American Witchhazel

American Witchhazel
Hamamelis virginiana

The end of November, only one month to go! I thought I'd pick a cool plant for this time of year.

This is a cool plant! I never even heard of it until I hooked up with IN-PLANTS. The folks on there would chat about it every fall, looking for blooms. It turns out that this shrub is probably the latest blooming plant in Indiana. It doesn't even start blooming until the leaves turn brown and are falling off. Then it has these yellow flowers, reminiscent of spicebush in the spring, that have four perfectly squared off sepals each with there own stamen, and then four spiderleggy petals that twist outwards, apparently an attempt to be inviting.

The name "Witchhazel" comes from two things; the shrub looks like a Hazel shrub, and the branches were used to "witch" for water. They would cut them to size and then walk around the ground waiting for them to twitch downwards indicating that water was below the ground and they could dig a well there.

Speaking of witching, I was out with a farmer one time looking for underground tiles on his land. He had two coat hangers which he unbent. He balanced one in each hand and walked around looking for the same reaction; hangers twitching downward, indicating an underground tile with water flowing in it. It actually worked. Being an unbelieving engineer, I asked him to let me try it. I did and they did point downwards at the same place that he tried it. He dug down and sure enough there was a tile there. I never tried it again because I was afraid that it wouldn't work a second time and I was fascinated to think that it even worked once!

 

Virginia Water Horehound

Virgina Water Horehound
Lycopus virginicus

Here's the problem. This plant looks mostly like Lycopus virginicus, but it didn't seem to match exactly, so I posted it on IN-PLANTS and learned that it commonly interbreeds with Lycopus uniflorus (Northern Bugleweed), creating a hybrid called Lycopus x sherardii. The only way to distinguish them for sure is to literally dig up the plant and look for tubers on the root! The hybrid has tubers, as does Lycopus uniflorus whereas Lycopus virginicus does not.

I unwittingly did not dig up the plant to check the tubers. From now on, I'll photograph every part of the plant, even the roots!

Botanists love this stuff, but the rest of us can just call it Horehound or Bugleweed or whatever we want and just leave it at that.

American Water Horehound

American Water Horehound
Lycopus americanus

My mom used to eat horehound candy and she said she liked it. None of us kids touched it because it tasted terrible, which is why I think my mom got it. She could have a bag of candy for herself!

Of course that candy was made from a different member of the mint family, White Horehound (Marrubium vulgare), which looks similar to the native Lycopus species, but is considered invasive wherever it's found in North America, which includes parts of Indiana.

American Water Horehound is a native plant which is found in wet areas; obligate wetland, and is easy to identify with its oddly toothed leaves and bundles of white flowers at the leaf nodes.

This plant is also called American Bugleweed. I suspect the name "Horehound" came from its identical look to the European White Horehound, but I have no idea how it got the common name of Bugleweed. If anyone knows, please comment.

American Black Elderberry

American Black Elderberry
Sambucus nigra

Happy Thanksgiving!

For this post, I thought it might be appropriate to do a wild edible, particularly one that might be used for Thanksgiving dinner. It's amazing how many elderberry recipes there are on the web.

• Seared Venison Chops with Elderberry Reduction
• Elderberry Sauce for Pork, Turkey or Duck
• Elderberry Pie
• Elderberry Jelly
• Elderberry Cobbler,

There's lots more. Enjoy!



Blue Skullcap

Blue Skullcap
Scutellaria lateriflora

This is one case where the Plants Database chose the more boring common name for a plant. Most people call this Mad-Dog Skullcap, which is a far better name! The first part of the name, Mad-Dog comes from the fact that it was used long ago as a treatment for rabies, not as a cure, but to treat the symptoms. Skullcap comes from the shape of the calyx of the flowers, which persists into the winter after the petals fall off.

Blue Skullcap is found in wet areas, particularly partially shaded/open spots in woodlands, which is where I found this one. For such a cool name, the plant doesn't really stick out. The flowers are pretty enough, but small and surrounded by vegetation.

Skullcap is a medicinal herb, used by Native Americans for a variety of things, often for anxiety and nervous tension. It has a calming effect, which is why it was used for rabies. You can order Skullcap extract, pills, seeds, etc. online and is claimed to be "a powerful medicinal herb, it is used in alternative medicine as an anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, slightly astringent, emmenagogue, febrifuge, nervine, sedative and strongly tonic." However, WebMD states that there isn't enough scientific evidence to support any of these claims.

That's how it usually goes.

Halberdleaf Tearthumb

Halberdleaf Tearthumb
Polygonum arifolium

Doing research on these plants can be kind of fun. For instance, I learned all about halberds, which are a sort of medieval weapon that the Swiss Guard still carries today, although the soldiers don't look particularly dangerous in their colorful outfits. From there, it was easy to learn about more medieval weapons including the voulge, the glaive, the naginata, the guandao, the sovnya, palma, bardiche, bill, bisento dagger-axe, fauchard, guisarme, guan dao, lochaber axe, partisan, pollaxe, ranseur, spontoon, war scythe, and woldo, just to name a few. It's interesting to think about how long and how thoroughly mankind has been devising ways to kill each other.

Beggarslice

 

Beggarslice
Hackelia virginiana

Your dog knows all about this plant. The seeds are like velcro and stick to fur this time of year. Sometimes the whole stem comes off along with bunches of other seeds and your dog will be covered in them.

But how did it get the name of Beggarslice? Other folks call it Stickseed, which is quite appropriate, but I haven't found anything that identifies the origin of Beggarslice, or Beggar's Lice.

The 'Lice' part of the name can be imagined, because it can be thought of as analogous to lice the way it sticks to you, but why does it belong to beggars? Perhaps it was a joke, a cheap form of lice that had to be begged for. Maybe beggars used to have a form of clothing that collected these burs easier than fine silk. Did beggars have to crawl, and therefore got more of these burs?

If anyone knows, or has an idea, please comment.

Canadian Woodnettle

Canadian Woodnettle
Laportea canadensis

Canadian Woodnettle is in the same family as Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica - Urticaceae), and it stings. It's a common native plant in rich Indiana woodlands. It's claim to fame is that it's a host plant to a number of butterfly species, including the Comma, Question Mark, and Red Admiral. It's even suggested as a good plant to have in your native wildflower garden! That's a pretty high rating for a plant with tiny little green flowers and causes a biting itch when touched.



Some of the leaves are alternate, as opposed to Stinging Nettle

Richweed

Richweed
Collinsonia canadensis

Richweed, also known as Horse Balm and a bunch of other names, is a plant of rich woods. It can be quite common. The flower looks very cool up close. The lower flower lip is long and fringed at the tip.

This plant smells good. Take a flower and smoosh it a bit and smell it, it's very lemony. Take a leaf and crush it up, it smells like citronella.

According to Wikipedia this plant was discovered by Peter Collinson, an English botanist. It also says that the Native Americans used it as a medicinal. I guess the Native Americans don't count when it comes to discovering things, sort of how Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.

Common Pricklyash

Common Pricklyash

Zanthoxylum americanum

Here's something interesting.  The Native Americans are reported to have used the bark of this tree to relieve toothaches, hence its other common name - Toothache Tree.

On the other hand, the only writing I could find by someone that had actually tried it stated that it wasn't very effective.  Constantine Rafinesque wrote in his "Manual of Medical Botany of the United States" - "In toothache, it is only a palliative, as I have ascertained on myself, the burning sensation which it produces on the mouth, merely mitigating the other pain, which returns afterwards."  I suppose that the burning in your mouth takes your mind of the toothache.

This tree is most impressive when it fruits.  The berries grow in bunches and each fruit is a red capsule with a black seed that bulges out of its covering.  I'm not sure if these are considered "berries" or not.


The seeds stick out of their pods, looking like little eyeballs

The flowers aren't nearly as showy as the berries

The prickers grow in pairs where the leaf attaches to the stem

The leaves are compound and look like Ash leaves, hence Pricklyash



Perennial Pea

Perennial Pea
Lathyrus latifolius

Lathyrus latifolius is not native to North America, but it is planted in gardens and escapes. I've only seen it in very disturbed areas. It doesn't proliferate but can last a long time where it does get established.

It's a peculiar looking plant up close. The stems have wings. The leaves have a winged stem, two leaflets, and a bunch of tendrils at the end. The flowers are quite showy, almost gaudy.

Silky Dogwood

Silky Dogwood
Cornus oblique

I'm not exactly sure why this is called Silky. If anyone knows, please comment. In fact, there are two species of dogwood that the Plants Database calls Silky, this one and Cornus amomum. Some folks call this one Swamp or Pale Dogwood, while other folks consider them both to be subspecies of the same species. Take your choice.

The easiest way to distinguish this one from Gray and Roughleaf is to wait for the berries, which are purple. Other than that, the flowerheads tend to be more flat and stick out beyond the leaves.