This morning I really examined a nasturtium for the first time.

Though it has five petals and sepals, the flower is slightly irregular in shape.  The two upper petals have crenellated stripes, the lower three have feathery edges.  Together they form a bowl but the bowl is porous.  If you pull on a petal you can see that the petals and sepals aren’t connected. 

Like many flowers, nasturtiums raise their stamens and pistil at different times in the blooming period.  These line up behind the feathery lower petals and force visiting hummingbirds to hover rather than perch.  No problem for hummers!

I say “hummingbirds” because the nectar in this flower is inaccessible to bees.  It’s not in the bowl but in the long, narrow nectar tube whose entrance is a tiny hole.  When I looked at the nectar tube I said “Aha!”  It’s the same shape and size as a hummingbird’s bill. 

We humans see the nasturtium’s face — and so does the hummingbird — but the real goal is that insignificant tube.   

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)

This four to ten-foot plant has big flowers and odd leaves.

The leaves are 8″ long and 5″ across and grow opposite each other on the stem.  The most amazing thing is that they are joined at the base to form a cup that’s large enough to hold water. 

You can see the outside of the cup in this photo (red arrow).  Click here to see the inside.

The leaves gave the plant its name:  Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum).

Why a cup? 

Perhaps it prevents insects from climbing the stem to the flowers.  

But flying things can reach it.  Goldfinches love the seeds.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Eating wild plants can be a roll of the dice.

Some wild plants are completely edible.  Others have both poisonous and edible parts.  Still others are poisonous most of the year with a brief window when you can safely eat them.

Mayapple is one of the tricky ones.  The entire plant is poisonous except for the ripe fruit.

Ripeness is key — don’t eat it too soon!  — but good luck finding one.  Wild animals usually consume them before we find the fruit.

Last weekend, Dianne and Bob Machesney found a ripe mayapple and decided to taste it.  Dianne sent these photos and said:

“We found a mayapple that the chipmunks missed and it was ripe.  I know that they are edible when ripe but never get to taste one before the critters.  Bob cut this one in half and we shared it.  It was juicy and fresh tasting, like a lemony cucumber and the good news, we are both still alive.”

The roots are another story.  Dianne told me “legend has it that any female who digs up a mayapple will get pregnant” but I wonder how this legend came about.  Native Americans used small doses of the powdered roots as a purgative/laxative but the dosage had to be small.  Too much meant death.

As I said… a roll of the dice.

(photos by Dianne Machesney)

14 August 2011

Yesterday I found this plant blooming next to the Youghiogheny River at Ohiopyle State Park.

This is groundnut (Apios americana), a perennial vine with irregularly shaped reddish-brown flowers.  The vine lacks tendrils so the entire plant wraps itself around nearby vegetation.  I found it climbing Joe Pye-weed.

You might know groundnut by one of its other names — hopniss, pig potato, potato bean or Indian potato — most of which refer to its edible tuberous roots that are high in protein and look like small potatoes growing in a chain.  Each one is about the size of your thumb.

Native Americans taught European settlers that they could eat groundnut but neither of them bothered to domesticate it the way the potato was domesticated in Peru.  If they had, we’d probably be eating groundnuts today.

p.s. An attempt has been made to domesticate it.  Maybe we’ll eat it in the future.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Here’s a beautiful picture of an unusual butterfly from Marcy Cunkelman.

It’s a giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), the largest butterfly in the U.S. and Canada with a wingspan of 3.9 to 6.3 inches.  Not only is it large but it’s a fast flier with a hopping flight pattern.

In the photo you see its light-colored underside but it looks completely different from the top: dark brown with yellow stripes.

I’ve never seen a giant swallowtail and I’m sure I’ve overlooked its caterpillar because the larva looks like bird poop (click here to see).

Marcy was lucky.  She glanced out the window, saw the butterfly, and ran outdoors with her new camera.  The butterfly obliged by pausing on ironweed while she took its picture.

Nice!

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

Here’s an orchid with a very strange name: Downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens).

“Plantain” probably describes its leaves which are rounded and basal like the common plantain weed.  “Rattlesnake” comes from the rumor that it cures snakebite, though it doesn’t as far as anyone can tell.  “Downy” is the one word that really applies.  It has fine down on its leaves and stem which you can see in photograph above.

This orchid is easy to identify at any time of year.  It doesn’t lose its leaves in winter and they have bright white stripes down their centers and white patterns along the veins.  In my experience we have no other plant with leaves like this.  (Someone correct me if I’m wrong!)

When in bloom, downy rattlesnake plantain’s ghostly white flowers cluster on a spike 6″ to 20″ tall.  The plant’s silhouette resembles common plantain, though the flowers are much larger.  From a distance the flowers look like beads with lips because the petals curve around the opening.

Though uncommon you’ll find this orchid in coniferous woods.  In southwestern Pennsylvania I usually find it on a hill above a creek because that’s where our most common conifer grows, the eastern hemlock.

Watch for this downy orchid, now blooming in our area.

(photos by Dianne Machesney)

On Sunday I went to Jennings to see the prairie in bloom.  The colors are at their peak right now with flowering Ironweed, Culvers root, Goldenrod, Blazing star and this enormous plant, Tall or Giant sunflower (Helianthus giganteus).

There are many yellow composite flowers at Jennings and I find them hard to identify.  Dianne Machesney helped me with this one by pointing out that some of its leaves are opposite but most are alternate.  The big clue for me is that the stem is red-purple and the plant is very tall.

Tall is an understatement.   Because it’s growing right next to the trail I could easily compare it to my height.  It’s probably 9 feet tall.

And the wonder of it is this:  It grew from ground level to 9 feet in only four months.

(photo by Kate St. John)

The Lesser or Small flowered purple fringed orchid (Platanthera psycodes) is blooming now in western Pennsylvania.  Its flowers are small — only 1/2″ across — but they make up for their size by clustering 30 to 50 on the stem.

You’ll find this orchid in wet spots in the woods, in damp meadows, and along streams and seeps.

Dianne Machesney photographed this one during a Wissahickon Nature Club outing last Tuesday.   The outing honored Esther Allen who certainly would have enjoyed seeing this plant.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)