Wildflower Wednesday: Pink, Pink, Pink, Yellow

At first glance this could be a geranium, but no... see the four petals, instead of five?  This is an Epilobium I see in the occasional ditch here in Nova Scotia.  E. hirsutum, Great Willowherb.  There is a healthy patch of it near my home, across from a farmer's market.  

Less showy, prominent, or common than Fireweed, E. angustifolium, Great Willoherb is still a good six or seven feet tall, alongside the cattails. (Well, I guess Fireweed is now Chamerion angustifolium... the nomenclature is always changing!)

It grows long, narrow seedpods, typical of its genus, that will open to shed their fluffy, flying seeds.  

   A bit closer to home, along our long driveway, a patch of Crown Vetch comes up each year.  I guess Coronilla varia (or Securigera varia) has been planted around the province, and gone a bit wild in places.  Does not seem to be spreading.  I've always been charmed by it and thought it a nice surprise to find.  

(Pay no attention to the Goutweed that the Vetch is clambering over!)

     When I wander into the adjacent, abandoned field, big clumps of Joe Pye Weed can be found.  I knew Eupatorium purpureum (or Eutrochium purpureum) as a wetland wildflower long before I saw varieties in people's gardens.  

 On sunny days I've seen it teeming with small, orange butterflies.  This dark, damp evening, only a few aphids and ants were enjoying this clump!

I always see it in the wild doing better than the bits in my garden.  The aphids seem to win on my property.  These wild clumps, with their roots in wetter places, fare very well.  

And, tramping back to the driveway, I find a new plant to me this summer.  At first glance, the blossoms fool one into thinking it's just the oh-so-common Bird's Foot Trefoil.

But this is growing like a vetch or other "pea," with tendrils at the ends of the leaves, with only two leaflets.  It's quite thick, matted, and luxurious in this abandoned field.  

This is Meadow Vetchling, Lathyrus pratensis, one more of the many, many introductions to North America of the Pea family, Fabaceae.

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Wildflower Wednesday September '12

A couple days ago, when some friends had dropped by, I looked out from the deck to the abandoned field next door.  What is the purple-pink thing?  An Aster I'd planted last year and forgotten about.  There it is, happily doing its small part to brighten things up.  I must plant a few more out in that field, from the many seedling that are growing at the Cottage.  It's in a wild enough spot to count for Wildflower Wednesday, eh?

See it blooming, dead centre in the picture?

In the "unweeded bed" by the deck, some native asters are fitting in quite nicely.  Whenever I've thumbed the pages of "The Flora of Nova Scotia," or see some in the field, I think to myself I should study and get to know the Asters of my own province.  Maybe next year.

Yeah, there's Goldenrod too.  A spectacular weed in our yard - one I've not seen anywhere else, ever - is this Tansy.  I guess it is a Tansy.  All the others I've seen elsewhere are not so robust.  I have some fancy-leaved Tansy in the "unweeded bed" that behaves itself a lot more than this stuff.  These annual stems are quite woody, and it gets six feet fall or more.  And the seedlings come up EVERYWHERE.

Tanacetum vulgare

Prunella vulgaris

The Heal-All, above, dots the lawn for much of the summer, and now fall.  And the bit of Crown Vetch, below, blooms just as long, in a little patch along the driveway.  It mounds up along the ground, and scrambles as far at it can up into the twiggy Choke Cherries.

Coronilla varia

How wonderful it is to have weeds so nice at the end of September. 

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