More Late Spring Wilflowers

There are so many plants blooming right now that I thought I’d do two wildflower posts in a row to try and keep up with them all. I thought I’d also show a few of the places I go to regularly as well as the plants I find in them. Most of the places have no real name so I just call them the pond, stream, path, bog, or meadow. 

I visited a local unnamed beaver pond hoping to find some native orchids. Other than pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule,) which are still blooming off in the drier parts of this tract, I didn’t see any. Most of the pink lady’s slippers look like this one now, with seed pods forming. Hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) was blooming in a sunny spot. This plant is often confused with wild morning glory, but the leaves are very different. A good pocket field guide is the simplest way to identify them. The Hairy Vetch (Vicia vilosa ) was running rampant all through the tall grasses and shrubs. This is another plant that is often mistaken for something else. I’ve even seen it called crown vetch (Coronilla variaon) on various websites, but the two flowers are very different.  Tracy at the Season’s Flow blog recently showed a good picture of crown vetch that can be seen by clicking here.  Hairy vetch is easily confused with cow vetch, which looks very similar but doesn’t have fine hairs on its stems and doesn’t grow in New Hampshire. Hairy vetch is a native of Europe and Asia and is used as a cover crop or for livestock forage. Bumblebees love it. The daisy fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) is still blooming strongly and should continue right up until fall, when it will be confused with asters.  The flower on the left had a visitor that I didn’t see when I was taking the picture. Daisy fleabane can be mistaken for common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus,) but the leaves clasp the stem on common fleabane and do not on daisy fleabane.  I regularly find fleabane growing in sunny spots quite deep in the woods where you wouldn’t expect it to be. I decided to leave the boggy areas and head for dry ground. Many wildflowers grow along this path and in the surrounding forest, so it is one of my favorite places.Blue bead lily (Clintonia borealis ) grows in these woods and is just setting fruit. Before long these will be bright blue berries that aren’t fit for eating, but are a pleasure to see.Our native Northern Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) isn’t rare but it is uncommon in my experience. It also isn’t a true honeysuckle. Unlike a true 6-8 foot tall honeysuckle this little plant might reach 3 feet under perfect growing conditions, but is usually much shorter. The flowers are small but grow in clusters at the ends of branches and are long lasting. They change colors, going from greenish yellow to orange and then to purplish red. Something to watch for in identifying these plants is the odd little mushroom shaped pistil. The fall foliage is very colorful, going from yellow to deep red. Another native shrub just coming into bloom is the arrow wood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum.) These shrubs get large, often growing to 6-8 feet tall and 10 feet wide at the edge of the forest, but each individual flower is hardly bigger than a pencil eraser.  An easy way to identify viburnums is to look for the five petals that they all have. Native dogwoods, which should be blooming any day now, will always have 4 petals.  The glossy, toothed leaves are a good indication that this plant is an arrow wood viburnum. The white flowers are followed by small, dark blue fruit that birds love.Native False Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum) is still going strong but very soon the blossoms will give way to small reddish berries that provide food for many birds and other wildlife. These plants prefer dry woods and partial shade, but I’ve seen them grow in quite wet soil and nearly full shade as well. False Solomon’s seal can be found in garden centers and is an excellent choice if trying to attract birds to the garden.Another flowering shrub that isn’t well known is the Buckthorn (Rhamnus.) This shrub can be tree like, reaching 25 feet in height. This is another of those plants that is easily confused. There is one called Common Buckthorn, another called Alder Leaved Buckthorn, one called European buckthorn, and still another called Lance Leaved Buckthorn. All are similar but I believe the plant in the picture is the European buckthorn because the leaf margins aren’t serrated. The small white flowers that grow in the leaf axils are followed by fruit that changes from green to red to purple and finally to black. This shrub is said to attract Brimstone butterflies. There are buckthorn hybrids that are grown as garden specimens. Forest plants can be invasive. This plant is very rare in this area-at least in my experience, since I’ve only seen it twice in my life. It is called rattlesnake weed (Hieracium venosum.) The common name comes by way of an old tale of how the plant likes to grow in areas populated by rattlesnakes. We do have timber rattlers here in New Hampshire, but none were in the area when I was taking pictures. This native plant is listed as endangered in Maine and I think it should probably have the same designation in New Hampshire, but here it is listed as “present.” It is related to both dandelion and yellow hawkweed (Hieracium pratense) and the flowers look nearly identical to those of yellow hawkweed.  My favorite parts of the plant are the reddish purple veined leaves.The flowers of rattlesnake weed (Hieracium venosum) close at night and on cloudy days and since it was nearly evening when I took this picture, these blossoms were closing.  This picture does show the notched petals that are so similar to those of yellow hawkweed.I don’t think I could count all the times I’ve told kids “That little flower smells just like pineapple,” only to have them say “No it doesn’t.” “Smell it,” I tell them and then watch as the big smile comes to their face when they do. “That’s why,” I tell them “it’s called pineapple weed.” Is there anyone, I wonder, who hasn’t squeezed and then smelled pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea)? Some think this flower looks and smells like chamomile with all the petals missing, and I’ve heard it makes a good tea. It is a native plant that was used extensively by Native Americans. For the last picture in this post I thought I’d leave you with a small sampling of what a New Hampshire meadow can look like. Every flower in it has already been in this blog though, so it’s time to find another meadow.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air ~George Bernanos

Thanks for stopping by.

Advertisements