Many plants that can take a lot of shade have large, light gathering leaves and the shade tolerant purple flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) shows that very well. This plant is in the rose family and the 2 inch wide flowers might look like a rose at a glance. It has no thorns like roses or raspberries but Japanese beetles love it as much as roses, as you can see by how they’ve eaten parts of the maple shaped leaves. They’ve even eaten holes in the flower petals as well. The fruit looks like a large raspberry but is on the tart, dry side. Native Americans had over 100 uses for this plant, both as food and medicine.
Flowering raspberry once got me a job as a gardener, so it holds a special place in my heart. A man called me to his house and asked me a few plant related questions and finally said that if I could tell him what the plants in his hedge were, he’d hire me. I told him they were flowering raspberry and he hired me right there on the spot, and I worked for him for many years afterwards. That was back when I could remember the names of most plants. This native shrub makes a great landscape specimen, especially in shade gardens, and it’s too bad that more people don’t use it. It attracts both birds and butterflies and can take anything that a New England winter can throw at it.
Humble little narrow-leaf cow wheat seems like a shy little thing but it is actually a thief that steals nutrients from surrounding plants. A plant that can photosynthesize and create its own food but is still a parasite on surrounding plants is known as a hemiparasite. Its long white, tubular flowers tipped with yellow-green are very small, and usually form in pairs where the leaves meet the stem (axils). I find this plant growing in old, undisturbed forests.
While we’re on the subject of small flowers, I can’t think of many that are smaller than those of enchanter’s nightshade (Circaea lutetiana canadensis.) This woodland plant is a shade lover and I notice it along trails only when it blooms in late July. It gets its scientific name Circaea from Circe, an enchantress in Homer’s Odyssey with a fondness for turning men into swine. There are similar plants native to Europe and Asia.
Each tiny flower has 2 deeply lobed white petals, 2 green sepals, 2 stamens, and a slender style. They can be very hard to get a useable photo of, both because of their small size and because they grow in heavy shade. They’ve taught me a few things about flower photography over the years.
Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria) flowers are smaller than their cousins maiden pinks (Dianthus deltoids) and bloom at least a month later. They don’t have the same bold, jagged, deep maroon ring near their center, and that’s a good means of identification. 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. Maiden pinks seem to prefer open lawns and meadows while Deptford pinks hide shyly just at the sunny edges of the forest.
We have many different native lobelias here and I think this one might be pale spike lobelia (Lobelia spicata,) which gets its common name from its pale blue to almost white flowers. Every now and then you can find a plant with deeper blue flowers, as I was lucky enough to do on this day. There is also a purple variant but I’ve never seen it. Native Americans had many medicinal uses for lobelia and one of them was as a treatment for asthma. The plant must have worked well because early explorers took it back across the Atlantic where it is still used medicinally today. It has to be used with great care by those who know how to use it though, because an overdose of this little beauty can kill.
Each small, 1/4 inch flower of Lobelia spicata has an upper lip that is divided into 2 lobes and a larger lower lip that is divided into 3 lobes. A dark blue stigma sits between the upper 2 lobes. The petals are fused and form a tube. This plant reminds me of blue toadflax, which is also blossoming now.
A tip from a friend about a field I had never visited led me to this narrow leaved speedwell (Veronica scutellata); a plant that I’ve never seen before. It is also called marsh speedwell and that makes perfect sense because it grew in standing water in full sun at the edge of a field. Though most speedwells we see here are non-native, this one belongs here. Like lobelia, Native Americans used plants in the veronica family to treat asthma.
Small blue flowers with darker blue stripes are typical of speedwells, but these can also be white or purple. They are very small and only have room for two stamens and a needle-like pistil. The plants obviously love water because there were many plants growing in this very wet area. If you were looking for a native plant for the shallow edges of a water garden it might be a good choice.
Creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) has pretty flowers that all grow on one side of the stem, which almost always leans in the direction the flowers grow in. This plant is originally from Europe and Siberia and is considered an aggressive invasive weed. It shouldn’t be allowed to spread because it chokes out natives and once it forms colonies it can be nearly impossible to eradicate. Just a small piece of root left behind will become a new plant. I usually find it on forest edges.
Each year at this time soft pink ribbons about a foot or two wide line the edges of our roads, made up of thousands of rabbit’s foot clover (Trifolium arvense) plants. These plants are annuals which, judging by how many plants grow and blossom each year, must produce a fair amount of seed. This plant was introduced from Europe and Asia but nobody seems to know when, how or why.
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) has unusual spherical flower heads that are about the same size as a ping pong ball. It is made up of tiny cream colored, tube shaped flowers. Each flower has four short stamens and a long white style that makes the whole thing look like a pin cushion. Once the flowers go by a red seed head will form, which will turn brown as the seeds ripen. Waterfowl of all kinds love the seeds which, since buttonbush grows near water, are easy for them to get to.
Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) is one of our native wintergreens that grows in large colonies and is easy to find because of its shiny green leaves that shine winter and summer and last up to 4 years. Like other wintergreens it likes dry, sandy, undisturbed soil in pine forests. Pipsissewa was once used as a flavoring in candy and soft drinks, including root beer.
The plant forms a symbiotic relationship with the mycelium of certain fungi in the soil and is partially parasitic on them through a process called myco-heterotrophy. This means that, even though they photosynthesize, they supplement their diet with nutrients taken from fungi. That explains why they will only grow in certain places, much like native orchids.
Pipsissewa flowers often show a blush of pink. Five petals and ten chubby anthers surrounding a plump center pistil make it prettier than most of the wintergreens in my opinion.
The goldenrods have started blooming and when they grow alongside purple loosestrife they make our roadsides breathtakingly beautiful for a time. Soon we will be at the peak of summer bloom and the unmown meadows will look like Monet painted them.
It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched. ~George Gissing
Thanks for stopping in.
The speedwells are common here, in fact I often have to pick them out of my lawn or my flower beds. Funny they should be so rare there. Being able to remember the names of plants is useful but I find they often escape me as I get older. Perhaps I’ve gathered too many of them and there is only so much room in my brain.
Sppedwells are everywhere here too but they’re the foreign invasive annual ones. This one is a native perennial and grows in water, and I’ve never seen it before now.
I forget plant names too. All the time!
always fantastic and what a year for the bunny tails! never knew they were a legume but this year they are everywhere. maybe when you know or learn what you are looking at -other things are seen! love your work! chris
Thank you Chris. Yes, they are a clover but it’s hard to tell unless you look at the tiny white flowers under magnification.
I know all but one of these flowers by sight, but I had to look each one up in a book to learn about it at one time or another. It’s true that once I see a plant and get down on my knees to get photos it often leads me to other discoveries. In fact it happens all the time.
All such beautiful flowers but the Rubus odoratus sounds such a good plant to take into the garden. It has not taken on in Europe it seems and is only available in specialised nurseries in the U.K. Amelia
That’s too bad. It’s a very easy plant to grow but Japanese beetles can be a problem in certain areas.
Another beautiful collection…..
Thanks Scott!
The Pipsissewa hit me between the eyes with is clarity. I need you to come over here and take me out for a few walks.
I’d like nothing more than being able to walk the Scottish countryside that I’ve seen in your photos with you but I think you’d probably find as I have that it’s the Panasonic Lumix that produces the clarity, rather than anything I do. I sure wish that they still sold them.
I was keen to look at one.
As always some great information. Love the Pipsissewa flower!
Thanks! The pipsissewa flowers are hard to get a good shot of because they nod and face the ground, but it’s worth the effort.
It was a treat to walk along behind you. Our heat is too much to be out in unless it’s necessary.
Thanks! I’m sorry that you have to put up with that. We’ve had some heat but it’s been a relatively mild summer.
It does get old. The humidity makes it tough. Our heat index reached 103 degrees. Ugh!
I hope you have air conditioning!
Oh we do! It’s hard to even go outside with such high humidity and heat.
I think I’d stay indoors too. I can’t take that kind of heat for very long.
I often notice how well your non-native plants do compared with how badly they fare here. The Maiden and Deptford Pinks are a case in point as I believe we discussed a few months ago. I hardly ever see Purple Loosestrife and what we call Hare’s-foot clover. I am sure it has a lot to do with intensive farming especially in the 60’s to 80’s. By the time people became aware of the harm being done it was much too late for many species of plant and insect. I think the US still has such a lot of untouched country that is home to so many wonderful plants, insects and other creatures. I hope that what has and is still happening here acts as a warning to all you nature-lovers over there! Your close-up shots of the flowers you see are wonderful!
Thank you Clare. I do remember you saying that and it seems odd to think that we’re a repository for all of your now endangered plants. We could send boatloads of them back to you without putting a dent in their numbers, so all is not lost. Of course, they have to have the correct habitats to be sent back to.
I think indifference plays a large part in their success here. People say “oh yes what a pest, but what can I do about it?” and leave it at that without even researching what they really can do about it. That, coupled with plenty of space as you’ve noted, means that they can thrive here. And thrive they do!
It would be wonderful to get some of those plants back but such a lot of work would have to be done to make that happen. New Zealand is in the process of culling all the hedgehogs they have there – meanwhile our native hedgehog is on the endangered list and we are desperately trying to save the few that are left. This is all so crazy!
That’s what happens when a plant or animal lands in a place with no natural predators. They thrive.
It sounds like with the hedgehog it would be much cheaper just to import them from New Zealand. I agree-it is crazy!
After all the time that I’ve been following your blog, you still find more flowers and plants that I see no where else but on your blog. And, you continue to impress me with your knowledge of plants as well. I know I’ve said that many times before, but it still holds true.
That has led to a thought, I was thinking that it would be nice to have a small wildflower garden, but I live in an apartment, so there’s nothing that I can do here. But, there’s not much to stop me from having one somewhere else, as long as it is done with native plants and no invasive species. I’ll have to give that more thought.
Thanks Jerry! I’m surprised that I still keep finding so many flowers that I’ve never seen. There doesn’t seem to be any limit to what you can find out there.
A wildflower garden is always a great idea. You can buy many wildflowers now, even trilliums. You can also grab a seedpod now and then, but it takes a lot longer that way.
I just planted some purple flowering raspberry in the back garden. I’m hoping to see it bloom next year. Never heard of Lobelia spicata, it’s very attractive. Here the goldenrods won’t bloom for another month.
I think you’ll be happy with the flowering raspberry. I think it’s really attractive.
The lobelia spicata is a small plant that is not at all showy, but it might work massed in a bed of its own. Unlike many lobelias it prefers dry, gravelly soil.
I’m surprised that your goldenrods hold off for so long. They all seem to be blooming at once here this year instead of in staggered intervals as they usually are.
Fascinating, as always. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen (or even heard of) narrow-leaf cow wheat. I also got a kick out of the Classical reference in the name “Circaea lutetiana canadensis”. I chuckled even more when I read this extension of a Classical reference on Wikipedia: “It is only rarely used as a garden plant; one variety known as ‘Caveat Emptor’ has leaves that are heavily mottled pink.”
Thank you Pat. Narrow leaf cow wheat grows in dray sandy pine woods here. It’s a small thing that barely gets ankle high and is very easy to miss. You’ve got to watch the forest floor to see it.
I think “buyer beware” is an apt name for enchanter’s nightshade in two ways; first is that it might not grow at all and second is if it does you might be sorry, because it forms very large colonies. Hard to imagine pink leaves!
All the flowers are pretty Allen, I really like the close up of the Deptford pink.
Thank you Michael. You’ve got a good eye. I took a similar photo of a Deptford pink last year and it was one of my photos that was chosen for the New England Wildflower Society’s new wildflower guide, due to be published in February.
I so rarely look at the tiny flowers up close. They are pretty. Thanks for this.
You’re welcome Cynthia. I think most of us can probably say the same.
Love the photo of the Pipsissewa. There sure is a lot going on in one small bloom. Thanks for a(nother) great post
Thanks Judy. I agree, Pipsissewa has a busy little bloom!
I’ve never seen cow wheat or pipsissewa, neat! I was hiking in Vermont last month and amazed at how much flowering raspberry there was in the woods; it seemed like it was everywhere.
Thanks Sara. I find both of them in dry, sandy pine woods.
Flowering raspberry can form large colonies when it finds a place that it likes.
It is such a beautiful time of year to get out and enjoy the flowers. In the spring, we are all excited over the blossoms which herald the end of winter but by mid-July, we are ready to simply enjoy their beauty. I planted some button bushes this year near my back pond. I can’t wait to see the flowers in person! Thank you for another great post!
You’re welcome Laura. I’ve never planted button bushes but it seems like they’d be fairly easy to grow, being native. The flowers are really unusual.
This time of year really is beautiful with so many flowers to see!
Goodness me, what an informative post with very good illustrations, you see the world of plants with such sharp eyes.
Thank you Susan. I seem to be seeing a few that I’ve never seen before this year along with the old friends.