Bluet

Posted on July 5, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking in the woods near Youngstown, Ohio I noticed a bit of color on the forest floor.

Large drifts of Bluets can be visible from afar. Nonetheless, this is a plant that warrants dropping to the ground to better appreciate the nuances of its tiny flowers.

With the Latin Name of Houstonia caerulea, the genus name commemorates Scottish botanist William Houstoun (1695-1733), who spent time in the American tropics exploring and collecting plants.

This small, delicate perennial is often found growing in compact tufts, about 8 inches high. The plants may cover broad expanses. Its tiny flowers are pale blue with yellow centers.

There are two flower types: “pins,” with long style and short stamens, and “thrums” with short style and long stamens. Such flowers are called distylous.

Bluets are native to eastern Canada (from Ontario to Newfoundland) and the eastern United States (from Maine to Wisconsin, south to Florida and Louisiana, with scattered populations in Oklahoma).

This plant is found in a variety of habitats such as cliffs, alpine zones, forests, meadows and shores of rivers or lakes.

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Everlasting Sweet Pea

Posted on August 18, 2023 by tspuckler

I often see this plant on the edges of roadsides in the Summer months. Everlasting Sweet Pea is an old-fashioned, herbaceous perennial climbing vine with beautiful, bright flowers that grows up 10 feet tall.

A non-native, it was introduced from Europe as a horticultural plant because of its showy flowers.

This plant’s habitats include meadows with history of disturbance, woodland edges, sites of old homesteads, vacant lots, fence rows, and gardens. It has distinct stems that look “winged” on each side.

Everlasting Sweet Pea produces pink or white flowers in summer. Its flowers are clustered in groups, about one inch long, in the typical pea-flower configuration, with a large standard (upper petal); rose-purple, rose-pink, or white. Despite their name, the flowers are not fragrant.

Bumblebees pollinate the flowers. Butterflies visit the flowers for their nectar, but do not pollinate them. Fabricius Blister Beetles, the caterpillars of the Oithona Tiger Moth and some herbivores feed on the leaves. However, the seeds of Everlasting Sweet Pea are poisonous.

The flowers are followed by hairless flattened seedpods, about two inches long and half an inch wide, with several seeds inside. The seedpod, which is initially green, gradually turns brown, splitting open into curled segments, flinging out the seeds.

This old heirloom vine was grown by Thomas Jefferson and it also known as Perennial Pea-vine, Everlasting Peavine, and Perennial Sweet Pea.

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Obedient Plant

Posted on July 28, 2023 by tspuckler

This is a neat species of flowering plant that is in the Mint Family. It is native to North America, where it is distributed from eastern Canada to northern Mexico.

Sometimes known as “False Dragonhead,” it is more known commonly as Obedient Plant, because when a flower is pushed to one side, it will often stay in that position.

It grows 3 to 4 feet tall and forms dense spikes of white, pink or lavender flowers. Its leaves are opposite, stalkless, narrowly lance-shaped, sharply toothed and up to five inches long.

Obedient Plant occurs in the moist soils of fields, prairies, thickets, woodland openings and borders, along rivers and streams, and lakesides. It is commonly sold as a garden plant.

A sure sign of Summer is seeing the attractive upright spikes of snapdragon-like flowers abundantly borne atop this robust perennial.

Its very attractive flowers persist for a month or more from late Summer into early Fall. The flowers are often visited by by Hummingbirds, Bumble Bees and Carpenter Bees.

As one of our most handsome native mints, it’s hard not to enjoy the beauty of the Obedient Plant.

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Strawberry Bush

Posted on December 23, 2022 by tspuckler

I came across this odd shrub while hiking along the Cache River in southern Illinois in October. This is a native deciduous woody plant that grows 6 to 12 feet tall. It can often be found growing along streams, with its roots anchored in damp, rich soil.

Throughout most of the year the Strawberry Bush lives in obscurity. Even when it is in full bloom, its small yellowish-green blooms are so inconspicuous that they remain hidden in full sight.

During Spring and Summer, the Strawberry Bush is cloaked in lance-shaped leaves. Its seeds are borne in one-inch, warty capsules that typically contain four to five berries. As Summer progresses, the green capsules grow and eventually turn pinkish red.

Sometime during September and October, the capsules split, revealing scarlet-red berries hanging on thread-like filaments. The appearance of the open capsules and red berries apparently gave rise to one of the plant’s alternate names, “Hearts-a-bursting.”

Strawberry Bush’s red, pulpy seeds are devoured by songbirds such as the Eastern Bluebird, Wood Thrush and Northern Mockingbird. Wild Turkeys and small mammals also dine on the red berries.

Early colonists considered the plant so beautiful that it became one of the first North American plants sent back to Europe for use in ornamental gardens in as early as 1663.

The Strawberry Bush is also known as Wahoo, Burning Bush, Bursting Heart and Hearts-bustin’-with-love.

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Hawkweed

Posted on September 16, 2022 by tspuckler

This is a species that I recently found growing in my front lawn. I have also noticed it in bloom in a few of the local metroparks.

Hawkweed is a fibrous-rooted perennial with upright stems and small, dandelion-like flower heads in loose clusters. A European species, it is invasive in northwestern and northeastern North America.

This plant is found mostly in open fields, mountain meadows, forest clearings, permanent pastures, cleared timber units, abandoned farmland, roadsides and other disturbed areas. It is typically encountered where soil is well-drained, coarse-textured and low in nutrients.

Hawkweed, with their 10,000+ recorded species and subspecies, do their part to make the Aster Family the second largest family of flowering plants. I mostly see all-yellow types and orange types – their flowers are less than one inch across.

Its two-to-five-inch leaves mostly surround the base of the plant and are pointed or rounded at the tip and toothless. All parts of Hawkweed are conspicuously hairy and like Dandelion, will exude a white milky sap when broken.

Since most Hawkweed reproduce exclusively asexually by means of seeds that are genetically identical to their mother plant, clones or populations that consist of genetically identical plants are formed.

This plant is also known as Devil’s Paintbrush, Red daisy and Orange King-devil.

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Dame’s Rocket

Posted on July 15, 2022 by tspuckler

This non-native species is hard to ignore. It has even established itself on our backyard. Dame’s Rocket, also known as Dame’s Violet and Mother-of-the-evening, was introduced as an ornamental around the time of European settlement.

Dame’s Rocket bears loose clusters of attractive, fragrant, pinkish-purple to white four-petaled flowers on two-to-four foot stems. Its leaves are arranged alternately on the stem and are slightly hairy and lance-shaped with toothed margins.

This plant’s habitat includes open woodlands, prairies, roadsides, ditches and other disturbed areas. The plant’s three-month-long blooming period and ability to set abundant seed have contributed to its spread. A single plant produces up to 20,000 seeds.

Dame’s Rocket is often confused with Garden Phlox, because the flower colors, clustered blooms and bloom time are similar. However, Garden Phlox has flowers with five petals (Dame’s Rocket has four).

Although problematic because is displaces native plants and it considered an invasive species (five states have placed legal restrictions on it), this member of the Mustard Family is a food source for caterpillars as well as a nectar source for bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds.

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Maximilian Sunflower

Posted on August 20, 2021 by tspuckler

While visiting “The Wilds” in south-central Ohio, it was hard not to notice this eye-catching plant.

This North American species of sunflower is named for Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, who encountered it on his travels in North America.

Though native to the Great Plains in central North America, is has naturalized in the eastern and western parts of the continent. It is now found from British Columbia to Maine, south to the Carolinas, Chihuahua and California.

Maximilian Sunflower was one of several plant species used in research to evaluate native perennial wildflower plantings for supporting wild bees and improving crop pollination on farmlands.

This plant grows in a variety of environments throughout its range including meadows, tallgrass prairies, plains, roadsides, ditches and disturbed sites. It prefers full sun and tolerates a range of soil types.

Its numerous bright yellow 3-inch flowers are found on the upper half of its unbranched stems. Maximilian Sunflower’s leaves are 4 to 8 inches in length and taper at both ends.

Its flowers attract a variety of pollinators and the abundant supply of seeds that it produces are hard to resist for many species of birds.

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Deptford Pink

Posted on July 23, 2021 by tspuckler

This is not a native plant, but it’s hard not to like it. It native to most of Europe. The name “Deptford Pink” was coined in the 17th century by naturalist Thomas Johnson, who described a pink flower growing in Deptford in South East London.

This species usually grows in full sunlight in dry conditions. It appears to flourish in a clay-loam or gravelly soil that is somewhat compacted and heavy. Hard to identify when not in bloom, its grass-like leaves are up to 3 inches long and 1/8 inch wide and are finely hairy around the edges, especially near the base.

Deptford Pink’s flowers are solitary or in clusters of 3 to 6 at the top of the stem and the occasional branching stem in the upper plant. The nectar of the flowers attracts small butterflies, skippers, long-tongued bees and bee flies. The intensity of their bright pink color masks the great beauty of their extravagant patterning.

Despite the intensity of the coloration, it is interesting to note that the name “pink” probably derives from the loosely serrated edges of the flowers’ petals (think “pinking shears” rather than the color pink).

It is hard to call a flower as dainty and attractive as the Deptford Pink “invasive.” In fact, the skinny-leaved plant usually behaves well, mixing invisibly into the weedy wildflowers and vegetation of dry fields.

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Queen Anne’s Lace

Posted on August 28, 2020 by tspuckler

Queen Anne’s Lace earned its common name from a legend that tells of Queen Anne of England (1665-1714) pricking her finger and a drop of blood landing on white lace she was sewing.

Its flowers are small and have five white petals that form umbrella-shaped clusters that are between two to five inches in diameter. Often, one to several dark purple flowers appear in the center of each cluster.

Although common along North America’s roadsides, this plant is native to temperate regions of Europe and southwest Asia, and naturalized to North America and Australia.

This flower’s Latin name is Daucus carota and domestic carrots are a cultivar of a subspecies of this plant. Early Europeans cultivated Queen Anne’s Lace and the Romans ate it as a vegetable. American colonists boiled and ate its taproots.

Queen Anne’s Lace’s flower clusters start out curled up and eventually opens to allow pollination. Over time, as the flower matures, the cluster curls inward forming a cup-like bird’s nest when it goes to seed at the end of the season. This flower can grow to over three feet tall.

Its feathery leaves resemble those of the domestic carrot. Queen Anne’s Lace is found in fields, meadows, waste areas, roadsides and disturbed habitats. It is very hardy and thrives in a dry environment.

This plant is also known as Wild Carrot, Bishop’s Lace, Bee’s Nest, Bird’s Nest, Devil’s Plague, Lace Flower and Rantipole.

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Round-leaved Sundew

Posted on July 31, 2020 by tspuckler

I don’t usually think of Ohio when I think about carnivorous plants, but we have two types in Wooster, this one and the Pitcher Plant.

The insect-eating lifestyle of the Round-leaved Sundew makes this plant a fascinating species. The round three-quarter inch leaves have sticky, tendrils with droplets of “dew.” This tempts unsuspecting prey.

The main habitat for this plant is bogs and their acidic habitat doesn’t provide enough nutrients., so it catches and eats insects.

Round-leaved Sundew’s droplets are very sticky and this traps insects; when the presence of its stuck prey it detected, its leaf curls inwards to engulf it.

Its scientific name is Drosera rotundifolia. The term “droseros” is Greek for “dewy” and refers to the moist, glistening drops on the leaves. The term “rodundifolia” means “round leaves.”

Though tiny and easy to overlook, this is a really cool plant to encounter in the wild.

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Tim Spuckler's Blog

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Category Archives: Wildflowers – Summer

Bluet

Everlasting Sweet Pea

Obedient Plant

Strawberry Bush

Hawkweed

Dame’s Rocket

Maximilian Sunflower

Deptford Pink

Queen Anne’s Lace

Round-leaved Sundew