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.

Wildflower Wednesday: Pitcher Pictures

Well, I'm a day late, but I'll sneak in on wildflower Wednesday with these shots I took on the weekend in a bog in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia.

Sacrricenia purpurea

 

This native Pitcher Plant has been a favourite plant of mine for almost ever.  Here is a view of the habitat.  I need to create a tiny bog garden and recruit some of these great plants for it.

The genus is named after Dr. Michel Sarrazin (1659-1734), Canada's first professional botanist, according to Bill Casselman's Canadian Garden Words (1997).  I say he was  Canadian; he was from Burgundy, and went to New France to serve in medicine and surgery.  Along with medical work he catalogued and collected a vast amount of plant material.    The species, "purpurea," means purple, naturally.  Some of the common names include "Indian Cup," "Petis Couchons," "Piggywigs," and "Whip-poor-will's Boots."  

   Check out Wildflower Wednesdays, the last of each month, hosted by clay and limestone.

Wildflower Wednesday at Smiley's

I discovered there finally are wildflowers in bloom here in Nova Scotia - Hooray! - and some nearly in bloom.  We took a wander through Smiley's Provincial Park, and found some local treasures.  Despite about twenty-four hours of wind and rain, the Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) was brightening up the intervale.  

The sun had not been out long, so these little ones were still closed up and waiting the next fine day.  Lots of Nodding Trilliums (Trillium cernuum) are well on their way, but not yet in bloom.  A little grassy critter was flowering nearby.  Are you a sedge, or a rush?  I did not find out.

The damp lichen on a tree was as green as the springtime plants arising from the ground, and the various ferns were elegant in the fiddlehead stage.  I did not identify these maroon fronds unfolding.

In a different woodland I searched out the uncommon Round-Lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana (or nobilis)), but it is not yet blooming.  I must visit again in a few more days.  

May the snow stay away from my fellow Canadians, and the joys of spring continue for us all!  
For more Wildflower Wednesday posts, check out http://www.clayandlimestone.com/ today, and the fourth Wednesday of each month.