late August Wildflowers

Wildflower posts are bound to get shorter soon, but for now there’s still plenty to see.

 

Our native black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) can be found in all fifty states and all across Canada. It is believed that they got their start in the great prairies and moved to other locations from there. They were noted in Maryland in colonial times and became that state’s state flower. I saw my first one this year at the end of June and here they are, still blooming.

Blur vervain (Verbena hastata ) is almost done blooming. You can tell that by the way the flowers are at the tip of the flower stalk. They start at the bottom, a few at a time, and work their way up the stalk. Once done flowering the stalks look almost reptilian.

 

This is something I wasn’t expecting-a bladderwort growing in soil. Apparently, from what I’ve read, this aquatic plant will grow in soil if the conditions are agreeable, but what I don’t understand is how it gets any nutrition when it does. Bladders on its underwater leaves have small trap doors that open quickly to trap insects, making it a carnivorous plant, but if those underwater bladders are buried in soil, then how do they work?

 

This is a close up of the strange terrestrial bladderwort (Utricularia.) It looks like any other bladderwort.

 

Another thing that I never thought I’d see is chicory (Cichorium intybus) blooming in August, but here it is.

 

Burdock is another import that has escaped and is commonly seen on roadsides and in waste places. Its flowers aren’t real big and showy but they are beautiful. Once the flowers are finished the round, barbed seed heads that we all know so well appear. I read recently that burdock seed heads were the inspiration for Velcro. Unfortunately they can also act as snares and catch small birds that often aren’t able to free themselves.

Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus ) is known as a pioneer plant, meaning that it is often first to colonize burned or disturbed areas. Each plant can produce 100,000 or more seeds each year. Another name for it is flannel leaf because of its large, soft, fuzzy leaves. At one time the plant was thought to be useful in fighting leprosy and Pliny the Elder of ancient Rome used the warmed leaves as poultices for arthritis. Its tall persistent seed stalks really stand out in winter. These seed stalks were dipped in tallow and used as torches by Roman legionnaires. This plant is from Europe and is considered invasive.

 

The strange, brownish flowers of groundnut (Apios americana) remind me of the helmets once worn by Spanish explorers. Swollen underground stems on this vining plant form small tubers that look like potatoes but have three times the protein that potatoes do. Groundnuts were a very important food source for Native Americans and the Pilgrims survived on them when their corn supply ran out in 1623. Henry David Thoreau wrote that they tasted better boiled than roasted. The only thing keeping the groundnut from becoming a commercially viable food crop is the two to three years it takes for its tubers to form.

 Native hog peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata ) flowers are small but beautiful. Like the groundnut in the previous photo the plant is a legume in the bean family.  Like a true peanut, after pollination some of its flowers bury themselves in the soil and form a small, edible, bean like seeds that give the plant its common name. Mice collect these seeds and store them in large caches that Native Americans used to search for. They can be eaten raw or cooked. The plant also forms inch long, pea-like, above ground pods that contain three or four inedible seeds.

Hog peanut is a strong, wiry vine that can cover large areas of forest floor and choke out other plants. It is also good a tripping up hikers.

I found this morning glory (Ipomoea) growing at the town landfill. I love its deep blue color but I find the ones that have more white in their throat, like “heavenly blue” more visually pleasing.

 Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a European native that has been cultivated for centuries. The flat flower heads are made up of many button like disc flowers-almost like a daisy without the white ray flowers that we call petals. Tansy is a natural insect repellent and was used as such in colonial times. Dried tansy added to the straw in mattresses was said to keep bedbugs away. Most tansy plants are seen in gardens but it had naturalized itself in New England by 1785 and can still be found growing along roadsides like the one pictured was doing. The ancient Greeks grew tansy for medicinal use but it should be considered toxic.

Rabbit’s foot clover (Trifolium arvense) has appeared here a few times, but not bejeweled with dew like this one.

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Thanks for stopping in.

 

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Mid July Wildflowers

Here are a few more examples of what is blooming in southern New Hampshire at this time of year.

Upright bedstraw (Galium album) is also called upright hedge bedstraw, and that name is perfect because it describes where this plant is found growing. Where the meadow meets the woods there can be found millions of tiny white, honey scented flowers lighting up the shade. Bedstraws hail from Europe and have been used medicinally for centuries. In ancient times entire plants were gathered and used as mattress stuffing and that’s where the plant gets its common name. The dried leaves are said to smell like vanilla in some species of Gallium and honey in others.

Tickseed coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) gets its common name from the way that its seeds cling to clothing like ticks. The plant is also called lance leaved coreopsis and that is where the lanceolata part of the scientific name comes from. Coreopsis is found in flower beds as well as in the wild and can form large colonies if left alone. The yellow flowers are about an inch and a half across and stand at the top of thin, wiry stems.  This is a native plant with a cousin known as greater tickseed that grows in the south.

Our native swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris,) not surprisingly, like to have their feet wet most of the time and are common along the edges of ponds and wetlands at this time of year. They bloom at about the same time as whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) and that is because both plants are closely related. These plants stand about 2-3 feet tall and have a club shaped flower head (raceme) made up of 5 petaled yellow flowers.

Each yellow petal of a swamp candle flower has two red dots at its base that help form a ring of ten red dots around the five long stamens in the center of the flower. The stamens are streaked with yellow and red.

Wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) has pale yellow flowers similar in color to those of the sulfur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) but they can also be white or pink. This plant is considered a noxious weed because it gets into forage and grain crops. I always find it 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.

 

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) gets its common name from the way the chopped and boiled leaves produce a soapy lather that is particularly good at removing grease. This plant is a native of Europe and is thought to have been brought over by colonists to be used as a soap substitute. Another common name for this plant is bouncing bet. I’ve heard several stories about how this name came about but I like the one that claims that the curved petals catch the breeze and make the plant bounce back and forth in the wind. The flowers are very fragrant.

 

The feathery pink bits on rabbit’s foot clover (Trifolium arvense) are sepals that help hide the tiny white petals on this plant. The sepals are much larger than the petals and make up the larger part of the flower head. This plant is introduced from Europe and grows on river banks and in sandy vacant lots. Its common name comes from the flower’s supposed resemblance to a rabbit’s foot.

 

I didn’t think I’d see any native Allegheny monkey flowers (Mimulus ringens) this year because it usually starts blooming much earlier than it did. This plant likes sandy soil and sunny, wet places so I don’t see it that often. It is also called square stemmed monkey flower, for obvious reasons. The small but beautiful flowers are supposed to resemble the face of a smiling monkey, but I don’t see it. Does anybody else see a monkey here?

Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a small plant that is hated for its extensive root system that makes it almost impossible to get rid of in pastures. Not only does it have a taproot but also a large fibrous root system that can spread horizontally for several feet.  Canada thistle isn’t anywhere near as large or prickly as other thistles, but it does have small prickles on its leaf margins. I didn’t see the crab spider on the underside of the blossom until I looked at the photo.

Everyone seems to be taking photos of Queen Anne’s lace from the backside this year, so since it is such a well-known plant that doesn’t need much in the way of explanation I thought I’d try it too. This plant is also called wild carrot and if you dig up its root and crush it, you’ll find that it smells exactly like a carrot. It should never be eaten unless you are absolutely certain of the plant’s identity however, because it closely resembles some of the most toxic plants known.

It was another day with bright, harsh sunlight, so I didn’t have much hope for flower photography, but this backlit hedge bindweed blossom (Calystegia sepium) stopped me in my tracks. This has been one of my favorite flowers for a long time-I can remember admiring it even as a small boy-but back then I called it a morning glory. Though it is in the morning glory family hedge bindweed is a perennial, while true morning glories (Ipomoea) are annuals.

I was determined to get close enough to a fragrant white water lily (Nymphaea odorata) to get a decent shot and I did, but I also got my feet soaking wet. I wish I could have gotten close enough to smell it, but I would have needed a boat for that. Each blossom of this plant opens for just three days to let insects visit and after that the stalk coils like a spring, dragging the flower under water where it sets its seed. After several weeks the seeds are released into the water so currents can carry them to suitable locations to germinate.

I should like to enjoy this summer flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one for me.~ Andre Gide

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Summer Garden Flowers

Gardens, including my own, are suffering from lack of water and the usual late summer blahs; stuck somewhere between flowering profusely and going to seed. I’ve been able to get a few more shots of garden flowers but with everything blooming weeks early that means they are also finishing early, so we might have a period of few flowers blooming. This white tall garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) was suffering-you can see it in the leaves-but the flowers were holding their own and were very fragrant. I grow several varieties but don’t have white. I found this one in a local park. Sometimes plant breeders overdo it, I think. Though I’m sure a lot of people love this bicolor phlox (Phlox paniculata,) it’s not really my cup of tea. The leaves on this one were also showing signs of drought stress. Phlox are usually carefree but this dryness has s changed that. I don’t dislike all bicolor flowers. This purple and white morning glory grows on a chain link fence at the local post office and I think it is a beauty. I’ve seen people call this plant “Ipomoea indica” on various websites, but that plant is an “ocean blue morning-glory.” Instead, because of the heart shaped leaves and flower color I think it is “Ipomoea purpurea” which is the purple or tall morning glory. I’m color blind but it sure looks purple to me. This is a bicolor delphinium variety that I haven’t seen before this year. I’m not sure of its name, but I like the color. I grow delphiniums but I need to move them to a more sheltered spot so they don’t get broken by rain and wind. Delphinium comes from the Greek word for dolphin because at some point an ancient Greek thought that the back of the flower resembled a dolphin’s snout. Delphiniums are natives of Europe. Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) is a flower native to Mexico. The flowers are usually daisy like, but some have tubular petals like the one in the photo. This flower is probably a variety called “seashells.”  Cosmos is an annual plant that self-sows quite reliably. If you’re careful weeding in the spring and don’t pull all the seedlings, a six pack of plants might sow themselves and produce seedlings year after year for quite some time. I thought this yellow rose (Rosa) was a beauty. I found it in a local park and don’t know what the variety is, but I think it might be “Gold Medal.” You can see that insects have left it alone, even though there is some damage on the outer petals.My Hydrangeas have been blooming for quite a while now.  My grandmother always grew these and called them snowballs. This old fashioned type is called “Annabelle.” I planted it last year and have been real happy with it. I’ve done virtually nothing to it and it still blooms heavily. I found this trumpet creeper vine (Campsis radicans) blossoming happily on an old chain link fence. This native vine could have gone into a wildflower post, but I’ve known many people who grew it in their gardens. If grown on a trellis it needs to be a sturdy one, because trumpet creepers can reach 30 feet. If they can’t find anything to climb on they will grow as a tangled “shrub.”  If pollinated by bees or ruby throated hummingbirds, these flowers turn into long seed pods that are full of flat seeds that are dispersed by the wind. I like the flower buds on a trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) as much as the flowers. They look like red satin balloons. The flowers can also be pink or orange. The long stems, wide range of colors, and long lasting flowers make zinnias (Zinna elegans) an excellent choice for those who want to bring flowers indoors. Zinnias are native to the hot, dry southwestern U.S., and Mexico. When Zinnias bloom it is a sign that the hot months of high summer have arrived here in New Hampshire. “Cut and Come Again” is one of the best, old time cutting zinnia varieties. The flower pictured is a double variety.For those who don’t like double flowers, zinnias (Zinna elegans) also come in single flowered varieties. Plant breeders have been working tirelessly for years, trying to develop a truly black flower. Their favorite subjects seem to be the iris and daylily (Hemerocallis.) I would bet that this dark red daylily was a failed attempt. It is very dark, but full sun shows that it’s not quite black.

The Earth laughs in flowers ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Indeed it does. Thanks for stopping by.

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