The violets parade has begun! These were the first I saw, a drift of white violets on the edge of the woods. There are a lot of violet varieties … it appears that this is Common Blue Violet which is a variable species that can occur as white or as in this case, white smudged with lavender. They are native.
Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)
One of the tiny first flowers to appear in spring. With one of the best names. An edible bitter herb native to Europe and Asia; in North America it’s considered an invasive weed. “Habitats with a history of disturbance are preferred.” (Well put, Illinoiswildflowers.com!) Mustard family.
Hairy Bittercress, Hoary Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)
From AF Lorie, I heard about a citizen science enterprise called Project Budburst, which is loads of people picking a few plants to monitor, and inputting the data on their website to be compiled and charted. I picked forsythia and red columbine in my own yard (pictured), and the assignment is to note when they leaf, flower, etc., to help understand the effects of climate change. Phenology: the study of the timing of seasonal biological events like migration, mating, flowering, budburst.
Tiny… and the first wildflower I’ve spotted since the Skunk Cabbage. You can see it has five deeply-notched petals, so it looks like ten cute white bunny ears, as the botanists say. Non-native and somewhat invasive. Alert Flowerophile Donna points out: “I was just looking at last year’s entries … Definitely chickweed, creeping charlie and marsh marigolds. .. The thing was the DATES … All I’ve mentioned you have listed as appearing last year in March … The chickweed, if I remember right, was March 19th! Of course, I’m pretty sure there was SNOW on the ground this year on the 19th of March. I am going to be very interested to see if the dates continue to be a few weeks off or whether they somehow “catch up.” I guess I’m telling you this in order to memorialize my interest in the sequence of the flowers appearance…”
Common Chickweed (Stellaria media)
While we dream of spring, here is a giant tropical ignoring the snow outside the window. I notice on my calendar that in 2012, the spring peepers started singing on March 12, now almost two weeks past. That was an eerily warm winter. This blizzardy year, they’re still asleep under the ice.
Amaryllis (Hippeastrum x hybridum)
A giant puffball grows in our back yard every fall. When I first noticed it, it had just emerged from the ground and was the size of a baby’s fist.
(September 26)
By October 1, just 5 days later, it was the size of a brain. We let it get a little bigger (3 more day’s worth of growth), and then picked it.
The consistency of the raw mushroom is like an especially dense, moist marshmallow. And there looks to be no circulatory system — they’re just solid white.
They were very good cooked — kind of like mozzarella sticks, melty and creamy. We also seared and froze some for later.
They’re edible only when young (when the inside is still pure white). Mature ones are greenish brown inside. All the spores are inside there — can be trillions of spores inside a single puffball. Native. Lycoperdaceae family.
Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea)
These are tall and beautiful right now. The books say they have a bad fetid smell, but to me it just smells like a sweet floral — very nice today perfuming the air after rain. Up to 8 feet tall. A variety of bugbane. Has long been used medicinally to treat practically everything, and currently is popular for treating problems associated with menopause (but its actual effectiveness is uncertain). Native to eastern North America. Buttercup family.
Black Cohosh, Bugbane, Black Snakeroot, Fairy Candle (Cimicifuga racemosa)
These had feathery little flowers, and now with the cold weather, it’s time for the berries! Dr. Wesley Whiteside gave me these plants because I admired them in his garden, bright purple on bare branches in late October — they were just little twigs but they’ve done well. An important fall survival food for birds, when other sources are gone. Apparently, you can chop up a plant, boil and strain it, mix it with oil and beeswax to make a fabulous mosquito repellent. Also you can make jelly from the berries! (And yet, you can also use the leaves to make a poison to stun fish. Hm.) There is an indigenous form, American Beauty Berry, which has berries with no stems, clustered closer to the branch. This kind is native to Japan. Verbena family.
Japanese Beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica)
The good thing about being a neglectful gardener is, suddenly you discover a robust new weed right in your own yard. (Actually, I guess not everyone would consider that a good thing.) I had been waiting for this to bloom, but as it turns out, for pilewort, this is full bloom. Also called fireweed because it likes disturbed areas, especially where there’s been a fire. Animals avoid eating it because the foliage is bitter and bad-smelling. Composite family. Native annual.
Pilewort, Fireweed (Erechtites hieracifolia)
It’s like someone checked the calendar and then flipped the Autumn switch. Labor Day weekend was summery beautiful, then suddenly Tuesday was cool and rainy. Today plenty of yellow leaves are plastered to the wet black driveway. Now we just need some bright yellow school buses to rumble by to complete the portrait of September.
Aster family. Native. The central disk starts out pale yellow but matures to brown or red-violet– this color variety is evidently the source of the calico name. Rays can be white or purple-tinged.
Calico Aster, Starved Aster (Aster Lateriflorus)