Saline Latifolia Loves the Graveyards.
Well, at last, we know it’s full on summer. Sunshine, skeeters and saline latifolia (more commonly known as White Campion) are abounding along some of the otherwise uninteresting sections of the trail.
(Not the little white daisy-looking flower with the yellow center in front. That’s an eastern daisy fleabane. It’s the taller one in back. )
According to my Minnesota Wildflower guidebook, this knee-high perennial grows in waste places and is sometimes referred to as Flower of the Dead due to its penchant for growing on gravesites and around tombstones.
"Seed buried somewhere six feet deep beneath dry bones and brittle debris, lost in all of eden's weeds."
Andrew Crawford
Thin purple veins along the fuzzy calix identify this one as the male plant. The female has a fat green, vase-shaped calix which develops into a shiny brown pod full of seeds. Both plants produce showy 5-lobed flowers that release a heady scent during the night, attracting flocks of feeding moths.
Folklore has little to say about the practical uses for White Campion except for one valuable fact. Extracts from roots and leaves are extremely toxic to mosquito larvae.
Go get ‘em - they’re blooming in the woods near you!
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