Thursday, May 14, 2009

plants on the trail

i've started my master naturalist internship project and am trying to identify some plants. can anyone tell me what these are?

these first two shots are the same plant, just side and top view:
i believe this one is called 'snow-on-the-mountain' (Aegopodium podagraria):
this one reminds me of lupines:

11 comments:

Carla said...

Tansy - the bottom one looks very much like the Sweet Woodruff that I have growing in my yard. I planted it as ground cover - don't know if it grows wild...

tansy said...

carla - it's different than sweet woodruff but maybe it is a wild variety...i'll look into it!

Gina said...

Hi Tansy,

Here are my suggestions (with the help of my friend Kay) without actual specimens.

1. viburnum (try 'Maple leaf viburnum or dock mackie)
2. golden alexander
3. Blue lettuce (immature)
4. Virginia waterleaf
5. Bedstraw (Gallium, probably immature)

I am not 100% sure without actually seeing them in real life, but try looking these up.

Good luck! What a fun project!

tansy said...

gina - thanks, i'll check them out!

i was going to say no to #5 being bedstraw because there was another species of bedstraw out there but after looking it up, it many be another species. i've never seen it before.

#4 i think is snow-on-the-mountain it doesn't look like virginia waterleaf pictures that i saw.

#3 could very well be. when does blue lettuce bloom?

1 and 2 i'll have to track down. neither was blooming yet but maybe next week they will be. thanks for the suggestions!!

i need to bring home some specimens to view closer!

Ananda said...

#4 - Wild Lettuce

#6 - Cleavers if it is Sticky feeling like gentle velcro. It's a Gallium for sure - as are bedstraw and sweet woodruff.

Gina said...

I need to look 'snow on the mountain' up (not familiar with that one). I was thinking Virginia waterleaf because the peduncles on the flowers (the "whisker" looking things sticking up above the petals) are characteristic of VW. And, VW can have white to purple-ish flowers.

I agree the 'bedstraw' is a gallium of some sort (it looked different from the traditional bedstraw I see around here too, but there are only a handful of whorled leaf plants native to our area of the Midwest).

Blue lettuce (aka wild lettuce) I think (don't quote me!!LOL), blooma similar to plants like chicory and dandelion (intermittently all summer).

It is hard to be exact with photos (for me anyway!! LOL)

Gina said...

Look at this site:

http://extension.unh.edu/forestry/Docs/r_wtrlef.pdf

I'm still not completely convinced! =)

OK, off to look up Snow on the mountain.

(You have no idea how fun this is for me, LOL!)

Gina said...

One more and I will give it a rest. It does appear Snow OTM also has long stamen as well. And, being an invasive, it would be more common (altho, VW does occur in IL). Does the leaves have "waterspots"? If not, I wold go with SoTM too.

Gina said...

OK, I'm convinced it's Aegopodium podagraria too. So much variation in that plant! Around here we call it Bishop's Weed (which apparently is the same thing as SoTM).

tansy said...

gina - i have dozens of other photos of sotm...i could have posted a better photo! LOL

invasive? great! i could believe that though cuz it's everywhere! i hadn't even begun trying to see which plants were invasive...i was just trying to identify them all. i wish i could find good stuff like goldenseal and black cohosh and wild ginger and trillium. i suppose since it used to be a farm and the 'woodlands' are just neglected land, it would make sense that they are not there.

no water spots on it though!

tansy said...

ananda - yeah, i think you and gina are right about it being a gallium...it isn't the usual cleavers but all the other pictures i've seen online look like it.

i love the leaves of the blue lettuce...so large and jagged. i can't wait to see it bloom, i haven't ever seen blue lettuce bloom before!

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