Did everyone see fireworks on the 4th? I did, but not in the traditional sense. Mine came in the form of tall meadow rue flowers (Thalictrum pubescens,) which always bloom close to the 4th of July and which always remind me of “bombs bursting in air.” These are the plant’s male flowers; starbursts of petal-less dark yellow tipped stamens.
I don’t see tall meadow rue in meadows unless the meadow is very wet. I usually find it at the edge of streams or in ditches as the example in the above photo was. In fact this one sat just where a ditch met a stream. It was down an embankment, which is the only way I could have gotten this view because it often grows 7-8 feet tall and towers over me. Getting above it is usually next to impossible without a ladder. Native Americans are said to have given lethargic horses ground meadow rue leaves and flowers to increase their vigor and to renew their spirit and endurance. In spring the plant’s young leaves fool many into thinking they’ve found wild columbine.
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is not a native plant so I’m always surprised to see it growing along the edge of the forest like these examples do. I don’t see it in the wild often but it seems to escape gardens and find places that suit its temperament and there it stays, sometimes forming small colonies. There were maybe a dozen plants in this group and they were beautiful.
I like to try to get a bee’s eye view of foxglove blossoms. The blossom in the foreground shows whiter spots than the younger blossom on the right. They apparently start life with yellow spots which turn to white as they age. The lower lip protrudes a bit to give bees a landing pad, and from there they follow the spots, which are nectar guides, up to the top of the blossom where they find the nectar. While the bee is busy with the nectar the anthers above it rub on its back and deposit the flower’s pollen, which will then be taken to another blossom. If successfully pollinated a foxglove plant can produce from one to two million seeds.
Humble little narrow-leaf cow wheat (Melampyrum lineare) seems like a shy little thing but it has a secret; it is 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. This little plant wants it all.
Narrow-leaf cow wheat’s long white, tubular flowers tipped with yellow-green are very small, and usually form in pairs where the leaves meet the stem (axils). I usually find this plant growing in old, undisturbed forests but I’ve also seen it recently on roadsides. It is quite common, but so small that few seem to notice it. The tiny flowers bloom at about shoe top height.
The small, furry, white to light purple flowers of motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) are easy to miss. At a glance this plant might resemble one of the nettle family but the square stems show it to be in the mint family. The tiny flowers grow in a whorl around the stem in the leaf axils. This plant, originally from Asia, is considered an invasive weed but I don’t see it that often and I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 2 or 3 plants growing together. It was brought to this country because of its long history of medicinal use in Europe and Asia. It is found along roads and in fields.
The tiny flowers of motherwort are very hairy and look like a microscopic orchid. They’re very hard to get a good shot of because of both their size and color and I don’t think I’ve ever been really happy with any photo I’ve taken of them. The ancient Greeks and Romans used motherwort medicinally and it is still used today to decrease nervous irritability and quiet the nervous system. There is supposed to be no better herb for strengthening and gladdening the heart, and it is sold in powdered and liquid form.
Our native common elderberry bushes (Sambucus nigra canadensis) have just come into bloom and can be seen dotted around the landscape, especially near brooks and streams. Its mounded shape and flattish, off white flower heads make it very easy to identify, even from a distance.
Common elderberry flower clusters look similar to Queen Anne’s lace. Each flower is tiny at only 1/4 inch across, and has 5 white petals or lobes, 5 yellow tipped stamens and 3 very small styles that fall off early after blooming. Each flower will be replaced by a single black (dark purple) drupe. A drupe is a fleshy fruit with a single seed like a peach or cherry. Native Americans dried the fruit for winter use and soaked the berry stems in water to make a black dye for basketry.
The unusual, hairy twin flowers of partridge berry (Mitchella repens) fuse at the base and share one ovary. They will become a single small red berry that has two dimples that show where the flowers used to be. Partridgeberry is one of the lowest growing evergreen plants on the forest floor, hardly growing more than 3 or 4 inches high. Plants have a vining habit but don’t climb. Instead they form dense mats by spreading their trailing stems out to about a foot from the crown. Roots will often form at leaf nodes along the stems and start new plants.
Here is a better view of how partridge berry flowers are joined at the base to form a single ovary and a single berry. The berries are rather tasteless but ruffed grouse, quail, turkeys, skunks, and white footed mice eat them. Native American women made a tea from the leaves of partridge berry to promote easy delivery in childbirth. Tea made from the berries is said to have a sedative effect on the nervous system.
Our native whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) has just started blooming in the tall grass along roadsides. This plant’s leaves and flowers grow in a whorl around the stem and that’s how it comes by its common name. A whorl, in botanical terms for those who don’t know, is made up of at least three elements of a plant (leaves, flowers, etc.) that radiate from a single point and surround the stem.
Both the leaves and flowers grow in a whorl on whorled loosestrife, because where each leaf meets the stem (axils) a five petaled, star shaped yellow flower appears at the end of a long stalk. Many plants grow flowers in the axils of the leaves, but most do not grow in whorls. Almost all species of loosestrife with yellow flowers often have a lot of red in them as this example had.
A view looking down on a whorled loosestrife shows how the leaves and flowers are arranged in whorls around the stem. The leaves in each whorl can number from 3 to 7. This example seems to have had 4. According to Pliny the young leaves of whorled loosestrife will stop bleeding when they are tied to a wound.
There are a few lobelias that look similar but I think this one might be pale spike lobelia (Lobelia spicata,) which gets its common name from its small, 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 too much of it can kill.
Black Swallowwort (Cynanchum louiseae) has purplish-brown to nearly black star shaped flowers that are about 1/4 inch across. They have five-petals and are fragrant, but not in a good way. It has a hard to describe their odor but I’ve seen it described as a rotting fruit odor, which I’m not sure I agree with. I think it’s worse than that; it’s a very sharp, almost acrid odor and on a hot summer day your nose will tell you that you’re near this plant long before you see it.
Black swallowwort is a vining plant native to Europe that twines over native shrubs and plants at the edges of forests and shades or strangles them out. It is believed to have come to North America from Ukraine in the 1800s. Colonies of this plant have been found that covered several acres of land and it is said to be able to completely replace a field of native goldenrod. It is nearly impossible to eradicate from a garden because its roots mingle with those of other plants and if you pull the stem it just breaks off at ground level. In Canada it is called the dog strangling vine and Canadians are testing the use of Hypena opulenta moth caterpillars as a means of biological control. So far they say, the results look promising. The caterpillars come from Ukraine and are a natural enemy of the plant. This plant illustrates the biggest danger of importing plants; the animals and insects that control them are left behind in their native lands, and once they arrive in their new home they are able to grow unchecked.
Spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium) is toxic to both dogs and humans, but insects love it. It’s closely related to milkweeds and has milky sap like they do. Monarch butterflies drink the nectar but I rarely see one on them. Though it is an herbaceous perennial its growth habit makes it look like a 3 foot tall shrub. The Apocynum part of its scientific name means “away from dog.” Not only dogs but most other animals avoid it because of its toxic sap.
Native Americans used spreading dogbane medicinally and used its strong fibers to make thread and cord. The plant’s milky white sap is very sticky and I wonder how they removed it from the thread they made.
Spreading dogbane’s bell shaped flowers are very fragrant and I love to smell then when I can find one without an insect in it. They’re also very pretty, with faint pink stripes on the inside. They remind me of lily of the valley flowers but are quite a lot larger. The ant traveled from blossom to blossom as if trying to make up its mind which was best.
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 brown / black dots on its 5 yellow petals make this flower very easy to identify. Originally from Europe, it can be found in meadows and along riverbanks and roadsides growing in full sun.
I should like to enjoy this summer flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one for me.~ Andre Gide
Thanks for coming by.
A beautiful tour through early summer, Allen. Many plants I have not seen since we moved west. I remember meadow rue well.
Thank you Lavinia. Meadow rue would be a hard one to forget, I would imagine.
I found motherwort on my property today, and for the life of me I don’t know if it’s just arrived or if it’s been here all along and I just never noticed it except as “another mint-type plant.”
It might be that you just never noticed it. It happens to me all the time and when it isn’t blooming motherwort is easy to miss.
I’m glad you found it, it’s an interesting plant!
Linked to this post on our blog today: https://scmga.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/gardening-buffet/
Thank you.
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That Meadow Rue is fantastic. And thanks for the close ups of the Elderberry flowers, very interesting.
You’re welcome. Both are considered “weeds” here but I think they’re worthy of blog space.
Allen, thanks for another excellent post!
You’re welcome, and thank you!
Lovely selection of wild flowers … and very much in keeping with the 4th July fireworks… The natural world is even better! I love foxgloves and would love to have them growing wild around here. The design of flowers in order to attract bees is absolutely perfect, and wonderful.
Thanks very much. Foxgloves are a very easy plant to grow and I wonder if they wouldn’t grow there, given the right conditions. They can take quite a lot of shade and don’t seem to mind being dry.
I agree that the design of flowers in order to attract bees is absolutely perfect and wonderful, and there are so many different designs. They’re often so beautiful that it’s easy to forget that they aren’t here just to please us. They have a job to do.
The Black Swallowwort looks a rather sinister plant. I don’t think we have it in this country I am pleased to say! Cow wheat doesn’t grow where I live but I have seen it when we are staying in the Peak District.
I’m not sure why Clare, but I just found your comment in the spam folder. That’s only the second time that has happened in 7 years!
Black swallowwort does what it has to but I wish it would do it somewhere else. I just learned that it attracts monarch butterflies but once the caterpillars hatch and begin eating the plant they are poisoned and die.
Interesting that you have cow wheat. I wonder if it was imported from here?
I too, occasionally find comments in the spam folder so I now check it regularly. I never know why the comment has been put there!
How very unfortunate for the Monarch caterpillars! It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the butterflies were as plentiful as they used to be, but as they need as much help as we can give them this is very sad. They are increasingly being seen here in the western parts of the British Isles, usually during September and October and usually after freak weather patterns in the US – I’d love to see one. Amazing butterflies!
We do have Cow-wheat and it is a native plant. However, not narrow-leaved but common cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense).
I never delete the spam folder without checking it but apparently I don’t check it enough!
I’m glad to hear that monarch butterflies are being seen there and I hope you get to see one. They are quite large, much like a swallowtail or admiral.
That’s interesting about the common cow wheat. It looks just like ours.
The motherwort picture looked pretty good to me.
Thank you. It’s a tough plant to get a good photo of.
I bought several plants of Motherwort for the garden as they were reputed to produce a lot of nectar and attract bees. I have not found that they particularly attract bees but I suppose the ones that do partake of the nectar will be very happy bees. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. I can’t remember ever seeing a bee on motherwort. I’ve read that bumblebees and other long tongued bees will visit them for nectar. Syrphid flies and Halictid bees are said to be attracted to the pollen.
Such beautiful flowers you have chosen for this post. I liked the plant pretending to be fireworks and the foxglove closeup especially.
Thanks very much Susan. Those foxgloves were beautiful with that deep purple color.
Beautiful blossoms! Only four of those grow here. There must be a lot of plants there that have not made their way over to this side of the continent.
Thanks Montucky! I’m always surprised when I look at the USDA maps and see how many of our plants can’t get across the Mississippi River. They must be the ones that birds don’t eat the seeds of.
Great flowers. I was able to get out into a state forest near my dad’s house last week and found lots of great wildflowers. If I only had a bit of your knowledge, I might have avoided the stinging nettle! We’ll be in Texas at our summer job some time today. Looking forward to finding lots of wild things!
Thanks Laura. Just wait until you see all those Texas Blue Bonnets!
Stinging nettle is a great teacher and you learn fast!