When I think of blue bead lilies (Clintonia borealis) I think of another spring ephemeral, but they don’t really fit that definition because they blossom after the leaves come out on the trees. They get away with that because their big strap shaped leaves can take in plenty of light even under trees, and they prefer shade. But this is a time of transition, because the forest flowers are finishing up and the sun loving meadow flowers are just beginning. It’s an exciting time for flower lovers because we know that the best is yet to come.
Blue bead lily looks like a miniature Canada lily because it’s a member of the lily family. Each blossom is slightly bigger than a trout lily blossom and there are usually two or three per stalk. Flower parts appear in multiples of three in the lily family and to prove it this blossom has three petals, three sepals, and six stamens. Its name comes from the beautiful electric blue berries that will appear later on in summer. The berries are said to be toxic but birds and chipmunks snap them right up. Some Native American tribes rubbed the root of this plant on their bear traps because its fragrance attracted bears.
Our native azaleas have just started to bloom. I was worried about the one pictured because a tree fell on it three summers ago. It seemed to be hanging on by a thread for a while but it is getting stronger over time and looks like it will hang on to bloom beautifully again each year. It grows in a shaded part of the forest and is called early azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum,) even though the Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense) is earlier. It’s also called roseshell azalea and I often find them by their fragrance, which is a bit spicy and a bit sweet.
The flowers of the early azalea aren’t quite as showy as some other azaleas but I wish you could smell their heavenly scent. It isn’t overpowering but when the temperature and breeze are just right you can follow your nose right to them. Another common name for the early azalea is wooly azalea, and it comes from the many hairs on the outside of the flowers, which you can just see on the bud over on the right. It is these hairs that emit the fragrance, which is said to induce creative imagination.
Starflowers (Trientalis borealis) are supposed to be a plant based on sevens; seven leaves, seven petals, seven sepals and seven stamens, but I’ve seen eight and nine petals on flowers, and I’ve seen many with six petals. These flowers don’t produce nectar so they are pollinated by pollen eating insects like halictid and andrenid bees. There can be one or several flowers on each plant and I always try to find the one with the most flowers. My record is 4 but I’m always watching out for 5.
This blossom lived up to the 7 theory and had 7 petals. It also has 7 anthers. I have to wonder how many starflowers the person who said it is a plant based on sevens actually looked at though, because many I’ve seen have more or fewer and 7 flower parts seem as random as any other number.
Mayapple flowers (Podophyllum peltatum) are hard to get a decent photo of because they nod toward the ground under the plant’s leaves, and this shot took several tries. I’ve read that once a mayapple produces flowers and fruit it reduces its chances of doing so in following years, but I’ve seen these plants bloom well for a few years now. This plant is also called American mandrake, which is legendary among herbalists for the root that supposedly resembles a man. Native Americans boiled the root and used the water to cure stomach aches but this plant is toxic and should never be eaten. Two anti-cancer treatment drugs, etoposide and teniposide, are made from the Mayapple plant.
I’m lucky enough to know where there are two or three sizeable colonies of Pink lady’s slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule) and this year I found another with 12-14 plants in it. There was a time when these plants were collected nearly into oblivion by people who didn’t know any better. The plant interacts with a Rhizoctonia fungus in the soil and this fungus must be present for it to reproduce. If the plants are dug up and placed in private gardens they will eventually die out if the fungus isn’t present so please, look at them, take a couple of photos, and let them be.
For those who haven’t seen one, a pink lady’s slipper blossom is essentially a pouch called a labellum, which is a modified petal. The pouch has a slit down the middle. Veins on the pouch attract bumblebees, which enter the flower through the slit and then find that to get out they have to leave by one of two openings at the top of the pouch that have pollen masses above them. When they leave they are dusted with pollen and will hopefully carry it to another flower. It takes pink lady’s slippers five years or more from seed to bloom, but they can live for twenty years or more.
When pink lady’s slippers first set their buds they are a kind of off white, almost yellow color and some think they have found a white or yellow one, but they quickly turn pink. The pink Lady’s slipper is New Hampshire’s state wildflower.
When we move out of the forest to their edges we find sun loving plants like hawthorn, which was in full bloom on this day. There are over 100 species of native and cultivated hawthorns in the U.S. and they can be hard to identify. Native Americans used the plant’s long sharp thorns for fish hooks and for sewing. The wood is very hard and was used for tools and weapons.
Hawthorn (Crataegus) blossoms aren’t much in the way of fragrance because of a compound called trimethylamine, which gives the plant a slightly fishy odor, but they’re big on beauty with their plum colored anthers. They are also important when used medicinally. Hawthorn has been used to treat heart disease since the 1st century and the leaves and flowers are still used for that purpose today. There are antioxidant flavonoids in the plant that may help dilate blood vessels, improve blood flow, and protect blood vessels from damage.
Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) is an introduced plant that came from Europe in the 1600s but it doesn’t seem very invasive; the few colonies that I know of hardly seem to spread at all, and that’s possibly because they are biennials. This plant is in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. The young leaves of dame’s rocket are rich in vitamin C and oil pressed from its seed is used in perfumes.
Dame’s rocket flowers are sometimes mistaken for phlox, but phlox has 5 petals rather than the 4 petals seen on dame’s rocket. Phlox also has opposite leaves and those on dame’s rocket are alternate. The flowers are very fragrant in the evening and are said to smell like a mixture of cloves and violets.
There just happened to be a phlox plant or two growing among the dame’s rocket and I thought it was ggod chance to show how phlox blossoms have 5 petals. I’m not sure if these plants were wild phlox or garden escapees but I’m guessing they probably came from a nearby garden.
Mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum) is one of those plants that keep the big herbicide companies making billions because they’ve convinced people that “fuzzy green patches don’t belong in their lawn.” They tell us that this “pesky plant loves to wreak havoc on the open spaces in our lawns and gardens,” but what they don’t tell us is how the plant was here long before lawns were even thought of. A few hundred years ago in cottage gardens turf grasses were pulled as weeds so medicinal or edible plants like dandelion and chickweed could flourish. How times have changed.
One flower that will always say June to me is the Ox eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare,) even though I found this one in May. This is a much loved flower so it is easy to forget that it was originally introduced from Europe as an ornamental in the 1800s. It quickly escaped cultivation and has now spread to each of the lower 48 states and most of Canada. Since cattle won’t eat it, it can spread at will through pastures and that means that it is not well loved by ranchers. A vigorous daisy can produce 26,000 seeds per plant and tests have shown that 82% of the buried seeds remained viable after six years underground. Soon our roadsides will be carpeted by them. I like their spiraled centers.
Sweet little blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) has always been one of my favorite wildflowers. It’s in the iris family and isn’t a grass at all, but might have come by the name because of the way its light green leaves resemble grass leaves. The flowers are often not much bigger than a common aspirin but their color and clumping habit makes them fairly easy to find. Native Americans had several medicinal uses for this plant.
This blue eyed grass had two blossoms on one stem, which is rare in my experience.
Robin’s plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) is the earliest of the fleabanes to bloom in this area. Its inch and a half diameter flowers are larger than many fleabane blossoms but its foot high stalks are shorter. One way to identify this plant is by its basal rosette of very hairy, oval leaves. The stem and stem leaves (cauline) are also hairy. The flowers can be white to pink to lavender and are made up of ray florets surrounding yellow disk florets in the center. These plants almost always grow in large colonies and often come up in lawns. They’re a good indicator of where the flower lovers among us live because at this time of year you can see many neatly mown lawns with islands of unmown, blossoming fleabanes.
If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment. ~Georgia O’Keefe
Thanks for stopping in.
It is getting to be the time of year where there are flowers everywhere you look, and I’m loving it! Some of these I recognize and I know that they grow here in Michigan, but I seldom see, such as the lady’s slippers. Others are completely new to me, or maybe I’ve just overlooked them in the past, like the starflower.
The more of these posts that you do, the more amazing your knowledge of plants becomes to me, and my own lack of knowledge hits home. I just enjoy the beauty and scent (most of the time) of the flowers and wish that I knew what they were.
Thanks Jerry! I’m glad you’re seeing plenty of flowers now.
I know what you mean about lack of knowledge; I feel the same way when I see birds!
There are so many wonderful flowers here, Allen I just don’t know where to start! The blue bead lily and the star flower are my favourites, I think but they are all lovely and your photos are excellent.
Thanks very much Clare. We’re just coming into that time when there will be quite literally flowers everywhere you look. I wish you could see it!
Oh, me too, Allen! Maybe one day…..
Absolutely stunning!!
This is my favorite time of year. It’s finally warm, and green again, and some of the prettiest flowers are blooming! I love those little blue star flowers, and the pink lady slippers are gorgeous! I believe I saw some yellow lady slippers at the Newbury cut last year!
Thank you for the photos of the dames rocket, and phlox. I thought I had phlox growing in pale purple, pink, and white, but now know they are dames rocket, thanks again for clarifying that for me.
I wonder if you could help me find the one flower, or plant I’ve been looking for, for about 20 years. It must boom in late June and it loves swampy areas. It smells a bit like pepper corns, and something sweet. I’ve had several plant nursery’s tell me it’s Virginia Allspice, or Sweetpepper Bush, but Virginia Allspice isn’t native to NH, and they tell me Sweetpepper Bush blooms in late July -August. I usually smell it after it rains, or when it’s very humid, but I’ve never seen it, even after hunting all over for it, even by kayak!
Thanks again, happy hiking!
Thank you Tiffanie. The dame’s rocket that you have should be very fragrant in the evening but I think what you’re probably smelling right now is the Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata.) It’s an invasive shrub originally from Japan that has spread like wildfire and I see it everywhere. It’s extremely fragrant and blooms just as the lilacs have fully opened.
The nurseries you spoke with were right about the Clethra, or sweet pepper bush. It’s very fragrant, likes wet places, and is a native shrub but it does bloom later on. I hope this helps!
P.S. Call in 337 363- 2124, listen @ 641 552-8111. If you call the listen # and hit #4, you can hear me on the show today. I have been on for eight years.
Once again you have posted the most amazing photos with such interesting and informative text. I can’t imagine how many hours it has taken to learn so much about every flower and plant and it is easy to see how much you love each one. We have often discussed the hawthorn on “my” radio show, La Tasse De Cafe, (KVPI..Ville Platte, La, Monday, Wed, Thurs, Fri, 8:00am to 9). I do hope you might chime in sometime, either by phone or online. We never discuss politics or controversial subjects, but love information from interesting folks worldwide. First name is fine, and I go by Miss Penny. You said you would like Louisiana!
Thank you Penny. I’ve been studying plants and flowers for a very long time but there are some that I’ve just learned. There’s no way I could know every single one, but I still try to.
I think I would like Louisiana, but I’m confused. I thought you said you lived in a log cabin in Montana, which is why I thought you’d enjoy Montucky’s blog.
In any event, I work every day so it’s doubtful I’d ever be able to call your radio show in the morning. And that’s all the better for the show. I was interviewed for a show on New Hampshire Public Radio once and it was terrible. I’m not at all comfortable with public speaking.
I do live in a log cabin in Montana. I once lived in Louisiana. I enjoy public speaking and am much better on the radio than blogworld. I understand if you are uncomfortable but wanted to invite you as I know our listeners would enjoy your knowledge of plants and flowers. La Tasse is very unique and a one of a kind show. I once did a lot of acting and I miss it. I am just myself on the show, but have a large fan base anyway. If I can make an audience laugh I am happy. Few people here know of the show since I am a hermit here. But every ham needs an outlet. Take care, my friend.
Beautiful! The blue-eyed-grass looks identical to the species we have here: I wonder why they are considered different species. You have some gorgeous flowers that we don’t have here.
Thanks Montucky! I wondered the same thing about the blue eyed grass. There must be some slight difference that isn’t very visible.
I’m definitely one of those flower lovers with patches of fleabane in my lawn. I’ve also been known to mow around daisies. 😉
I know what you mean. One year I let my back lawn go completely to wildflowers and what an assortment there was!
Excellent pictures of lovely flowers. The orchid was extremely interesting.
Thank you. Lady’s slippers are complicated but also beautiful.
So many lovely flowers! Impossible to pick a favorite, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Lady Slippers.
Thanks Laura, I agree. There’s nothing quite like a forest full of them!
I retired to Britt Ontario in 1996 and noticed a clump of about 6 Pink Lady Slippers in a slight depression on a rock portion of my property, barely visible from the road. Over 22 years that clump has multiplied into 5 clumps with the original having about a dozen of blooms in it. It is especially beautiful in early morning dew or after a bit of rain. This year it will bloom in about two weeks.
Thanks a lot for your very informative and beautifully photographed blog.
Tom
Recent: https://brtthome.com/2018/05/28/20180525-trip-to-loring-trilliums-blue-coshosh-jack-in-pulpit-and-birds/
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You’re welcome Tom, and thank you. You’re very lucky to have so many lady’s slippers! I had three or four in my yard years ago but as the trees grew and shaded them more they petered out.
The photos of the white trilliums on your blog are just beautiful. I wanted to say that on your blog but I can’t figure out how to leave a comment. I must be missing something, I guess.
A beautiful, beautiful time of year.
Thank you Laurie, I couldn’t agree more!
Lovely photos of the flowers especially the diminutive mouse ear chickweed!
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Thank you. That was a tough one. It took a few tries to get it.
Loved the quote and all the close-ups. Flowers make such pretty patterns and you are so clever at spotting them.
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Thank you Susan. I’ve had lots and lots of practice!
Again, just have to thank you for your wonderful blog! Whilst walking on the seacoast, where I live, I saw what I now know is starflower and what I thought was a type of hawthorn was confirmed by your blog. I spend a great deal of time in England and driving along the M5 last week, it was like a snowstorm, there are so many Hawthorn petals about! Thank you again for your blog-I love it and your attitude towards life and nature!
Carletta Prendergast
You’re welcome, and thank you very much Carletta. I’m not sure about the coast but starflowers are very common here and bloom just about the same time lilacs bloom.
I read several blogs from the U.K. so I know that they love their hawthorns over there. They are a beautiful plant!