This meadow has several varieties of Monarda or Bergamot. The lilac and pink varieties are called Wild Bergamot. Fragrant. Considered a medicinal plant by many native tribes, made into a tea. Also made into hair pomade. A natural source for the antiseptic thymol, which is used in modern mouthwash. Mint family. Native. (with Eastern Black Swallowtail)
Wild Bergamot, Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa)
In the meadow of wonders. This is about 6 feet tall and very prickly. A biennial that may only flower the second year. Unpalatable to grazing animals, but good nectar source for insects, and birds eat the seeds. You could peel, cook and eat the stems, or the tap roots of young plants, but my that would be a task. Native to Europe and Asia, considered a noxious weed in some states.
Bull Thistle, Spear Thistle (Cisium vulgare)
Now I’m going to be posting the loads of plants all blooming in one place—Wilson Mountain—mostly in this amazing meadow, and a couple where I got lost back in the woods! Let’s start with Creeping Bellflower—apparently this is a bad invasive in some states, but it’s beautiful. I only saw a couple of plants. I wonder if next year it will try to take over the meadow. Campanula family. (Campanula means “bell.”) Native to Europe and western Siberia.
Creeping Bellflower, Rampion Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)
This is considered a wildflower, but I have not yet seen it in the wild. (This is my yard.) This is a very toxic plant and has been used for murders for centuries (the Roman emperor Claudius is thought to have been assassinated by his own doctor with a draught of monkshood)! (A British woman was convicted in 2010 of killing her lover with a curry laced with monkshood.) Also was used for killing wolves and rabid dogs. Used to create poison for arrow tips for hunting and warfare. If you touch your lip to the root, the juice will cause numbness and tingling! Wear gloves to pick the leaves! The name Aconitum means “without struggle.” Ominous! From Wikipedia: “In his first potions class, Harry Potter is mocked by Severus Snape for not knowing that monkshood, wolfsbane, and aconite are the same plant, in an attempt to humiliate him.” Buttercup family.
Monkshood, Wolf’s Bane, Dogbane, Soldier’s Helmet, Friar’s Cap, Old Wife’s Hood, Blue Rocket, Women’s Bane (Aconitum Napellus)
When I saw this, a purple wildflower so tall that the blossom’s at eye level, I was pretty excited about the discovery. I was surprised to find that this is just purple loosestrife, common around here, but usually we see it at a distance — great purple swaths of it in marshes and along parts of the Charles River. I’d never looked at it up close. There are good things about it (it’s beautiful, for one thing), but around here it has a bad name — an invasive that harms biological diversity by crowding out native plants, thereby affecting all the creatures that need the native plants.
Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
I missed these when they were flowering. A shrub with arching thorny canes. Native to eastern North America. Delicious!
Black Raspberries (Rubus occidentalis)
A truly blue flower. Very common and little noticed, but it’s pretty great up close. I can’t believe it doesn’t have a better name! A medicinal herb in China, and a source of dye in Japan. Spiderwort family. Native to Asia.
(Bonus picture: the two blue petals remind me of a photo I took recently at a dance workshop with Alanah of New York.)
Asiatic Dayflower (Commelina communis)
This is an unassuming weed in my yard, which has been used as medicine for centuries in countries around the world! There is a long list of active chemical components… and it is apparently being tested and showing promise for use against AIDS and diabetes among other things. Once thought to be holy and sent by God to cure all ailments. Also, Native Americans used it to make a tea they would drink in rituals to sharpen their powers of observation before hunting. It would be collected and dried while in bloom. The leaves and flowers are edible. (I feel like the nutrition doctors who advocate eating lots of fruits and vegetables are probably right when they say one reason is because they contain all these chemicals that are good for our bodies, that we haven’t fully recognized or analyzed??)
Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
An important forage crop. The English name comes from the Spanish name alfalfez, which comes from the Arabic al-fisfisa, meaning fresh fodder. Has been cultivated since at least the 4th century AD. Was introduced to the Americas by the Spanish as fodder for their horses. It’s where alfalfa sprouts come from! Pea family.
Interesting note from Wikipedia: “Alfalfa pollination is somewhat problematic because Western honey bees, the most commonly used pollinator, are not suitable for this purpose; the pollen-carrying keel of the alfalfa flower trips and strikes pollinating bees on the head, which helps transfer the pollen to the foraging bee. Western honey bees, however, do not like being struck in the head repeatedly and learn to defeat this action by drawing nectar from the side of the flower. The bees thus collect the nectar, but carry no pollen and so do not pollinate the next flower they visit. Because older, experienced bees do not pollinate alfalfa well, most pollination is accomplished by young bees that have not yet learned the trick of robbing the flower without tripping the head-knocking keel. When western honey bees are used to pollinate alfalfa, the beekeeper stocks the field at a very high rate to maximize the number of young bees.”
Alfalfa, Lucerne ( Medicago sativa)
Bonus picture: This is the scene where I photographed the alsike clover, the milkweed, the curly dock, the alfalfa, the pale swallowwort… This area used to be a dairy farm, and I understand that it was a common thing to plant a useful tree (in this case, a Shagbark Hickory) at the high point of your field, so that you would have a shady place to sit while you kept an eye on your herd or your flock (as demonstrated here, but he’s just watching Lucy).
