Fortunately for me the deer don’t permit such a profusion of day lilies to grow in my yard. Obviously they haven’t found this overly colorful group. It’s along the road to the soft serve place in Accokeek. Please notify them when you see them.
Category: #ILOVEWEEDS
“Saddlebags” of milkweed pollen! Busy bee!
It was exciting for me and the busy bee to find some milkweed blossoms the deer haven’t eaten yet! The milkweed pollen our bee is collecting looks like butter! I wonder what it tastes like. We ate young green milkweed pods once over 40 years ago. As I recall, you need to boil them twice, changing the water. Warning: Please Google before you try them. They tasted like string beans.
A cactus called “Holy Joe!” though “OUCH” would work too.
Who ever heard of an East Coast cactus? Much less a Maine cactus?! In Maine they’re called “Holy Joe” in polite society. Down here in southern Maryland they are called “Prickly Pear”.
Close-up of blossoms and thorns. See those long things! OUCH!
Wild Lettuce may really be “wild”!
I tried eating the leaves of Wild Lettuce and wondered why it was named wild lettuce since it didn’t taste like anything you’d want to include in a salad. But because it is pretty easy to recognize, I thought I’d share a photo or two. Then I Googled it. Now I know why Wild Lettuce is called “wild”! Another name for it is Opium Lettuce! Since you’re supposed to swear you are over 18 to get necessary details, I will leave further research to you other than to say I learned that some Indians use the herb to enhance the vividness of dreams. They believe that induced dream states provide more information about reality than the conscious waking state.
It’s a tall, sturdy plant with cool seeds. Both the flowers and the seeds look like they belong on a dandelion. So they must be related.
Garlic Mustard is not the first two items on a shopping list.
Garlic mustard is a delicious, critically invasive herb. Before I knew that it was an invasive, I knew it was yummy, raw or cooked. I am embarrassed to admit I planted it in my yard. Even if we all set out to collect and eat it, garlic mustard has the upper hand. It is one of the few non-native plants that can spread rapidly through the forest floor in the spring, greatly reducing the diversity of all species. A single vigorous plant can produce up to 7,900 seeds. Fortunately/unfortunately most only produce about 600 seeds per year. Try it! You’ll like it!
Earth Day revisited
Your difficult job is to save the delicate native Trout Lily by pulling out the dominant Lesser Celandine and its bulblets. Its speckled leaves remind me of fishing for brook trout with my grandfather deep in the Adirondack forests.
This cheerful flower, also known as Fig Buttercup, was brought from Europe as an ornamental. It creates a dense carpet (check out its sturdy, overlapping leaves) that prevents native ephemerals like trout lily, bloodroot and wild ginger from surviving. I know it’s cute but be strong!
Everyday can be exceptional!
They may be called Common Blue Violets but the sight of each violet opening in my yard is exceptional and exciting. The word ‘violet’ comes from the Latin name ‘Viola’, my beloved granddaughter’s name! Violets are native to just about everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere where you would want to live, plus Hawaii, Australia and the Andes in South America. Those sound like fun places to live too. There are 400-500 species of Violets. When I was about 8 years old, I took a shortcut through a neighbor’s backyard to get to my piano teacher’s house. There were WHITE violets growing in the neighbor’s yard. The violets in our yard were all purple. So I took a fork and a paper cup along with my piano book the next week and, without asking permission, I dug up a white violet and transplanted it to my backyard. Thus began my life of crime and fascination with native plants.
Guess what I just found in the neighbor’s yard! Hmmm…
