pink to reddish purple.  Each flower is about ¼” across, consisting of 5 petals that reflex backward exposing 5 raised hoods with a curved horn protruding through each.  The hoods are more light-colored than the petals.  The flower stems (pedicels) are 1 ½ inch long, light green to pale red in color, and hairy.

Common Milkweed

The seedpods (follicles) are 3-4″ long, broadly lanceoloid, and covered with soft prickles and short woolly hairs.  Common Milkweed can be distinguished from other milkweeds by these prickly seedpods – other Asclepias species have seedpods that are smooth, or nearly so.  They are green initially, turning brown as they mature; each is weather resistant and eventually becomes grayish, aiding in this plant’s winter identification.

Photo Credit:
https://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/milkweed-profiles/asclepias-syriaca/

Each seedpod contains many compact rows of overlapping flat, brown seeds, each with a papery wrapping and a large tuft of silky white hair (coma) attached.  When the pod splits open in the fall, the seeds separate and are carried away by the wind.

Photo Credit: https://www.canr.msu.edu/pestid/uploads/images/Common-milkweed-mature-fruit.jpg
Common Milkweed seeds

The large leaves become a muted yellow in the fall.

Folklore:

Milkweed as a flower essence is used to raise the soul from a state of lethargy and regressive helplessness and to wake up a pathologically withdrawing ego.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

When either the central stem or any leaves are torn, a milky sap oozes out that has variable toxicity in the form of cardiac glycosides.  Accordingly, it is not advised to eat this plant.  Instead, please leave them for the Monarch Butterfly caterpillars!

Native Americans used the young leaves and stems as well as the flower buds of this species as food.  Unopened flower buds, when cooked, taste somewhat like peas.  They have a mucilaginous texture and can be used as a flavoring agent and thickener in soups.  The flower clusters can be boiled down to make a brown sugary syrup.  Most foragers prefer to cook (which requires a change of water during the process to remove bitterness) and eat the young seed pods when they are ~1.5” long.

The genus name, Asclepias, commemorates Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine.  Common Milkweed has a history of medicinal use.  The leaves or the plant’s milky latex sap are used in folk remedies for asthma, bronchitis, cancer, catarrh, cough, dropsy, dysentery, dyspepsia, fever, gallstones, gonorrhea, moles, pleurisy, pneumonia, rheumatism, ringworm, scrofula, sores, tumors, ulcers, warts, and wounds.  It has been reported to be an alterative (able to restore normal health, anodyne (painkiller), cathartic (strong laxative), cicatrisant (heal by formation of scar tissue), diaphoretic (induces sweating), diuretic (induces urination), emetic (induces vomiting), emmenagogue (stimulates or increases menstrual flow), expectorant (helps clear mucus from airway), laxative (loosens stool and increases bowel movements), and nervine (calms nervous system).  In addition, the Mohawk Indians used a combination of milkweed and jack-in-the-pulpit as an antifertility or contraceptive agent.  The rhizome is used as an antiedemic (counteracts abnormal infiltration and excess accumulation of fluid in connective tissues) and emmenagogue in dropsy and dysmenorrhea.

Wildlife Value:

The flowers are very popular with many kinds of insects, especially butterflies (such as Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus), Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops), and Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus)), flies, long-tongued bees (such as European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) and native bumblebees (like Brown-belted Bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis)), moths (such as Eight-spotted Forester (Alypia octomaculata), hummingbird moths, and Sphinx moths), and wasps, which seek nectar.  The nectar of Common Milkweed is nearly 100% sucrose.  Numerous insects are attracted to these nectar-laden flowers and it is not at all uncommon to see a variety of pollinators on the flowers at the same time.

Among these, the larger butterflies, long-tongued bees, and predatory wasps are more likely to remove the pollinia from the flowers, which are packets of pollen that are transferred as a single unit during pollination.

Some of the smaller insects can have their legs entrapped by the flowers and die.

Photo Credit: (c) Randy Tindall,
http://nadiasyard.com/our-native-plants/milkweed-common-asclepias-syriaca-uncommon-versatility/

The caterpillars of Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippes) feed on the foliage, as do the caterpillars of a few moths, including Delicate Cycnia (Cycnia tenera) and Milkweed Tiger Moth (Enchaetes egle).  However, Asclepias is the onlyplant family that serves as the host plant for Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippes) caterpillars; they feed exclusively on milkweed leaves.  The glycosides present in Common Milkweed, when absorbed by these larvae, make them and adult butterflies toxic to birds and other predators.  Without milkweed, there can be no Monarch butterflies.  Each fall, millions of Monarch butterflies from eastern North America migrate to 10–13 discrete colonies in the Oyamel forests of central Mexico.

Monarch butterfly overwintering colonies are found in Mexico’s oyamel fir forest.
Photo Credit: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/monarch/maps/MexicanOWSites2_Final_800.jpg

Some bugs, both as nymphs and adults, feed on the developing seeds of Common Milkweed.  They include the Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) and the Small Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus kalmii).  They can destroy up to 90 percent of a milkweed colony’s seed crop!

Large Milkweed Bug adults and nymphs.
Photo Credit: David Taylor, https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_syriaca.shtml
Predated seeds.
Photo Credit: David Taylor, https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_syriaca.shtml

Animals don’t eat this plant because of the bitterness of the leaves and their toxic properties.

Where Found Locally:

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

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This week, I’m featuring Glaucous Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

The scientific name Lonicera pays tribute to the 16th century German botanist Adam Lonicer, while dioica means “two houses,” and comes from an initial mistake by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who assigned this plant with its scientific name, who thought the plant was dioecious, i.e., with male flowers and female flowers on separate plants.  The common name of honeysuckle comes from the “honey” or nectar that can be easily sucked from the flower.

If you’re interested in an assessment of the status of this species nationwide, read this informative technical report.

Identification Tips:

Glaucous Honeysuckle is a woody, loosely twining perennial vine, up to ¾” in diameter and 10 feet long, with branches that sprawl or climb on nearby vegetation.

Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/wild-honeysuckle#lboxg-7

Young stems have a waxy, bluish-white coating (glaucous) while older woody stems are brown or grayish bark with long, fibrous, shredding, peeling strips.  Twigs are green and hairless.  Branches are twining and may take root when they touch the ground, forming clonal plants.

Photo Credit: (c) 2010 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/wild-honeysuckle#lboxg-3

Leaves are opposite, 1½ to 3½ inches long, 1 to 2½ inches wide, somewhat variable in shape, from lance-elliptical to egg-shaped to widest above the middle (obovate), rounded to blunt at the tip, and mostly rounded at the base.  Leaf margins are toothless, hairless and often a bit wavy.  The upper surface is dark green and hairless, the lower a paler blue-green color and typically short-hairy, but may be hairless.  Besides the leaf pair at the tip of a flowering branch, the next 1 or 2 pairs below that may also be joined around the stem (perfoliate).  Otherwise, leaves are stalkless or short stalked; stalks may be hairy.  Leaves below flowers are fused together at the base into a single disk-like leaf.

A single cluster of distinctive, red, tubular flowers with yellow stamens are arranged at the tips of one-year-old branches; each cluster consists of 1 to 5 whorls each with 6 stalkless flowers.  The whorls are not separated and the flowers are crowded.  Flowers are ½ to 1 inch long with a 5 petals fused at the base into a corolla tube then separated ⅓ to ½ of the way to the base into 2 lips; the upper is broad with 4 lobes and the lower is narrow.  Flower color is typically deep red to maroon, sometimes yellow and sometimes becoming yellow with age.  Outer surface is hairless, inner surface is hairy, especially in the throat.

Glaucous Honeysuckle flowers

Afterwards, the flowers are replaced by round to oval, bright red to orange-red berries that are ¼ to ½ inch long and grow in clusters surrounded by joined upper leaves.  Berries are green initially, becoming orange, ultimately red or orange-red when ripe.  They do not fall from the plant; instead, they remain on it unless picked off by birds.

Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Katy Chayka,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/wild-honeysuckle#lboxg-5

There are 3 to 8 ovoid yellow seeds in each berry.  The Arikara of the Northern Great Plains inserted these seeds into dried gourds as the noisemakers in rattles that were employed in ceremonial rituals.

Photo Credit: https://acrre.ualberta.ca/acrre/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2018/04//Lonicera_dioica.pdf

The deciduous leaves of Glaucous Honeysuckle become yellow or gold during autumn.

Folklore:

It is said that the meaning of wild honeysuckle flowers indicates “inconstant love,” which seems supported by the belief that the color of flowers corresponds to the specific type of happiness contained in the honeysuckle flower’s meaning.  For example, in the language of flowers, white typically represents innocence, yellow represents friendship, pink represents flirtation, and red represents passion.  While most Glaucous Honeysuckle blooms are red, sometimes this species exhibits merely yellow blooms.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

The fruit of Glaucous Honeysuckle is mildly toxic and not used for food.

The Algonquin, Chippewa, and Meskwaki used Glaucous Honeysuckle to treat fever, tuberculosis, menstrual difficulties, kidney stones, dysuria, venereal disease, and worms and as a cathartic and a diuretic.  The Iroquois made a decoction of the vines and used it as an emetic “to throw off effects of love medicine.”

Wildlife Value:

Flowers attract bumblebees (including, but not limited to, Yellow-banded Bumblebee (Bombus terricola)), Halictid bees, Mason bees (Osmia spp.), and Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris).

Avian frugivores feed on the berries of this plant, including: American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus), and White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis).

Where Found Locally: