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Surprising Transformation

Growing into Gothic. Now that the calendar has turned a page and there’s a slight nip in the air, it’s a nice surprise to come across a tall bushy green mound with bright summer-yellow buds. Kirengeshoma palata, or yellow wax bells, is one of the very few woodland perennials that flowers late in the summer. Waiting until mid-August or September to open, the buds open into long bell-shaped blooms which hang, nodding gracefully, at the end of arching leaf stems. The waxy fl

Sep 81 min read

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TRAIN OF THOUGHT

Surprising Transformation

Growing into Gothic. Now that the calendar has turned a page and there’s a slight nip in the air, it’s a nice surprise to come across a tall bushy green mound with bright summer-yellow buds. Kirengeshoma palata, or yellow wax bells, is one of the very few woodland perennials that flowers late in the summer. Waiting until mid-August or September to open, the buds open into long bell-shaped blooms which hang, nodding gracefully, at the end of arching leaf stems. The waxy fl

Sep 81 min read

No Salad for Supper, Please

Pretty poison in the soybeans. If you visit a farm in southern Iowa in late July and go for a walk around a large soybean field, you might just welcome a vibrant pop of unexpected color in the dense bushy green canopy. Phytolacca americana, a wild native perennial also called pokeweed, pokeberry, even *poke salad, is a visual stand out alongside the soybean field. This ungainly plant with bright magenta stems and tightly bundled green flower buds stands 4-6 feet tall and

Jul 291 min read

Royal & Toxic

Solomon among the raspberries. Seems like every day I’m discovering a new branch or tributary off a path in the labyrinth of trails winding through the woods near my townhouse. And just as often there’s something quite surprising! Today it was this graceful arc rising above a scatter of wild raspberries. What a dilemma – do I focus on the frond, or the berries? I picked the frond. Solomon’s Seal, polygonatum biflorum, has such a promising name origin. But alas, instead o

Jul 82 min read

Bloomin’ Pretty

More than just a weed. In some references this pretty little plant with the heart-shaped petals is called a common weed! It thrives in neglected, dry and compacted soils, like at the edges of roadways and paths. I found it flourishing all along the mountain bike path through the woods. Pale yellow flowers with darker yellow splotches near the center and a starburst of pistils in the middle perch atop long stems fuzzy with perpendicular hairs — this sulphur cinquefoil is jus

Jun 191 min read

Arboricultural Portmanteau Moniker

Surprising anomaly. Walking the trail around my newest favorite lake I was confused by the sight of this early-leafing branch springing out of a tangle alongside the path. It looked very much like a familiar silver maple – except that it’s not silver but orangy-purple, and maples turn colors in the fall, not in May. I was stumped. But then the plant finder on my phone identified it as a Japanese maple and I was stumped again. Minnesota, in zone 4, is not a happy place for Ja

May 241 min read

Pretty Prickly Sourpuss

Neither Holly Nor Grape. I’m enjoying my last day in DC with a brisk walk through the lovely old neighborhood of Tenleytown. Colonial homes and row houses snuggle up close to one another, tiny yards lavishly abloom with azaleas, rhododendron, crimson phlox and masses of fragrant iris. In the midst of all this riotous color and perfume, my eye is drawn to this prickly holly lookalike shrub bearing thick clusters of dusty blue, mouth-puckering berries. Say “hello” to berberis

Apr 261 min read

Polyonomous Promise

On the fringe of Spring. Walking along the sidewalk in Washington DC on a beautiful spring afternoon, this frilly, fragrant blossom caught my attention. Meet “Grancy Graybeard”, also known as grandfather graybeard, granddaddy’s beard, old-man’s beard, snow flower tree, or flowering ash, and technically, chionanthus virginicus. Trees sometimes have multiple names because of commingled colloquial and common names and standardized, scientific Latin names . C ommon names often

Apr 181 min read