Yellow Wingstem — this was flowering everywhere I went — sunny or shady, roadsides or hedgerows, in town or out in the hills.
- Curious about something you saw while walking in the woods? Spot the coolest bug ever? The prettiest flower and butterfly? Stumble on a rock and found a fossil? Or was it? This is the place to show your discoveries and share in the knowledge of the natural world right outside our doors. Join in the fun everyday at The Daily Bucket.
September 2017
Southwest Virginia has been my get-away destination for a number of years now. I go up there when I get sick of summer down here in Florida along the Gulf Coast near Tallahassee. My trip is never complete without a drive down Grey Branch Rd, even in winter.
Here’s a bunch of wildflowers Jackie and I saw at the end of August which is the start of fall at 2500 feet. I’ll be quoting liberally from a wonderful website Virginia Wildflowers.org
Great Blue Lobelia is not an edible plant. It is an emetic meaning it will cause vomiting. Long ago it was thought to be medicinally useful as a cure for syphilis, hense the species name L. siphilitica.
I should have know this next wildflower right off since it looks so much like its cousin Blue Mistflower — if the flowers were blue. I have bunches of Mistflower everywhere around the yard all because of one colony I found several years ago and harvested a few seedy flowerheads to shake out in various places.
White snakeroot is responsible for a kind of human poisoning called “milk sickness”. People who drink the milk or eat the meat of cattle that have consumed a lot of snakeroot will suffer severely and may even die as a result of the toxin (tremetol). Thousands of early settlers who were unfamiliar with this plant died as a result of milk poisoning. The plants are also poisonous to other animals, including horses and sheep. Surprisingly, the plant gets its name from the fact that it was once mistakenly believed to be a good remedy for snakebites.
A little bit more reading the other day and I learned that cattle aren’t stupid and remember what plants give them a tummy ache and will avoid unless forced to eat it for lack of anything else.
Easily 8-10’ tall, the leaves of a Tulip Poplar in the background left are a good indication of the wet location. Of course there is a story behind the name…
According to American folklore, a medicine man named Joe Pye commonly used a tea made from this plant to break fevers and treat kidney problems. As his reputation for success spread, “Joe Pye’s weed” became widely used as a medicinal herb for people living in the New England area. Because it was thought so effective in the treatment of kidney stones in particular, another common name for this plant was Gravel Root.
If we were doing the Daily Bucket Alphabet series I’d have “V” covered with these 2 lovely wildflowers growing in the small pasture between the gravel road and the stream and hill on the other side.
Ironweed (Vernonia)
The name ironweed comes from the characteristic stems, which are very tough and can persist right through the winter. Some say the name also refers to the stems, flowers and seeds, which age with time to a rusty color.
Nothing to say about the White Wingstem but here’s another shot of the Yellow Wingstem with a contrasting purple in the background.
Wingstem is sometimes called yellow ironweed because it resembles New York ironweed in a couple of ways: it is tall, tough, grows in moist places, has lanceolate leaves like ironweed and blooms in late summer. But wingstem is definitely not a kind of ironweed. The flowers are distinctly different, in both shape and color, and the stem of wingstem is winged whereas on ironweed it is not.
The name of this plant, of course, comes from the distinctive stem, which has vertical ridges that are sometimes described as wings. The stem is usually unbranched, and the fast-growing plant can eventually reach great heights up to 8 or 10 feet.}
Well as I near the end of this bucket, I can’t let go without one invasive plant --Cogon Grass. I found this on my favorite “rest area” 130 miles north of me on US 27 in SW Georgia. No doubt carried in by a road equipment when the road was widened years ago. I wasn’t happy...
Invasive.org
Imperata cylindrica is an extremely aggressive invader with the capability of invading a range of sites. It forms dense, usually circular infestations that exclude all other vegetation. It is native to Southeast Asia and was accidently introduced into the southeast United States in packing material in the early 1900s. It was also intentionally introduced for erosion control and livestock forage.
OK, time to publish, thanks for reading and see ya in the comments.
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