North American Wildflowers
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Rocky Mountain Beeplant
Rocky Mountain Beeplant, a plains and foothills kind of a flower.
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The Last Snapdragon Standing
September in Northwest Montana ... what was in bloom seemed mostly to be the same thing, something pale yellow, clustered on stems a few inches to a foot or more tall.
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Confusing Paintbrushes in Montana
While the entire Snapdragon/Figwort (Scrophulariaceae) Family put on a big show in Montana, and the penstemons may have been the star act, the paintbrushes stole a scene or two, particularly late in the summer in subalpine environments.
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A Gentian Surprise
Every once in a while I get a gentian surprise.
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Some Wintergreen Things...
I wasn’t looking for any of these small flowers, but they were all interesting finds. And they kept me marginally enthused about hiking through the woods to open, higher elevations…
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Some Summer Penstemons
Summer penstemons in and around Glacier National Park...
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A Bunch of Arnicas
There are more than 10 species of Arnica in Montana decorating the landscape throughout the blooming season with its small, happy, sunflower-like flowers.
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More Orchids in Glacier National Park
More of the many species of orchid I weas treated to in Glacier National Park
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Orchids in Glacier National Park: Coralroots
I wouldn’t say there was a glut of orchids in Glacier National Park, but I saw more there than in any other place I’ve been during my travels.
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Fireweed
A little bit about Fireweed...
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Goin’ through some Photos
I’ve been going through a box of wildflower photos – wildflowers I had forgotten all about. They are an interesting admixture of continent-wide botany.
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Coastal Peas
Living on the coast of Washington for awhile provided me an opportunity to experience a different environment and different wildflowers. My biggest and most joyous wildflower adventures were in the Cascade Mts. and the Coastal Ranges, but there were a handful of treats lurking in sand and marsh. Many such treats were members of the Pea (Fabaceaa) Family.
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May Penstemons
Species of penstemons are in bloom somewhere throughout at least half of the year. I’ve found a few real treasures in bloom in May…
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Marsh Marigolds: a Flower-fire
Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) are a nice springtime treat, their shiny yellow flowers and glossy heart-shaped leaves filling swamps and marshes and wet meadows with showy botany.
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Back in Montana; Back in the Rockies
Many familiar faces bloomed around us in West Glacier, MT. Each and everyone was a melodic stanza in a symphony of botany.
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The Desert Southwest: Days 6 and 7, Back on the Road
Somewhere west of Austin, Texas the U.S. turns into a desert. Lush, in a low-to-the-ground desert sort of way, deserts gardens lined the interstate in the Lone Star State, ebbing and flowing as the miles piled up.
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Deep in the Heart of Texas: Days 3, 4, and 5, Back on the Road
The point of our trip … well, the point was to get to West Glacier, MT for a new innkeeping gig, but the objective was to see new wildflowers, and maybe even do a bit of bird-watching. And perhaps the biggest objective of all was Texas and its Bluebonnets and Paintbrushes and whatever else it had to offer.
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Surprising Arkansas: Day 2, Back on the Road
Razorbacks and Billy Clinton, that’s all I knew about Arkansas; I didn’t expect much of it, just that we had to drive through it to get to Texas.
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No Time to Leave Ohio: Day 1, Back on the Road
Mid-April’s no time to be leaving Ohio. Winter’s fingertips have finally been pried from the landscape; everything is green and new; Robins sing lullabies each evening while Cardinals sing all day long. And early spring wildflowers begin unfolding their petals.
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Snow Trillium Way Back in Ohio
...there were a few things I never got to see way back in Ohio, where it all started. And chances were I never would see these things. Things like Snow Trillum (Trillium nivale), for instance.
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Giddy for Harbinger-of-Spring
You would think something called Harbinger-of-spring would be more … well … harbingery.
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The Frustration of Spring
While the weather has exhibited signs of improvement, I get the feeling it has done so reluctantly, fighting the inevitable progression of the seasons tooth and nail, evidently feeling it’s better to fight and fail rather than just give in.
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Wildflower Safaris: In the Desert in Early February
...we headed south, in to California, making for the desert southwest, hoping for some wildflowers. That is I was hoping for wildflowers; my wife was hoping I wouldn’t be too depressed by not seeing any.
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Wildflower Safaris: California and More Early Blooms
I yanked the Jeep onto the side of the road, jammed on the emergency brake, leapt from the vehicle, raced to the patch of lupine and dropped to my knees, tears welling up in my eyes. Lupine … in California … the land of my dreams … I was home.
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Wildflower Safaris: West Coast Sunshine and Early Blooms
Out there, the polished glow of west coast sunshine is generously ladled over the landscape, and early blooms brighten roadsides, flashing motorists with glimpses of bare, naked color. There may even be a few suggestive ententes whispered.
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Myth and Folklore: Mullen
...we have some winter to kill. That means “Plant Families” and “Myth and Folklore” articles. Let’s start with the latter. They’re more fun.
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The Honorable Mentions
...what about those wildflower places that didn't quite make my Top Ten?
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A Change in the Top Ten
Way back at the beginning of year I wrote a couple of articles about my Top Ten favorite wildflower spots, with a few honorable mentions thrown in for good measure. Well, it's time for a change in the list...
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A Wildflower Community, My Lifelist, and a National Obsession
...the title says it all...
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2005: The Best Year Yet?
Two cross-country drives and a summer job at Glacier National Park made 2005 possibly my best year of wildflowers yet...
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Myth and Folklore: Monkshood
Monkshood even sounds mythical and folklore-ish. That's got to bode well for this article, don't you think; my use of the word 'bode' kind of in keeping with the whole myth and folklore motif? And to keep the ball rolling, we're going straight to Hell with this one...
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Plant Families: Gentians
The Gentian Family is an uncommon, Hollywood clan full of real lookers as well as, now that I reflect on them, a few oddballs. But that just makes them even more special, huh?
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Myth and Folklore: Mint
Let's face it, mint has a lot going for it, what with those essential oils that are pure, liquid fragrance, and such a fragrance at that. Surely mint must be obese with myth and folklore.
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Plant Families: And Still More Peas
My last two Plant Families articles have been about the Pea Family (Fabaceae). I could go on and on; this is one of my favorite plant families. But I won't. I'll wrap it up this week...
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Myth and Folklore: Mayweed and Milkweed
Okay then, let's start with Mayweed, which we also know as Stinking Chamomile and Dog Fennel, and it's ling.
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Plant Families: More Peas!
Perhaps the most obvious example of peas underfoot - literally - and we don't realize they're peas, are the clovers of the Trifolium genus.
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Myth and Folklore: Loosestrife and Lupine
Like a lot of plants, loosestrife has some folklore in the Dark Side, where magic was a life force and your soul was often at stake. And it played both sides of the ethereal fence. Lupine has not had much luck breaking into the myth and folklore circuit.
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Plant Families: Peas!
The Pea Family is enormous, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 species spread over about 640 genera. They come in trees, shrubs, herbs, and vines. Leaves are usually compound, either pinnately or palmately, or sometimes simple by way of evolutionary loss of leaflets.
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Myth and Folklore: Larkspur
Larkspurs have a bit of folklore in the family tree. The larkspur moniker itself comes from the resemblance of the spurred flowers to the claw of a lark.
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Plant Families: Spurge
The Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae) is everything the Heath Family isn't, which is polite way to say it falls at the other end of the spectrum in most people's eyes.
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Myth and Folklore: Jack-in-the-Pulpit
If anything looks like something the deserves some myth and folklore, it's Jack-in-the-Pulpit. It's got that mythical, otherworldly thing going on, what with its spike of small flowers stuck in the middle of that greenish-purple spathe.
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Plant Families: Heath
The Heath Family, wow!
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More Knotweeds
A couple weeks back I wrote a bit about knotweeds. The flowers are small and usually pink and it's the kind of wildflower few people notice. However it was, like most wildflowers, once the source of a variety of medicinal uses.
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Pacific Northwest Owl's Clover
There are only about ten species of Owl's Clover, and all of them are in western North America.
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All Tied Up In Knot(weed)s
Knotweeds, one of those easy to overlook wildflowers that are so much a part of their environment they can't possibly be anything special.
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Pacific Northwest Paintbrushes
Pacific Northwest Paintbrushes
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Sunflowers, or Nearly So
There are lots and lots of summer-blooming yellow wildflowers out there which look sunflowers but aren't, or are but aren't well known, or used to be but, strictly speaking, aren't anymore, or clearly aren't, but could be if we wanted them to be.
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Pacific Northwest Penstemons
Of the more than 270 species of Penstemon native to the North America, 80 occur in the Pacific Northwest. This does not include the many varieties within some species ... or hyrbidization.
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A Threatened Lupine and an Endangered Butterfly
...okay, this lupine, Kincaid's Lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii), isn't endangered, but "only" threatened, but to up the ante, Kincaid's Lupine is the primary host plant to a butterfly which is endangered: Fender's Blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi).
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Confusing Paintbrushes in Montana
While the entire Snapdragon/Figwort (Scrophulariaceae) Family put on a big show in Montana, and the penstemons may have been the star act, the paintbrushes stole a scene or two, particularly late in the summer in subalpine environments.
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A Few Western Lilies
Last week I wrote about some lilies I found in Mississippi. This week I'd like to touch on a few western species I've found.
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Some Mississippi Lilies
Like all the other families of wildflowers, those of the Lily Family (Lilaceae) can be easy to overlook, or not recognize, or simply marvel at. I've seen a bunch of them in many different places, including Mississippi, a place I didn't enjoy much.
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Admirable(?) Hawkweeds
Ya know, folks really hate their weeds, and some are noxiously invasive, but they are survivors. Given how weedy humankind is, I would think more folks would admire them.
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Prairies in Reverse
There are prairies here, in the Pacific Northwest. Imagine that. But these prairies are different from their east-of-the-Rockies counterparts. These prairies bloom in the spring, not during mid- and late-summer.
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A Couple Eastern Penstemons
Penstemons, which I have discovered are very, very fond of the Pacific Northwest (and you will be reading about them sooner or later), have a few cousins in the east.
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Flirting with Mariposas
My faithful few fans know that I become enamored with specific wildflowers, or all the wildflowers in a particular genus, or specific locations or environments. Mariposa lilies (genus Calochortus in the Lily Family (Liliaceae ) would seem like an obvious candidate for one of my botanical infatuations, but I never really got beyond a brief flirtation.
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Wildflowers Along Route 6
A couple wildflowers along Route 6, in western Washington
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The Wildflowers of Northern Exposure
Spring was unfolding its blossoms in the northern U.S., and we were getting to see it. But then we got to the high desert of Washington and our spirits began to lose altitude. It was hot and dusty and void of much in the way of wildflowers. Then a strange thing happened: the interstate dropped down from the desert into the Columbia River Valley.
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Spring Wildflowers in Yellowstone
...next up on our trip from Boulder, Colorado to the coast of Washington was Yellowstone National Park. Like Devil's Tower, and along the interstates before it, we weren't sure what, if any wildflowers we might see there. Geysers? Sure. Stinky, sulfuric fart smells. Without a doubt. Bison? Grizzly bears? We hoped so. But wildflowers? We just didn't know.
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Wildflowers at 70 MPH: Montana Blues
My wife and I moved from Boulder, Colorado to the southern coast of
Washington during the first week of May, but we didn't just move, we took
a vacation. In Montana, we began to spot the color
blue in the form of lupine.
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May Penstemons
Species of penstemons are in bloom somewhere throughout at least half of the year. I’ve found a few real treasures in bloom in May…
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Motherships and Wildflowers
When I was a kid ... well, not just as a kid but well into my 20s ... I
was profoundly intrigued by flying saucers; UFOs; aliens; Close
Encounters. It was the possibility of silvery spaceships full of little green
men that paved the way for my studying astronomy in college, and has
absolutely nothing to do with wildflowers, but if you read on...
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Early Spring on the High Plateau: Sand Lilies and Fringed Gromwell
...it wasn't Pasqueflower that beckoned me out into the moody Colorado
weather. It was Sand Lilies. Lilies can be unusual and lovely, and I
had never seen
Sand Lilies, so...
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Early Spring on the High Plateau: Pasqueflower
Pasqueflower, an early bloomer on the High Plateau
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Early Spring on the High Plateau: More Cousins of Familiar Things
More cousins of familiar wildflowers on the High Plateau
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Early Spring on the High Plateau: Cousins of Familiar Things
Cousins of familair stuff on the High Plateau
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Early Spring on the High Plateau: Golden Banner
Golden Banner, so similar to lupine, was at the top of my list of wildflowers to see in Colorado...
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Chuparosa and Ocotillo
March is the month for desert wildflowers ... if there has been sufficient winter moisture. It's a big deal, a wildflower lover's delight, a tourist's dream.
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Texas Bluebonnets, Every Last One of Them
In addition to being a lupine, the Texas Bluebonnet is the state wildflower of Texas. The interesting thing about it is the moniker does not apply to a single species. That is to say any lupine species native to the Lone Star State is considered a Texas Bluebonnet.
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Not Quite a Penstemon
As it turns out, there are four genera of plants in the Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae) which are closely related to Penstemons.
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Lewis and Clark at the End of the Road
Lewis and Clark arrived "in full view of the ocien" near what we now know as Fort Columbia State Park, on the coast of Washington on November 15, 1805. They camped there for ten days before crossing the river into Oregon, where they built Fort Clatsop, which is just west of Astoria. There they remained throughout the winter, departing for home on March 23, 1806.
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Lewis and Clark in the Pacific Northwest
Lewis and Clark made it to the Columbia Plains in October 1805, where they collected 23 specimens of plants on their way to the Pacific Ocean, and on their way home the following spring.
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Lewis and Clark: Up and Over the Rocky Mountains
Lewis and Clark made it to the Rocky Mountains on July 17, 1805; they came out the other side on October 10. During this time, and their return trip the following spring, they gathered more than 80 species of plants.
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Lewis and Clark: a couple of High Plains Drifters
Lewis and Clark and their fellow explorers rode out the winter of 1804/05 in the High Plains, at Fort Mandan, in what we now know as South Dakota. During the autumn prior to, and the spring and early summer following that winter they encountered many new plant species.
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Lewis and Clark in the Tallgrass Prairie
Lewis and Clark and their band of brave explorers entered the tallgrass prairie on June 10, 1804, where the Missouri and Chariton Rivers meet in Missouri. Lewis collected more than thirty specimens in that environment.
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Lewis and Clark in the Woods
Among the first specimens collected by Meriwether Lewis were Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa) and Ground Plum (Astragalus crassicarpus), Eastern Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), and Golden Seal (Hydratis canadenis).
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Lewis and Clark and Jefferson
Before George Mahris and Martin Milner and Route 66; before Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy and On the Road; before Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie; before Joseph Smith and his Mormons; before all these westward-ho wayfarers, seekers, and dreamers struck camp and hit the road there were a couple of guys by the name of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark who first followed the sun across this great land of ours. And botany was a focal point.
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The Best Wildflower Places - Part Two
Last week I began to share with you a list of what amounts to my ten favorite wildflower places/adventures. Here are the top five, and some honorable mentions.
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The Best Wildflower Places - Part One
So, without further ado, beginning with number 10, I give you ... fanfare please ... my Top Ten Wildflower Places!
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Lookin' Ahead
So, what's planned for 2005? Besides more of the same that is, or more to the point, what places and their wildflowers will I be writing about in 2005?
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2004: Another Unexpected Year
...each year I get to see things in places I never expected to be, seeing things I never expected to see, including wildflowers. 2004 has been another one of those unexpected years.
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Myth and Folklore: Geraniums
In Shocking the World With Wild Geraniums, I wrote about how the flowers were instrumental in our first learning about the roll insects play in pollination. (It's hard to imagine we didn't always know something so alarmingly elementary, huh?) But that was science; this is myth and folklore!
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Wild Fruit Plates
Well, I've written about salads in the wild and I've written about starches, how about fruit?
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The Zuni People and Ceremonial Plants
...and then there are the Zuni's ceremonial uses of plants.
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The Zuni People and Their Edible Plants
I have been writing about the Zuni Indians and their plush, velvety
regard for the natural world, as reported by Matilda Coxe Stevenson in the
1915 publication, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
1908-1909. They found many uses for the plants that grew around them, the
most important of which were as medicines and as a food source.
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Plant Families: Cucumbers and Sundews
As plant families go, the Cucumber Family (Cucurbitaceae) isn't
one that comes to mind where wildflowers are concerned and the Sundew Family (Droseraceae) is a whole 'nother example of
botany.
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Wild Starches
A few of our wild friends which provide us some starchy roots and
tubers...
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Myth and Folklore: Dandelions
...even the bane of suburban gardens, Dandelions, have a bit of Myth
and Folklore about them.
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The Zuni People and Their Medicinal Plants
Last week I wrote about the Zuni Indians and their plush, velvety
regard for the natural world, as reported by Matilda Coxe Stevenson in the
1915 publication, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
1908-1909. And as I pointed out, though there was obviously a lot of
shamanism going on, Matilda noted, "...they had many legitimate plant
medicines..."
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The Zuni People and Their Plants
In 1915 the U.S. Government Printing Office published the Thirteenth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution, 1908-1909. Pages 31 to 102 were written
by Matilda Coxe Stevenson; they were about the Zuni People and their
uses of plants.
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Plant Families: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops)
I was going to start out by saying I had never seen any type of
stonecrop, outside of garden varieties, back in Ohio, but then I glanced
through some field guides and lo and behold, there was something in there
which looked vaguely familiar; it was Wild Stonecrop. Still, it seems to me I have seen many more stonecrops west of the
Rocky Mts. than east.
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Wild Salads
...there are many, many edible plants out there, in the woods,
along fencerows and old railroad embankments, in prairies and wetlands and
bogs and in the backyard, which not only provide the gatherer a
wonderfully organic meal, it fills a person with a real sense of being a part
of the earth, of knowing it, of understanding it, of partaking of it...
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Myth and Folklore: Daisies
As we drift into the dark and quiet months, inexorably plunging into
the cold blackness of autumn and winter, it seems like a good time to put
on the tea kettle, put our feet up, and let the wildflowers take care
of their own. Now seems like a good time to curl up with some Myth and
Folklore ... and how about we begin with daisies, or more specifically Ox-eye
Daisies...
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Seeps and Hanging Gardens and Zion National Monument
...sheer walls of rock bearded with Yellow Monkeyflower and
Maidenhair
ferns and slimy, mossy stuff, dripping with cool water and smelling of
the fresh,
green earth at the dawn of time, while all around is dry rock and sandy
soil
and desert-like heat.
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Rattlesnake Master
Rattlesnake Master, now that's a September odds-and-ends wildflower if
ever I
saw one.
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And then there's Foxglove
Foxglove has a lot going for it, and though it is not really a
wildflower,
and not native to North America, well, it behaves otherwise. And it's
even one
of those in-between odds and ends of September I began writing about
last
week...
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In-between Months, Odds and Ends, and Ubiquitous Yarrow
September's one of those in-between months, in my opinion. While it has
a lot
to do with the end of meteor shower season, the longer shadows and
shortening
days, ripening apples, and garden harvests, I think it goes all the way
back
to grade school. September was the end of summer; it was the beginning
of
another school year. An in-between month.
A lot of stuff gets unnoticed during in-between months. Even something
like
Yarrow.
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That End-of-Summer Vibe, Monkshood, and the Wolf Man
Monkshood!
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A Couple of Columbines
Two species of columbine, which leapt at me from out of a field guide and a southern Utah seep, remind me of how much more I have to learn about wildflowers. I had no idea so many varieties of columbine were native to North America, beginning with Coville's Columbine and Golden Columbine...
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Which Mint is Which?
I guess I could have called this article Something Minty, but I was getting a little confused as to which mint was which.
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Extreme Paintbrushes
Okay, so maybe they’re not “extreme” as such, but there are a few paintbrushes out there cut of a slightly different cloth compared to the rest.
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Same Name, Different Flower
The Rocky Mountains are the borderland between the east and the west. Oh sure, this side is called the high plateau, and the short grass prairies of the area gradually become the tallgrass prairies as you head eastward, and we call this the Central Plains, but it's still just east, isn't it? You go up and over these Rocky Mt. peaks and it is a different world. Even the Blazing Stars aren't the same thing.
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Two Ends of an Elephant
...this week, I'm going to dabble with wildflowers named for two ends of an elephant: Little Elephant's Head (Pedicularis attolens) and Elephant's Foot ( Elephantopus carolinianus). (Phew! Elephant’s Foot and not, well, the other.)
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Something Science Fictiony about Passionflower
I don’t know if I can describe the blossom of a Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata). I can tell you the plant has lot going for it. It has an edible fruit, and has been a favored herbal tea. It has a long history in herbal medicine. It is a host plant for the larvae of a half-dozen so butterflies. And those indescribable flowers make it a gardener’s favorite when there’s a place for a climbing or trailing vine.
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Bouncing Bet
Last week I got us started in July with the glories of Royal Catchfly (Silene regia), a member of the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae). This week, I think I'll keep it in the family and write about Bouncing Bet ()Saponaria officinalis), or Soapwort, as it has also been known.
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Royal Catchfly
When July rolls around, and my mind turns to wildflowers, I think ‘prairies,’ and Royal Catchfly nudges its way to the front row.
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Desert Christmas Trees and Sand Food
... we spotted a very unusual desert wildflower as we dropped down toward the Mojave. It was a small, almost fungus-looking cone-shaped thing with some elegant purple star-shaped flowers scattered about on it. It was Desert Christmas Tree!
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Chinese Houses
On more than one occasion I’ve written about some wildflower I had seen in a field guide and, because I was so immediately and ridiculously smitten with it, I just knew I would never be lucky enough to see it face-to-flower. And always, unexpectedly, I would round a corner and there it would be, the current wildflower of my fickle dreams. Once such dreamboat of a blossom are Chinese Houses.
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Beating a Dead Horse to Hamburger
Gardening is a grand and glorious adventure, and I can’t think of a better way to learn about the environment. Filling the yard with ornamentals is like Van Gogh splashing bold brushstrokes of color across a canvas, and many of these non-native beauties do provide a nectar source for butterflies – back in Ohio you could always find several potted Lantanas scattered about, providing color and nectar. But focusing on native species contributes to the health of your local environment, and encourages wildlife to visit your yard.
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Skullcap: Little Blue Ferengi Busts
Now I'm no Star trek fan, and I wouldn't know a Ferengi if it bit me on the bum, but I had channel surfed past enough episodes of Deep Space 9 to know that the flowers of Skullcap look like these creatures.
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Peas You Might Not Notice
A couple of June-blooming peas you might not notice are Birdsfoot Trefoil and Alfalfa.
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Larkspurs
I was paging through a field guide the other day and some dried leaves fell out. They were larkspur leaves, from species I came across last spring in California. Like so many wildflower species, there seems to be many, many more kinds of larkspur west of the Rockies than in the east. Actually, only three come to mind; two of them are spring bloomers.
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New England Wildflower Society and Saving an Endangered Cinquefoil
I recently received an e-mail from Debra Strick of the New England Wild Flower Society, letting me know she and they were there: "As you may know, the New England Wild Flower Society is America's oldest plant conservation institution, with many stories to share about events, plant advice, and earth-friendly gardening. We have a staff of experts who are great resources on plant conservation, horticulture, native plants, ecologically appropriate choices, and
much more."
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Salad Bar Lilies
Last week I wrote, “I was going to write something about Indian Cucumber Root. I knew it was edible, so I began doing some investigating in that area and what do I find? It is only one of many lilies that have edible parts (and no, they don't taste like chicken).” So what about some of those other lilies fit for a salad bar?
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Indian Cucumber Root and Edible Lilies
I was going to write something about Indian Cucumber Root because it blooms now, is kind of unusual looking, and is scarce. I knew it was edible, so I began doing some investigating in that area and what do I find (he asked rhetorically)? It is only one of many lilies that have edible parts (and no, they don’t taste like chicken).
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An Old Redneck and Goldenseal
I have an old redneck who looked down his bulbous nose at this “Gottdamn hippy” to thank for the opportunity to find Goldenseal in the woods…
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Rose-elf and Fairy-spuds
Ya gotta love a wildflower if it’s called Spring Beauty. Even Poison Ivy or Garlic Mustard would seem more likeable if either were called Spring Beauty. But they’re not. Only Spring Beauties are … well … Spring Beauties. And they are. Beauties, that is.
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Western Poppies
… western Poppies seem a little less subtle, a lot more anxious for attention. They come on trees. They are brightly colored. They cover hundreds and hundreds of acres. The have flowers as big as saucers. And they are out in the open, covering hillsides, filling in roadsides, daring you to not see them. They are as loud and brash as their eastern cousins are quiet and somewhat bashful.
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Eastern Poppies
I got ya started on Poppies last week; let’s keep goin’, beginning with eastern species.
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Dorothy's Poppies
All across North America, poppies are unfolding their petals, some white, some yellow, some reddish, and of course some orange.
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Shooting Stars
Those of you who know me know I majored in astronomy. Those of you who know me better know that I spent a quarter of a century plotting meteors and recording meteor shower data, mostly of the Perseid meteor shower in August. Given this, it shouldn't be difficult for you to imagine how sublimely pleasing it was for me to finally come across my first Shooting Stars along the Blue Ridge Parkway three years back.
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Incongruous Cactus Flowers
Is there anything more incongruous than a prickly cactus in the middle of barren, dusty desert, covered with flowers? Think of it. A cactus with flowers, and often brightly colored flowers at that.
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A Couple of Candles
Two "candles" that bloom in the spring.
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Early Season Primroses
Phloxes aren’t alone as they spread across another season of wildflowers in places like southern California; chances are you’re going to run into a nice variety of Evening Primroses.
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Early Season Phlox
As another season of wildflowers leans into it and begins to really pick up some momentum, chances are you are going to cross paths with some member of the Phlox Family (Polemoniaceae).
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Unfamiliar Cousins
We’re all familiar with bright orange California poppies, whether we live in California, or have grown them in our back yard back east. The same is true for the many types of Salvia; we’re all familiar with the aromatic Sage we use in our cooking, as well as the many bedding varieties. And as for milkweed, well forget about it. Milkweed is either an annoying weed that ruins the flow of your lawn (and shame on you for feeling like that), or it is must-have treasure in the butterfly garden. But ya know, sometimes the fruit falls a little further from the tree; each of these familiar faces has a cousin or two that is, if not a secret, then certainly something the family doesn’t talk about.
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The First Wave
Early in the season the botanical tides wash ashore as Baby Blue-eyes and Cream Cups and Popcorn flowers. But the first big wave that sends us scurrying for higher ground usually drenches us in sunshiny Goldfields and somewhat darker Fiddlenecks.
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Paintbrush in February
… the Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae) gets a jump on the season during February in southern California in the form of a couple of paintbrushes, with many more to follow. Many, many more.
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Four O’clocks in February
Beach dunes and chaparrals are a good place to look for wildflowers during February in southern California. You'll find a variety of species there you won't find anywhere else, at any other time. One family well represented is the Four O’clock Family (Nyctaginaceae.) It includes the sand verbenas (Mirabilis) and Four O’clocks (Abronia,) as well the popular ornamental species of Bougainvillea.
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Bermuda Wood Sorrel
Last winter in southern California I marveled at all the big, bushy yellow wildflowers in bloom, all of which were Encelia or Coreopsis species. They were big, showy things, in your face and impossible to ignore. But there was another rather ubiquitous yellow wildflower in bloom, nearly a ground cover but often so widespread it was every bit as impossible to ignore as Giant Coreopsis or Bush Sunflowers. That was Bermuda Wood Sorrel.
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Old Photos and Lookin’ Ahead
It’s time to move on, look ahead to 2004 … oh … and have a look at a couple or three old photos I recently came across.
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers – Mt. Dana in July
Heading to Yosemite in late July, I certainly expected the rainbow parade to be long gone. It was summer; it was dry; many of the rocky peaks were still snow-covered; all reasons to expect little more than a dandelion or two. Well, I was wrong, and for all the amazing and breathtaking wildflower sights of the previous months, I found I could still be amazed. (Yes Virginia, there are still wildflowers.)
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers - Twin Lakes and Tioga Pass
So many of my adventures in nature have been the result of being in the right place at the right time. My latest addition to my litany of well-timed nature encounters has been the 2003 season of wildflowers in California. It culminated in July, with a visit to Twin Lakes and Yosemite.
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers - Yosemite, San Bernadino Mts, Kernville
While my wife and I were settling in in southern California, winter was dropping just the right amount of moisture on places that would respond with explosions of rainbows. In April, after visiting many of the same areas more than once, we traveled further north, up to the western side of Yosemite. Though we got snowed on, the lower elevations were in bloom.
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers - Lake Isabella, Anza-Borrego, Antelope Valley
While my wife and I were settling in in southern California, winter was dropping just the right amount of moisture on places that would respond with explosions of rainbows. By March we were finding these floral explosions near and far ...
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers - the Western Mojave Desert
My wife and I started the year in Long Beach, where we discovered such new wildflowers as Bush Sunflower and Giant Coreopsis and Sea Dahlias. Meanwhile, winter was dropping just the right amount of moisture on places that would respond with explosions of rainbows. We had no idea the carnival of colors, or new species of wildflowers that lurked in our future. As it turned out, 2003 was one bodacious year for wildflowers in California, and we were knee deep in it and sinking fast.
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2003: A Season of California Wildflowers
Winter dropped just the right amount of moisture on places that would respond with explosions of rainbows. We had no idea the carnival of colors, and all the new species of wildflowers we would cross paths with over the next several months in California.
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Plant Families: Commelinaceae and Convolvulaceae
Two families, the Spiderwort Family and the Morning Glory Family, might be considered weedy things, but they produce such lovely flowers so generously filled up with pigments you'd think they would drip color.
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Plant Families: Chenopodiaceae and Cistaceae
Briefly, the Goosefoot and Rockrose Families.
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Myth and Folklore: Cornflower, Columbine and Coltsfoot
A little myth and folklore in the closets of Cornflower, Columbine, and coltsfoot
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Even in November ...
Last November my wife and I had a job interview in Napa Valley. Since were living in the southern Sierra Nevadas at the time, so far from the coast, we decided to swing over to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, as it is known to the terminally hip of California) for part of our journey home. The scenery, of course, was fantastic; the assortment of wildflowers was ... well ... surprising.
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Somethin' Seasonal
A little somethin' seasonal from the kitchen of Granny Grumous, the witch over at Wart's Nebbish
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Myth and Folklore: Cactus
Dominating an otherwise unfriendly landscape, cactus itself not an altogether inviting plant what with its spiny exterior, it’s little wonder it found its way into the lore of Native Americans.
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High and Dry
In this part of the country - the southwestern U.S. - wildflowers dwindle to scattered populations here and there, popping up in dry places, and at higher elevations, in wet mountain meadows.
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Autumn Colors
... autumn is upon us. That intimates something more profoundly colorful for some places, something more comfortable in others. In any case, it sweeps us up in a flashflood of autumn colors.
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End of Summer Lupines
Here it is, the last day of September. We’re already more than a week into autumn. How is that possible? Where does the time get to? And more importantly, how can there be more lupines to write about?
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Wingstem Memories
There really isn’t much to say about Wingstem. It is yet one more lovely wildflower unknown to many folks. It blooms late in the summer. It does sway in the breezes of my memories, bright yellow in a perfect meadow, a near-unguent to soothe a weary spirit.
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Goldenrods: The Severest Punishment or Sun Medicine?
In 1901 Mabel Wright wrote, “(Goldenrods) are a byword among plant students, who say that if a botanist is ever condemned to the severest punishment that the underworld can mete, the penalty will be to write a monograph, accurately describing and identifying all known goldenrods.”
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Goldenrod as a Metaphor
Goldenrod. If any wildflower is an explosion of color, its goldenrod. Summer wanes, the sun drifts southward, evening falls earlier and the nights last longer, all reasons to roll over and suck my thumb. But then there’s that damn goldenrod; bursts of sunshine in a flower, parting clouds and reeking of glee.
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Big fat bees, Baltimore butterflies and Turtlehead
Because of the flower’s design, Turtlehead relies upon big fat bees to pollinate them. The hairs on the lower lip are too great an obstacle for wingless insects get by, and it takes a strong stroke for any winged insects to force their way into the tubular flower, never mind forcing aside the sterile stamen to get at the nectar. Hence big fat bees ...
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Ironweed
I thought I’d write about ironweed. I mean, look, I have this really nice photo of ironweed and sunflowers from an Indiana prairie; it captures the essence of the late-summer blooming season, the royal King Arthur kind of purple against the golden sunny glow of the sunflowers. It’s Mother Nature gardening with an artist’s flair. The problem is, I’m not sure I have a lot to say about ironweed.
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Not Obviously Peas
There are about 17,000 species in about 640 genera in the Pea Family. Lots of them are kind of weedy - White clover, Alsike clover (T. hybridum), Yellow and White Sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis and M. alba), Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) - but there are some other eye treats in the family; cousins which don’t look like cousins. Three such species immediately come to mind; Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), Leadplant (Amorpha canescens), and Sensitive Briar (Mimosa quadrivalvis).
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Peas in August
There are about 17,000 species in about 640 genera in the Pea Family. Lots of them are kind of weedy - White clover, Alsike clover (T. hybridum), Yellow and White Sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis and M. alba), Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) - but Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia virginiana) and Spurred Butterfly Pea (Centrosema virginianum) just won’t have any of it.
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Noticing Peas
There are about 17,000 species in about 640 genera in the Pea Family. Lots of them are kind of weedy - White clover, Alsike clover (T. hybridum), Yellow and White Sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis and M. alba), Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) - but some are more defiant, with big showy flowers, splashes of color, aggressive abundance. Some are butterfly host plants, or nectar sources.
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Beastly Thistles; Part 2
Thistles are attractive to wildlife; they are also attractive to some people for their fragrance, and sometimes their appearance. But somehow, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to completely overcome the beastly stigma of being, well, beastly.
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Beastly Thistles; Part 1
Thistles, being a wildflower and prickly, are easy to regard as beastly things. Even God had this to say to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you.”
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Fits of Poetry and Evening-primrose
With a sultry summer evening draped over us like a sweet scented, wet bear hug, my daughter and I sat in the grass, huddled around the Common Evening-primrose. Slowly, the flower’s four petals began to separate, gradually opening to reveal the cross-shaped stigma within. A whiff of just the sort of sweet fragrance you’d expect of the night tickled our noses.
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Prairies; They Make July Special As Well
July and prairies are inseparable in my mind. They reach peak bloom. They attract butterflies and birds and unseen four-legged creatures. They are a unique environment that has evolved to tolerate summer heat and drought. They are the pinnacle of summer, a wildflower paradise, but don’t take my word for it; see for yourself.
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Milkweed; Making July Special
July has always meant three things to me; meteor showers, prairies, butterflies. Sometimes particularly butterflies. My central Ohio garden always became a lepidoptera social club in July, thanks, in no small part, to Common Milkweed.
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A Couple Wet-loving Wildflowers
Yerba Mansa and Golden-club, a couple of aquatic plants...
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What About Indian Pink?
Ya know, ya just don’t hear much about Indian Pink (Spigelia merilandica).
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Flower for a Day
Asiatic Dayflower, as its name so succinctly reveals, is a non-native from Asia, with flowers that last but a single day. What it doesn’t tell us is how lovely these primarily blue flowers are, or that they are “primarily” blue rather than completely blue because they do have a third, rather insignificant lower white petal.
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Love-sick Knights, Forget-Me-Nots and More
According to one legend, a brave young knight was questing about, looking for dragons to slay and Black Knights to smote ... then he saw her, a beautiful maiden. Leaping from the back of his steed, the knight stumbled towards a stream’s edge where he did wrap his gauntlet-clad hand around a bunch of beautiful blue flowers; a gift for the comely young maiden. But alas, drunk on love and carelessly so, the knight tumbled mightily into the water. He sank with a sickening zeal, but not before throwing the flowers toward the maiden and proclaiming, “Forget me not!”
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A Snob Notices Cinquefoil
I admit it; I’m somewhat of snob where wildflowers are concerned. Yellow wildflowers I almost certainly ignore ... which explains why I’ve paid so little attention to cinquefoil; any type of cinquefoil.
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A Closer Look
Some wildflowers deserve a closer look. Oops. All wildflowers deserve a closer look. Some, though, really deserve a closer look. Miami Mist, for example.
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A Barrel Full of Monkey Flowers
The first monkey flower I ever saw was Sharp-winged Monkey Flower. That was in Ohio. A few years later I found Lewis Monkey Flower in California. Both species produced lovely pink and yellow flowers, bloomed during the summer months, and thrived in wet habitats. Perhaps, I thought, these similar species separated by more than twenty-five hundred miles were a Cliff’s Notes to monkey flowers; wet-loving, pink and summery. As I have just discovered, nothing could be further from the truth.
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Ohio’s Rarest Plant, the Lakeside Daisy
There are more than 200 plants currently listed as endangered in Ohio. The rarest of these is probably the Lakeside Daisy.
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The Springtime Blues
I suffer the springtime blues. Even here, in southern California, where palm trees sway and surfers wax their boards, I cannot escape the springtime blues. But these blues aren’t blown through a harmonica, twanged on a guitar or sobbed at an indifferent bartender. These blues attract bees, smell of sweet perfume and burst from the soil. These blues are spring wildflowers...
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Roses are Red; Violets aren’t...
Violets that aren’t purple; there are a gazillion of ‘em!
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Indian Warrior and Wood Betony: Cross-Country Cousins
Driving through the mountains of San Luis Obispo County, I came upon a recently burned area. It was a stark landscape, the kind of barren rugged slopes where mindless villagers could be spotted, relentlessly pursuing Frankenstein’s misunderstood monster. But green was spreading over the ground like pool table felt, and birds were tittering merrily in the emerging brush. And here and there I noticed feathery plumes of bright red jutting up from the ground as if a flock of redbirds were mooning the world.
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Not Lupines Again...?
During one of our recent forays into the California spring, where blue and purple phacelias grow with Goldfields, and pink Shooting Stars give way to sky blue Baby Blue-eyes, my wife and I discussed - with humor - my annual obsession with some new wildflower. Last year it was lupine. This year, I have stumbled upon three new lupines; Stinging Lupine, Collar Lupine, and Yellow Bush Lupine.
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Appreciating Spring
In southern California, where winter happens somewhere else and flowers bloom year ‘round, it might be easy to lose sight of what spring means to folks in Ohio or Indiana or North Carolina, all places where winter has spit me out into the warm motherly embrace of the Vernal Equinox. Perhaps my attitude has grown fat and lazy, but I hope not. Though I have been blessed with a bounty of tolerable weather and winter-long wildflowers this year, I can still feel the wonder and the glee that only spring can polish my silver with.
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Really Big (and a little weird) Coreopsis
Two March-blooming species of Coreopsis are exceptionally eye-catching, not just for their yellow explosions of blossoms, but for their size. These are Giant Coreopsis and Sea Dahlia, and they are really big Coreopsis.
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Bloodroot; a Bloody Good Poppy
When we think of poppies, we think of orange California Poppies, or scarlet Oriental Poppies; showy flowers that unfold brightly colored petals. Perfect, pure white flowers typically don’t come to mind, particularly if they blossom early in the season, when green is still a rumor and frost not uncommon. But such a poppy exists and, in eastern North America, is a common early spring wildflower. It’s Bloodroot.
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Cow’s Udders Aside: Bitter Buttercups
A couple weeks back, in “Myth and Folklore: Buttercups”, I wrote of dairy farmers rubbing the flowers on cow’s udders to help make their milk rich with golden cream. I wrote of beggars in Europe who once rubbed buttercup juice on their skin to raise sores, which would in turn encourage passersby to be more generous with their alms. All this and other folklore aside, buttercups are easily recognized and much beloved wildflowers, which get a leg up on the scenery as early as February, and last well into the summer.
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Particularly Irises
Many wildflowers are a dazzling sight to behold. And some are almost too orderly and horticultural-seeming to be wildflowers; irises for example. Or maybe particularly irises.
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Myth and Folklore: Buttercups
Shiny buttercups were once thought to give butter its deep luscious golden color in the spring. Dairy farmers were so convinced of this, some went so far as to rub the flowers on the cow’s udders, as well as hang the flowers over the barn door, to help make the milk rich with golden cream.
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Sunflower Bushes and Moral Dilemmas
Southern California in the middle of the winter takes a little getting used to. With all the sunshine, blue skies, and Bush Sunflowers it is sinfully pleasurable, and creates a kind of moral dilemma. But that’s the kind of a moral dilemma I can live with.
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Plant Families: Caprifoliaceae and Caryophyllaceae
Honeysuckles and Pinks, two Families with a reputation.
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Fritillaria: Culture In the Wild?
Economies have waxed and waned on the value of a tulip. People have lied, cheated, stolen and killed for an orchid. And here these were, these
sip-your-tea-with-your-pinkie-in-the-air lilies - Mission Bells - growing on a slope overlooking the ocean,
nearly hidden among the grass. It seemed an awful lot of culture in the wild, largely
unnoticed no less.
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Myth and Folklore: Birthwort
Birthwort. The very name has the reek of folklore; a plant (‘wort’) useful in childbirth,
and perhaps other female conditions. Actually, it has had a much wider range of applications.
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Plant Families: Campanulaceae and Cannabinaceae
The Hemp and Bluebell Families; we know well. Do either grow in your garden?
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Ice Plant; The Best of Intentions Gone Awry
How many times in life do we do things with the best of intentions, only to find ourselves
knee-deep in something less than desirable, and definitely not expected? Where
wildflowers are concerned, this means non-native species. Purple Loosestrife and Scotch Broom are two examples. Another non-native species, which may or may not be another example of the best of
intentions gone awry, is Ice Plant.
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Odds and Ends From 2002
Last year I was one lucky wildflower lover. I enjoyed a host of new wildflowers in California during the early spring, familiar old blossoms in Ohio during late spring, and wildflowers along the Gulf Coast over the summer. And now, after driving across 7 states, through still more new wildflowers, I’m back in California, restless to get through winter, into spring and who knows what new wildflowers. In the meantime, we do have winter to wrap up, and before I start learning new wildflowers in 2003, I have a little unfinished business from 2002.
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Myth and Folklore: Dangerous Datura
In wildflowers, nothing spells myth and folklore like chemistry; compounds found in plants that do dastardly things to a body. A poster child for botany with pharmacological implications, not to mention myth and folklore is the genus Datura, in the Nightshade (Solanaceae) clan.
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Plant Families: Cactaceae
And then there's the Cactus Family. We're all familiar with it, even if we've never actually walked among cacti in the wild. They are the tall prickly things that grow in cowboy movies, framing coyotes howling at the full moon as it rises in a lavender dusk sky. They scoff at nature's harshest weather, baking in the hot desert sun, and slumbering in the arid chill of night. They are rugged, primitive and exotic. Cacti are survivors.
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Myth and Folklore: Asters
According to my dictionary, botany is “a branch of biology dealing with plant life”. That’s pretty succinct, huh? And the word “biology” keeps it all within the confines of science. But many wildflowers have more of a story than simply a “botanical” one. Many wildflowers have rich, or at least entertaining histories in folklore and myth, where science was a lot more bendable, and it wasn’t all pistils and sepals. And when it was all pistils and sepals, it was something mysterious, cosmic even. Asters, for example.
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Uh Oh, Plant Families: Brassicaceae and Bromliaceae
Last year, during the slow dark months of winter, I wrote about plant families. It wasn't a pretty sight. Readers gnawed off legs for boredom. Eyedrop sales soared. Optometrists were inexplicably busy. Let's start with something peppery, the Mustard Family.
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Magical Wildflowers
Considering the evolution of humans, it's perfectly logical that some wildflowers were considered magical. Botany got its start in folk medicine and magic, just as astronomy got a jumpstart from astrology. But there are those who still believe in the magical properties of plants.
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Wildflowers At 70 MPH: Arizona's Botanical Rainbow
...scratching that Jack Kerouac itch alone a grand adventure, our trip across the southwestern U.S. was a gluttonous voyage of wildflowers, nearly culminating with the Composites of Arizona. But we weren’t finished. We still had to roll up our pants legs and wade through a botanical rainbow.
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Wildflowers At 70 MPH: Arizona Composites
With the spirit of Jack Kerouac, leaving the Gulf of Mexico, returning to California, blah, blah, blah.... I’ve written all about that, as well as the variety and abundance of wildflowers we saw all along the way. Even in New Mexico, a place where I expected tumbleweed and buzzards, the wildflowers were tooth-rotting eye candy. Well, dial up the dentist. Arizona was more of the same.
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Wildflowers At 70 MPH: New Mexico
With the spirit of Jack Kerouac never far from the surface, my wife and I jumped all over the opportunity to return to California. Across the bottom of Mississippi, up through Louisiana and into Texas, highways were lined with sunflowers, varieties of goldenrod, Mistflower, and golden asters. And once we got into Oklahoma the most abundant wildflower was Maximilian Sunflower, a gorgeous species top heavy with blossoms. Such variety and abundance surprised me. After such bounty, I thought, New Mexico would surely be a barren, dusty landscape. After all, it was October. What else could possibly be blooming? Lots. Lots and lots.
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Wildflowers At 70 MPH: Maximilian Sunflower
On the first leg of our trip west, across the bottom of Mississippi, up through Louisiana and into Texas, highways were lined with sunflowers, varieties of goldenrod, Mistflower, and golden asters. At rest stops and exit ramps I was able to identify Buffalo Bur, Camphorweed and Grass-leaved Golden Aster. The rest of the wildflowers, racing by at 70 mph, would have to be part of the scenery. In Texas, as we neared Oklahoma, a new sunflower entered the mix, becoming more abundant once we crossed the border.
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Wildflowers At 70 MPH: Leaving the Deep South
Crossing new territory late in October, I didn’t know what, if any wildflowers I would see. I wasn’t disappointed. I was frustrated however. Watching wildflowers race by at 70 MPH is like watching a kid who runs faster than you make off with your Easter basket. Mississippi and southern Louisiana highways were lined with sunflowers, varieties of goldenrod, Mistflower, and asters of another sort.
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Late-Blooming Sneezeweed
You would think a wildflower that goes by the name of Sneezeweed, and has a blooming period that overlaps with that of Ragweed, would get blamed for all sorts of allergies. But it doesn't. Not even runny noses. Mostly it just gets overlooked and ignored. A lot of folks, I suspect, don't even know such a plant exists, even in places where it is abundant.
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Adam’s Fig Leaf?
Great Burdock is a dramatic, science fiction-big plant. A bane to gardeners and a boon to herbalists, it produces burs in the autumn that grab onto anything that brushes up against it, insuring seed dispersal far and wide.
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That %&sh79#% Ragweed
And then there's that %&sh79#% ragweed. Unattractive, unnoticeable, ignored and overlooked, ragweed - two ragweeds actually, Common Ragweed and Great Ragweed - are perhaps more deserving of botanical epithets than any other wildflower save Poison Ivy.
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Liatris Do-Over
After three months of sandy beaches, Laughing Gulls and the relentless ebb and flow of the tide, my wife and I drove inland, in search of something new, or, if not that, something different. We were rewarded with a prairie-like piece of ground full of small butterflies and 6' tall spikes of Blazing Star and the much shorter, fewer-flowered Scaly Blazing Star.
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Asters of Another Sort
Summer is over. Sunflowers lean over wearily, burdened by the weight of their seeds. Apples, red and ripe, litter the ground beneath the trees from which they've fallen. Evening drapes its pastel fabric over the sky a little earlier each night. And all across the land Asters are in bloom. But some Asters aren't Asters at all. That is, they are not members of the Aster genus. Maryland Golden Asters, for example
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Clematis In the Wild
Any gardener who loves flowering vines is on a first name basis with Clematis. A member of the Buttercup Family, Clematis boasts more than 200 species and lord knows how many cultivars. A handful of those 200 species are North American wildflowers.
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Garden Variety Roadside Weeds
In our travels around the country, my wife and I have been amazed by the usual stuff; the craggy peaks of the Rockies, the utter horizontal-ness of Kansas, the ancient towering Redwoods of northern California, the honey and syrup sunrises over the Gulf of Mexico. But more than that, the usual stuff, we marvel at the range of wildflowers that have turned up all over the country. In Mississippi that means roadsides littered with garden-variety flowers.
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In Yoda’s Backyard
A day on the Gulf is a day in a Shaman's sweat lodge wrapped in heavy wet blankets. The humidity has weight. Out in the bayou, with the 'gators and the tree frogs, it can buckle your knees. But if a little gnome like Yoda can take it, so can I. Besides, there's a whole 'nother world of wildflowers out there.
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Yellow Coneflowers
Yellow Coneflowers are happy, bright splashes of sunshine in prairies, open spaces, light woodlands, and along roadsides, just where you’d expect late-summer bloomers to be. Oh, and they are popular with gardeners.
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Seaside Gentian, More Psychedelia
To call Seaside Gentian flowers conspicuous is a bit like saying the universe has a lot of elbow room. They are skinny model-on-the runway stunning. They are Joseph’s-Coat-of-Many-Colors beautiful. They are peace-love-dove psychedelic.
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Monarda, Wildflowers Gardeners Invite In
I had no qualms when it came to “inviting’ wildflowers into the garden. It was all fair game in my yard. Other gardeners are not so enthusiastic, and many wildflowers are considered to be nothing more than backyard pests. The enemy. Weeds. A few wildflowers, however, are so lovely their, ahem, pedigree is overlooked, and soil is eagerly turned for them somewhere in the flower bed. Varieties of Monarda, for example.
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Startling Orange
Where wildflowers are concerned, I’ve always found the orange ones to be truly startling. Sure, those scarlet stars in a green cosmos are startling. And a hillside covered in lupine and Owl’s Clover is certainly startling. But a patch of Butterflyweed? Startling. And Orange Hawkweed, tiny bursts of setting-sun orange, perched upon a slender fuzzy stem? Startling. These are really orange wildflowers, and they are clearly committed to being orange. They are not bashful about it in the least. And who can blame them?
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Would the Real Black-eyed Susan Please Stand Up?
I have just spent two months working in a local greenhouse and nursery. I got to share my knowledge, learn some new things, and help folks make a lot of gardening decisions. Much of my input often fell on deaf ears, whether it was steering them away from some invasive non-native, suggesting letting the Common Milkweed grow in their yards, or sorting out the Yellow Coneflowers from the Black-eyed Susans.
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Redwoods, Bigfoot, and Calypso Orchids
It’s easy to see why Bigfoot calls the Redwoods ‘home’. They are gloriously huge and magnificent and primeval, and they are some of the Earth’s best work. Another example of some of the Earth’s best work can be found growing among the giant Redwoods, in the ferny, mossy understory below. Every bit as magnificent, Calypso Orchids (Calypso bulbosa) rise up out of the rich compost of fallen and decaying trees like jewels spilled out of a pirate‘s treasure chest.
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Politely Carnivorous Pitcher Plants
Pitcher Plants (Sarraceniaceae Family) are politely mannered, napkin in lap, might I enquire as to the source of that piquant flavor carnivorous, digesting insects in a fashion which suggests chewing each bite 32 times.
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Scarlet Stars in a Green Cosmos
Whether subtle or obvious, small or large, most wildflowers don’t have to do much work to get seen. Some require you at least be paying attention, but most find a way to get themselves noticed. Every now and then, something can be truly breathtaking, even if you’ve seen it before. Hiking a path through the woods in California this spring, I had my first encounter with such a wildflower. My wife saw it first, but rather than call my attention to it, she allowed me to discover it for myself. To do otherwise would have been a bit like her opening my birthday presents for me.
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A Couple More Peas
Tomcat Clover and Tangier Pea are at opposite ends of the spectrum in the Pea Family. Similarly colored, the first sports clusters of small flowers, while the second boasts billboard-sized blossoms. Both create spectacular displays.
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Bird’s-eye Gilia, a Psychedelic Work of Art
Wild Blue Phlox is one of Ohio’s loveliest and most common wildflowers. Years of spring hikes have me on a first name basis with it. This past spring, in California, I became acquainted with an even lovelier cousin, Bird’s-eye Gilia
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Stuff That Looks Like Dandelions
Dandelions are ubiquitous, but they aren’t alone out there. A variety of wildflowers look like dandelions, but the differences are easy enough to spot.
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Despicable Daisies
Who would think that something as lovely and innocent looking as an Ox-eye Daisy could be considered despicable? It’s almost slanderous. But it’s true. It’s a baneful plant where some insects are concerned, and folks have not always held it in high regard.
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Shocking the World with Wild Geraniums
In the 1780’s German scientist Christian Sprengel shocked the world when he revealed that insects were responsible for the pollination of many flowers. This he based on studies of a European variety of Geranium. And he didn’t stop there.
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Yanking and Bagging Garlic Mustard
Garlic Mustard truly threatens native plant diversity, as well as any wildlife that depends upon those native plants. For my money, yanking and bagging is the best bet - and don’t forget to get those roots. If you don’t, they will simply sprout new life.
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The Thrill of Columbine
Unlike its pumped up, steroid-engorged, centerfold-beautiful cultivated cousins, Wild Columbine is a delicate fay flower of exquisite beauty, preferring the quiet woodland life in cliffs and rocky outcroppings to large colonies or barren roadsides. Coming upon them in the woods is as magical a surprise as finding the fairies these lovely blossoms suggest
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Trout Lilies: Droppers, Deep Corms and a Kind of Seven Year Itch
One of the most noticeable and abundant eastern wildflowers of spring is the Trout Lily. Funny thing is, when you happen upon a large colony of them, what you are likely to find underfoot are hundreds upon hundreds of the brown-mottled elliptical leaves, but no flowers!
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New Faces in the Waterleaf Family
The Waterleaf Family gives us many species throughout the spring and summer. Two of its most beautiful members, familiar ol’ Miami Mist and new face Baby Blue-eyes, growing at opposite ends of the country, are each spring-blooming species, in full bloom now. And both are good reasons to become familiar with the Waterleaf Family.
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Lupines!
The Lupines that lured us to California were primarily Brewer’s Lupine, an unusual Lupine because it is a dwarf, matted or tufted plant, and Broad-leaf Lupine, a much bigger species, which prefers moist areas (Brewer’s Lupine likes it dry). Though no one said it, someone could’ve have told us, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
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Photos, Field Guides and My First California Spring
Here, in California, where the land ranges from below sea level to more then 2 miles up, it’s an opportunity to cram several weeks’ progression of wildflowers into a single day. My wife and I did just that, for 4 days.
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Trilliums I Found
Though there ares some Trilliums I haver never seen, as a result of a my midlife travels, I have found Prairie Trillium in Indiana, and Yellow Trillium, Painted Trillium and Purple or Red Trillium in North Carolina.
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Trilliums I Have Missed
In the two years since we left Ohio, we’ve lived on Lake Michigan, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and now in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. It has been a carrousel of nature, and in those two years we have, not even once, regretted our decision, looked back over our shoulders, or missed Ohio. Of course, that is not entirely true. I never got to see Snow Trillium, an early bloomer that has a very limited range in Ohio. I never came across Catesby’s Trillium in North Carolina.
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Hepatica, An Early Sign of Spring, and the Doctrine of Signatures
It was called “The Doctrine of Signatures”, and it was where the medicinal properties of a plant were determined by its shape. Early bloomer Round-lobed Hepatica is a perfect example.
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More Photos, Field Guides, and Early Bloomers (Again)
Our escape to Point Reyes was more than putting distance between us and that mountaintop B and B. It was also a chance to see a colony of breeding Elephant Seals and get acquainted with new wildflowers. At Chimney Rock we were able to park and hike. It was like approaching the Emerald City through that field of poppies; all sorts of new wildflowers awaited discovery.
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More Photos, Field Guides, and Early Bloomers
Winter has been resolute in its heavy-handed oppression of our spirit, so it was great glee we raced down the mountain, finding spring waiting for us at about 4,000’, getting ever springier all the way to the coast. Bright yellow American Winter Cress was ubiquitous, a constant companion throughout our descent into spring. And it brought back memories of bird-watching trips to Lake Erie, where Winter Cress covered fields like carpet remnants from the 70’s.
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A Tale of Two or Three Violets
Many violets are difficult to identify. That's why I started with Birds-foot and Long-spurred Violets.
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Lust For Spring Leads to Coltsfoot
Thumbing through field guides of western species I’ve come across Coltsfoot and Western Coltsfoot, both early bloomers. Back east Coltsfoot is a well-known and welcome early sign of spring. It has yellow, dandelion-like flowers, while the western Coltsfoot and Western Coltsfoot have white to pinkish flowers. Gets confusing, doesn’t it?
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Plant Families: Bignoniaceae and Boraginaceae
Bright colors, aggressive vines and five o’clock shadows hold sway this week. Reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples all blossom and bloom, decorating the landscape with festive abandon. Coiled tendrils unwind, grasping onto absolutely everything they fall across. Plants, hairier than my Uncle Paul, wear their flowers like gaudy costume jewelry. Many of these wildflowers, if not well known, are certainly recognizable by sight. Some even turn up in the garden.
So what are these, these hirsute plants, these plants that won’t let go, these plants that flash us with bold colors, bugger the trench coat?
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Plant Families: Balsaminaceae and Berberidaceae
In my younger days, when I was a wildflower tenderoni and didn‘t know much, I called Jewelweed “Exlpodable Pod Plant”. If you don’t why, wrap your hand around the seed pod of one of these plants, being careful not to touch it until you have completely enclosed it. Pow! These two species account for the majority of the Touch-me-not family in North America. The Barberry Family, a little larger than the Touch-me-not Family with 9 genera and about 600 species, provides us some of our spring wildflowers.
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Plant Families: Asteraceae
Daisies. Asters. Sunflowers. The archetypal flower. The Sunflower (or Daisy, or Thistle, or...) Family. When we think of flowers, these are the types of flowers which come to mind. These are the types of flowers we put in vases and plant in the garden. These are the types of flowers that give us joy, and satisfy some basic botanical void.
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Plant Families: Asclepiadaceae - Milkweed!
Milkweeds are generally known for three things: a) they are the sole food source for Monarch butterfly larvae. b) They have a thick, milky sap and little parachutes attached to each and every seed in alien-looking pods. c) They do not fit into the scheme of the perfectly manicured, tidy, unnatural golf courses suburbanites call lawns and gardens and thus are the enemy. Exterminate! Eradicate! Destroy, destroy, destroy!!!
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Plant Families: Araliaceae and Aristolochiaceae - Ginseng and Birthwort
Woodlands are full of surprises during the spring such as migrating songbirds, delicious morel mushrooms, wildflowers splashed about like pigments on a painter’s pallet, and butterflies, emerging from winter hibernation, fluttering about drunkenly. But some of spring’s surprises, a few a bit like botanical doubloons in a pirate’s treasure chest, are easy to overlook. Three such “treasures”, Ginseng and Dwarf Ginseng, both members of the Ginseng Family, and Wild Ginger of the Birthwort Family, all seem bashful by virtue of their small blossoms.
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Early Bloomers in a New Land
After three weeks of a constantly spinning turnstile here, at the inn, my wife and I finally got away from the mountains and the winter for a couple days, heading for the coast and Point Reyes National Seashore. Imagine our surprise, discovering verdant slopes tumbling into the blue Pacific Ocean, full of life as well as the promise of life. Gray Whales were spouting off-shore, a variety of birds soared and zoomed and fluttered and hovered, a Bobcat hunkered down in the tall grass as we hiked by, Tule Elk foraged here and there, and an assortment of wildflowers were already in bloom.
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Plant Families: Araceae (Particularly Skunk Cabbage)
The Arum family (Araceae) provides us big leafy ornamentals in the garden, a few potted plants in the house, and two of my favorite spring wildflowers, Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) and Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema Triphyllum). But most importantly, these blossoming wildflowers push aside the dark tattered curtains of winter in my life.
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Plant Families: Apocynaceae and Aquifoliaceae
...my first encounter with the Dogbane family(Apocynaceae) came in the form of Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) covered with butterflies, mostly Great-spangled Fritillaries. It was a deep green spring in southern Ohio, full of new life, and, like any wildflower that attracts butterflies; it immediately became one of my favorites.
Every bit as boisterous as many Dogbanes aren’t, the Holly family (Aquifoliaeace) dares you to not notice it.
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Plant Families: Anacardiaceae and Apiaceae
Next up on our quick fly by of plant families are the Cashew (or Sumac) family (Anacardiaceae) and the Carrot (or Parsley) family (Apiaceae or Umbelliferae). The Cashew family is one I try to steer clear of while the Parsley family is one of my favorites.
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Plant Families: Amaranth and Amaryllis
There are 90 species in the Amaranth family in about 60 genera. They are abundant in warm regions and while many species are considered allergy-causing weeds some, such as Celosia are very popular and beautiful additions to gardens.
There are 1,300 species of Amaryllis in abut 86 genera, mostly native of tropical and warm climates. They grow from bulbs or underground stems, have narrow basal leaves and a long, leafless flowering stalk.
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Plant Families: Acanthus and Water Plantain
Acanthaceae, or the Acanthus family This family of herbs and shrubs consists of about 2,600 species in about 250 genera. They are native to temperate and tropical regions, and many are cultivated as ornamentals.
Alismataceae, or the Water Plantain family. This family includes 90 species in about 13 genera. They are widely distributed in shallow freshwater or muddy habitats, and grow in warm temperate regions.
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Folks As An Act of Nature
It’s funny how far we’ve managed to distance ourselves from nature. When a hurricane sweeps across Florida, it is an act of nature. A big, aggressive, destructive act of nature. It might also serve as a Johnny Appleseed of sorts, spreading the seeds of an orchid species that has never before grown on the North American continent. But when a gardener brings, from another continent, a new plant species to the garden, such as Purple Loosestrife or Japanese Honeysuckle, well that’s another story, isn’t it? It’s not an act of nature at all, particularly when the results are as disastrous as those associated with these two plants.
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Wildflower Terminology (With Apologies)
Calyx. What in the world is a calyx? And glabrous? Is that a Star Wars character? What about peduncle? Is that when you’re older than your mother‘s brother? Sadly, these are terms associated with wildflowers, and I would be remiss in my attempts at sharing these bits of botany if I didn’t spend a little time on them. I apologize in advance...or two paragraphs in, anyway. I’ll dwell on some of the basic lingo only, which, in itself, may be cause for an aspirin or two.
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A Kind of Retrospective
Sunlight has just forced open the clouds, draping itself across the pine trees like the snow that fell before it. Winter has found the Sierra Nevada Mountains not with a vengeance, but with a kind of lazy persistence. Not a polar bear by nature, I turn a blind eye to the Ansel Adams landscape, instead contenting myself with my usual cup of coffee and a stack of colorful, warm wildflower photographs. 2001 was a great year of wildflower discovery for me, and a day like this begs for a retrospective.
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A Brief History of Flowers
You ever wonder where wildflowers came from in the first place? Their evolution? Flowering plants, or angiosperms, are believed to have evolved from a now-extinct group of plants called gymnosperms.
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Photos and Field Guides, Part 2
For perhaps the last time this year I impatiently thumbed through a stack of newly processed photos looking for a couple wildflower shots. Armed with my usual stack of field guides, I was hoping to identify a pair of vetch-looking legumes I found along a creek during a mid-October hike.
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All Wildflowers Are Not Created Equal
Not all wildflowers are created equal. Some, though painted in eye-catching hues, are so small they are easy to overlook. Others, no matter how lovely they might be, are so abundant they are regarded as weeds. Some, strangely without color, are much more interesting.
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Boo! Seasonal Wildflower Lore
In “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” a crowd of villagers has adorned the head of an unfortunate woman with a conical hat, and has fastened a long, pointy false nose to her face. Yelling, “Witch! Witch!”, they demand she be burned at the stake, mostly for its entertainment value.
What does this have to do with wildflowers, you ask? Well, it is Halloween, and Halloween is when witches are about, and if anybody could find a use for a wildflower, berry, or bit of tuber, it would be a witch.
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Pukeweed in the Garden
I wouldn’t say wildflowers are notorious for turning up in the garden, but some do find their way into our cultivated beds. When a member of the Bluebell Family finds its way into the flower patch it is an unexpected joy. Even if it's Pukeweed.
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Orchids Make a Good Year Great
As far as wildflowers are concerned, this past year has been an adventure in paradise for me. But what have been relentless in floating to the top of the heap are the orchids.
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Photos and Field Guides Don't Guarantee Easy I.D.
Photographing wildflowers has taken on more significance since I moved to California. With so many new things to see, I don't want to spend too much time hovering over each and every flower, and I can be a world-class hoverer. Instead, I photograph them and move on, leaving identification for later, when I can sit with a field guide, some photos and perhaps a cup of coffee.
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Too Tired for Asters
Okay. I admit it. My enthusiasm for wildflowers wanes with the decline of summer. Asters can be notoriously difficult to identify. One species of aster is often similar to many others. Also, many species hybridize, really muddying the water. By October I’m simply too weary to care. Am I a fair weather wildflower lover, or what?
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Keep An Eye Out For Gentian
My mid-August hike through the meadows and conifers in the Sierra Nevada Mts. was typical. I chased butterflies like a carefree child, peered through binoculars at birds like a peeping tom, and stopped to inspect every new wildflower I saw. It wasn’t until I was walking through the squishy meadow, my boots making embarrassing sucking noises in the goo, that I saw them. Gentians, their small blossoms scattered among the taller grass like velvety blue stars in a Van Gogh sky.
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Wildflowers and Butterflies, a Bit of Nature's Delicate Balance
Butterflies and the wildflowers they depend upon for survival provide us a snapshot of nature’s delicate balance.
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Chicory; spindly, maligned and ironic
Chicory, it’s the object of botanical epithets one minute, sold as a hoity toity salad green the next. It’s considered a weed yet its roasted, ground roots are sold in markets as a coffee additive or substitute. It's spindly, maligned and ironic.
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There's More to Vervain than Anthers and Stigma
Field guides generally don't mention Druids or witches. They say things like, “Calyx usually tubular. Corolla salverform or funnelform. Stamens 4, didynomous.” They never get around to the bits about warding off witches, or how the devil uses an herb. It’s all anthers and stigmas with field guides.
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Blazing-star, Its Secrets Revealed (Ho-Hum)
In the joy of the moment, when you find countless spikes of Liatris rising up from among all that goldenrod, are you going to remember to check the bracts? Of course not. You’re going to notice all that yellow blooming out there, and consider what a lovely backdrop it makes for the feathery pink Blazing-star. But the secret to identifying species of Liatris is in the overlapping bracts...
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Nothing Common About Sunflowers
I could never decide if the sunflowers that spread along our barn were Woodland Sunflowers, or Jerusalem Artichokes. I knew they weren’t Common Sunflowers, but that didn’t qualify as even a small victory. As it turned out, I didn’t know much about them either.
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Ocean Swells of Prairie Blossoms
Prairies once covered millions of acres of America. Over the last 150 years, much of the prairies have been destroyed by agriculture, intensive grazing and development. The “beautiful and wondrous” experience of standing among the ocean swells of prairie blossoms is all too rare for most of us.
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Dipped In Paint
Applegate’s Paintbrush is one of over two hundred species of paintbrush in the Figwort (or Snapdragon) (Scrophulariaceae) family. This species comes in a variety of shades of red, pink and sometimes yellow, boastful and conspicuous as they often grow in abundance, covering large areas. And though they are easy to recognize, individual species of paintbrush are difficult to tell apart. That several species are called Indian Paintbrush only makes it more difficult.
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Wildflowers At 70 M.P.H.
For me, wildflowers have always been an interactive endeavor. Whether I’m invading the privacy of a blossom with my macro lens, inspecting the shape and distribution of leaves, or standing in a field of goldenrod and ironweed, I get close to the flowers. And I’m never in a hurry. You can imagine my frustration trying to enjoy wildflowers at 70 M.P.H.
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Treasure of the Sierra Nevada
Other than escaped cultivars and hybrids that grow along roadsides, the Eastern U.S. has little more to offer in the way of lupine than Wild Lupine (L. perennis). California, I have discovered, has over 80 species of this lovely wildflower. There are over 200 species of lupine worldwide. North American species include Sky or Douglas Lupine (L. nanus) with deep blue flowers, Texas Bluebonnets (L. subcarnosus), which is the state flower of Texas, Dove Lupine (L. bicolor) with its blue and white flowers, and Desert or Coulter’s Lupine (L. sparsiflorus), which has blue to lilac flowers. Lupines are members of the Pea Family (Fabacea), an enormous family of trees, shrubs, herbs and vines that includes peas, beans, soybeans, peanuts and lentils.
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Attracted to Milkweed
Milkweed wasn't always regarded as a lowly weed. It has been used in textiles, as a food source and as a medicine. More than anything else though, these nectar-rich native perennials attract a variety of butterflies in all sizes and colors.
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Learning About Wildflowers
Small patches of blue have spread through the yard like wine spilled on a linen tablecloth. The source of these lovely sky-blue stains is Common Speedwell (Veronica officinalis), a small perennial wildflower that, like most wildflowers, is over-looked by people more often than not. If this beautiful little blossom is so “common”, what on earth are less familiar species like? Where do they grow? When do they bloom?
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