Here are a few more of the flowers I’ve seen recently.
Last year I saw two native blue flag iris (Iris versicolor ) on the far side of a local pond. This year they are on all sides of the pond, so they spread fast. If you happen to be a forager and like making flour from cattail roots you want to be sure that you don’t get any iris roots mixed in, because they are very toxic.
These bunchberry plants (Cornus canadensis) like growing on the side of this oak tree. These plants are often seen growing on or near rotting logs, so a lot of their nutrients must come from there. If bunchberry flowers remind you of dogwood blossoms, that’s because both dogwoods and bunchberry are in the same family. (Cornaceae) Just like with dogwoods blossoms the white parts of the bunchberry blossom are bracts, not petals.
The actual bunchberry flowers are the small bits in the center of the white bracts. The flowers will become “bunches” of bright red berries later on. The berries are loaded with pectin and Native Americans used them both medicinally and as food. The Cree tribe called bunchberry “itchy chin berry” because they can make you itch when rubbed against the skin.
Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) grows in all but two of the lower 48 states in the country. People in Oregon and Washington won’t get to see and smell its beautiful blooms but the rest of us will. This tree gets its common name from the sweet pulp found on the inside of its long, ripe seed pods. This tree has some very sharp thorns and is also called thorny locust.
Last summer I found a shrub that looked like an azalea, so this year I went back and found that, sure enough, the shrub was our native pink azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides .) In my experience this shrub is very rare-I’ve only seen two of them in my lifetime, and this is one of those. I’ve since discovered that it is listed as endangered in New Hampshire .The flowers had mostly all gone by before I re-visited it, so next year I’ll have to visit it a little earlier. It’s a beautiful thing rarely seen, so it is well worth the effort.
Other plants that I found last year were some columbines (Aquilegia) growing along a roadside. It was well past their bloom time so I made a note to revisit them this spring. Unfortunately a road crew had come along and scraped up all but two plants. I visited those that were left several times this spring until they finally bloomed. Again unfortunately, instead of being our native red flowered Aquilegia they were a pinkish / purple garden escapee. I’ve included their photo here only because it took 7 months and a good dose of patience to get it.
Native blue lupines (Lupinus Perennis) are blooming along the Ashuelot River in Swanzey, New Hampshire, along with yellow bird’s foot trefoil. The town has decided that this area will be a park, so the lupines and many other wildflowers that grow here will most likely be destroyed. How ironic that blue lupines are listed as a threatened species in New Hampshire.
Maiden pinks (Dianthus deltoids) get their common name from the way the petals look like they were edged with pinking shears. This European native has escaped gardens and can be found in lawns and meadows in many states in the U.S. Oddly enough, it is listed as a nationally scarce species in England. I think we could send them boatloads, just from the stock we have here in New Hampshire. A very similar plant is the Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) but its flowers have much narrower petals.
There are several species of Blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium) that grow from coast to coast in the U.S. Though its common name says that it is a grass the plant is actually in the iris family. The flowers have 3 petals and 3 sepals and all are the same color blue. Blue eyed grass is an old favorite of mine.
Ox eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) bloomed early this year. If ever there was a flower that said it was June this is it, but I found a few blooming in May. This is another European native that escaped gardens and is now found in meadows in every state in the U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii. A vigorous plant can produce up to 26,000 seeds. In tests 82% of those seeds remain viable even after being buried for 6 years, so don’t look for this one on the endangered list any time soon.
Heal all (Prunella vulgaris) has just started blooming this week here. Its tiny purple flowers are always a welcome sight. Nobody seems to agree on where this plant originated because it is recorded in the histories of several countries before the history of travel was recorded. Maybe everyone should agree that it is a plant known since ancient times and leave it at that. It was once thought to be a holy herb sent by God to cure man’s ills. The name heal all comes from the way that It has been used medicinally on nearly every continent on earth to cure virtually any ailment one can name.
Yellow hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum) flowers can rise to a height of up to 3 feet on wiry, leafless stems. The leaves are in a cluster at the base of the long stem and this makes photographing the plants in their entirety very tricky, unless you are an expert in depth of field. I’m not, so you get to see the flowers and not the leaves. This plant hails from Europe and is considered a noxious weed in many states. The common name of hawk weed came about because Pliny the elder wrote that hawks ate the plants to improve their vision. I wonder if Pliny himself had vision problems.
Orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) doesn’t get quite as tall as yellow, but getting the entire plant in one photo is still a challenge. This plant is another that was introduced from Europe and is now considered a noxious weed. I like it for its color because orange isn’t seen that often in nature. One common name of orange hawkweed is Devil’s paintbrush. When I was a boy everyone called it Indian paintbrush even though true Indian paintbrush (Castilleja) is an entirely different plant.
None can have a healthy love for flowers unless he loves the wild ones. ~Forbes Watson
Thanks for stopping in.
There are a lot of pink azaleas growing in the Ashuelot headwaters area, up in Lempster.
Thank you John. It’s funny you should mention that; I was just thinking the other day that when I retire that would be one of the places I’d go. It won’t be much longer!
Let me know if you want directions to find them.
Thank you John, I will. I might even get there before retirement. I’ve always wanted to see where the Ashuelot started.
The Ashuelot Headwaters Forest is at this GPS link. There’s a trail off Mountain Rd. (43.2173196, -72.1355606)
Thanks, I can’t wait to see it!
Hello, Allen. I don’t know if you’ll see my reply to this old post, but I wanted to let you know that I was thrilled to come across several blooming wild native azalea (a hot pink and a pale pink) on May 19, 2018. I can privately tell you where to find them for future reference, but they are about an hour from Keene.
Thank you Pat. I was just looking at one yesterday. Heavily budded but no blossoms.
Since I could only go on a weekend your would probably be finished by the time I got there but you can reach me through the “contact me” page and then I can send you an email.
Lovely post, Allen. I have been seeing native blue flag iris, and yellow (non-native). Such beautiful colors. And your bunchberry, very nice. Great find on the pink azalea, USDA shows it doesn’t grow here in Michigan.
Your picture of the lupine along the river is pretty, Blue eyed grass I haven’t seen this year.
The only flower we call by its Latin name is Prunella vulgaris, is definitely a favorite. Thanks for posting. 🙂
Thanks Chris. I haven’t seen any yellow pond iris around here in quite a while. That’s odd the you use the Latin name for heal all. I wonder why that is?
For a change, I recognize most of these. I can’t quite figure out the distribution of the honey locust here in Montana. I have never seen it. It seems to grow in only one of the 56 counties in the state and that one is in the south central region about 400 miles from here. Very pretty blossoms though!
That’s interesting that honey locust only grows in one of your counties. I wonder if it is just beginning to take hold in Montanna or if it is disappearing. It is a very pretty tree with many hanging blossoms that kind of resemble wisteria blossoms.
Road crews mowing often lop off a plant I have been watching causing me to miss out on its blooming. However I bet they redistribute many plants. The dead end road I walk by the farm has the regular plants I look forward to seeing. Then again I get surprised by new ones. Perhaps old viable seed or redistributed by the mowing crews? Great post and a few new plants for me to look for with your quality pics. Thanks
Thanks Grampy. That;s a good point-disturbing any soil will bring buried seeds to the surface where they can grow, just as any farmer knows. When the road crews plow up plants they probably are just redistributing them-wildflowers are so tough that I doubt they’d be killed. The plowed up columbines are probably now growing a little further down the road. I’ll have to take a look.
Those azalea remind me of my little rhododendron, probably because most of my shots of that are of flowers almost over. The honey locust are very sweet pea like flowers, wish we had them here. My garden is full of aquilegia right now, just like yours, originally there were purple ones and pale pink but now they are all shades between the two, I wonder if your red ones have mixed with some garden ones and these are the result? Much as I like the parks and gardens it does seem a shame that the powers that be decide to take something wild and beautiful and turn it into a park with non native flowers though.
You have a good eye for flowwers-honey locust is in the pea family and its flowers do have the pea look. Next year the flower shots of the azalea will be better now that I know when it blooms-it surprised me by blooming so early. We have native rhododendrons that don’t bloom until July, so I was caught assumning again. I’m sure the aquilegia have cross bred to the point that the one in the photo is the color most prevalent, but that isn’t a true, wild aquilegia color. If the wild red ones sre being replaced by something else, that would be too bad. There is a trashy old building near the place where the park will be and they want to tear it down before someone gets hurt, so their kind of logic says that while they are there with the equipment anyway, they might as well make a park too. That few will ever visit.
Your wildflower photos are absolutely amazing. They are certainly good technically, there real strength is that they are fun to look at, imagining yourself standing there to looking at them…Well done.
Thank you Charlie. I really do love them, so maybe that comes through in the photos.
I never knew blue-eyed grass was in the iris family, nor did I know that it has three petals & three sepals. It sure looks like six petals!
The grayish, sword shaped leaves on blue eyed grass kind of resemble those of iris. You have to look closely at the photo to see that 3 of the petals (or sepals) are slightly narrower than the other three. Other than that, I think they are identical.
I love hearing about all the flowers that you find nearby. I wonder why your lovely pink azalea is not thriving as a species. Seeing only two over time makes them very thin on the ground.
Yes, native azaleas are rare here. It could be because they need very moist, acid soil. The area where I found this one often floods in winter so that sometimes the plant’s roots are under water for as long as a month or two. People have dug up a lot of them over the years too, trying to get them to grow in their yards. The chances of that happening are very slim unless conditions are perfect.
A visually rich and very informative post, as usual! I’m jealous of your shot of the blue flag iris. I have such a hard time photographing Irises for some reason (it has to do with the way I approach flowers, in general, I think, and it doesn’t work for Irises). Your shot is really lovely! Interesting thought, too, about Pliny. There is an article, I believe, about the “curious eye” of Pliny the Elder.
Thanks Melanie. I actually took a few shots of that iris from above looking directly down on it but I rejected them and went back for a side view. Somehow side views look more iris-ey to me. Interesting about Pliny the Elder and his curious eye-I’ll have to read up on that!
I’ve been saving a few flower photos to put into a post of just flowers, but I have been waiting to get enough to do so, and for you to identify them for me in one of your posts, which you have just done superbly! 😉
Glad I could help Jerry! I’m looking forward to seeing what you found.
What a beautiful selection of flowers growing in the wild. I am always intrigued by bunchberry and you got some great details of it. I have tried so hard to get a small plot of cornus canadensis growing in my garden and it just won’t take. But in Maine, and in your shots, it grows happily and prolifically in the wild. It wants shade, really acid conditions and rotting wood as you note (I’ve even buried twigs in the soil to rot around them), but it apparently doesn’t want to grow where I plant them! Thanks for letting me see these lovelies here.
Thanks Laurie. I’ve never tried growing bunchberry but I’ve heard and read about a lot of people that have gone through the same things you have. Some wildflowers just will not grow unless all of the planets align and everything is in place. There are nurseries that sell bunchberry, but that isn’t a guarantee that they’ll grow in your yard. If you ever figure it out I hope you’ll let the rest of us in on the secret!
These are wonderful flower photos! Blue lupine is declining everywhere it seems, probably due to the very conversion of land you mentioned, from wild to park. Too bad! Very interesting information on a great diversity of species.
Thanks Sue. To make matter worse, the endangered Karner blue butterfly is the state butterfly of New Hampshire and it can’t survive without wild blue lupines. It really doesn’t make sense to destroy the lupines along the river to put in a park that few (if any) will probably use.
As usual a very enjoyable post with some great pictures, thanks. I was wondering about your photo of honey locust flowers, for when you mentioned the smell and thorns if it might be a black locust Robinia pseudoacacia for that is what I see mostly growing in the wild here in NH. A native of the midwest, that was grown in the east for it’s lumber properties and has now become part of our natural ecosystem and like growing in moist conditions, like along river beds.
Again thanks for your post Jon
I wondered that myself Jon but from what I’ve read on USDA websites, black locust don’t grow this far north, at least-not naturally. The real proof will be in the seed pods-honey locust seed pods are quite long and curled and black locust seed pods are much shorter. We also have some real old honey locust trees near the area wher I found these saplings that I photograped, so I’m thinking they might be seedlings from those trees. I’ll have to go back and take a closer look at those thorns, and then at the seed pods.
Love what we can find in NH when we poke around 🙂 I have some weeds coming up in the yard I must find out what they are 😦
That’s true-you never know what yu’ll find. I hope you’ll take some pictures of your weeds!
I may need to so I can get some HELP lol
A bit of trivia for you Allan: heal all is called self heal in the UK and bird’s foot trefoil has the local (unofficial) name of egg & bacon because the young flowers often have a red tinge that makes large patches look bi-coloured.
This was a particularly colourful post; you brightened up my Saturday morning.
Thanks for the trivia Jim. I always enjoy hearing about plant lore and how various plant names might have originated. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
I love the virtual rainbow of colors in your posting today. It’s fascinating to read how many of the plant varieties that I associate with gardens have a native variety (that appear to be hard to find). Your photos are amazing too, considering how small and close to the ground so many of these flowers are.
Thanks Mike. Yes, there was a lot of lying on the ground going on here! I’m glad you agree that seeing the wild cousins of many of our garden flowers is really interesting.