Category Archives: White

Awl Aster

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A new flower appears at Centennial, I’m on it like a spider discovering something new in the web. There is a large area covered with these, just starting to come into bloom. (There are many similar kinds of asters, difficult to distinguish, and they randomly hybridize. In the reference books and sites I consult, there is some disagreement about what the common name of this aster is, although I think the latin name identification is correct.) Composite family. Native.

Awl Aster, Heath Aster, Frost Aster (Aster pilosus)

Turtlehead

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So surprised to find this big plant with such distinctive flowers. Likes moist conditions. Native perennial.

White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

Common Mugwort

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A tall bushy, silvery plant that is growing in all the open meadows now. It’s prominent around the lower meadow at Centennial (along with pigweed and ragweed). The leaves remind me of rosemary. They’re green above and silvery underneath, aromatic. Mugwort has been used to flavor drinks since the Iron Age. (How do they know that?) Also used in food, herbal medicine, for smoking, for magical protection against evil spirits and wild animals, and to repel moths from gardens. Roman soldiers lined their sandals with mugwort to ward off fatigue. Mugwort pollen is a major source of hay fever. Native to Europe, Asia, Africa and Alaska.

Common Mugwort, Common Wormwood (Artemisia vulgaris)

Buckwheat

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At the Dover Farm, I was wading out into the field to pick some cherry tomatoes, and noticed this plant with distinctive arrow-shaped leaves. It’s Buckwheat! Cultivated as a crop, but this one is an escapee. Buckwheat has been grown as a crop in the U.S. since colonial times for livestock feed and for flour. Also a honey crop (used to supply nectar for bees) and a smother crop (a quick germinator that creates a dense leaf canopy to smother weeds).

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum)

Bonus picture to contrast with the farm: we were just in Manhattan. Drive-by shot of a grocery store in the Washington Heights neighborhood that is open to the sidewalk. It’s the sort of colorful outdoor display where you expect produce… but it’s all cans.

Pale-spiked Lobelia

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Came up uninvited with a potted tomato plant. Beautiful form. Contains a toxic white sap, so mostly avoided by mammals, but visited by insects. Native perennial. Bellflower family.

Pale-spiked Lobelia (Lobelia spicata)

Japanese Bamboo

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Big shrubs (4-8 feet tall) with great arching branches with spikes of white flowers at every axil. Native to Asia, introduced to the U.S. as an ornamental. Considered a noxious weed in some west coast states. Young shoots can be eaten like asparagus. Seeds are eaten by birds.

Japanese Bamboo, Japanese Knotweed, Rice Cane (Polygonum cuspidatum)

Pale Smartweed

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This is at the edge of the Charles. White blossoms, nodding. The stem has prominent joints. Buckwheat family. Native.

Pale Smartweed, Dock-leaved Smartweed (Persicaria lapathifolia)

Silver-Rod

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The only non-golden goldenrod! White flowers, and look how they grow in the axils all the way up. Blooms through October. Another gift from the meadow of wonder, while most of the flowers there are wilting down and going to seed. Aster family. Native.

Silver-Rod (Solidago bicolor)

Tall Blue Lettuce

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I love this name. Small flowers, under a half inch wide, that are only open when it’s sunny. A thick cascade of flowers–can be blue, but these are white. A tall plant, up to 15 feet, with milky juice. Has a history of medical uses but not of food use. Annual or biennial. Aster family.

Tall Blue Lettuce, Woodland Lettuce (Lactuca biennis)

White Wood Aster

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Finding this little aster in most of the woods here. It’s one of the few plants blooming in the dry shade at this late time in the season. Aster family. Native to eastern North America.

White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata)