Our native white water lilies (Nymphaea odorata) have just started blooming here. The flowers are quite small and at first I thought I might be seeing a smaller variety like floating hearts which are also white, but the sharp V shaped notch in the leaf confirms that they are white lilies. I might have been able to tell by their fragrance too, but I couldn’t get quite close enough to smell them.
I like the webbing on insides of beauty bush flowers (Kolkwitzia amabilis.) This shrub hails from China and is popular as an ornamental, but I found an escapee growing at the edge of a forest in dry, sandy soil. It gets quite tall-sometimes 8 feet or more-and can get as wide, so it needs a lot of room.
Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria) flowers are smaller than their cousins maiden pinks (Dianthus deltoids.) They also don’t have the same bold, jagged, deep maroon ring near their center. These plants will get quite tall and don’t seem to have the clumping habit of maiden pinks. Both plants are originally from Europe and have escaped cultivation.
St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) gets its common name from the way that it flowers near June 24th, which is St. Johns day, but it has been well known since ancient times. The Roman military doctor Proscurides used it to treat patients as early as the 1st century AD, and it was used by the ancient Greeks before that. The black dots on its yellow petals make this flower very easy to identify. Originally from Europe, it can be found in meadows and along roadside growing in full sun.
Our native dogwoods are blooming now. This example is a gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa), which is a large shrub that can get 12-15 feet tall and at least as wide. Its flowers become white, single seeded berries (drupes) on red stems (pedicels) that are much loved by many different birds. Most of our native dogwoods like soil that is constantly moist and can be found along the edges of ponds, rivers, and streams. They can be difficult to identify at times but gray dogwood flowers clusters tend to mound up in the center enough to appear triangular and other dogwoods have flower clusters that are much flatter. Both gray and red osier dogwoods (Cornus sericea) have white berries. Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum) has berries that are blue and white.
Many years ago a friend gave me a piece of her Japanese iris. I don’t know its name but it’s a beautiful thing. And it also has very big flowers; they must be 2 or 3 times as big as a bearded iris blossom.
I found some mallow (Malvaceae) plants growing in an abandoned lot near the river but I think they were escapees from someone’s garden. The flowers look a lot like those of vervain mallow (Malva alcea), which is a European import. Like all plants in the mallow family its flowers were large and beautiful. Other well-known plants in this family include hibiscus, hollyhocks, and rose of Sharon.
I’m late posting this photo of Indian cucumber root (Medeola virginiana) flowers; they actually start blooming in mid-June through the first week of July. I wanted to show them because they are unusual and, because they usually nod under the leaves, many never see them. The flowers have 6 yellowish green tepals, 6 stamens and 3 reddish purple to brown stigmata. These large stigmata are sometimes bright red but I didn’t see any like that this year. I kept searching for bright red ones to show here and that’s why the photo is late. The plant gets its common name from the way the root looks (and tastes) like a tiny cucumber.
Our native rhododendrons (Rhododendron maxima) are blooming but the blooms are very sparse this year. I think it is probably because they out did themselves last year. They were loaded with flowers and plants often need a rest after a season like that. New Hampshire is the northernmost range of these rhododendrons and people from all over the world come to see them growing in their natural setting in Rhododendron State Park in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. I did a post about the park last year which you can read by clicking here.
Do you see the tiny crab spider with the pink body and white legs in the center of this photo? It’s remarkable how they change to the same color as the flowers that they live on. Scientists haven’t been able to figure out how they do it.
I didn’t see any crab spiders on these bristly sarsaparilla (Aralia hispida) blossoms but I saw plenty of black ants. Bristly sarsaparilla isn’t common but I know of two places where it grows in dry, sandy soil. Its stems are covered in short, sharp, bristly hairs and that’s where its common name comes from. Technically it is considered a shrub because the lower part of its stem is woody and persists throughout winter. Each small flower will become a round black berry if the ants do their job. The USDA lists this native plant as endangered in Indiana, Ohio and Maryland.
Tall milkweed (Asclepias exaltata) is also called poke milkweed because its leaves resemble those of pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). In spite of its common name the plants that I’ve seen have never been as tall as common milkweed. Its bi-colored, white and light green flowers are very droopy. Unless it is flowering it’s hard to tell it from swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata.) One unusual thing about it is how it seems to prefer growing in shade at the edge of forests. It is said to be the most shade tolerant of all milkweeds.
I’m colorblind but even I could tell that these campion flowers weren’t white like those commonly seen in this area. They had just the slightest blush of pink, but I still think that they are white campion (Silene latifolia,) which can also be pink. Just to confuse the issue red campion (Silene dioica) flowers can also be pink or white and it takes a botanist to tell them apart. Both are natives of Europe, Asia and Africa.
White meadowsweet (Spiraea alba) is another plant that likes moist ground and I usually find it near water. Its flowers have long stamens that always make them look kind of fuzzy. Some people confuse this plant, which is a shrub, with steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa), which is also a shrub, but steeplebush has pink flowers and the undersides of its leaves are silvery-white, while the undersides of meadowsweet leaves are green.
Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) is also called swamp vervain because it likes water, and I find it either in wet meadows or along river and pond banks. It is also called simpler’s joy and I don’t know if I’m simple or not but these flowers always bring me great joy when I see them. That’s probably because blue is my favorite color.
Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. ~Franz Kafka
Thanks for coming by.
Interesting as ever. I’m amazed you manage to identify and name all the plants you find. I’m often stumped or can’t remember the names. I love reading your blogs and always learn something new every time which is why I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger award http://wp.me/p2A2EH-5TW. Hope you don’t mind 🙂
Thanks! That’s why I only do two posts each week. It can sometimes take weeks or months to identify a plant correctly. I have several that I’ve been working on for quite a while.
Thanks also for the nomination but I decided a long time ago not to do awards. Not because I disagree with them but because they take up a lot of time that I don’t have. I tried to do the first one someone gave me and after 3 weeks I had to give it up. I appreciate you thinking of me though.
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Our gray dogwoods have bloomed already and it looks like they will have lots of berries for the birds come fall. I thought the Kolkwitzia flowers were rather like Penstemon.
We’re going to have a good berry year too. I didn’t think of penstemon when I found the beauty bush but you’re right.
Beautiful and delicate – enjoyed this series of flowers.
Thank you Mary, I’m glad that you did.
All the photos are great, but the photo of the meadowsweet with the dark clouds behind it is awesome! The crab spider is pretty cool as well. I’ve seen them, but never knew what they were or that they changed colors.
I spent a little time looking for slime molds and other small things today, I did find one black jelly mold, I think, but my photos didn’t come out very well. Do you carry a magnifying glass with you to see such small life forms? I tried using my camera to zoom in on what I thought may have been slime molds, but I figured that there had to be a better way, and if there was, that you’d know it.
Thanks Jerry! Those clouds are actually a reflection. I often do that with plants that grow near water to help them stand out better in a photo.
The first thing I do when I think I see a slime mold is take a couple of macro photos of it so I can zoom in on it on the camera’s LCD screen. I don’t try to get shots that are blog worthy-just a couple of quick shots that I can make bigger. If it is a slime mold then I do the whole set up with tripod, LED lights, etc. Personally, I can see them better on the camera’s screen than I can with a magnifying glass, but it might help you.
Never thought of that, I’ll try it next time.
Love the Deptford pink and Japanese Iris! Nice pictures, looks like your weather has warmed up considerably 🙂
Thanks Michael. Yes, it feels more like the Carolinas than New Hampshire right now!
I was just admiring the wild, riot of color in my garden when I came inside to read your post. Beauty is everywhere and so “in your face” this time of year. Your Iris is impressive and I love the shot of the tiny crab spider!
Thanks Martha. Yes, this time of year is all about abundance, it seems. Everything wants its place in the sun. Those crab spiders are tricky and blend in well. Quite often you don’t see them until you look at the photo.
My, you still have some very pretty species in bloom there! Great photos!
Thanks Montucky! Yes, this is the time of year when everything seems to bloom at once. Soon the meadows will be full of the later varieties.
I smiled when I saw my Meadowsweet blooming yesterday; figured it would show up on your blog soon! I’m very protective of this small shrub growing beside the clothesline; it’s been there since we moved here in 1957, I’m quite sure, and I like to think it’s a survivor of the days when this was farmland, well over a hundred years ago. There’s a patch of Partridgeberry on the lawn, too, and it had a blossom a few days ago!
It’s nice to know that meadowsweet lasts so long. It’s almost as old as I am if it has been there since 1957! I love visiting old farmhouses to see what they grew in those days. Quite often it was flowering plants that they dug in the woods. I’d bet the partridgeberry has moved in on its own though. If it’s flowering you should have berries, and that means that you might see some turkeys. They seem to love those berries.
such beautiful, beautiful flowers, and your photos of them. Makes a person experience wonder and awe. what did humans do to deserve to live among such beauty? and how can we make the world more beautiful for more people? See, that’s what your flowers did for me.
Thank you Cynthia. I hope that flowers do that for more people too. I guess we should plant more of them!
The Japanese iris is gorgeous.
I agree. I think it’s one of the showiest irises.
Love any type of mallow and the vervain brings me back! I often speak of our summer house in So. Dartmouth MA. It was located on a strip of land between the ocean and a bunch of salt marshes and we had something growing in the pond in front of our house that looked alot like the blue plant in your photo. do you know if it is salt tolerant?
Yes, blue vervain is listed as highly salt tolerant, which is something I didn’t know. It must have been beautiful growing near your pond. It likes being near water.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
The sweet abandon of Summertime.
Yes. It’s nice when there are flowers everywhere you look.
I’ve not seen any St Johnswort yet this year, which is odd – it’s usually blooming all over the place. To make up for it, I have a bristly saraparilla growing in the weed patch (mostly blackberries) behind the canoe rack. It has been there for at least six years and is still doing fine. Some years it’s more difficult to find than others.
There seem to be several “regulars’ that I’m not seeing this year. Chicory was one of those but I finally found a lone plant the other day. I’m seeing a lot of St’ Johnswort in this area.
Bristly sarsaparilla is an interesting plant. I’ve never seen a bee on it.
I haven’t seen any daisy fleabane yet this year either.
To be honest I haven’t been looking for it. I think I’ve been too focused on swamp milkweed, arrowheads, Allegheny monkey flower and all of the rest I can’t seem to find this year.
I always read your post from start to finish, then go back and look at the pictures again to try and pick a favorite. At first I thought the St. John’s Wort was my favorite, then I saw the mallow, then the campion. Great post full of beautiful favorites!
Thanks Laura. I think choosing one favorite flower would be impossible for me. They’re all beautiful in their own way.
I, too like blue flowers best. You have found some beautiful flowers to photograph and your post is very informative as always.
Thank you Clare. Blue flowers aren’t really that common so I always get excited when I see one.
Loved the quote and all those beautiful pictures, I think the lily at the top of the post was my favourite.
Thank you Susan. I like those water lilies too.