Hairy Beardtongue

Hairy Beardtongue
Penstemon hirsutus

Ahhh, the last day of September, another month down, 3/4 of the way through. I think I've gathered enough pictures to finish out the year, but I've still got to process them and write some engaging commentary for each.

There are actually a lot of fall plants to shoot; asters, goldenrods, all sorts of prairie plants, fall foliage, etc, etc, etc. If I don't have enough now, there are still plenty of subjects out there.

So, how did this plant get such a name. The Hairy part comes from the fact that the stem and leaves are hairy. The Beardtongue part evokes memories of college party mornings-after, but that's not where the name comes from. The flower is bilateral and the stamens can be long and hairy and stick out of the open "mouth" of the flower, thus "Beardtongue". Now that's something to talk about at botanical parties!





The stem and leaves are hairy

Climbing Nightshade

Climbing Nightshade
Solanum dulcamara

This plant is more commonly called Bittersweet Nightshade. For some reason, the Plants database chose the more boring name this time.

The flower has my old high school team colors, purple & gold, which is very pleasing to my eye. They look like little Shooting Star flowers.

The berries of the plant start out bright green, then change to bright red and look quite tempting, but they are poisonous. This plant is in the same genus as tomatoes and potatoes, which is part of the reason that tomatoes were thought to be poisonous for many years. In fact, the only part of the tomato plant that is not poisonous is the tomato.



The plant is a small, somewhat viney plant that can be erect but usually leans up against something.

American Bellflower

American Bellflower
Campanulastrum americanum

American, or Tall, Bellflower is one of the nicer plants to see in the woods in late summer. Generally by late summer the only flowers in the woods are the small white ones. This is the exception; nice and tall with showy blue flowers that always catch your eye.



Raven sitting on the trail

Common Moonseed

Common Moonseed

Menispermum canadense

Common Moonseed is easy to identify.  It's a twining viney plant with unique looking leaves.  Maybe this is why I never bothered to take a close look at the seeds.  So, here's a link to a picture of the seeds, which look a bit like a crescent moon.  It strikes me as odd that the common name would refer to a part of the plant which is rarely encountered.  I could see the taxonomists doing that, but not normal people! :-)


The leaves, while having different variations, are unique enough to easily identify.

Another variation

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus

Opuntia humifusa

Who'da thought that cactus grew in Indiana, not just at the sand dunes area near Lake Michigan, but right here in northeast Indiana.  Noted geologist and amateur botanist, Tony Fleming, found some plants at Chain O' Lakes State Park and pointed me towards them.  They didn't look nice and plump and impressive as they do in the desert southwest, but were astonishing just the same.

Amazingly enough, when googling for cactus in Indiana, I came across a Purdue web page claiming that it's a weed in Indiana and pondering the various methods of controlling it, including herbicides. Geez, they hate for there to be one plant out of place in the landscape!

Cactus growing among the leaf litter in the woods of northeast Indiana!



Flower Of An Hour

Flower Of An Hour
Hibiscus trionum

So I go to my favorite research site, Wikipedia, and find that Flower Of An Hour is native to the Levant. In all of my geographical days, I don't ever recall hearing about anywhere called "Levant", so I continued on my Wikipedia journey to the Levant and find out that it refers to the eastern Mediterranean region consisting of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and southern Turkey. Wow, I am learning so much! The term Levant is used mostly by archaeologists and historians. This may be the first time in modern history that it was used to describe a botanical region.

It is said that the flowers open only for one hour at a time. I've never timed one myself, but I plan to someday, when I'm not too busy.


The plant can look a bit weedy

The cute pods are quite distinctive

Riddell's Goldenrod

Riddell's Goldenrod

Oligoneuron riddellii

So, what is a "Goldenrod"?  Most people think of the genus Solidago, but this guy is Oligoneuron! And then there's Euthamia, the Grass-leaved Goldenrods!!

It turns out that the Oligoneuron and Euthamia species were once considered a part of the Solidago genus, but then split off.  However, the common names were still there, which were, and still are, Goldenrod.

Or, as Jim McCormac puts it, "The large catch basin of Solidago has been sliced and diced, and a few "new" genera have spewed from the taxonomists' spout."  Man, I wish I could write like that!!

Riddells's, like so many of the Goldenrods, is a favorite plant of numerous insects, particularly nectaring Buckeye butterflies.  Here's a great shot of one from Keith Board!

The pictures on this page were taken at Merry Lea Environmental Center.  It was on an old lakebed that had been drained down a long time ago and has a marly soil.


Riddell's has a more rounded inflorescence rather than a flat-topped one like Ohio Goldenrod

Riddell's leaves have the appearance of being folded in have lengthwise, then opened up, like an open book.

Common Yarrow

Common Yarrow
Achillea millefolium

Wild Common Yarrow is a nice looking plant with white flowers, however, the gardening folks have created a thousand different colors of this plant. It looks like it's all the same species, just different cultivars.

I tend to find it in fields and along edges and fence rows in the summertime. Its lacy, fernlike foliage is distinctive and is probably one of the reasons that it has been cultivated. The white flowers are small and nicely shaped, so the breeders probably thought that it be a pretty good garden flower if they changed the color, which they have done quite successfully.

A useful fact about Yarrow is that it can be made into a usable insect repellent. Click here for the recipe.

Finely divided leaf



Fuller's Teasel

Fuller's Teasel

Dipsacus fullonum

Fulling is the process of fluffing up a woven piece of woolen cloth.  Old-timers used to use teasel for this process, thus Fuller's Teasel!  Note that the most often used teasel for this process is not Dipsacus fullonum, but rather Dipsacus sativus, which the USDA Plants Database refers to as Indian Teasel. Indian Teasel is uncommon in North America and not found at all in Indiana.  It was cultivated for use in fulling, but not anymore, therefore it is becoming more uncommon as an alien plant in North America.

So, a better common name for this plant, Dipsacus fullonum, is Wild Teasel while the cultivate form, Dipsacus sativus, ought to be referred to as Fuller's Teasel.


Fuller's Teasel leaves are entire and barely meet at the base.

The seedheads last all winter. Notice that the bracts of this species stretch upwards around the seedhead. The other species of Teasel in North America do not.

Cutleaf Teasel

Cutleaf Teasel

Dipsacus laciniatus

Everybody knows what Teasel looks like, but did you know that there are fifteen species?  Naturally there can't be just one.  Luckily, only three have made their way to America and only two in Indiana.  They're native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa.

Here's another thing you didn't know.  Teasels are carnivorous!  The paired leaves of some species and some plants form a cup that holds water.  People have noticed that these cups of water often hold dead insects, so some folks did a controlled experiment and found that when dead invertebrates were added to the cup, there was a 30% increase in seed set.  I now have a new-found respect for Teasels!

So, how do you tell the difference between the three species?  First of all, one species, Dipsacus sativus, is quite uncommon and not found in Indiana at all.  The other two are quite common.  Fuller's Teasel, Dispacus fullonum, is the only one with the lavender flowers.  The other two are white.  This species, Dipsacus laciniatus, has deeply lobed leaves while the other two do not.


The leaves are deeply lobed and the bases of the leaves merge together to form a cup which holds water

This species seems to be quite a bit taller than Fuller's Teasel

Sensitive Fern

Sensitive Fern
Onoclea sensibilis

Sensitive Fern is a rather common native plant in the wet woodlands of northern Indiana.  It prefers wet, peaty soil and shade and where these come together it flourishes.  It's a unique looking fern, with its oddly winged sterile stem.

The name Sensitive Fern comes from the fact that the sterile stem is sensitive to frost.  It dies off as soon as it gets frosty out there.  The fertile frond, which is quite different looking, lasts all winter and into the next summer.

 

Royal Fern

Royal Fern
Osmunda regalis

Royal Ferns are so named because they're native to England and they can grow quite large there. The Brits call everything "Royal this" and Royal that".

It's rather unusual looking for a fern. The leaves just don't look fern-like, whatever that is. But, once you see the fertile frond, it is quite evidently a fern.

The fertile frond looks very similar to Cinnamon Fern, Osmunda cinnamomea, a genus-mate, which otherwise look nothing like each other

The leaves resemble Locust leaves more so than typical fern leaves

Western Brackenfern

Western Brackenfern
Pteridium aquilinum

 

Brackenfern is easy to identify.  Unlike most other ferns, it tends to grow in large colonies in open dry areas.  Each individual plant has one stem and a double compound triangular leaf.

While Ostrich Fern is the preferred fiddlehead of culinary renown, the Brackenfern fiddleheads are also edible.  There is some concern that it contains a carcinogenic compound, ptaquiloside, but its deleterious effects can be minimized if prepared properly - check it out at the Honest Food Net. I've never had fiddleheads. If I had a bucket list, I would put that on the list.

Field Horsetail



Field Horsetail
Equisetum arvense

Whenever I think I know it all, I just do some Googling to become quickly humbled.

In this case, I found out that Equisetum arvense is used by biodynamic farmers to ameliorate the effects of too strong OR too weak moon forces.  When used properly it attracts rain, provided that it is used in a water constellation; Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces.  On the other hand, it curbs excess water when used in the fire constellations; Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius.  The result is that beneficial fungi grow better and detrimental fungi die out.

There is actually some scientific basis for this.  Field Horsetail has a high concentration of silica, the same stuff that is in those little dry-packs that are sometimes put in packaging to absorb moisture.  In this way if a bunch of horsetail is put in a field it could regulate the amount of moisture available to other plants.  I don't know much about astrology, but that could be a timing sort of thing.  All in all, this may work to improve your organic garden.



The sterile stem branches upwards and has a separate stem that sticks up from the middle

Fertile stem

Scouringrush Horsetail

Scouringrush Horsetail
Equisetum hyemale

This plant was actually used by early settlers to scour their pans. That seems very clever of them, but I suspect they learned that from the Native Americans, who used it as a sort of sandpaper, smoothing arrows, canoes, and anything else that needed sanding.

I will try using this plant to clean some pans someday and will let you know how well it works.


Neither the fertile nor the sterile stems are branched, unless broken

Sterile stem on left, fertile on right

The sheath tightly clasps the stem, as opposed to the very similar Smooth Horsetail, which spreads out from the stem

Limber Honeysuckle

Limber Honeysuckle
Lonicera dioica

Limber Honeysuckle is a pretty plant that has a short-lived flower that instantly attracts your attention as you walk through the woods.  It doesn't look much like the invasive honeysuckles, which is nice.  It's quite unusual and striking.

It's rare but widespread.  I always wonder how species like that make it.  It seems like they would die out since there aren't many individuals in any one spot.

This plant is a vine that twines loosely around other plants.



Unique looking flowers

Followed by unique looking berries



Parts of the plant twine, and parts don't

When it has the chance, it twines around other plants