June 11: Smoothish Hawkweed and why "hawkweed"

I'm starting to see more flowers in the Hawkweed, or Hieracium family, so-called because in ancient times, hawks were observed eating this plant. Hawkweed flowers are yellow or orange and have flat petals that are notched on the end. There are many varieties of Hawkweed. I'm pretty sure this one is Smoothish Hawkweed, since the blooms are only about 3/4" across.

Smoothish Hawkweed

In early medicine, Hawkweed was thought to be good for your eyesight, and the name is a telling reason why. Here's how the reasoning goes. Hawks eat this plant. Hawks have good eyesight. Therefore, eating this plant will give you good eyesight. This makes about as much sense as reasoning that dogs have a good sense of smell and dogs like to chew on bones, so chewing on bones will improve your sense of smell.

I didn't find any information on whether Hawkweed is edible (other than to hawks) so I wouldn't suggest trying it.-

June 7: White Avens -- a chocolate substitute?

White Avens is one of those plants which is easy to overlook. The flowers aren't particularly impressive and sometimes look rather raggedy.

White Avens

But this plant has hidden virtues -- the roots are supposed to be a substitute for chocolate! For other avens plants the root is supposed to taste like cloves.

This I had to try, so I pulled some White Avens and cleaned off the root, which looked like a ginger root and smelled like dirt. Undeterred, I grated the root and microwaved it with a cup of water. To my surprise, it did make a tea which tastes a bit like chocolate, especially when I added a bit of sugar.

June 11: Crown Vetch -- A plant with imperial designs

Similar to Dames Rocket, here's another beautiful non-native plant which has quickly spread. It's Crown Vetch.

Crown Vetch

Crown Vetch is a relative newcomer to America -- it was brought here from Europe in the 1950s. It is used to prevent soil erosion and you can sometimes see it along the highway and in medians, which adds greatly to the beauty of the landscape. But it tends to crowd out other plants. Here's what it can look like when it gets going.

Field of Crown Vetch

Deer, elk, and rabbits like to eat it, but it is toxic to some other animals, especially horses. It's not good for humans either. One website claims it's toxic to sheep and cows, but agricultural papers suggest using it as a non-bloating legume for livestock, though sheep and cows eat it only parts of it and don't like mature crownvetch. 

June 4: Birdsfoot Trefoil and Yellow Sweet Clover:

Birdsfoot Trefoil is turning out to be one of my favorite summertime flowers. It's beautiful and has many uses...you often find it along roadsides to control wind and water erosion.

Birdsfoot Trefoil

It's also a good food for Canada geese, deer, and elk, and is used to feed livestock, as a non-bloating legume.  As a dryland pasture legume, it produces 20 percent more growth after July 1 than most dryland grass legume mixtures.


Yellow Sweet Clover is also beneficial, as well as beautiful.

Yellow Sweet Clover

Kalmuks (western Mongols), used to eat Yellow Sweet Clover shoots like asparagus, if the shoots were  young enough. Young leaves can be eaten in salads and the leaves and seedpods cooked as a vegetable. However, only fresh leaves should be eaten because dried leaves can be toxic -- they are used in rat poison.


Leaves release the smell of newly mown hay when drying, and dried leaves can be used as an insect repellent, or used to keep moths from clothing. 

May 31: English Dogwood

This flower is very pretty but has no scent. It is English Dogwood, sometimes also called Mockorange.

English Dogwood

The name "dogwood" is a bit weird -- there are no "catwood"s or "horsewood"s or even "birdwood"s -- but it may have evolved come from the word "dagwood" since the wood of this tree is slender yet hard, and so good for making daggers. And since we all know that "dagwood" is a familiar name (as in Blondie and Dagwood), this at least seems plausible.

May 29: Field Bindweed and Moneywort

Field Bindweed, though pretty, is one of those plants I would call a wildflower but others might call an invasive weed, though it is in the Wildflowers of Michigan book. It's related to the Morning Glory.

Field Bindweed

As you can tell from the holes in the leaves, somebody likes this plant! And tortoises reportedly love it, so if you have a pet tortoise you can feed it this plant. The plant is not good for humans or livestock to eat, however. And it spreads rapidly -- it's the bane of farmers and gardeners -- so feel free to pick all you want.

Moneywort, also called Creeping Jenny or Creeping Charlie, is also invasive, but is looked upon a bit more kindly. It's called "Moneywort" because the leaves are round like coins. It's an herb.

Moneywort

In olden days the leaves of Moneywort were bruised and then used to staunch blood. Moneywort also has Vitamin C so you can make a tea from it, though I have no idea what that would taste like -- you'd probably want to add honey to it. It's best to pick the leaves when the flowers are in bloom.

May 27: Blue Iris and Canada Hawkweed

I was very surprised to see these flowers -- they are so large as to look domesticated. However, they were growing by themselves unaided in a wild area. They are called Blue Iris. though they look purple.

Blue Iris

Ancient Eqyptian kings were just as impressed by the iris, and you can find drawings of irises in a number of Eqyptian palaces. The flower is found in Greek culture too. Iris is the name of a Greek goddess. She was messenger of the gods, acting as a link between heaven and earth, and was personification of the rainbow. Purple irises were planted over the graves of women to summon the goddess to guide the dead in their journey.

I'm pretty sure this next one is Canada Hawkweed. There are many types of Hawkweed but Canada Hawkweed is listed in the Wildflowers of Michigan book. Although this flower looks a little closed up, the leaves do look similar -- very sharp, jagged edges. And the back of the flower looks the same as what is shown in the Wildflowers of Michigan book.

Canada Hawkweed

Oddly, this plant is considered to bloom in late summer to autumn. Perhaps it's unusually early this year. There are a lot of varieties of hawkweeds, so I'm not positive this is the Canada one. Here's a website that lists them all (no pictures, though). Hawkweeds are used as food plants by moth larvae and small beetles.

May 27: Red Clover and Cow Vetch: Friends to livestock

I've written a lot about flowers that you want to keep out of pastures, but here are two that are good for cattle. Most everyone is familiar with Red Clover.

Purple Clover

This is my favorite kind of clover because it grows so big and is almost guaranteed to contain a bit of nectar which you can taste by pulling out the petals and sucking on the ends. Another name for this plant is Cow Clover because it's used as food for cattle. You can also make tea out of it -- use about a 1/4 C of red clover blossoms per cup of boiling water. This website suggests adding mint leaves too, and collecting the red clover in baggies to save for later in the year.

Here's another plant that is good for cows, bees, butterflies, and even the soil! It's Cow Vetch.

Cow Vetch

Cow Vetch as a name sounds absolutely awful, but the plant is good as food for cows. Other names are Blue Vetch, Bird Vetch, Tufted Vetch, and Boreal Vetch. Although it does strangle smaller plants with its tendrils, it enriches the soil because of its nitrogen fixing properties, so it's good for land reclamation. It's a non-native, but at least it's a helpful guest!

May 26: Fields of Forget-Me-Nots: Proof of divine Love

I've already written about Forget-Me-Nots, but now I am amazed by this modest little flower, which blooms early and seems to grow ever more prolific when other spring flowers have faded. Once again, here's a closeup of the flower, taken on April 19.

Forget-Me-Nots

And here are several fields of Forget-Me-Nots, photographed on May 26.

Flowers were once called "floral apostles" and this seems fitting, because such beauty given so generously to all does seem like God's love spread across the landscape.

May 25: White Snakeroot and Tall Meadow Rue

Summer is fast approaching and many of the spring flowers are gone. Here are a couple flowers seen more often in the summer. The first is White Snakeroot, and this is a dangerous plant.

White Snakeroot

There are a lot of flowers that look sort of like this...this one has simple leaves with serrated edges. White Snakeroot is poisonous and if cows eat it, it poisons the milk -- it is thought that this is what killed Abraham Lincoln's mother.  Here's a close up of the bloom.

White Snakeroot bloom

The next flower is also considered somewhat toxic though butterflies like it. It's Tall Meadow Rue, and it can grow  6 to 8 feet high. 

Tall Meadow Rue

Because it gets so tall and attracts butterflies, many people like to include Tall Meadow Rue in their gardens. According to a website originating in New York State, Tall Meadow Rue normally blooms in late summer, so I'm wondering if it blooming in May is a Michigan thing or if it is just very early this year.

There are a variety of plants called "Rue" -- Rue Anenome, Early Meadow Rue, Tall Meadow Rue -- but some are from the Thalictrum family and not the true rue "Rutacaea" family. Many of the Thalictrum family seem to have leaves which, when full grown, look like stylized tulips. Many of these plants attract butterflies.

"Rue" leaves

But it seems to take a while for the leaves to grow these little spurs. The youngest leaves, usually closest to the top of the plant where the flower is, frequently don't have them.

May 24: Grey's (Morningstar) Sedge: Nature's origami

I don't know if you'd call this a wildflower but this looked pretty interesting to me, and it's my blog so it made it in! It's Grey's Sedge, though some people call it Morningstar Sedge because it looks like a little weapon.

Grey's (Morningstar) Sedge

Naturally I wondered if you can eat this. The only thing the Internet would reveal is that it isn't toxic. So I decided to do some field research, and tried it myself.

The spikeball feels light and papery, like a little origami. The filaments extending from each spike are sharp so the spikeball is not a lot of fun to put in your mouth. Each individual spike is grasslike and nearly hollow, and contains a tiny seed. The seeds are tender and don't taste bitter so I guess they're OK to eat. A better use for the spikeballs is probably as ornamental accents in bouquets.

May 24: Hoary Alyssum and Ox-eye Daisy: Pasture pests but good ground cover

Here are a pair of plants that are considered good ground cover for wasteland, but should be pulled out of pastures when found there. The first is Hoary Alyssum, which came to the U.S. from Europe.

Hoary Alyssum

Like all members of the mustard family, Hoary Alyssum has 4 petals, with a cluster of white flowers atop each stalk. It's stalk is covered with grey/white hairs, hence its "hoary" name. Hoary Alyssum has been found to be toxic to horses. It doesn't seem to bother other livestock although the woody stem isn't very nutritious and it crowds out more useful plants. But since it blooms all summer it's considered a good ground cover for abandoned land. Indeed, the plant in this picture was growing quite happily between a few cracks in cement. Sadly I could find no good use for Hoary Alyssum, other than it's pretty to look at.

The next flower is the Ox Eye Daisy.

Ox-eye Daisy

According to Wildflowers-and-Weeds.com, the Ox-eye Daisy is both loved and hated. Loved because it is beautiful and hardy; hated because it spreads so quickly in pastures and cows and pigs won't eat it. In Scotland the flowers were called "gools" and the farmer with the most gools in his/her wheat field had to pay an extra tax. .

However, these days you can make good money from Ox-eye Daisies, because they are becoming more popular in upscale restaurants. The leaves are fairly bitter but have been eaten as salad greens in Italy for years...now the tradition seems to be coming here. There's a special technique for harvesting them -- here's a website from Canada with more information.

May 22: Golden Ragwort and Cow Parsnip

Here are two more flowers being kept in good stead at Fenner Nature Center by the Wild Ones Red Cedar Chapter. The first is Golden Ragwort.

Golden Ragwort

Doesn't sound like a very nice name -- too much like ragweed. I wish I could say it's nothing like ragweed, but alas the flower is toxic and considered unsafe to put in your mouth or on your skin. However, it is very pretty and gardeners like it because it is deer resistant. Despite its toxicity, people still ingest it -- here's more info about that.

The next flower is Cow Parsnip. This plant is quite large -- I'm 5'6" and the blossom was at eye level.

Cow Parsnip

With a name like Cow Parsnip you'd think this plant would be good for cows. Not so. It is often found in pastures, but it ruins cow milk. That might be why it's considered "Endangered" in Kentucky and of "Special Concern" in Tennessee. In Michigan there is no such concern, and before the plant matures you can eat the young stalk and leafstems. You can also use the dried stems for drinking straws or make flutes out of them.

May 21: Yellow Wood Sorrel and Pussytoes: It's about PR

Familiarity breeds contempt -- and even though this next entry is listed in the Wildflowers of Michigan Field Guide, it's still regarded with contempt by some wildflower experts because it's just too common for its own good! It's Yellow Wood Sorrel.

Yellow Wood Sorrel

Other names for it are Oxalis stricta, Sourgrass (because it tastes sour), Lemon Clover, and Pickle Plant. It  tends to invade gardens and spreads quickly. According to this Wiki site, all parts of the plant are edible and you can use the leaves to make a drink that tastes like lemonade. It contains a lot of vitamin C. You can also make an orange dye by boiling the whole plant. And it supposed to be useful on swellings as a poultice.

However, this plant can be harmful to sheep and livestock, even causing death when eaten in large amounts. So if you see it in livestock pastures, pick it up and bring it home for your own use! Probably shouldn't have TOO much of it yourself though.

I found this next flower being tended by a wildflower enthusiast in the Wild Ones garden at Fenner Nature Center. It's Pussytoes.

Pussytoes

Normally Pussytoes grow in dry places, in open woods and in rocky outcroppings. They grow in sun or shade. As you might be able to tell here, this plant varies widely in appearance in its stages. It is also allelopathic,  meaning it gives off chemicals that poison the soil for nearby plants. The pussy has a bite!

Historically, this plant has been used for medicinal purposes, but the Earthnotes Herb Library points out that some of these plants are extremely toxic, and "many of the historical uses have proven to be ineffective for the problem to which they were applied."

So here we have two plants: One is beautiful, grows in abundance and has many good uses. This one is picked and tossed out. The other is novel-looking but kind of ugly, poisons the soil for other plants and hasn't been proven to be good for much. It has a cool name though. This one is given a special place in a wildflower garden. I think there's a life lesson here.

May 20: Canada Violets looking like butterflies -- but why?

I've written about Canada Violets before but they now cover the forest floor like never before. They  look like little butterflies!

Canada Violets

A day or two ago, it looked like they had their arms folded above their head!

Canada Violet

Other flowers also mimic butterflies, but I have not yet found an explanation of why flowers do this, except maybe to attract butterflies. Does anyone know?

May 18: Golden Alexanders and Deadly Nightshade: Dark history

When I spot yellow flowers in the distance, it usually turns out to be Mustard, so I was happy to find something different. This time it was Golden Alexanders.

Golden Alexanders

Being indiscriminate about what I call a wildflower, I'm getting feedback from wildflower experts that it's important to distinguish the ones which are helpful to insects native to Michigan. Golden Alexanders is one of the "good" plants and is attractive to butterflies.

According to the Ion Exchange Inc. website, the flowers are edible fresh and are delicious when cooked like broccoli, though you wouldn't want to eat the stalk. You can also make a tea out of the leaves. Native Americans made a poultice out of the root to treat wounds. Eating the root will make you sleepy.

Next I saw the Deadly Nightshade flower. DO NOT EAT, OR HANDLE IF YOU HAVE A CUT! These are poisonous! Other plant names include Dwale, Devil's Herb, Love Apple, Sorcerer's Cherry, Witches Berry, Divale, and Dwayberry.

Deadly Nightshade

The roots are most poisonous, then the leave and flowers, and the berries the least so, although they taste sweet. For this reason they are dangerous to children, and there have been cases of children dying from eating these berries. Although the plant is toxic to cats and dogs, other animals such as horses, mules, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs and birds can eat it without any bad effects.

  

The berries change from green to red to black as they ripen.

This plant has quite a history. If it doesn't kill you, it will definitely make you muddle-headed!  Italian lades used to ingest small quantities of the juice to make their eyes dilate, since this was considered attractive. Sounds like they were muddle-headed to begin with.

The juice was used by Greeks during Baccahanals. It was also used during the Middle Ages as a sort of "truth serum" during torture sessions.

The plant induces sleep and, as related in the history of Scotland, the soldiers of Macbeth put the juice into the wine of the invading Danes during a "truce." This caused the Danes to sleep, allowing them to be easily dispatched. Note to fighting forces: don't eat something the enemy offers you!

It's said that "witches" used to drink the juice to experience the feeling of flying. Not something I want to try.

Botanical.com and a webpage written by an Oxford scholar have additional interesting information about Deadly Nightshade.


As you might be able to tell, I saw quite a few wildflowers this day, because I was walking through a park called Scott Woods. It was nearing dusk and quite beautiful. Here's a scene I encountered near the end of the walk:

On the Riverwalk at dusk

May 19: Lappula and Pineapple Weed: Amazingly versatile

Here's a couple of flowers that are really easy to overlook...as a matter they are very hard to spot because they're so small! But one of them is small but mighty!

The first is so small that I wasn't able to get a close enough look at it to identify its subspecies. But I can say that it is of the Lappula family. It might be Lappula Redowski, or Houndstongue. It's considered a weed.

Lappula

These flowers are so small that they look like the barest spot of color when you see them. My camera has auto-focus, and I had a hard time getting the camera to recognize that there was something there to focus on! I couldn't find any uses or warnings about this plant...I just think it's amazing that the smallest little detail of nature still has such beauty associated with it! This is very comforting.

The next plant is also very small. As a matter of fact it's so small that I couldn't get a good picture with my camera. Here's what I caught of this Pineapple Weed:

Pineapple Weed (out-of-focus blossoms)

...and here's a much clearer shot of the blossoms:

Pineapple Weed

For something so small, this plant has an incredible range of uses. According to the RAEMS Alberta website, Pineapple Weed may be eaten as a tasty snack or added to a salad, and makes a calming tea when steeped in hot water. The crushed leaves, stems, and flowerheads can be applied to the skin as an insect repellent or to relieve itching and sores. A wash made of pineapple weed will remove greases from the hair and act as a general shampoo and natural hair tonic. It is also thought to be a treatment for diarrhea, stomachache, flatulence, colds and menstrual cramps. This makes me wonder -- how do people find this stuff out? Is there a test lab somewhere that tries every kind of plant on every part of the body?

May 18: Purple Columbine and False Dandelion

I found this flower by accident a week ago when pursuing swans and getting stuck in the mud. Last Sunday my family went fishing on the west side of town and I noticed a pair of swans on the far side of the lake. Wanting to get a closer look, I drove my truck down a nearby dirt road that I thought went around the lake...but it was a muddy dead end. The front tires sunk 6 inches into the mud and there was no getting out. On the walk back to my family I noticed this beautiful Purple Columbine. Thank you to Mary of Wild Ones Red Cedar Chapter for identifying it for me!

Purple Columbine

Here's a closeup of one of the blossoms.

Purple Columbine blossom

I find this flower quite spectacular -- the most impressive I've seen yet! You can eat Columbine flowers (though I certainly wouldn't waste these by eating them!) but the leaves and root are very poisonous.

According to alchemy-works.com, this plant was thought by Native Americans to be useful in love potions and for the power of persuasion. Bachelors would crush the dried seeds on their hands or belongings to transfer the fragrance in order to attract women. They called it the "black perfume plant." Omaha men would rub it on their hands and then try to shake hands with a woman they liked to magically attract them -- and women would kiddingly feign a fear of the plant for this reason.  The love connection was not limited to Native Americans. "Columbine" means "dove," which was recognized as the symbol of Venus or Aphrodite.

Down the same dirt I found a much humbler plant, the False Dandelion, or Flatweed.

False Dandelion

According to the Veterinary News website, this plant is toxic to livestock, including horses. However, there are quite a few websites that advertise their edible qualities for humans. Here's a set of pages devoted to cooking with dandelions. Apparently the False Dandelion has the same edibility qualities as regular dandelions. However, if you're going to eat dandelions, the site stresses that you don't eat any that might have had chemicals applied to them!

May 18: Virginia Waterleaf and Great Waterleaf

Here are two related flowers. The first is Virginia Waterleaf, which is listed in the Wildflowers of Michigan Field Guide.

Virginia Waterleaf

The Virginia Waterleaf has five to seven lobed leaves. It is also called Shawnee Salad, Indian Salad, and John's Cabbage because its tender young shoots are edible. But the leaves become bitter with age.

Virginia Waterleaf with leaves

Here's another look with a better shot of the leaves.

And here's a photo of Great Waterleaf, also called Appendaged Waterleaf, which I showed in an earlier blog post. This one is in a different stage of blooming and has many more blossoms.

Great Waterleaf

I didn't find any more uses for Great Waterleaf than I did when I searched for it under Appendaged Waterleaf. You can recognize it by the maple--shaped leaves.

May 18: White Campion, Highbush Cranberry, and a disclaimer

Since I'm about to talk about another wildflower that is non-native to Michigan and which many people consider a weed, now would be a good time for a disclaimer. My definition of "wildflower" is very liberal compared to experts in these matters. If it's a flower and it grows in the wild without a human purposely planting it there or caring for it, I'm calling it a wildflower in this blog. I just want to know about every flower I see.

OK, now we can talk about White Campion, which looks very different during the day than at night. Here's a day shot.

White Campion during the day

And at about 7 p.m. in the evening:

White Campion in the evening

White Campion is native to Europe, Africa, and temperate Asia, and made it here during colonial times. It is also called White Cockle, Evening Lycnhis, White Robin, Snake Cuckoo, Thunder Flower, and Bull Rattle.  Pretty interesting names -- I wonder how those came about! You can use the root of White Campion as a soap substitute for washing clothes.  To get the soap, simmer the root in hot water.

Another white flower which you won't find in an official list of Michigan wildflowers is the Highbush Cranberry, which is actually a bush. 

Highbush Cranberry

I guess the "flowers with power" are the tiny ones in the middle -- the ones on the outside are infertile. The Hobblebush has nearly identical flowers, though Hobblebush leaves are shaped like ovals. 

The Highbush Cranberry has red berries which are not cranberries, although they are edible. Apparently they are not very popular with wildlife though, since many of the berries stay on the bush into the winter.

According to Wildflowers-and-weeds website, there are three different kinds of Highbush Cranberry bushes, and only the variety native to America has berries which taste any good. The leaves on this bush look like maple leaves (see left). 

The berries turn from green to red in late August, and as soon as this happens they are ready for picking. You can use the berries to make juice, jam, cranberry sauce, or cranberry-applesauce. The above mentioned website gives some helpful tips for how to process the berries for the best results.

May 17: Wild Rose and White Baneberry: Come hither and stay away!

Here's something I didn't know....according to the Rose Gardening Made Easy website, wild roses have been around for 70 million years, and were established in the Tertiary Period (between when the dinosaurs went extinct and before the most recent Ice Age).  By contrast, the earliest evidence of daisies goes only 4000 years. Well, there's nothing like a classic. Here's a Wild Rose bush I found in Hawk Island Park.

Wild Rose

There are lots of uses for roses -- you can eat the flowers and rose hips and make tea out of the leaves. One website says they taste great infused with honey -- but what wouldn't? :-D  Roses also smell great of course, and the nice thing about simply smelling them is that you can use them over and over again!

Roses have been prized throughout history -- they were found entombed with ancient Egyptian pharaohs and were prized by Greeks and Romans. Napolean's wife Josephine loved roses and is responsible for many of the hybrids we have today.

By contrast, the White Baneberry plant, though attractive, is very toxic, though it was used in traditional medicine. Here's what the flower looks like.

White Baneberry

Since 'bane' means 'something that causes death', that's a pretty strong clue that you should avoid the berries, although birds and small animals eat them. Here's what the berries look like:

White Baneberry berry -- DO NOT EAT!