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. 

Visit other blogs to enjoy Wildflower Wednesday, kindly hosted by Clay and Limestone.

Mostly Wild Nova Scotia

A week ago I was hiking at Cape d'Or, doing a bit of birding, a bit of botanizing.  It was a spectacular day.  I happened upon this pink version of the usually blueish Heal-All, a wildflower common in the woods and in people's lawns.

Prunella vulgaris

The usual violet coloured version you can see below, with this pink individual.  I suppose this is how many new varieties of plants arise - out in nature, without our help.

I was on this particular short hike looking for some uncommon Nova Scotia plants.  I found a couple, including this member of the legume family, going to seed...

Oxytropis campestris

Nearby, in the garden of a friend, her Globe Centaurea was just starting to bloom.

Centaurea macrocephala

I love this plant, and must get some seeds from my friend.  We went on a couple field trips, and along the roadway checked out this wildflower, Bladder Campion.

Silene cucubalus

In the middle of last week my wife and I headed out to go camping and exploring in south-western Nova Scotia. 

That chipmunk was one of the local critters that lived around our campsite at Thomas Raddall Provincial Park.  We explored this park, and a few other areas in Queens and Shelburne County.  In the boggy, barren, and woodsy areas there were plenty of native orchids blooming.

Ragged Fringed Orchid, Platanthera lacera

White Fringed Orchid, Platanthera blephariglottis

Grass Pink, Calopogon tuberosus

Rose Pogonia, Pogonia ophioglossoides

I think this is Blunt-leaved Orchid, Platanthera obtusata

A couple of other small orchids I missed taking pictures of, including a Rattlesnake Plantain.  But I did snap a few shots in some wet places of a bladderwort (not an orchid).  Invisible except when blooming, the rest of the plant is under the mud.  

Utricularia cornuta

Bladderwords are carnivorous, capturing tiny critters in small bladders that suck them in and digest them.  Also saw some very vigorous Poison Ivy.  I don't usually see it vining up a tree like this.  I kept my distance, though I've never had a reaction to it myself.  Better safe than sorry.

Toxicodendron radicans

 

We have one mistletoe in Nova Scotia, Dwarf Mistletoe: very small, very common on spruces along the coast, and very seldom noticed, I'm guessing, by most people.   

Arceuthrobium pusillum

Each plant is not much longer than the Spruce needles they grow among.  Among some dead Spruce branches I saw this lovely lichen growing. 

Speaking of Spruces, how do you like this odd one, below, centre, growing in the wild?  Looks like a strange variety someone would buy at a garden centre for a pretty penny!  If I knew anything about growing cuttings of Spruces, I would have tried to gather a couple shoots.

This post is getting lengthy, so I'll just close with some photos of some of the fauna among the flora.  

How many seals can you count among the rocks?