100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy
11. Boneset

12. Poison Ivy

Okay, I've never been good at identifying because I'm not someone who reacts to it. At least, so far I haven't reacted -- I've heard that you can build up intolerance over time. So when we were tromping around in that scrubby little section of our yard trying to fix the sprinkler, I kept thinking, "I'm pretty sure that's poison ivy, and I should probably do something about that." But I had to go look up whether the central leaflet of of the three has a long petiole, because I remembered that as one of the identifying characteristics.

So I'm pretty sure this is poison ivy:



And I should probably do something about it. I have friends who are highly allergic, and would cringe at the thought of our cats wandering around in this stuff and then rubbing against their legs.

Of course, you've gotta wonder what positive use poison ivy has. I've read that cows and goats eat poison ivy without issue, and that if you then consume the raw milk your sensitivity to the urushiol (that's the oil that causes the problems) will diminish. And I used Rhus tox as a homeopathic remedy when Thalia had chicken pox (it worked great, by the way).

Steve Brill mentions here that its roots provide erosion control, and it provides cover for small animals.

However, none of these things need to happen in my yard -- I'm not keeping cows or goats, I'm not making any homeopathic remedies (too lazy to do all that shaking), and small animals seem to have plenty of cover in the other weeds. So, theoretically, this plant will be killed now that it has been identified.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy

11. Boneset

A couple of weeks ago while I was mowing the lawn I was thinking that I needed to identify these plants that are growing around the edges of our yard



and sort of hanging into the lawn itself, at which point I run over them with the lawn mower because they're in the way.





Except I kept forgetting about it, so I never looked them up.

But today I discovered that Susun Weed has youtube videos. Who knew? I love Susun Weed. She knows so much about plants and nutrition and healing. So I noticed that this one had been uploaded recently and was about flu (very topical) so I clicked on it:



HEY! That looks like the plant in our backyard!

I grabbed Annabeth and announced that we were going to go do some science -- plant ID time!




Googled various websites for more pictures like these. And discussed the ways we identify a plant -- how are the leaves placed? the flowers? What is special about what we're seeing? Are we in the normal range of this plant?




Too bad ours are a bit past their prime for making a tincture. If they're back next year, we'll be harvesting some. I think we had a lot this year due to the cool, wet summer -- that part of the yard tends to stay damp. In the meantime, I finally get that the name "boneset" isn't about broken bones. I need to look up and learn more common names of this plant.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain

10. English Ivy

Former residents had planted English ivy in a couple of areas in the back. And we ripped it back out.

BUT...


There are still little bits of root sprouting up near the foundation of the house...


and bits of it here and there in the lawn....



We managed to kill all of it in the bed around this maple (which also featured poison ivy mixed into the English Ivy -- which is a common problem), but we weren't able to get all of the dead vines off the tree trunk because the trunk had started growing around them.

Hairy vine no friend of mine. Which is supposed to refer to poison ivy, but after whacking back this particular stand it seems appropriate.

Whenever I think of Hedera helix growing like crazy all over the landscape I remember my friend Mickey, who used to work at a florist. She said that whenever a bride-to-be came into the shop to look at wedding flowers the owner would tell a story about how some bride had used English ivy in her bridal bouquet and then planted it in her garden. Mickey said the story was actually untrue, but they ended up selling a lot of ivy in bouquets because it sounded so cool to do that. Then we all guffawed at the gullibility of the people buying the ivy based on this story -- because openly laughing at stupidity was considered appropriate in that time and place. I later moved out of New England to the south, and commented to my cousin how much kinder southerners were since they didn't openly mock people, and my cousin, who lived in Atlanta, said, "No, they're just laughing at you behind your back." Hmmm. In the meantime, we eventually moved to a house in Dover that had this really oddly-placed ivy, and I swear it came out of a pot that the former resident had placed up on the front porch, so it was sort of like the bridal-bouquet-thing coming to life to haunt me. All of which goes through my head -- even the bit about laughing behind someone's back versus laughing in their face -- when I see escapee ivy in the landscape. Which is a lot of luggage for one plant to carry, but the ivy seems to be bearing up well under the task.

On the other hand, they make dandy houseplants.

Since I've noticed that people have a distressing habit of googling their way to my notes on plants looking for actual helpful information rather than weird anecdotes about my life with the plants, may I refer you to this web site for more information about Hedera helix.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza

9. Plantain



A few weeks ago Annabeth showed me a couple of itchy bumps on her waistline. "Chiggers," I diagnosed. "Let's see, what can we use on chiggers...." As a connoisseur of chigger bites (if getting chigger bites were a competition I'd be a world-class competitor), I knew fingernail polish doesn't actually work, other than acting as an irritant and distraction. Annabeth is allergic to lavendar oil ... hmm, how about some plantain? I was musing aloud about what to use, and showed her a picture.

"There's some of that growing out next to the playset," she commented.



Whoa, you ain't kiddin' we've got some plantain, also known as Plantago. So, we crushed some up and dabbed it on the bites. I don't know if it gave a miracle cure (probably not), but the herbal lesson was certainly distracting. And she didn't mention the bites again, nor did I notice much scratching.

Other than dabbing crushed plantain leaves on itchy insect bites, plantain can also be eaten. Young leaves can be cooked (for that matter they can be eaten raw -- which is why you can chew up the leaves to crush them to use as a poultice). The seeds can also be foraged; they are the main ingredient in Metamucil, for the record. Really a handy little weed, giving us free food and medicine. And it grows all over suburbia!

Some species are native to North America, but the most common came from Europe. No poisonous look-alikes exist, so it's a fairly safe weed for a beginner forager or medicinal-herb-gatherer. Plus, I always thought the flowers look cool -- check out the picture at the top of this page. We don't have any of this particular species growing around here, but it's one of the first plants I learned as a kid, mostly because I thought it was such a fascinating-looking plant.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily

8. Lespedeza

When we moved here we inherited a fairly weedy lawn. The slope is really funky and the soil is crappy, so it's in sort of a permanent drought. Plus the previous owners didn't care, which typically translates to "don't mow very often, and then scalp it down", which is a technique that favors weeds over grass.

Anyway, there's a bunch of some plant that I hadn't seen before. It looks sort of like clover






and in some areas it's totally taken over.



So the other day some guy came to our door selling lawn chemical applications. I'm not big on lawn chemical applications -- I figure if it's all sort of green and approximately the same height, we're good (except I hate zoysia grass, but that's another story). So I don't place a high priority on killing various short green things and then fertilizing other short green things.

BUT, he commented that he could get rid of the lespedeza (well, except he pronounced it differently -- more like les -pi--dee-jah). Ooooooh, how cool. I used the word in sentences while I was talking to him, fixing it in my brain. And then when we were finished talking I ran inside to google it.

(As an aside, he also assured me he could get rid of crabgrass, clover, and violets. We have virtually no crabgrass, and I happen to like the violets. I'm neutral on clover, aware that it was considered part of a healthy lawn until about the 1960s and the dawn of lawn chemicals. On the other hand, I've gotten my share of bee stings from walking barefoot through lawns with clover patches, so I don't consider it quite so necessary.)

And discovered varying opinions on the plant. I found a place to buy seeds so you can use it for erosion control and for "food and shelter for wildlife" such as deer and quail. Obviously it's growing taller than it does in our yard if it's shelter wildlife. And we seem to have no trouble attracting deer, although they prefer daylilies and hostas over lespedeza, in case you wondered.

And yet, in Kansas it has been declared a noxious weed. And I found a comment that Missouri may declare it a noxious weed also. It seems to be a case of an okay plant running amok and killing off the competition.

Other bits and pieces of lespedeza trivia: Goats and sheep will eat it more readily than will cows. It has a high tannin content, particularly late in the season. I imagine this makes it bitter. And there's been research on using it to help with internal parasites in ruminant animals. I haven't found any human uses for it yet -- I always like finding out which plants we can forage, assuming we don't spray them with chemicals.

I couldn't find any organic controls, other than using herds of goats and also burning it off. I don't think either method would be popular with the neighbors. Not that the neighbors object to chemical applications -- I need to go take pictures of what happened to our lawn when one neighbor decided to "help" with the "violet problem" we supposedly have.

More about the 100 Species Challenge here, and a link to all of my 100 Species entries is in the sidebar.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth

7. Tiger Lily

The former occupants did many odd things with the landscape here. They did manage one incredibly cool thing, though -- they planted these:





It's much more common to see an orange Tiger Lily. We had scads of day lilies and tiger lilies at our old house, and I was pretty ho-hum about them. But I think this reddish pink is gorgeous.

I've noticed that when I google "tiger lily" I get some pictures of things I would call day lilies. Notice that the plant in my photo has leaves whorled around the stem -- that's the plant I use the common name "tiger lily" for. The ones on this website I'd call day lilies. Your mileage may vary.

Also, the wikipedia article calls the plant I'm thinking of Lilium columbianum, while I see it listed other places as Lilium tigrinum. Are these 2 different plants? Likely, although it could be just another example of changing nomenclature. I wonder what the difference is. I know that people eat day lilies, I've heard they eat tiger lilies, but are we all talking about the same things when we say these names? These are questions I'd like to find out more about.

More about the 100 Species Challenge here, and a link to all of my 100 Species entries is in the sidebar.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca

6. Grape Hyacinth

Yesterday was a lovely day, and while we were outside I suggested to AnnaBeth that she start sketching plants as a way to get to know more about them. Sitting down and drawing something like a flower involves really taking a good look at it. And putting a title on the drawing involves making sure you know the name and how to spell it.

After looking over some of the choices, concentrating on things that were currently flowering, she decided to draw some of the grape hyacinth.




These grow from bulbs, and pop up every year. I suspect that something eats our bulbs, as they don't seem to be multiplying as much as I expected. One thing I didn't realize is that apparently the bulbs are pickled and eaten by people in Greece and Italy. I love finding out about edible landscape, so I plan to look into that a little more later this week.

Grape hyacinths are actually part of the lily family.

This is an interesting page about grape hyacinths. Wouldn't it be cool to plant a river like that? But it probably wouldn't work here -- it would be eaten away (this is the story of our landscaping adventures here -- everything gets eaten by the local wildlife).

More about the 100 Species Challenge here, and a link to all of my 100 Species entries is in the sidebar.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla

5. Vinca
We like to use annual vinca for border planting. I always get white, because I think white flowers make such a nice, visible border for the walks.




Sometimes I do get another color for pots, though.






The foliage is a nice glossy dark green. The entire plant gets bushy on its own, without any pinching back. And, best of all, the deer don’t eat it! Truly a carefree plant -- just pop it in the ground in spring, and make sure it gets some water now and then .

There’s a perennial named Vinca which is a totally different plant. The annual vinca I’m showing here is actually Catharanthus roseus. Here is a nice summary of annual vinca.

And, what new thing did I learn about vinca while composing this entry? I learned that it's a bit fussy to propagate from seeds. I'm sort of surprised, considering we've had it come up volunteer some years. But, of course, in that situation it was just a fun surprise to see it popping up in the spring.

More information about the 100 Species Challenge here, and a link to all my 100 Species entries in the sidebar.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea

4. Potentilla

Growing up we saw Potentilla fruticosa with yellow flowers. A few years ago while planting a white garden we found the cultivar "Abbotswood" which has white flowers:



It's become our potentilla of choice whenever we plant potentillas. And we like to plant them, since they bloom all summer long, and are generally a reliable plant.

When we lived in New Hampshire a nursery worker commented that they treated them as a perennial up there, figuring on total dieback in the winter and revival in the spring. I don't know if that's really true -- perhaps just that person's view on things. Around here we have the delicate outline of the branches all winter long.

I had forgotten that potentillas are also known as shrubby cinquefoil, which strikes me as a case where the common name is more complicated than the Latin. I vaguely remember hearing them called Tundra Rose, but Widdy? Really? The Wikipedia article I linked claims they're called that. Umm, yeah, and sometimes we call them "potentates" just to be silly, but I don't think I'd be writing up an article claiming that name. So I looked up "widdy" (following the rabbit trail), and discovered it is a rope made from flexible twigs such as birch; also, a hangman's noose. Hmmm, okay, potentilla branches are thin and flexible; if I squint I can see it.

I may start using that name, just because I think it's a fun word to say. Widdy widdy widdy.

More info about the 100 Species Challenge here; link in the sidebar to all of my 100 Species Posts so far.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan


3.  Rose of Sharon, Althea



Rose of Sharon is an easy-to-grow shrub. Unlike many flowering shrubs, it blooms in late summer. It's an old-fashioned shrub, tall, with a vase-shape. Here is a photo of a mature speciman; the ones in our yard are fairly young, closer to my height and not very wide. We see a spectacular Rose of Sharon that's probably 15 feet tall when we drive to piano lessons.

What I learned about Rose of Sharon while preparing this entry: trim in the early spring. I should know this stuff, but I never can remember whether to trim various shrubs in the fall or the spring, new growth or old growth, etc. etc. Really, though, Rose of Sharon does just fine without pruning, provided you plant it in a spot big enough for its mature growth.

What is this 100 Species Challenge? See blog entry here, or click on the label in the sidebar.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry

2. Black-eyed Susan

When I think of Black-eyed Susan I think of the Rudbeckia species. We've planted Black-eyed Susans in various gardens at various houses we've lived in, but these came up volunteer this year:



I was aware that Black-eyed Susans tend to prefer poor soil. I didn't realize until now that another common name for the plant is Poorland Daisy. There are several common names, as a matter of fact, probably because it's such a common wild flower, growing in most of North America.

I had also realized that it's related to Echinacea purpurea, and was vaguely aware that some of the parts can be used the same way. The wikipedia article on Black-eyed Susan (linked above) specifies that the roots are the part used.

What's this 100 Species Challenge about? See post here to find out more; click on the label "100 Species" to see all posts on this subject.

100 Species Challenge

1. Strawberry

We have wild strawberries all around the edges of our yard. Years ago I learned that there's more than one type of wild strawberry -- there are those that taste like strawberries, and those that are tasteless. Also, there are those that have white flowers and those that have yellow flowers.

These are the tasteless kind. In the photo we can see some of the yellow blossoms this particular plant has. I think that puts these in the realm of Duchesnea indica (which has apparently changed its name to Potentilla indica -- who knew?). True strawberries are Fragaria (for some reason I had it in my head that they are Fraxis, but I don't think there's really anything by that name).



Here is a great page on wild strawberries by Steve Brill, who knows and shares tons of information about foraging wild edible plants. He calls these yellow-flowered tasteless strawberries "wood strawberries". On the other hand, other experts say that wood strawberries have white flowers and taste. This is the problem with common names -- they aren't really too precise. Of course, as we can see by this plant's name change, Latin names aren't exactly written in stone either. Perhaps the most pertinent piece of information on Steve Brill's page is that there are no poisonous species that look like a strawberry. The information on the wood strawberry is in about the middle of the page.

Here is a wikipedia article on the plant, also called Mock Strawberry or Indian Strawberry.

100 Species Challenge

This looks like a fun idea, and (theoretically) educational:

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant's home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I'd like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two--"camillia" if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge.  You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like.  I'm planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year.  But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.



The challenge was put together at scsours.. I read about it at Melissa Wiley's blog.


We (well, actually me, but I'll drag everyone else here into it) will be participating. I'd like to think I can bang this out fairly quickly -- surely I can already identify nearly 100 species of plants around here. Getting around to writing blog posts about them will be the challenge, of course. I mean, right now I'm looking out the window at some Black Eyed Susans that have sprung up volunteer, the yew bushes, the maple trees, we have gobs of violets and wild strawberries ... oh, so much flora to snap pictures of and to write about!

I'll tag each post with a "100 Species" tag that will link in the sidebar. And maybe figure out how to put Melissa Wiley's cool button in the sidebar, too.