Dark blue and purple orchid-like flowers. This plant is introduced and invasive. It belongs to the Mint family. (Photo taken April 30, 2013. I’m way behind on posting photos, so I’m going to add the actual dates I collected the photos, for the AFs who are trying to compare this year with last year—you know who you are!)
Creeping Charlie, Ground Ivy, Gill-over-the-ground, Haymaids (Glechoma hederacea)
Following up about the bombing… the church where my chorus rehearses was closed for a week as that area was shut down as a crime scene. Last week we had rehearsal and first I went over to check out this crowd-sourced memorial that has sprung up. I was just visiting in Illinois and everybody I met who heard I was from Boston wanted to commiserate, to know how I was affected. It felt like the whole nation was shaken up.
I just want to digress for a moment from wildflowers to the task of living in the world. Yesterday was the running of the Boston Marathon. The day before that, they held a 5 K race that loops around downtown Boston and everyone gets to cross the same finishline as the marathoners will cross the next day. B ran that 5K race and I took pictures. It was a beautiful morning and it was fun to be part of the huge crowd with their energy up and ready to run, and all their friends taking their pictures together. This second picture is of the finish line area, still getting set up before the race.
Behind that line of flags is where someone detonated a bomb the next day, during the marathon, when that area was full of spectators. I was there myself, behind the flags, looking for a good view of the finishline… but it was Sunday, not Monday, so we walked away safely later that day and thought nothing of it. And the people in this picture are the kind of people that got blown up: young people, families, people taking pictures of their friends. I assume the bomber was there on Sunday, when I was there, planning where to distribute death, and could look at these people and somehow, he still carried out his plan.
Alert Flowerophile Sybil inquired about when I would start posting again. I’m thinking it will be awhile before we see any wildflowers… but here’s a comparison view: a bend in the Charles River, Dover MA at sunset after our most recent giant blizzard (Feb. 9, 2013) and how it looked back on Aug. 6, 2012.
Bonus picture: deer out foraging on that same evening, after about a day and a half when all creatures just had to hunker down and wait for the weather to ease up.
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.
Similar to Lady’s Thumb but a more extravagant outsized version. 1 to 6 feet tall. A big patch of them at the Dover Farm. Buckwheat family. Can be pink, white or purple.
Nodding Smartweed, Pale Smartweed, Dock-leaved Smartweed (Polygonum lapathifolium)
There is a little weed charmingly called Lady’s Thumb, which is very common and looks a lot like this. It took me a while to notice that all these varieties of smartweeds and knotweeds are NOT Lady’s Thumb. There are about 35 varieties in this area. This one is a paler pink. Also, Lady’s Thumb has a dark smudge on the leaves. Buckwheat family. Native.
Pink Knotweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)
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)
A dandelionesque little opportunist colonizing the sidewalk and a neglected park in Jamaica Plain. Native to most of the northern hemisphere.
Canada Hawkweed, Kalm’s Hawkweed (Hieracium kalmii)
Oh man, these are looking great around the arboretum pond, where the pickelweed used to be in bloom. My height, with showy blossoms about 6 inches across. This is also growing in the local river marshes alongside the purple loosestrife for a major show. Native.
Swamp Rose Mallow, Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Bonus picture: if you turn around from photographing the mallow, you see Matt, who came for tai chi class and then stayed to add ambience to the arboretum.
