Category Archives: MA

Bloodroot

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Bloodroot

A “spring ephemeral.” Has only basal leaves which wrap around the flower stalk as it begins to bloom. Then the leaves open fully as the flower withers. The flowers bloom only one or two days each, with a fragrant scent. The foliage contains a red juice (which was used by native people to make dye). It’s toxic and usually avoided by herbivores. Native to eastern North America. (This sample is in my yard, an import from the Whitesides garden in Charleston, Illinois.) Poppy family

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Lesser Celandine

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Lesser Celandine

This is one of the first wildflowers to appear here after Skunk Cabbage leads the way. (Photo from April 22.) It’s Lesser Celandine to distinguish from Celandine, a larger wild poppy. It follows the sun during the day and closes in cloudy or cold weather. The name Celandine is derived from the Greek word for swallow (chelidon), because the early flowering time was also when the swallows arrived (and the flowers faded when they left). It is not native, found throughout Europe and west Asia. Don’t eat it: “Unsafe in any quantity.” Buttercup family.

Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)

Great Blue Heron

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This morning we took a paddle on the Charles River. This bit borders Cutler Park and is about 20 miles upstream from Boston Harbor. I was trying to take a picture of an egret farther away when I realized we were really close to this well-camouflaged heron hiding in the pickerel weed!

GreatBlueHeronThe closest I’ve ever been to one — thrilling surprise! So tall — I feel like it was head-level with me in the canoe. Later we saw another one which had caught a fish…

HeronwithFishIt flew off and I was not ready with right camera settings… so here’s a terrible blur of a great sight:

HeroninFlightGreat Blue Herons are about 4 feet tall. They eat mainly fish, but also crabs, insects, frogs, small rodents, snakes, dragonflies… Their favorite breeding areas are beaver swamps, and their favorite nesting areas are in the branches of dead trees down in the water. They mostly migrate, and come back to use the same rookery every year.

Bonus picture of the whole scene. An usually wide place in the river. Felt lucky to have a canoe, a beautiful day, this amazing place, and a friend to go with! and a camera!

CharlesRiverPaddle

Yellow Star Grass

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Yellow StargrassI was going to a conservation area in Dover that I hadn’t visited in a long time, accidentally took the wrong road and happened across a small wood I hadn’t been to, which had this beautiful little flower. This is the first time I’ve seen it and in fact I thought maybe it was some kind of escaped domestic; it’s reminiscent of squill. But it’s wild! Native. Lily family. (Photo taken June 3, 2013.)

Yellow Star Grass, Common Goldstar (Hypoxis hirsuta)

Hobblebush

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DSC_0005

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)

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

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Jack in the PulpitThe first Jack in the Pulpit of the season, a very dramatic black and green striped and slightly ruffled one! Some folklore from Wikipedia: “One account from the Meskwaki Indians states that they used it to determine the fate of the sick by dropping a seed in a cup of stirred water; If the seed went around four times clockwise, the patient would recover, if it went around less than four times they would not.” Native. Photo: May 3, 2013.

Jack in the Pulpit, Indian Turnip (Arisaema triphyllum)

Sessile Bellwort

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Sessile Bellwort

Sessile means sitting or resting on the surface —  these have sessile leaves, which means the leaf comes directly out of the main stem, but the leaf itself has no stem of its own. Lily family. Native. Photo taken May 3, 2013.

Sessile Bellwort, Wild Oats (Uvularia sessilifolia)

Wood anemone

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Wood AnemoneThese are common in the local woods, can cover large areas. They grow from rhizomes. Buttercup family. Poisonous. Native. Photo: May 2, 2013.

Wood Anemone, Windflower, Nightcaps (Anemone quinquefolia)

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.

Spotted Knapweed

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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)