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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 7

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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 closeout this week’s focus on wildflowers and for your self-guided search today, I suggest that you go looking for Wild Plum (Prunus americana). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native species that may appear as a tall shrub (if multi-stemmed) or small tree (if single trunk).

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Wild Plum appears either as a thicket-forming shrub or a small tree with a short, crooked trunk. As a tree, it typically grows to 15-25′ tall with a broad, spreading crown. As a shrub, it suckers freely and can form large colonies. The trunk has rough grey bark. Branches and twigs are an attractive dark reddish-brown with horizontal lenticels and sometimes have thorny lateral branchlets or short side twigs with thorn-like tips. Flowering stems are usually grayish and scaly with age. The bark of the larger branches is grey and smooth, except for irregular ridges and exfoliated patches.

The medium to dark green alternate leaves are 1¾” wide, stalked, an elongated 3-4” long oval with a tapering tip, and sharply toothed margins, which are sometimes double-toothed. The upper surface of each leaf is slightly wrinkled in appearance, rather than smooth. The slender petioles of the leaves are about ½–¾” long and hairless.

Wild Plum has fragrant, white flowers in showy, flat-topped clusters of 2-6 flowers in each that occur before the leaves emerge in spring. Each flower is about ¾–1″ across, consisting of 5 white rounded petals.

Flowers are followed by edible, round, red plums (1″ diameter), which ripen in early summer. The skin of each fruit is smooth and the bright yellow pulp is fleshy and juicy; it becomes sweet when the fruit is fully mature. At the center of each fruit, there is a single large stone that is ovoid and somewhat flattened, tapering at both ends.

Leaves turn yellow to red in autumn.

Where Found:

Wild Plum is mostly a woodland species, growing in mixed-hardwood communities and on woodland ecotones.  Habitats include mesic woodlands, woodland borders, thickets, powerline right-of-way within wooded areas, pastures, and fence rows.  This species benefits from occasional disturbance in wooded areas as it is unable to compete with larger canopy trees.

Ecological Significance:

The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract bees, various flies, and other insects, including Henry’s Elfin (Callophrys henrici) butterfly. Honeybees are the principal pollinator. Other bee visitors include Andrenid bees, bumblebees, cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.), Halictid bees, and Small Carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.).

Wild Plum is a larval host plant for several species of butterflies:  Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax), Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), and Viceroy (Limenitis archippus).

The fruits are eaten by mammals primarily, especially the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), but also American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) and White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus). These mammals help to spread the large seeds to new locations. Birds, such as Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), occasionally peck at the fruits, but they do not distribute the seeds.

How to Grow Your Own:

By root –

The root system of Wild Plum is fairly shallow and spreading, allowing vegetative regeneration (root suckers) to form thickets. Prunus species may be rooted from dormant hardwood, softwood, semi-hardwood, or root cuttings. Semi-hardwood and softwood cuttings taken in summer root easiest.

By seed –

Collect fruit when it is filled out, firm, and ripened. Clean the seeds from the pulp, then decide if you will plant them yet that autumn or if you will do so in the spring.

The best time to plant Wild Plum seed is in fall as this will allow it to naturally self-stratify during the winter to aid germination in the spring. Seeds to be sown immediately in fall do not need to be dried.

For spring sowing, however, briefly air dry the cleaned seeds. Then stratify the seeds in moist sand for 30-60 days in a greenhouse, then cold stratify (36-41 degrees) for 60-90 days. You can store the seeds in a bag with moist sand in the fridge or you can store them outside. If you keep them outside, be aware that rodents will eat them if they have access. Therefore, store your plum seeds outside by burying buckets in the ground; make small holes in each bucket to allow drainage and fill the bucket with a mix of damp sand and seed. In the spring, the seeds will most likely be sprouting and it’s best to wait until all have sprouted before planting them. Plant them about a half inch deep and cover with a thin mulch.

    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 3

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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 Goldthread (Coptis trifolia). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

    Distinguishing Characteristics:

    Goldthread is a perennial low-growing native wildflower with glossy evergreen leaves that are 1-2″ wide and appear at the end of a stem that is usually shorter than the flower stem; stems are slender and hairless.  The leaves are palmately compound, divided into three scalloped leaflets, each with small teeth around the tip end.  Goldthread’s leaves uncoil every spring as they replace the old evergreen leaves of the previous year.

    Goldthread bears a solitary, briefly blooming, small white flower at the end of a 3- to 6-inch leafless stem.  Each flower is ⅜ to ½ inch across and has four to seven white petal-like sepals and many white stamens.  The bright green styles are curled at the tip.  Alternating with the sepals are golden yellow club-shaped petals (which are shorter than the stamens), each of which has a cup-shaped tip that holds nectar.

    The fruit of Goldthread is an array of four to seven pods, each about 1/3 inch long and generally elliptical with a long taper to a pointed tip whose beak is mostly straight, and on a stalk about as long as the pod.  The capsule-like fruit changes from green to tan or light brown and splits open to expose a number of small seeds.

    Where Found:

    Goldthread is a shade-tolerant species and seems to prefer coniferous or mixed forests dominated by Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), but it has also been found in deciduous woodlands with moist, acidic soils.

    Ecological Significance:

    Goldthread is found in several ecological communities:

    It is not tolerant of disturbances and usually disappears or declines in abundance after logging has occurred.

    The flowers of Goldthread attract solitary bees and hover flies (family Syrphidae), the latter of which eat the pollen.  Goldthread has minimal wildlife value.

    How to Grow Your Own:

    By Division –

    Find a wild patch of Goldthread and identify the largest plants.  Dig a little to find the bright yellow rhizome going away from the mother plant, then find a clone along it and carefully dig it out.  Snip a part of the horizontal rhizome with the clone and then keep it moist until you transplant.  Pot each clone individually in peat moss and water them thoroughly.  Keep away from direct sunlight until it establishes itself well, then place each in your selected spot in mid-autumn or the following spring.

    By Seed –

    Harvest ripened fruit from wild plants and let them dry in a paper envelope for several days. Then, carefully squeeze individual seed capsules in a collection container to capture the seeds.

    NOTE:  Goldthread seeds do not store well.  Rather than doing so and then attempting stratification, you should instead immediately sow the harvested seeds for best results.

    It is probably best to simply sow your harvested seeds within a few days of harvesting them. Seeds will germinate after one winter and flower after two.

    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.

      National Wildflower Week 2024 – Day 1

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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 kick-off this week and for your self-guided search today, I suggest that you go looking for Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this ephemeral spring wildflower.

      Distinguishing Characteristics:

      This herbaceous perennial plant is about 3-10″ tall, producing from its rootstock both basal leaves and fertile shoots with upper leaves.  The basal leaves are separate from the fertile shoots; they help to store energy for next year’s fertile shoots.  A fertile shoot consists of a single flowering stalk with a whorl of 3 leaves.  Each leaf is up to 3″ long and across, but palmately cleft into 3-5 narrow lobes with dentate teeth along the margins (refer to blue circle in the image above).  The basal leaves and the upper leaves have a similar appearance; both types of leaves are greyish green to medium green and largely hairless.  The central stalk is greyish green to medium green, smooth or slightly hairy, and unbranched.

      The flowering stalk terminates into a short cluster (raceme) of white flowers that becomes longer as it matures.  The flowers open up and become more erect in the presence of sunshine on warm spring days.  Each fragrant flower is about ½” across when fully open, consisting of 4 predominately white petals.  The petals are lanceolate-oblong and sometimes tinted with pink or light purple.  The slender stems with each raceme are at least as long as the flowers; they are light green to purplish green.  The blooming lasts about 2 weeks, but a single flower usually lasts about 4 days.

      Each flower is replaced by an elongated and somewhat flattened seedpod up to an inch long with a short beak (i.e., a silique); this seedpod is held more or less erect.  The seedpods are initially green, turning to brown in late spring.  The small, brown, flattened seeds are arranged in a single row of 10-14 seeds within each seedpod.  The ripened seedpod splits open with a twist to eject its seeds, usually several weeks after forming.

      Where Found:

      Habitats where Cut-leaved Toothwort grows include deciduous mesic woodlands, floodplain woodlands, wooded bluffs, and upland savannas. (Mesic means “middle,” so mesic forests are between hydric (or wet) forests and xeric (or dry) forests – not too wet, not too dry.)

      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.”  Cut-leaved Toothwort is placed in category “4.”

      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 the flowers attracts both long-tongued and short-tongued bees, including honey bees, bumblebees, Mason bees (Osmia spp.), cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.), Halictid bees (Halictus spp., Lasioglossum spp.), and Andrenid bees (Andrena spp.).  Andrena arabis only collects pollen from plants in the genus Cardamine and Arabis, which is another genus in the mustard family (Brassicaceae).  Less often, the nectar of the flowers attracts early spring butterflies and Giant Bee Fly (Bombylius major).  Short-tongued bees also collect pollen from the flowers.

      The larvae of a few species of butterflies will feed upon these leaves, including Checkered White (Pontia protodice), Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice), and Spring Azure butterfly (Celastrina ladon).  Caterpillars of Mustard White butterflies (Pieris napi oleraceae) and West Virginia White butterflies (Pieris virginiensis) also feed on the foliage of Toothworts.

      The White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) will sometimes eat the seeds of this plant as well as its tubers.

      How to Grow Your Own:

      It principally grows from a horizontal rhizome, often producing colonies of plants. Dig the fragile rhizomes carefully as they easily break into segments. It can also be grown from seed, but doing so is difficult. Seeds usually require at least 60 days of cold stratification for germination. Cut-leaved Toothwort requires moderate moisture levels, rich soils in woodlands or along woodland edges, and full to partial sun is needed up to flowering. It will likely take 3-4 years for the seedlings to flower.

      To learn more about this native wildflower, please view my prior post What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week? (April week 4), published on 4/22/2023.

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

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      This week, I’m featuring Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) as two of our local wildflowers that begin to bloom at this time.

      In sunny wetlands, Marsh Marigold is one of the first wildflowers to bloom in the spring. According to the Cornell Botanic Gardens in Ithaca, New York, Marsh Marigold bloomed an average of six days earlier over the period of 1986 to 2015 as an indication of climate change sensitivity.

      Description:

      Marsh Marigold is a native perennial herbaceous plant in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that tends to grow in clumps. Also known as cowslip, cowflock, or kingcup, it is a lovely harbinger of spring.

      Marsh Marigold in Ushers Road State Forest

      Marsh Marigold grows from 8-24 inches tall with many branches, and has glossy green basal leaves that are round, oval, heart or kidney-shaped and up to 4” long and 4” across.

      Basal leaves of Marsh Marigold
      Photo Credit: https://commonsensehome.com/marsh-marigold/

      The basal leaves have long petioles while upper, stem leaves are alternate and on shorter petioles becoming stalkless as they ascend the stem. The stems are hairless and hollow. Leaves are smooth with a deep and narrow notch and their margins have small scallops or teeth. Leaf edges may be toothless but are more often scalloped.

      Upper stem leaves of Marsh Marigold
      Photo Credit: https://commonsensehome.com/marsh-marigold/

      The upper stems produce small clusters of 2-5 bright yellow flowers on short petioles, usually rising above the leaves. Each flower is about ¾–1½” across with 5-9 (usually) petal-like sepals. There are no true petals. The sepals are bright yellow, well-rounded, and slightly overlapping. There is no noticeable floral scent.

      Fertilized flowers mature into a flattened and recurved seedpod (follicle) about 3/8 inch long.  Each follicle is initially green and erect, spreading out as it matures, drying to light greenish brown and eventually splitting open along its upper side to release its seeds.

      Marsh Marigold fruit (follicles)
      Photo Credit: (c) 2010 Peter M. Dziuk,
      https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/marsh-marigold#lboxg-3
      Marsh Marigold seeds
      Photo Credit: USDA, NRCS. 2016. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 13 February 2016). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

      Folklore:

      A German legend tells the story of a maiden named Caltha (meaning “cup” in Greek) who fell so in love with the sun god that she spent her days and nights in the fields, trying to see as much as possible of him, until her body and spirit wasted away. The very first Marsh Marigold – a cup filled with the sun’s rays – grew where the devoted maiden had stood.

      Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

      CAUTION:  Plant juices can cause blistering or inflammation on skin or mucous membranes on contact. WARNING:  POISONOUS – Leaves contain the oily toxin protoanemonin, the amount of which increases as the leaves progress through a growing season. If ingested raw, it can induce convulsions and lesions throughout the digestive tract.

      The young leaves (picked before the plant blooms) are sometimes used as potherbs, but require several short boilings with changes of water between each; heat destroys the toxins. Tightly closed buds can be similarly prepared and pickled like capers.

      Medicinally, the whole plant is anodyne (painkiller), antispasmodic, diaphoretic (induces sweating), diuretic (induces urination), emetic (induces vomiting), expectorant and rubefacient. A poultice of the boiled and mashed roots was used by American Indians to treat sores, remove warts, protect against love charms, and as an aid in childbirth. A tea made from its leaves was also believed to relieve constipation. Early colonists learned from American Indians to mix a decoction of the root with maple syrup to make cough syrup.

      Wildlife Value:

      The flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen, which attract primarily flies and bees. Marsh Marigolds are primarily pollinated by pollen-seeking Greater Bee Fly (Bombylius major), Halictid bees, honey bees, and hoverflies (family Syrphidae, including Lejops spp., Neoascia spp., and Xylota spp.). Ants (family Formicidae) and cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.) collect the nectar.

      To see the dramatic pattern on Marsh Marigold blossoms as bees see them, view: http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_CALT_PAL.html.

      Because the acrid foliage contains toxic alkaloids and glycosides, it is usually avoided by browsing animals. The seeds are eaten by Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), Sora Rail (Porzana carolina), and Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).

      Where Found Locally:

      As its name suggests, Marsh Marigold is a plant that prefers sunny areas where the soil is consistently wet from underground seepage of water. Habitats include various wetlands, including vernal pools in low woodlands, swamps, soggy meadows in river floodplains, marshes, fens, seeps and springs, and ditches that get part or full sun.

      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.