After seeing white turtlehead growing wild at Charles River Peninsula, it was easy to recognize the pink version in a garden on the Wellesley campus. It’s an unusual flower to see this late in the season; it looks like something that would be out in the spring. Bitter foliage avoided by animals. Pollinated by bumblebees. Figwort family. Native perennial.
Pink Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua speciosa)
Similar to Lady’s Thumb but a more extravagant outsized version. 1 to 6 feet tall. A big patch of them at the Dover Farm. Buckwheat family. Can be pink, white or purple.
Nodding Smartweed, Pale Smartweed, Dock-leaved Smartweed (Polygonum lapathifolium)
There is a little weed charmingly called Lady’s Thumb, which is very common and looks a lot like this. It took me a while to notice that all these varieties of smartweeds and knotweeds are NOT Lady’s Thumb. There are about 35 varieties in this area. This one is a paler pink. Also, Lady’s Thumb has a dark smudge on the leaves. Buckwheat family. Native.
Pink Knotweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)
As we approach the end of summer, it was great to get this surprise– a really showy new flower. It looks a lot like purple milkweed, but has distinctive succulent leaves that are very regular and same-sized all the way up the stalks. An unusual characteristic: the leaves can be alternate or opposite. It’s named Live Forever because it’s very persistent and can grow from any small bit. We saw just a couple of plants in this whole field of other flowers– I wonder if this is the beginning of a big colony.
It has several intriguing common names that come from this: put the leaf in your mouth until it’s soft, and when the membranes are sufficiently loosened, you can inflate the leaf like a little balloon. Crassulaceae (Stonecrop) family. Native to Europe.
Live Forever, Witch’s Moneybags, Midsummer-Men, Orpine, Aaron’s Rod, Pudding-bag Plant (Sedum purpureum)
A furry little legume. Ag scientists are currently working on genetic modifications (adding one gene from this clover to common white clover) to make it better for grazing (to decrease methane emissions!). Fabaceae family. Native to Europe and Asia.
Rabbit-foot Clover, Haresfoot Clover, Stone Clover (Trifolium arvense)
Thanks to Alert Flowerspotter Aaron who snapped this for me while at an autocross event with his brother in Ayers, Massachusetts. Growing through the concrete at an old airfield. Considered a noxious weed in many western states. One of its invasive species skills is: “low palatability” —meaning no one wants to eat it AND it’s “allelopathic”, meaning its roots send out a toxin that stunts the growth of nearby plants! Wily! Native to Europe.
Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)
Oh man, these are looking great around the arboretum pond, where the pickelweed used to be in bloom. My height, with showy blossoms about 6 inches across. This is also growing in the local river marshes alongside the purple loosestrife for a major show. Native.
Swamp Rose Mallow, Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Bonus picture: if you turn around from photographing the mallow, you see Matt, who came for tai chi class and then stayed to add ambience to the arboretum.
This is the season when the nasty invasive Purple Loosestrife is on such beautiful display along the marshy river banks. I took these on a quiet Saturday morning and it was about as lovely a sight as you could ever see. (With mallow and water lilies.)
Have seen loads of white campion and bladder campion, but this is the only little plant of this kind that I’ve noted.
Pink Campion (a hybrid of Silene dioica and S. latifolia — red and white campions)
This is apparently a variety of Snowberry, a shrub in the honeysuckle family. Will have white berries. The inside of the berries looks like sparkling snow. A winter food supply for birds, but poisonous to humans. Native to North and Central America. (Photo by A.F. Aaron.) (He was kind enough to include a bonus Dogbane Beetle, Chrysochus auratus.)
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
Bonus bug munching on Milkweed leaves: it’s a Red Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes femoratus)
