Category Archives: Massachusetts

Giant Polypore

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Black-stainingPolypore Black-stainingPolypore2Sometimes there’s a non-wildflower item that demands notice! In our woods, there were several of these big ruffly fungi all growing around an old tree stump (my hand added for scale). I took these July 21; now they’ve pretty much withered, darkened and disappeared. I’m finding fungus identification difficult — there are many that look similar to me, and there can apparently be lots of variation within a species. That said, I think this is a Giant Polypore — can get to be 30 inches in diameter.

Giant Polypore, Black-staining Polypore (Meripilus giganteus)

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)

Stout Blue-eyed Grass

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Blue-eyed grassBlue-eyed Grass

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)

Dewberry

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Dewberry

Another one that resembles Blackberry, but it’s a prickly creeping vine instead of a bramble of arching canes. It has a black fruit, large and sweet! Rose family.

Dewberry (Rubus flagellaris)

Common Blackberry

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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)

Multiflora Rose

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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)

Spiderwort

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DSC_0144spiderwort

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)

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil

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Rough-fruited CinquefoilAnother 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)

Canada Mayflowers

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DSC_0004 DSC_0003These are the plants whose leaves carpet the woods, just little leaves standing vertically out of the ground. The flowers are fragrant. During the summer the flowers are replaced by small speckled red berries. Lily family. Native perennial.

Canada Mayflower, Two-leaved Solomonseal (Maianthemum canadense)

Cow vetch

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Vetch

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)