April 23: Creeping Buttercup and Mustard

Today was Earth Day and I spent an hour at Fenner Nature Center on a wildflower walk sponsored by the Wild Ones Red Cedar Chapter. So there will be a lot of entries for this day!

The first flower I saw was a Creeping Buttercup. This flower was not listed in any Michigan wildflower books I have. But it's beautiful nonetheless. 

Creeping Buttercup

I suspected that since it wasn't listed in a wildflower book it might be considered a weed, and further research showed I was right. According to Dave's Garden website, Creeping Buttercup is one of the most aggressive wildflowers in North America, thought to have been imported as an ornamental from its native Europe.

This flower is toxic and NOT good to eat! Some people apply it on skin for wart removal though. A cow with buttercup poisoning will give less milk, which will be bitter and tinted pink. Dried buttercups are not poisonous, so if this plant is harvested with hay, it does not cause a problem.

It's thought that the only real way to get rid of this plant is to pull it up by the roots. See the website referenced above for more information. 

Another flower thought to be a weed is Mustard.

Mustard

Mustard is also not listed in my wildflower books, though inexplicably, the non-native Garlic Mustard is. And further, it looks almost exactly like Winter Cress, which is part of the mustard family -- just the leaves are different. So I think these wildflower books are sub-specieist. :-D

Mustard seeds are small in size and are used as spice and as condiment when mixed with suitable amount of water, vinegar and other liquids. The seeds are also used to prepare mustard oil and its leaves are eaten as mustard greens. Mustard plants and seeds are rich in calcium, potassium, vitamin C and vitamin A! One of the interesting mustard plant facts is that, almost all parts of this plant can be eaten, starting from the stem, leaves and seeds.

Jesus said, "..if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed,  ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." His point was that the mustard seed is very small but grows into a great plant.


I often wondered about this because the mustard plant isn't that large. But it turns out Jesus knew what he was  talking about. Researchers have found some amazing mustard plant facts. With the help of modern electronic techniques, scientists have found that mustard seeds have incredible power. According to research, a small mustard seed, only 1 millimeter in radius, generates a bio-energy field of 100 millimeter radius!