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Category: Plants

Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus)

Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus)

I think my most common summer phrase is “berry season is the best season”. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying wild-picked blueberries, huckleberries, red and black raspberries, and wineberries, as well as  the blackberries that are just now starting to ripen (I picked my first ripe one this morning). Now that my eyes have a “berry” search image, there’s one shrub I’m noticing everywhere: glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus), which grows as a deciduous shrub or a small tree up to 20 feet…

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Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia virginiana)

Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia virginiana)

Goat’s rue (Tephrosia virginiana) is a perennial legume native to the eastern United States. Its two-colored flowers, which bloom in clusters at the tops of the stems, resemble sweet peas. The lower petals are pink, while the upper petal (i.e., the “standard”) is a pale yellow. The leaves are alternately arranged and pinnately compound with numerous narrow leaflets. Both the stems and leaves are covered with downy hairs giving the plant a silvery frosted appearance. Goat’s rue grows to approximately…

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White Clover (Trifolium repens)

White Clover (Trifolium repens)

With all the abundance of blooming wildflowers that spring brings, it’s often easy to overlook the unassuming common, weedy species like dandelions, purple deadnettle, and clover. White clover (Trifolium repens) is common in fields and lawns (much to the chagrin of folks trying to maintain that weed-free lawn look). The flowers begin white and then change to pink and then to brown as they age. From far away, the flowers seem fairly round and simple. But up close, clover flowers…

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Wildflower Wednesday: Bird’s foot violet

Wildflower Wednesday: Bird’s foot violet

Violets are blooming everywhere right now. I see them in fields and along the edges of forested trails. I even have wild violets growing in my gravel driveway and through the cracks between the bricks in my walkway. One of my favorites though is the bird’s foot violet (Viola pedata) – one of the most distinctive of the Violas. And with its ability to thrive in sandy, gravelly soil, these violets are quite common on Cape Cod.  Unlike most violets…

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Happy Earth Day 2020

Happy Earth Day 2020

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. It’s worth acknowledging all the positive changes that have been enacted over the last 50 years – the enacting the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, endangered species like the bald eagle have rebounded from the brink of extinction, rivers are no longer on fire and don’t run the color of whatever the upstream dye factory happens to be producing on a given day, and renewable energy options…

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Wild Edible Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto

Wild Edible Recipe: Garlic Mustard Pesto

This past weekend my boyfriend and I went for a walk to gather stinging nettle for dinner, and came across a large patch of young garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) as well. One of best parts about picking garlic mustard as a wild edible is that it’s also incredibly invasive, like Japanese knotweed and autumn olive. So you’re doing the ecosystem a favor when you harvest it. In fact, one of my wild edible books describes garlic mustard as “universally despised…

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Book Review: Gathering Moss

Book Review: Gathering Moss

This book was a beautiful blend of detailed botanical science and a deeper connection with nature. In Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, Robin Wall Kimmerer takes readers on a journey into a part of our landscape that is so frequently overlooked and ignored due to its small size, and she inspires a new respect and admiration for the small wonders of the world. Personally, I’ve always been rather enamored with mosses: how vibrantly green they shine…

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Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) is an introduced wildflower from Europe, likely from early settlers that cultivated it for its medicinal value. It had been one of the most popular European remedies for a wide range of chest complaints. In fact, the root of the genus name Tussilago comes from the Lain word tussis, which means ”cough” – a reference to the supposed curative powers of coltsfoot. The flower buds, young flowers, and young leaves are also edible raw or cooked. Some caution…

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Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)

Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)

This past weekend I took a walk at the Eel River Preserve in Plymouth. This site had historically been used as a cranberry bog, but was restored in 2010. The restoration project included restoring 1.7 miles of sinuous stream channel, reconstruction of the floodplain, removal of dikes and water control structures, and planting 17,000 Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) trees. Although these trees are only 10 years old, and still have a long way to go, it was encouraging to…

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Interrupted clubmoss (Spinulum annotinum)

Interrupted clubmoss (Spinulum annotinum)

While hiking through the East Over Reservation in Marion on Saturday, I noticed a large patch of a type of clubmoss that I don’t usually see. These were interrupted clubmoss (Spinulum annotinum). Although interrupted clubmoss is native and found throughout New England, it is not generally found along the coastal plain counties like Barnstable, Dukes, and Bristol, and is therefore not generally found on Cape Cod. It always amazes me how different the plant communities can be just over the…

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