Poison Ivy (Rhus radicans) and Poison Sumac (R. vernix) are both members of the Sumac family, and each does horrible things to my skin if I come into even the slightest contact with ‘em. Writing about them even makes me itch. Poison Sumac grows from Ontario and Quebec south to Florida, west to Texas and north to Minnesota. Poison Ivy grows everywhere.
Members of the Cashew family are shrubs or small trees with resinous or milky juice. The flowers are small, bisexual or unisexual, mostly radially symmetrical and usually with 5 sepals, 5 petals and 5 or 10 stamens, all attached at the base of the ovary.
The fruit is berry-like.
There are 400 species in about 60 genera mostly in tropical regions, but some are found in temperate areas. Some are grown as ornamentals and some for their nuts. Other species found in North America include Winged Sumac (R. copallina), Smooth Sumac (R. glabra) and Staghorn Sumac (R. typhina).
Winged Sumac, which thrives in dry woods and clearings from New York to Florida, and Texas to Wisconsin, is cropped by deer and moose and though the fruit is of little interest to birds, it is valuable food source during winter when other fruits are scarce. The downy of fruit of Staghorn Sumac, on the other hand, is eaten by many songbirds and game birds.
The Carrot family is one of my favorites not for the foods, spices and seasonings it provides, but for its appeal as a food source for swallowtail butterfly larvae. These lovely caterpillars have, in the past, “infested” my Bronze Fennel, as well as my carrots and parsley. I’ve also found them, on occasion, on Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota).
As native wildflowers go, they are rather boring, the small flowers growing in umbels, further grouped into a compound umbel. The little flowers have 5 tiny sepals, petals and stamens attached at the top of the ovary.
The stems of these frequently aromatic herbs are hollow, and the leaves are fern-like. The plants produce a fruit that splits in half with a seed in each half.
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