In the Native American garden at Elm Bank. Was grown in early American gardens for making blue dye as a substitute for expensive imported indigo dye. Cherokees used it to make blue dye also. The Osage made an eyewash from the plant. It’s called Blue False Indigo because of its use as a substitute for the Indigo plant which is superior for dye-making. Native to North America, introduced to Britain by 1724. Pea family.
Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
Saw this at Elm Bank today but can’t identify it. Ideas, flowerophiles? Maybe it’s not wild and that’s why I can’t find it in the usual places. Look at the pollen on the petals…
Bonus mystery purple flower: some variety of violet with dark leaves, and a spur on the back of the blossom. At Ridge Hill today.
I was excited to notice these beautiful little yellow flowers hiding on this thorny bush. Now I find out it’s another destructive invasive. It can form thick brambles that crowd out everything else. Red berries in winter. Origin: Japan. (Thanks to Alert Flowerophile Irit for wrangling Lucy while I took pictures.)
Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii)
Saw a drift of these at Elm Bank. Lovely. Wood anemone have four to nine sepals. These have five. Native. Buttercup family.
Wood Anemone, Nightcaps (Anemone quinquefolia)
Well, sorry to say the only new wildflower we found today was the lowly dandelion. I know people eat the leaves and use them for making wine but still. Maybe if they were blue I could get excited.
Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Today we found one new wildflower blooming, at Elm Bank. It’s like a tiny orchid that you never notice til you are down on your hands and knees trying to focus your camera on it. This plant is introduced and invasive. It belongs to the Mint family.
Creeping Charlie, Ground Ivy, Gill-over the ground, Haymaids (Glechoma)