On St. Patrick’s Day:

Did you know the shamrock used to be easy find in suburbia, but now it’s not?

The shamrock is one of two species:  lesser clover (Trifolium dubium) or white clover (Trifolium repens).  We don’t have much lesser clover in the U.S. but we used to have lots of white clover.  You could find it in any lawn.

Fifty years ago white clover was mixed into every bag of grass seed because it grows well in poor soil, is drought-tolerant, immune to diseases, unattractive to common turf insects, and it makes its own fertilizer.  Clover sets nitrogen in nodules on its roots, thus adding nitrogen to the soil.

White clover was so common that as a child I searched our lawn for lucky four leaf clovers and found them!

With all these advantages, what happened?

Broad-leaf weed killers came into use.  Intended to kill dandelions, English plantain, etc. these chemicals kill white clover, too.  Ever since the weed killers took over white clover hasn’t been mixed with grass seed. Not for a very long time.

Good luck finding a four-leaf clover today.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the images to see the originals)

p.s. Info on clover’s advantages is from: Grow a Patch of Clover to Rejuvenate Your Lawn.

Have you ever noticed this hairy-looking vine?  Perhaps you’ve seen birds eating its berries.

What plant is this?

On Throw Back Thursday, learn about Winter Weeds: Poison Ivy.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

American Holly (Ilex opaca) occurs naturally in the eastern U.S. from New Jersey to Florida to east Texas.

I always see it in southeastern Virginia but rarely find it in western Pennsylvania.

If it’s present, you’ll notice holly in winter because it’s one of the few green plants in January.  Keep an eye out for it, even in Pennsylvania. This young plant was photographed in Lancaster County.

Happy holly days!

😉

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

I’m very fond of the color purple so I was captivated by these stunning berries on a bush in someone’s garden.  I’m not surprised that they’re called beautyberries.

Beautyberry (Callicarpa) is a mostly-tropical plant native to Asia, Australia, Madagascar, and the Americas.  American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) ranges from Maryland to Florida so garden plants here in Pittsburgh could be native cultivars or imported.

Amazingly, American beautyberry contains four chemicals that can be used as mosquito repellent.  USDA has patented the use of one of them: callicarpenal.

(photo by Kate St. John)

After weeks of dry weather it finally rained in late October and … wow!   Local wild food enthusiast and mushroom hunter, Adam Haritan, found a mother lode of giant puffball mushrooms in western Pennsylvania’s woods.

Join in his enthusiasm and learn about these edible mushrooms in his Learn Your Land video above. Subscribe to his YouTube channel to get periodic updates on mushrooms and edible plants.

And this weekend you’ll have an opportunity to learn from Adam Haritan in person when he presents “Late Autumn Foraging For Edible Wild Plants & Mushrooms” at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library on Sunday, November 5th, 2-4pm.  This free event is hosted by the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy.  ( Map and info here.)

(video at Learn Your Land on YouTube)