One of my favorites because of its excellent name and color, and because mere ovoid petals weren’t enough, they needed that little barb on the ends. There are several varieties of blue-eyed grass—Stout is often pale blue like this. Native perennial. Iris family.
Stout Blue-eyed Grass (sisyrinchium angustifolium)
Looking at plants that resemble each other… This Common Blackberry looks a lot like the multiflora rose (previous post), but without the yellow stamens. I’ve read that blackberries were found in the stomach of a body found preserved in a Danish bog (Haraldskaer Woman), dated to 490 BC. So people have been eating them for thousands of years. Native. Rose family. (June 4)
Common Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)
Thorny climbing shrub. Can be white or pink. introduced to the eastern U.S. in 1866 as rootstock for ornamental roses. Native to eastern Asia. (Photo June 4.)
Multiflora Rose, Seven-Sisters Rose (Rosa multiflora)
Each flower lives only one day, but each plant produces 20 or more flowers per stem. The sap has a viscous quality and can be stretched between your fingers like a thread of spider silk. The stems, leaves and flowers are edible, raw or added to stew. The flowers can garnish your salad!The Lakota made a blue paint from the flowers and a poultice for insect bites and stings from the crushed leaves.
(The spiderwort genus is named after John Tradescant, who was a gardener for King Charles I of England (1600-1649). His son brought spiderwort seeds or plants from Virginia to England in 1637. It became a popular exotic plant. Native. (Photo June 4.)
Spiderwort, Cow Slobber, Widow’s Tears, Trinity Flower, Indian Paint (Tradescantia virginiana)
Another cinquefoil, but distinctive because the blossoms are paler and larger than the others. Also it’s the tallest (1 to 2 feet tall). Heart-shaped petals. 5-7 lance-shaped leaflets on each palmate leaf. Native to Europe and Asia. Rose family. Photo: June 4, 2013.
Rough-fruited Cinquefoil, Sulfur Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta)
Okay, locally we have at least three kinds of vetch to keep straight. This is cow vetch, and the other two are common vetch (which is magenta and looks like a sweet pea) and crown vetch (pale pink and shaped like a crown). This is similar to a pea in habit, with tendrils that fasten on to (and can strangle) other plants. Widely used as forage for cattle. Pea family. Origin: Eurasia.
Cow Vetch, Tufted Vetch, Bird Vetch, Boreal Vetch (Vicia cracca)
Did you ever notice lady-slipper always has just two leaves and one flower? Also that the blossom is mostly closed, but has a small opening in front to admit pollinating insects, who have to find a different exit to bust out (brushing past the pollen-covered stamen). Lady-slippers can live to be twenty or older! Photo taken May 22, 2013.
Pink Lady-slipper, Moccasin flower (Cypripedium acaule Ait.)
This looks like some kind of wild hydrangea, but based on the way it has these large flowers opening around the edge, I think it’s Hobblebush. The showy outer flowers are sterile, the tiny inner flowers are fertile. Later will have fruit changing from red to purple. Has low hanging branches that put down roots where they touch the ground, forming webs of roots that hobble walkers—supposedly that’s the origin of the name. Honeysuckle family. Native.
Hobblebush, Witch-hobble, Moosewood (Viburnum alnifolium)
Our current sort of strawberries were first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s, a cross of Fragaria virginiana (the wild kind pictured here) from eastern North America and Fragaria chiloensis, which was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714.
Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Member of the Mustard family. Blooms all summer. “Historically” used to make a medicinal tea. Several moth and butterfly varieties lay eggs on them. Native to Eurasia.
Common Winter Cress, Yellow Rocket, Bittercress, Wound Rocket (Barbarea vulgaris)
