I saw a hillside covered in lupines recently. They aren’t our native sundial lupines (Lupinus perennis) but they’re still very beautiful when massed like this.
At the bottom of the hill that the lupines were growing on many native blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) grew in a wet area. The lupines trickling down the hillside and the blue flags pooling at the bottom made a breathtakingly beautiful sight but unfortunately I couldn’t get in all in one photo.
Gosh these are beautiful flowers; another one of those flowers that I can just sit beside and lose myself in. The name flag is from the Middle English flagge, which means rush or reed and which I assume applies to the cattail like leaves. Though Native Americans used this plant medicinally its roots are considered dangerously toxic. Natives showed early settlers how to use small amounts of dried root safely as a cathartic and diuretic.
Each strap shaped, yellow “petal” on a yellow hawkweed flower head (Hieracium caespitosum) is actually a single, complete flower and each forms its own seed. The buds, stem, and leaves of the plant are all very hairy and the rosette of oval, overlapping leaves at the base of the stem often turn deep purple in winter. The Ancient Greeks believed that hawks drank the sap of this plant to keep their eyesight sharp and so they named it hierax, which means hawk. It is an introduced invasive and names like “yellow devil” and “devil’s paintbrush” show what ranchers think of it.
Native maple leaf viburnum blossoms (Viburnum acerifolium) had just about gone by before I remembered to look for them. Each flattish flower head is made up of many small, quarter inch, not very showy white flowers. If pollinated each flower will become a small deep purple berry (drupe) that birds love to eat. What I like most about this little shrub is how its leaves turn so many colors in fall. They can be pink, purple, red, yellow, and orange and combinations of two or three, and are really beautiful. The Native American Chippewa tribe used the inner bark of this plant to relieve stomach pains.
The puffy little yellow blossoms of bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) are a common sight along roadsides and waste areas. It is in the pea family and grows about a foot tall. It gets its common name from its clusters of brown, 1 inch long seed pods which someone thought looked like a bird’s foot. The plant has 3 leaflets much like clover and was introduced from Europe as livestock feed but has escaped and is now considered invasive in many areas. It can form large mats that choke out natives. It does very well among the ox eye daisies and lupines growing along the banks of the Ashuelot River.
I found a spot where more blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) grew than I’ve ever seen in one spot. They were growing in soil that was on the sandy side in full sun along the side of a road, and obviously were happy there. Wild turkeys love the seeds so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a flock of them here this fall.
I’ve already featured blue eyed grass once this spring but something this beautiful deserves a second showing. This little flower is in the iris family and is said to have the same features. All of the iris family is usually thought of as very poisonous but Native Americans had many medicinal uses for this plant.
Red clover (Trifolium pretense) always seems to glow as if it had its own inner light, and maybe it does. The rounded heads of tiny tubular flowers are beautiful things to see when you take the time to give them a closer look. Though it was brought to this country from Europe and is invasive, I can’t remember ever hearing anyone complain about it. It is a very old medicinal herb that has been used for centuries and now various published studies say that compounds found in the plant show some promise in fighting cancer. Just imagine all the healing power that might be in these plants that hardly get a second look.
Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) has beautiful small white (rarely pink) flowers that are about an inch across but unfortunately it is very invasive and forms prickly thickets that nobody I know would dare to try and get through. It is from Japan and Korea and grows to huge proportions, arching up over shrubs and sometimes growing 20-30 feet up into trees. A large plant bearing hundreds of blossoms is a truly beautiful thing but its thorny thickets prevent all but the smallest animals from getting where they want to go. Its sale is banned in New Hampshire but since each plant can easily produce half a million seeds I think it’s here to stay.
I always find wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) growing at the edges of corn fields at this time of year, not because it likes growing with corn but because it likes to grow in disturbed soil. Wild radish is in the mustard family and is sometimes confused with wild mustard (Brassica kaber,) but that plant doesn’t have hairy stems like wild radish. Everyone seems to agree that this is a non-native plant but nobody seems to know exactly where it came from or how it got here. The flowers can be pale yellow, pink, or white and honey bees seem to love them no matter what color they are.
I am always reminded each spring that one of the great delights of wandering in the New Hampshire woods is the amazing fragrance of wild grape flowers that wafts on the breeze. Their perfume can be detected from quite a distance so I usually let my nose lead me to them.
I’m always surprised that such a big scent comes from such tiny flowers, each no bigger than the head of a match. Each will become a grape when pollinated. We have a few varieties of wild grape here in New Hampshire including fox grapes (Vitis fruitlabrusca), and frost or river grapes (Vitis riparia.) The fruit is an important food source for everything from birds to bears.
Smooth arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) has yellowish white, mounded flower clusters and is blooming along stream banks and drainage ditches right now. Red twig dogwoods are also beginning to bloom, but they have four petals and the viburnums have five. Dogwood flower clusters also tend to be much flatter on top and seem to hover just above the branch. Smooth arrowwood viburnum has a much more rounded flowering habit. Later on the flowers will become dark blue drupes that birds love. It is said that this plant’s common name comes from Native Americans using the straight stems for arrow shafts. They also used the shrub medicinally and its fruit for food.
Star chickweed (Stellaria pubera) has 5 white petals so deeply notched they look like 10. At one half inch across they are bigger and showier than other chickweeds, but still quite small. Even so, other common names include giant chickweed and great chickweed. It is an introduced plant, most likely brought from Europe where it has been used medicinally since ancient times. Legend says that if its blossoms are open there will be at least 4 more hours without rain. If the blossoms close, rain is coming. I’m hoping to see open chickweed blossoms this morning.
Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. ~ Lydia M. Child
Thanks for stopping in.
It always surprises me to see the differences between the wild flowers you find and the ones that grow here. There are so many we don’t have at all but then, like the clover and chickweed, so many we share. I’m sure you’d love wandering the meadows and riversides here to see the differences and similarities yourself.
I think all of the ones that you recognize were probably brought over by the first English settlers and the ones you don’t are native.It would be interesting to wander around with someone from England who could identify all the foreign plants.
Yes, I’d love to wander the English countryside too!
In Ohio it’s amazing how many plants we discover and like, turn out to be non-native or invasive.
Yes, it’s the same way all over. They’ve been here for so long we think of them as natives.
I love all your newsletters. I am curious though. How would one get rid of the multiflora rose if it was growing over a large part of one’s acreage? At least this is what I think it is. Has little very sharp thorns, more like a shrub type of thing. Dies down in the winter.
Thanks very much. Unfortunately getting rid of multiflora rose is difficult but it can be done. I cut all the branches off, leaving about 6 inches at the stump and then dig the stump out with a good sharp spade. You can also cut all the branches off and then, using a small paintbrush, brush each cut with an herbicide like Roundup. You might have to do this 2 or 3 times with a strong plant like multiflora rose.
Before I forget to mention it (again), your photos are getting better all the time.
I’ve never seen so many blue eyed grass flowers in one place either, I’d read that it doesn’t grow in many places, so that spot must be very special.
It’s that great time of the year when there are flowers everywhere you look, and their scent fills the air, and you show that very well!
Thanks Jerry!
I couldn’t believe it yesterday when I went by the spot where all the blue eyed grass grew and found that they had all been mowed! I’m not sure what would motivate someone to do that, but it’s not my land.
That’s true, flowers are everywhere right now and it’s hard to keep up with them!
Great to see your flowers! Again in this post I see several which which I’m familiar, and your photo and identification of the Viburnum dentate helped me to identify a plant that I encountered today, a relative of the one in your photo.
Thanks Montucky! I’m glad I could help with the viburnum identification. That’s a huge family with about 175 species so identifying them can be difficult.
Like Susan I am pleased to find that lovely red clover may have cancer-fighting properties. When my husband was a boy he lived in a small town with fields all round, During the summer he ranged about all day with a gang of other small boys and had to find their own sustenance. They used to suck the nectar out of red clover which grew everywhere.
The lupines, iris and blue-eyed grass are lovely and must have been a glorious sight en masse. A few of your other featured flowers are familiar to me and I’m seeing them here at the moment – Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Hawkweed, Red Clover and Wild Radish.
I remember doing that with red clover too. It’s probably a common thing among boys world wide.
The lupines and iris were beautiful. I wish I could have gotten a shot of them all together but it was a very big area.
I’m not surprised that you recognize those flowers because they were all brought here from there, hundreds of years ago.
I recently read a book called ‘Weeds – the story of outlaw plants’ by Richard Mabey one of my favourite naturalist authors. He talks a lot about the weeds European settlers brought with them across the Atlantic. Some of them unwittingly on their clothes and shoes, in their animals hooves and in the seed corn they brought to plant when they arrived. He lists all the plants that had already become established by the early 17th century and then talks about the European grasses that took over and inundated the North American native grasses. It makes interesting and really quite horrifying reading at times.
That’s a book I’m definitely going to add to my list. I love books like that. Thanks for the tip!
My pleasure!
Very.Lovely.Photos! And yes, there is definitely healing power in plants!
Thank very much Paula. And we still have so much to learn from them!
The hillside of lupines is a real treat.
It was great to see!
Beautiful flowers and tough ones to survive your winters. I’ve always wondered how flag irises were named. Amelia
Yes, plants have to be quite tough here. We lost quite a few last winter, especially birch trees which were bent down under the snow load.
Enjoyed. It’s so nice to be introduced to plants I’ve never seen.
That’s another thing that’s so great about blogging, in my opinion. I’ve seen things I never knew existed.
It’s more fun than learning just from books!
I agree!
I love the masses of lupines. I went up to the Lupine Festival a few years ago. Amazing how many fields are just covered in them. I have quite a few of the iris growing by my back pond. I like that as they spread, they choke out less desired plants. I never realized the multiflora rose is considered invasive. I guess it is a good thing the cutting I took one year never grew.
Fields of lupines would be a sight, I have no doubt about that.
Your iris might just take over. They multiply quickly, although a few plants I found last year at a local pond seem to have disappeared. I wonder if someone dug them up.
Yes, multiflora rose is banned and for good reason. It also chokes out many other shrubs.
The field of lupines and the blue flag iris must have been stunning to see.
They were! I just wish I could have gotten it all in a photo.
How interesting about the possible use of red clover as a help towards curing cancer. These days researchers seem to be turning more to natural compounds rather than man made ones.
I’ve noticed the same thing. There’s really no telling what they might find with so many different plants out there.