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

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This week, I’m featuring Common Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

Common Blue-eyed Grass is actually a member of the iris family (family Iridaceae), which consists of herbs growing from rhizomes, bulbs, or corms, with narrow basal leaves and showy flower clusters at the tips of long stalks.

Description:

Common Blue-eyed Grass is a native North American perennial with a clump-forming growth habit and narrow blade-shaped leaves. Leaves are all basal, long and slender, grass-like, generally 5-10 inches long, the largest over 1/10 inch wide with smooth, almost waxy surfaces and very finely toothed edges. The flowering stems are also flattened, 1/10 to 1/8 inch wide, with a strong central vein and two distinct wings on the sides. The stem also has very finely toothed edges and often twists up to a full turn from base to tip.

Its star-like flowers are bright blue to deep violet with a yellow center, 5/8 to ¾ inch across with 6 tepals (three petals and three almost identical sepals, although the sepals are typically slightly wider than the petals – see photo below), the tips of which are usually notched with a small needle-like projection at its very tip.

Photo Credit: https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/blue-eyed-grass-sisyrinchium/

A bright spot at the base of each tepal creates a greenish to yellow throat, with a column of bright yellow-tipped stamens in the center. Flowers or borne in groups of 2 to 4 on short slender stalks with only 1 or 2 flowers open at a time, at the tip of a long leaf stem and enclosed by two narrow leaf-like bracts (spathe); flowers are overtopped by a pointed bract (see first photo below). The spathe (see second photo below) is typically green like the color of the leaves and stem, sometimes bronze or purplish, with the outer one up to 3 inches long and may be more than twice as long as the inner one. The edges of the outer spathe are joined for up to 1/8 inch at the base.

Photo Credit: (c) 2013 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/mountain-blue-eyed-grass#lboxg-2

The fruit is a round to oval capsule between 1/8 and ¼ inch long, on a slender stalk and divided into three sections (carpels), containing tiny black seeds.

Photo Credit: (c) 2011 Peter M. Dziuk,
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/mountain-blue-eyed-grass#lboxg-4

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

No known uses as food.

American Indian tribes used the roots of Common Blue-eyed Grass to make a tea for treating diarrhea (especially in children), to cure stomachaches, and to expel intestinal worms. Herbalists have used these teas to treat menstrual disorders, for birth control, and as a laxative.

Wildlife Value:

The floral rewards of Common Blue-eyed Grass attract bee flies, bumble bees (including Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus griseocollis), Half-black Bumble Bee (Bombus vagans), Red-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus rufocinctus), and Yellow Bumble Bee (Bombus fervidus)), Halictid bees, sweat bees, and Syrphid flies.

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) eat the seeds.

Where Found Locally:

Common Blue-eyed Grass can be found in moist fields, meadows, open shorelines, forest edges, and open woods.

National Wildflower Week 2024 – Day 6

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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 Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Red Baneberry is a bushy herbaceous perennial plant that is 1-3′ tall either unbranched or sparingly branched with large, highly-divided leaves. The central stem and any secondary stems are light green and smooth; leaf stems are up to 6” long, light green, and smooth. Each plant has 1-4 alternate leaves that are thrice divided, becoming widely spreading. Leaflets are 1¼–3½” long and coarsely toothed along their margins. The upper leaf surface is medium green and smooth, while the lower leaf surface is slightly more pale and either smooth or hairy along the major veins.

Above the foliage are dense, globular clusters of small white flowers. The fruit is an attractive, but poisonous, red berry.

The central stem and any secondary stems terminate in solitary racemes of flowers that are 1-2″ long; these racemes become slightly longer when the flowers are replaced by berries. Each flower is about ¼” across or slightly wider, consisting of 4-10 white widely spreading petals that are individually narrowly elliptic in shape, and 15-40 white, long and showy stamens. The ascending to widely spreading flower stems (pedicels) within each raceme are ~½” long (or slightly more) and noticeably more slender than the central stalk (rachis) of the raceme. The flowers have a rosy fragrance and the numerous stamens give each cluster a feathery appearance.

The main way of distinguishing Red Baneberry from White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda), whether in flower or in fruit, is the thickness of the pedicel. The flower stalks of White Baneberry are noticeably thicker than the slender flower stalks of Red Baneberry. This difference is most pronounced after the flowers fade and are replaced by fruit. The stalks supporting White Baneberry fruit thicken and turn a bright red, while the stalks of Red Baneberry fruit are significantly more slender and remain green or greenish brown.

Afterwards, fertile flowers are replaced by bright red, glossy, ovoid berries that become about ¼ inch long at maturity. Each berry contains a fleshy pulp and several seeds. Individual seeds are about ⅛ inch long, reddish brown, and crescent-shaped.

Where Found:

Habitats include moist to mesic woodlands, shady stream banks, and shaded areas where some seepage of ground water occurs. Red Baneberry is shade-tolerant and can grow in moderate to full shade, doing best in light to moderate shade. It is found in hardwood forests, but is also seen in mixed wood forests with conifers.

Ecological Significance:

In botany, there is a scale called the “Coefficient of Conservatism.”  The scale represents how tolerant a plant is to human disturbances and how representative it is to a pre-settlement natural community of plants.  Coefficients of conservatism (“C” or CoC values) are increasingly being used to prioritize natural areas for conservation as well as for the monitoring of outcomes of habitat restoration projects. Species least tolerant of human disturbance and with an affinity for high-quality native habitats are placed in category “10.”  Red Baneberry is placed in category “8.”

SOURCE: Bried, Jason & Strout, Kerry & Portante, Theresa. (2012). Coefficients of conservatism for the vascular flora of New York and New England: inter-state comparisons and expert opinion bias. Northeastern Naturalist. 19. 101-114. 10.2307/41495840.

Red Baneberry’s importance for wildlife is low, because it is generally not an abundant plant. The flowers do not have nectar, offering only pollen to visiting insects, which are mainly bees. Most bees seen on the flowers are Halictid species (including Lasioglossum cressonii and Lasioglossum versans). However, the main pollinator in the Northeast is said to be the European Snout Beetle (Phyllobius oblongus), an introduced weevil.

Because the foliage is somewhat toxic, it is usually avoided by browsing animals. However, some animals feed on the seeds of this plant while rejecting the pulp, such as Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), and Woodland Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). Meanwhile, birds that eat the fruits include the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus), Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), and Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius).

How to Grow Your Own:

NOTE:  Red Baneberry is a protected plant listed as a species that is exploitably vulnerable.  It is a violation of New York State Environmental Conservation Law §9-1503 to collect or destroy listed plants without the permission of the landowner. The regulation gives landowners additional rights to prosecute people who collect plants without permission.

By division –

Because the root system consists of a vertical rootstock with fibrous secondary rootlets below, it is not possible to propagate by root division.

From seeds –

Best sown as soon as the fruit is ripened in autumn.  Seeds have a limited viability, so if sown in spring, germination rates may be poor. The seeds are slow to germinate, doing so in the following year, and then flowering in the third year.

National Wildflower Week 2024 – Day 5

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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 Marsh Blue Violet (Viola cucullata). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Marsh Blue Violet is a perennial wildflower that consists of a low rosette of basal leaves spanning about 6″ across, from which one or more flowering stalks develop. The basal leaves are up to 3½” long and 3½” across; they are heart-shaped and their margins usually have fine crenations looking like broad teeth. Leaf bases are indented, while leaf tips are rounded to bluntly pointed. The upper leaf surface is medium green, while the lower surface is pale-medium green; both surfaces are smooth or nearly so.

An irregular solitary 5-petaled blue-violet flower is produced atop an erect leafless stalk up to 7″ long that rises well above the leaves. The erect to ascending pedicels are light green to light purplish green and glabrous. Each flower is about ¾” across, consisting of 5 medium to dark blue-violet petals that are elliptical or ovate in shape and about twice the length of the sepals. The 2 lateral petals have short white hairs with conspicuously swollen tips near the throat of the flower. The lowermost petal has a patch of white with radiating purple veins in the front (that serve as a nectar guide) and extends rearward forming a spur containing the nectary.  Smaller cleistogamous (self-fertile) flowers are also produced after these showy chasmogamous (requiring pollination) flowers have matured.

Both chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers produce fruit, which is an oblong capsule up to about ½ inch long that is initially green then tan when it matures and splits open into three sections. Seeds are globelike, dark brown to dark reddish-brown, and ~2 mm long. In most violets the cleistogamous flowers produce a greater abundance of seed.

Where Found:

Marsh Blue Violet is common on banks of small streams, but is also found in marshes, bogs, swamps, and seeps.

Ecological Significance:

In botany, there is a scale called the “Coefficient of Conservatism.”  The scale represents how tolerant a plant is to human disturbances and how representative it is to a pre-settlement natural community of plants.  Coefficients of conservatism (“C” or CoC values) are increasingly being used to prioritize natural areas for conservation as well as for the monitoring of outcomes of habitat restoration projects. Species least tolerant of human disturbance and with an affinity for high-quality native habitats are placed in category “10.”  Marsh Blue Violet is placed in category “9.”

SOURCE: Bried, Jason & Strout, Kerry & Portante, Theresa. (2012). Coefficients of conservatism for the vascular flora of New York and New England: inter-state comparisons and expert opinion bias. Northeastern Naturalist. 19. 101-114. 10.2307/41495840.

The nectar of Marsh Blue Violet attracts Andrenid bees, bumblebees, mason bees (Osmia spp.), Halictid bees, bee flies (Bombyliidae), butterflies, and skippers. Some of the bees also collect pollen. An oligolectic bee (one that has a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources, typically to a single family or genus of flowering plants), Andrena violae, visits the flowers of violets. Violets serve as the larval hosts for these caterpillars:  Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite), Atlantis Fritillary (Speyeria atlantis), Grateful Midget (Elaphria grata), Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele), Meadow Fritillary (Boloria bellona), Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia), Silver-bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene myrina), The Beggar (Eubaphe mendica), and Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia).

The seeds and other parts of violets are occasionally eaten by birds such as the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), and Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), and they are also consumed by the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Pine Vole (Microtus pinetorum), and White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). Similarly, the foliage of these low-growing plants is a source of food for the Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) and Wood Turtle (Clemmys insculpta).

How to Grow Your Own:

By division –

For root division, or just digging up random violet plants – it is best to do this in the fall.  Plants generally do not survive transplanting when blooming or making seeds. It is therefore recommended to only divide or transplant established flowers when the plant is approaching or is dormant.

From seeds –

If you choose to grow from seed and collect wild seed to do so, most violet seeds require 60 days of cold stratification plus light for germination. Therefore, it is best for them to be surface sown, not planted. So, just scatter seeds in the general area you wish to grow them provided that it offers cool, moist, well-drained humus-rich soil in partial or dappled shade. This species of violet is very intolerant of drought.

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.

National Wildflower Week 2024 – Day 2

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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 Early Meadow Rue (Thalictrum dioicum). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

This perennial wildflower is up to 2½’ tall and across.  Stems are erect, hairless, pale green to purplish green, and often branched in the upper half.  Each branch has alternate compound leaves each comprised of 3 or 5 leaflets.  Individual leaflets are up to 1¾” long and across; they are orbicular to oval-orbicular in shape with 3-9 terminal lobes (usually 5 or more).  These short lobes are well-rounded or bluntly pointed.  The upper surface of each leaf is medium green and smooth, while the lower surface is pale green with a conspicuous network of raised veins; both sides are hairless.  All of the leaflets have slender stems (petioles).

The central stem terminates in a large floral panicle up to 1′ tall and across; each branch of the panicle terminates in a corymb of about 5 flowers.  Early Meadow Rue is dioecious, which means that some plants produce all male (staminate) flowers, while other plants produce all female (pistillate) flowers.  The male flowers droop downward from their branches to a greater extent than the female flowers.  Each male flower is about ¼” across and ½” long; it consists of 4-5 sepals and 10 or more stamens.  The sepals are broadly oblong, pale green, light-veined, and white-margined; the stamens have long yellow anthers and slender filaments.  Each female flower is about the same size as the male flower; it consists of 4-5 sepals and up to 15 pistils.  Neither male nor female flowers have petals. There is no floral fragrance.  The male flowers of Early Meadow Rue are more showy than the female flowers; this is primarily because the anthers of the male flowers are yellow, while the styles of the female flowers are dull-colored.

After flowering plants die down during the summer, low basal leaves develop during the fall. Their appearance is similar to the alternate compound leaves described above.

Where Found:

Early Meadow Rue prefers partially shaded woods and thickets. Habitats in which you may find it include rich mesic woodlands, wooded clay slopes, shaded areas near cliffs, and rocky ravines. It is common in forests with a lot of Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and American Basswood (Tilia americana).

    Ecological Significance:

    In botany, there is a scale called the “Coefficient of Conservatism.”  The scale represents how tolerant a plant is to human disturbances and how representative it is to a pre-settlement natural community of plants.  Coefficients of conservatism (“C” or CoC values) are increasingly being used to prioritize natural areas for conservation as well as for the monitoring of outcomes of habitat restoration projects. Species least tolerant of human disturbance and with an affinity for high-quality native habitats are placed in category “10.”  Early Meadow Rue is placed in category “7.”

    SOURCE: Bried, Jason & Strout, Kerry & Portante, Theresa. (2012). Coefficients of conservatism for the vascular flora of New York and New England: inter-state comparisons and expert opinion bias. Northeastern Naturalist. 19. 101-114. 10.2307/41495840.

    Because they are pollinated by the wind, the flowers of Early Meadow Rue are not showy and they do not produce nectar, thus not attracting pollinators.

    The caterpillars of the Canadian Owlet (Calyptra canadensis), Meadow-Rue Borer (Papaipema unimoda), Straight-Lined Looper (Pseudeva purpurigera) and White Striped Black (Trichodezia albovitatta) rely upon Meadow Rue species as a host plant.

    White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browse on the foliage of Early Meadow Rue sparingly.  Nongame birds and small mammals may consume the seeds.

    How to Grow Your Own:

    Early Meadow Rue grows well in moist garden soil in a shaded spot that gets plenty of sunshine in the spring before the trees leaf out.

    These plants are easy to grow from seed, though they will take some time to germinate and produce mature plants. It’s actually best to plant seeds collected from flower heads, as commercially sold seeds often have a lower germination rate. Patience is key. When direct-sown in the garden, seeds can take a full year to germinate, and two to three years until they reach flowering maturity. Seeds can simply be broadcast over an area where you want them to become established.

    Because the plants often go dormant by mid-summer, the thoughtful gardener will want to keep track of where the dormant roots are located so that they are not accidently dug up or damaged.

    To learn more about this native wildflower, please view my prior post What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week? (May week 1), published on 5/7/2022.

    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: