Pitcher Plant

Posted on August 18, 2014 by tspuckler

This is the first time I’ve ever seen this plant in the wild. The leaves of the pitcher plant have reddish-purple patterns, which resemble flowers. Each leaf forms a “cup” that is partly filled with water. The “flower mimic” causes some of the insects investigating the potential source of food to become food for the plant.

Once an insect enters the hollow leaf, it is faced with waxy walls leading to a pool of water. The pit-fall trap of the pitcher plant further reduces its prey’s chance of escaping by having downward-pointing hairs to make getting out more difficult.

In addition to using visual cues to attract prey, scent is utilized. The outer edge of the leaf produces a sweet-smelling substance. Ants are attracted to the smell and are trapped in a similar manner as flying insects.

Pitcher plants reside in bog habitats in eastern North America. Carnivorous plants tend to live in nitrogen-poor soils. They augment the inadequate nitrogen in the soil by capturing and consuming insects.

In the Summer, this plant produces a large maroon-to-red colored bell flower, 2-3 inches wide, which droops from a single, tall leafless stalk. The Pitcher plant is indeed mysterious. With its unique ability to obtain food, it has inspired us to reshape our concept on how nature really works.

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Spiderwort

Posted on July 18, 2014 by tspuckler

Spiderworts are very distinctive Summer prairie wildflowers. Growing knee-high, their (usually) blue flowers stand out among the green of the new grass.

If you break the tip off a spiderwort leaf and wait for a drop of sap to appear, then touch it with your fingertip, you can stretch the thread of sap.

This resemblance to a spider’s silk may explain where its name came from. The gooey quality of the sap definitely explains its familiar nickname of “cow slobber.”

The stems, leaves and flowers of Spiderworts are edible. Spiderworts also are one of the native wildflowers that have made their way into the nursery trade. They may also be easily propagated from stem cuttings or seeds.

This plant’s genus, Tradescantia, is named for John Tradescant, who was gardener for King Charles I of England. He grew them from seeds brought back from America; Spiderwort is still popular in English gardens today.

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Foxglove Beardtongue

Posted on June 18, 2014 by tspuckler

I’ve been seeing a whole lot of this native wildflower lately. This early blooming perennial gets its common name from the flower’s resemblance to the foxglove, or digitalis plant.

The genus name (Penstemon) refers to the presence of a fifth stamen that is tipped with a little beard made up of a tuft of hairs.

Foxglove Beardtongue is characterized by spikes of white tubular flowers that bloom on 2 to 4 foot stems. Purple lines or stripes within the throat of the flower attract bees and other pollinators.

Butterflies and hummingbirds visit the flowers for nectar, and songbirds eat ripe seeds from the flower stems in fall and winter.

This year I even found this wildflower growing in my backyard. How cool is that?

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Catclaw Acacia

Posted on May 27, 2014 by tspuckler

Catclaw Acacia provides an excellent nectar source for honey and is attractive to butterflies. The dense spikes of cream colored flowers emit a powerfully sweet fragrance.

This plant is a member of the Pea Family and its fairly large seeds occur in 2-6 inch long, twisted, stringbean-type pods. They start off as green and eventually age to a brown color.

Catclaw Acacia branches have wickedly sharp, curved thorns that can easily scratch skin and snag clothing. Close encounters with this plant can leave you looking like you were in a cat fight.

Even along the driest desert washes, this shrub often presents a lush appearance with stems densely clothed in feathery leaves.

This plant provides shade and protective cover for wildlife. Its pods, twigs and leaves are eaten by a variety of desert birds and mammals.

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Sacred Datura

Posted on May 20, 2014 by tspuckler

It’s hard to miss the gigantic white flowers on this plant which look like a Morning Glory on steroids. It is a member of the tomato, potato and eggplant family. This plant has several other common names, including Jimson weed, thorn apple, Indian apple, moon lily, moon flower and angel’s trumpet.

Sacred Datura mostly grows in sandy washes. Its dark grayish-green, heart-shaped leaves form mounds from which sprout striking, 6-inch-long, bright white flowers which ripen to become sharp-prickly seed-pods.

Each large, trumpet-shaped, blossom blooms for only one night and must therefore work fast to attract its pollinators. The flower opens at twilight and releases a strong lemon-like scent. Hawk Moths are its major nocturnal pollinators, but various other insects also arrive the following morning to enjoy the pollen at the heart of the flower.

All parts of this strikingly massive plant are toxic. It contains numerous poisonous alkaloids and their narcotic and hallucinogenic properties have made it part of sacred rituals and experimentations – both of which have resulted in many deaths.

So it’s best to look, but not eat this very interesting part of the southwestern landscape.

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Virginia Creeper

Posted on March 19, 2014 by tspuckler

As the snow and ice begins to melt, bits of green can be seen on the forest floor. One plant responsible to adding color to the forest at this time of year is Virginia Creeper, which is beginning to sprout.

This plant is commonly misidentified as Poison Ivy due to its similar ability to climb upon trees. The easy way to tell the difference is the “Leaves of three, let them be,” slogan for Poison Ivy; Virginia Creeper has five leaflets.

It is a prolific climber, in the Summer it can reach heights of 60 to 90 feet. It climbs smooth surfaces using small forked tendrils tipped with small strongly adhesive pads.

The berries of this plant are eaten by many animals, especially birds, including: bluebirds, cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers and turkey. Other animals, such as mice, skunks, chipmunks, squirrels and deer eat them too.

It’s easy to see from its fruit that Virginia Creeper is in the grape family. Though other animals enjoy eating it, it is poisonous to humans.

Since it is able to climb brick and stone walls, Virginia Creeper is widely planted as an ornamental. Its leaves turn a vibrant scarlet color in the fall.

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Common Teasel

Posted on February 12, 2014 by tspuckler

Dried large, spiny, club-like flower heads, some over two inches long and loosely enclosed in cage-like bracts add shapes and colors to Winter landscapes.

Common Teasel’s unique form has allowed it to garner many common names like barber’s brush, brushes and combs, card teasel, church broom, gypsy combs and Venus’ cup – just to name a few.

When alive and green in the Summer, numerous tiny purple flowers appear in circular rows around the flower heads. Here’s one in August being visited by a Tiger Swallowtail.

Common Teasel is native to Europe and was imported into North America, possibly as an ornamental or more likely because the dried flowers were used in wool production. The dried heads were once cultivated by wool companies, fixed as spindles and used to raise nap or tease wool cloth, hence the common name.

This plant tends to be found in damp grassland and field edges or along roadsides. Although picturesque to look at, Common Teasel also is an excellent source of Summer nectar and pollen for insects and Autumn seeds for birds.

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Cattails

Posted on January 23, 2014 by tspuckler

Cattails are one of the most common and easily identified of our water-loving plants. Most people are familiar with the long green leaves and hotdog-shaped brown flower spikes.

Cattails grow along lake edges and in marshes, often in dense colonies. The plants are often home to many insects, birds and amphibians.

They are a food source for Canadian geese, muskrats, insects and pond snails. Many birds find the soft texture of the seeds appropriate for lining their nests.

The Cattail’s flower has a brown, cylinder-shaped section with a yellow spike and blooms from May to August. In Autumn, the brown cylinder bursts, releasing the cotton-like seeds into the wind.

For centuries its dried leaves have been used for weaving chair bottoms, mats and baskets. The roots are a edible (I’ve eaten them many times) and nutritious (containing more starch than potatoes and more protein than rice).

Despite all its uses to people and wildlife, sometimes this plant is simply nice to look at; it is often featured in autumn-themed floral arrangements.

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Partridge Berry

Posted on December 24, 2013 by tspuckler

Here are some “Christmas colors” that I saw in the woods today. This is a small, woody, trailing vine with 6-12 inch slender stems. It does not climb but instead lays on the forest floor.

Partridge Berry produces trumpet-shaped flowers from late spring to early summer. The flowers grow in pairs and have white petals. They are pollinated by insects. Afterwards each pair of flowers produces a single bright red berry. Here are flowers that I saw in June.

The berries contain eight seeds. Birds are the primary consumer of these fruits and therefore the main distributor of their seeds. For people, the berries are edible but rather tasteless, with a faint flavor of wintergreen.

The humble Partridge Berry is a plant often underfoot and overlooked, but during the cold days of winter, it is a treat to the eyes with its deep, dark-green leaves and rich red berries.

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Cardinal Flower

Posted on September 8, 2013 by tspuckler

During this time of year, as you approach the edge of a woodland stream or the banks of a secluded pond, you may glimpse a flash of red among all the green.

By far one of the most spectacular wildflowers of Ohio, this spark of scarlet stands out in the damp places where it tends to grow – mostly along waterways.

Each flower has three spreading lower petals and two upper petals, all united into a tube at the base. Its flowers are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.

The Cardinal Flower’s blooming period corresponds with the southern migration of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to Mexico and Central America for the Winter.

It has 4 to 6-inch lance-shaped leaves that alternate up the 2 to 5 foot tall stems. The deep green leaves often have a reddish tint, especially on young growth.

John Burroughs, the 19th-century naturalist, wrote, “When vivid color is wanted, what can surpass or equal our Cardinal Flower? There is a glow about this flower as if color emanated from it as from a live coal.”

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Category Archives: Wildflowers – Summer

Pitcher Plant

Spiderwort

Foxglove Beardtongue

Catclaw Acacia

Sacred Datura

Virginia Creeper

Common Teasel

Cattails

Partridge Berry

Cardinal Flower