This perennial native to pretty much all of North America thrives in dry, rocky and low-quality soils, and there is plenty of that on the cape. This member of the mint family forms clumps that can grow 2 to 4 feet tall. It blooms with beautiful lavender flowers that closely resemble the flowers of a […]
Archive for the ‘Edible’ Category
Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Plant bio on August 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
From the non-native dossier: Daucus carota (queen anne’s lace)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Invasive, Plant bio, Recipe on July 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The common name of this natively European plant comes from an old tale about Queen Anne, a fervent lacemaker, who pricked herself on a needle, causing a drop of blood to fall on the lace. The flower structures of the plant are very much lace-like. In some of the flowers there is indeed a tiny […]
Monarda didyma (scarlet beebalm)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio, Tips on July 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I know my woodland garden is entering a new phase when the beebalm starts blooming. Summer and humid days are here, the canopy above is much more stingy with letting light through (even the caterpillar damaged twigs are sprouting new leaves), and lush growth is all around. At the same time days are getting noticably […]
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It’s nice to see these milkweeds popping up everywhere, alongside roads and in meadows. The plants don’t require much tending – they prefer dry well-drained soils and full sun, and will do fine in poor soils as well. Common milkweed is quite drought tolerant. The plant can be grown from seed, and will readily self-seed. […]
From the non-native dossier: Achillea millefolium (yarrow)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Invasive, Plant bio on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There is some disagreement on whether this plant is native or not. Achillea millefolium is a plant omnipresent in Europe and Asia, and most think that it was introduced in North America in early colonial times. Others seem to think that there is a native species, although it is indistinguishable from the Eurasian plant. I’ll consider […]
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio, Recipe, Tips on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Phytolacca americana is a tall fast-growing perennial, native to the eastern US. Currently pokeweed is starting to show greenish-white flowers, and in late summer and fall the plant will produce dark red berries that grow even darker over time. The juice of the berries was once used as an ink substitute, and to add color […]
Lathyrus palustris (marsh pea)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
This native member of the pea family is fairly abundant in wet thickets and low lying areas of the bay side on Cape Cod. If you take a bike ride through the coastal areas of Yarmouth and Barnstable you will see the pink and blue hues of Lathyrus palustris. The seeds are edible – you […]
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio, Recipe on July 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There are some 250 different flowering plants in the genus Rhus (currently, as new research may lead to breaking up this group into smaller segments), but unfortunately we only seem to remember the infamous ones: Poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron), poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) and poison sumac (Rhus vernix) can be quite memorable. They all contain […]
Oenothera fruticosa (southern sundrop)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Plant bio on July 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
This tough perennial finds its home in prairies, roadsides and among rocky hillsides from Manitoba to Florida and many states inbetween. The sunshine-yellow flowers are 1-2 inches in diameter and appear in early summer. These pictures were taken in the garden of the Brewster Natural History Museum. There is not a whole lot of sunlight, […]
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The lady fern is native to all of North America and Eurasia, and prefers semi-shaded deciduous forests. This fern seems to move – the old rhizomes will die off and fresh fern growth will appear elsewhere. Lady fern has some food value to wildlife – out west Grizzly bears eat this fern. Here on Cape […]