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Flowers Around Town
in June 2024
It started in the days of covid-19. Everyone was told to sequester at home. For me, a difficult part of the restrictions meant I could no longer go to visit gardens. Very sad. To make me feel better, Paul would drive me around town to look for flowers in people's yards. I did my best to photograph out the car's window, with an occasional escape out the door for an image while huddled against the car. Now vaccinated (multiple times, in the years since) I am still watching for flowers in other gardens. But now I can comfortably get out of the car and even cross the street.
Tuesday, 25 June
Around town, but not flowers. Rather, this is something concerning and disturbing. Noticeable from my car as I was driving down the road. The canopy in this wooded area is looking sparse, thin. It's an area of native beech trees, Fagus grandifolia on Creek Road. Slowed down, and I can clearly see dark striping on the leaves.
As I feared, the trees are showing signs of BLD (beech leaf disease.) They have been infested by a nematode. Leaves will die, tree will re-leaf, the second set of leaves will also die. And the cycle will, over time, cause the tree to die. Even if there is a treatment, it is unlikely that these woodland trees will indeed receive it.
Saturday, 22 June
At a street corner on Ridge Road. Someone once upon a time planted yucca. Also daylilies.
Growing up the wooden pole is poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans. And that was "planted"
by a passing bird. Birds eat the poison ivy's white fruits, digest the pulp, then pass the seed,
complete with a little fertilizer packet. How nice that a native plant is growing here. Not really.
Beebalm, Monarda didyma, is a more welcome native plant. These, on Tinsman Road, is a cultivar,
maybe 'Adam' popular for its mildew resistance. The leaves have a pleasant bergamot, minty scent
and are nice cut, then sprinkled over fresh melon cup in summer, or brewed, fresh or dried, as a tea.
Thursday, 20 June
There's another very noticeable tree following close behind the catalpas into flower. Hard to miss
the European aka Spanish chestnuts, Castanea sativa. Don't confuse this tree with
our nearly extinct American chestnut, C. dentata. This handsome tree is on Route 519,
toward Route 12. There are some wonderful ones on that road but nowhere safe to stop.
European chestnut has shiny deep green leaves tapering at the tip, and sharp, saw tooth points.
American chestnut has longer leaves that taper at both ends, and their edge points hook over.
Deeply furrowed bark is quite distinct.
These are male flowers. Do they remind you of furry caterpillars, or chenille pipe cleaners?
Chestnuts are monoecious, which means that they have separate female and male flowers on the same tree. The male catkins usually appear first. Female flowers look like small burrs, and would be found at the base of the male catkins.
Wednesday, 12 June
Though with a tropical look, catalpa has some of the showiest flowers of all the American native trees. The northern variety, Catalpa speciosa, was originally thought to be native only to a small area of the Midwestern United States near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. In 1976, investigation of an archeological site of an island in West Virginia's portion of the Ohio River revealed that the tree was present on the island around 16th to 18th century, suggesting that there was a decline in range before European settlement.
Widely planted as an ornamental, it naturalizes and thus further confuses the situation.
Catalpa has been planted by fishermen, not for any part of the tree itself but rather for the catalpa hawk moth caterpillar, Ceratomia catalpae. Widely regarded as one of the best live baits, this has earned the tree common names of worm tree, or bait tree.
There is a Southern catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides, native to the southeastern United States which has the common name of Indian bean tree or cigar tree. The Indian probably comes from American Indians rather than India.
Sunday, 9 June
Definitely not urban, Hunterdon County is also not rural. What shall I say, semi-rural? On one and the same day coming back from town there was a yearling deer standing in the road. A little further on a hen turkey crossed into some shrubbery. The real indication are the pastures and crop fields. Donkeys in the first instance, and
a field of wheat along Ridge Road. It looks ripe and ready for harvest.
I wonder what the history is of this field, its plants, and this sad abandoned collapsing rusty wreck of a car.
It is a little further along the road from the wheat fields, more of a meadow except there are no grasses.
A meadow has mostly grass, about 60%, with the remainder herbaceous plants and few woody plants.
Curiously, neither oxeye daisies or clover are native plants, having been brought by European settlers.
They have settled in and become part of the tapestry of plants. Here, oxeye daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare,
attractively combines with moth mullein, Verbascum blattaria, another familiar non-native, introduced plant.
Moth mullein is a biennial. The first year from seed it forms a leafy rosette,
flowering the second year. Seed is impressively viable. In one notable experiment
seed had 50% germination rate - and this after being kept dry for over a century.
Looking rather like a dainty daisy, robin's plantain or hairy fleabane,
Erigeron pulchellus,is a native. It is a biennial or short lived perennial.
Back to the introduced non-native plants. Anagallis arvensis (syn. Lysimachia arvensis), is
commonly known as scarlet pimpernel, red pimpernel, red chickweed, poor man's barometer,
shepherd's clock, poor man's weather-glass, or shepherd's weather glass. A small annual,
its flowers are only open when the sun shines. Toxic if eaten, for livestock and people.
Deptford pink, Dianthus armeria, is another introduced European plant. An annual
but can be biennial or a short-lived perennial, thriving in open and disturbed sites.
Foxglove beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis is a lovely native from eastern Canada
eastern and southeastern United States. It attracts pollinators: butterflies and
bees, and birds such as hummingbirds. 'Huskers Red' is a cultivar with dark foliage.
A happy tapestry of non-native and native plants, woven together in the untended landscape.
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