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Category: Wildflowers

American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)

American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)

American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), or often more simply just “pokeweed”, is a common eastern North American herbaceous perennial found in damp thickets, recent clearings and roadsides. It can grow up to 10 feet tall, but more commonly reaches a height of 5 or 6 feet. It has a widely branching form and distinctive bright red or purplish stems. Clusters of green and white flowers are borne on hanging stalks. The flowers are petal-less; the small petal-like structures seen around the…

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White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

Native to all of New England and commonly found along the edges of ponds, streams and other wetland margins, white turtlehead (Chelone glabra) is one of my favorite wildflowers. One to two inch white flowers grow in spikes at the apex of the plant, and bloom in late summer and early fall. The name is derived from the fact that the upper lip of each flower arches over the lower lip, somewhat resembling the head of a turtle. In fact,…

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Faraway places: Nova Scotia

Faraway places: Nova Scotia

When we first booked our vacation to Nova Scotia, I imagined a world of plants and animals relatively unfamiliar to me. I figured since we were heading so far north (it turns out, Nova Scotia is really more east than north) and all the way to another country, I would be faced with an assortment of new species. But while the rocky coastlines and higher elevation ecosystems in Cape Breton were quite different from most of our Cape Cod landscapes,…

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Spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

Spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

Take a walk along a shady pond side, river bank or wetland area this time of year and you’re likely to encounter clusters of plants with odd-shaped, singly-borne, bright orange-yellow pendulous flowers – that’s jewelweed! In fact, jewelweeds often grow in such dense clusters that their canopy can suppress or shade out the establishment of perennial herbs. Although there are multiple species of jewelweed, the most common one we have on Cape Cod is spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). Spotted jewelweed…

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Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)

Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)

It was a very butterfly-filled weekend for me. I attended the Thornton Burgess Nature Club’s monthly adult natural history program on Saturday. This month’s topic was “Butterflies” with an up close and personal look at a variety of species within the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly House. Within the Butterfly House, I was able to closely observe monarchs (Danaus plexippus), red admirals (Vanessa atalanta), and question marks (Polygonia interrogationis).  A newly emerged monarch butterfly. A question mark butterfly. …

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Common St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Common St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

To me, one of the quintessential summer-blooming wildflowers is the common St. John’s wort. By, or shortly after the summer solstice, you should start to see its sunny yellow blossoms everywhere. Common St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) can be distinguished from other Hypericum species by its five-petaled yellow flowers (with black dots on the margins) that are approximately 1-inch across, and its many branching stems, growing to a height of 1 to 3 feet, as well as its oblong oppositely…

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White Mountains Spring Wildflowers

White Mountains Spring Wildflowers

On a recent hiking trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend, I was delighted to see flowers blooming everywhere. Below are a few of my favorites. Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense) Rhodora is a fairly low growing (up to 3 feet high) deciduous flowering shrub. In early spring, this shrub produces bright pink flowers in clusters of two to six. The leaves open only after the flowers have bloomed and wilted. Rhodora can survive in a range…

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Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

A common non-native wildflower, purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is also known as red deadnettle or red henbit. Due to its propensity to spring up in lawns, it is generally considered an unwanted weed, and by some accounts is considered invasive in New England. Like other members of the mint family (Lamiaceae), purple deadnettle has a square stem and opposite leaves. The small tube-like flowers arranged in whorls at the apex of the plant range from pink to purple. The upper…

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Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

Saturday afternoon I came across a patch of flowering bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) in a sandy clearing that was absolutely abuzz with bumblebees. Its short, sprawling growth form seems vine-like, but bearberries are actually low growing, evergreen shrubs. The waxy leaves are 1/2 to 1 inch long and taper at the base. Bearberries  are a member of the blueberry family (Ericaceae), and like blueberries have small, hanging bell-shaped flowers. The white flowers, which are often tipped with pink, are pollinated by bees…

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Wildflower Wednesday: Trailing arbutus

Wildflower Wednesday: Trailing arbutus

If you look along the edges of wooded trails, where the land rises up slightly from the level of the path itself, you may notice low mats of rough, sand-papery, hairy, evergreen leaves. Although younger leaves are a brighter green, they become rust-spotted with age, eventually browning and dying on the stem, leaving patches of rather worn looking vegetation by early spring. This low, creeping shrub is trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), also known as mayflower. One of Cape Cod’s earliest…

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