Cimicifuga racemosa If you have ever walked down the supplement aisle in a health food store, you’ve probably heard of Black Cohosh. The plant has long been harvested from the Appalachian Mountains for medicinal use, and even today the roots are still collected and sold for cash to the supplement industry. The primary use of teas, pills,…
Tag: Sweet Springs
Queen Anne’s Lace
Daucus carota Here she is in all her loveliness– Queen Anne’s Lace, named after Queen Anne of England, who was an expert lacemaker! This umbrella-shaped flower is made up of many tiny white flowers; together they form the “lacy” pattern characteristic of the wildflower’s inflorescence. Below the umbel of flowers is a spray of finely…
Thimbleweed or Tall Anemone
Anemone virginiana Here’s another great Virginia wildlflower! I first found this plant in flower on a walking trail (edge habitat) near my house in early-June. At the time, there were only a couple of small flowers to be seen and it looked like they were all past their prime. I had no idea what it was,…
Yellow Star Grass
Hypoxis hirsuta This bright yellow wildflower might pass for a buttercup at first glance. Look closely and you will see that the leaves of this plant are slender and grasslike, reaching about 12 inches in height. The flowers appear on shorter stems that usually bear more than one flower bud. The inflorescence is less than…
Showy Skullcap
Scutellaria serrata Here’s a beautiful wildflower! The dainty flowers are two shades of purple and they are held high above the simple and attractive foliage. The morphology of the flower is interesting at each stage of development–from new buds to maturity. Just take a look at some of the photos below… Skullcaps are in the Mint…
Climbing Milkweed
Matelea decipiens Here is an unusual milkweed! Climbing milkweed is a native, hairy vine with opposite, heart-shaped leaves. The leaf margins are smooth (or entire). Clusters of small, five-petalled, reddish-brown flowers appear in late spring (May). Later in the summer a long seedpod will replace the flowers. The seedpod and seeds look similar to those…
Foxglove Beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis Foxglove Beardtongue, Foxglove Penstemon, or Beardtongue These showy, native wildflowers appear from April to June in sunny or partially sunny locations. They grow from 3 to 5 ft. tall in brilliant masses; this group was photographed along the side of the road at Primland in Meadows of Dan. The two-lipped, tubular flowers are borne on…
Green and Gold
Golden Star or Green and Gold Chrysogonum virginianum You might be familiar with this plant from home gardens. It is a native wildflower with a spreading habit and long-lasting flowers, so it makes an excellent ground cover in the garden. The bright yellow flowers with contrasting brown stamens are held high above the light green,…
Mountain Phlox
Phlox latifolia Big flowers on a little stem! I literally stumbled on this low-growing phlox as I walked along the banks of Big Stoney Creek at Glen Alton in mid-May. The area would best be described as “open” woodlands. Unlike many of the other phlox species in our area, mountain phlox blooms early (mid-May to…
Fire Pink
Silene virginica is Fire Pink Hot stuff! Five long, radiant, red petals adorn this flower. Each petal has a cute little notch at the end. The petals lead down to a long tube that holds the pistil and stamens. Given the tube-like shape of the flower, fire pink requires a pollinator with a long tongue or…
Putty-root Orchid
Adam and Eve Orchid or Putty-root Orchid Aplectrum hyemale Putty-root orchid is found throughout Virginia in moist forests, but it is often obscured by other herbaceous growth in the spring and summer, and by leaf litter in the fall and winter. In early May, you’ll notice the flower stalks emergining from the ground. In the early…
Addison’s Leatherflower
Clematis addisonii Addison’s Leatherflower, Clematis addisonii, is a threatened species that is native to the Ridge and Valley Province in Virginia. Most of the remaining populations occur here in Montgomery County (Southwest VA). The plant prefers dry, rocky, limestone hillsides, banks and ravines. Addison’s Leatherflower is a perennial vine that starts out as an erect…
Lyre-leaved Sage
Wild Sage or Lyre-leaved Sage Salvia lyrata Lyre-leaved sage is another member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). In full bloom, the height of the plant is 1-2 feet. The stalk of flowers arises from a basal rosette of deeply (pinnately) lobed leaves. The tube-shaped flowers are blue to purple and about an inch long. The flowers…
Philadelphia Fleabane or Common Fleabane
Philadelphia fleabane Erigeron philadelphicus This aster-like flower is a composite: the flower you observe is really a “composite” of many smaller flowers. The genus, Erigeron, includes scores of species, but I’ll take a chance and say that the one pictured here is Philadelphia fleabane, because of the way the leaves are wrapped around the hairy…
Jacob’s Ladder
Polemonium Jacob’s Ladder is a biblical reference to the story of Jacob, who dreamed of a ladder to heaven. This plant’s leaves branch in an opposite fashion and appear like rungs on a ladder. The small (1/2-inch) purple or bluish (lavender) flowers grow in clusters and have a bell-like shape with protruding stamens. The plant…
Wild Geranium
Wood Geranium, Cranesbill, or Wild Geranium Geranium maculata What a spring it is for wild geranium! Today I found drifts of them growing along the roadside next to Big Stoney Creek in Giles County. Although these were open-grown, I also found plenty growing in the woods around Glen Alton and White Rocks campground. Wild geranium…
False Solomon’s Seal
Smilacina racemosa Note the placement of the flowers of this plant at the tip of the stem. It is otherwise very similar to Solomon’s Seal in appearance: an upright, unbranched stem bearing alternating oval leaves. The plant produces bright red berries later in the season. Click on any image below to open the gallery.
Hoary Puccoon
Stoneseed or Hoary Puccoon Lithospermum canescens If it were not for the unusually vibrant, orange to yellow color of these flowers, you would probably miss this little plant completely while walking in the great outdoors. The first time I discovered it, I found it in bloom in April of 2012, near Shawsville, VA. The plants were growing on a…
Showy Orchis
Galearis spectabilis is the Showy Orchis! This orchid miraculously appears on the forest floor in April and May in Virginia. It likes limey soils like we have here in Montgomery County, and it is often found on the edges of swampy terrain. This week it is coming up on the hillside at my house and near the…
Shooting Stars
Dodecatheon meadia Shooting Stars! What a great name! This spring-blooming, perennial plant has a basal rosette of oblong leaves, each about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. In late April and early May, a stalk (or inflorescence) comes up from the center of the rosette and unfurls into a half-dozen or more white or…
Solomon’s Seal
Polygonatum biflorum This handsome woodland plant grows upright as an unbranched stalk of alternating, oval leaves. The leaf edges are smooth. The plant has a look-alike, false solomon’s seal, but the two are easy to tell apart if the plants are in bloom. The flowers of solomon’s seal are born underneath the leaves, as seen in…
Indian Paintbrush
Castilleja coccinea or Indian Scarlet Paintbrush The color of this flower makes it a showstopper, and as you can imagine, hummingbirds love it. According to the “Easy Wildflowers” website, “The inconspicuous flowers bloom within a dense cluster of beautiful leafy bracts that are brilliant shades of orange, red, or sometimes yellow. Wild Indian Paintbrush flowers…
Squawroot
Cancer-root, Squawroot, or Bear corn Conopholis americana Squawroot is a spring flowering plant, but it is non-photosynthetic. Instead, it is parasitic on the roots of trees, usually oaks and beeches. The above-ground part of the plant is the flowering structure, and it looks like a pine cone, or even a corn cob (Bear corn), rising…
Largeflower Bellwort and Perfoliate Bellwort
Largeflower Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) and Perfoliate Bellwort( Uvularia perfoliata) Here are two bellworts with “perfoliate” leaves but a few subtle differences. Large-flowered bellwort is a tall, nodding plant in springtime with large, dark yellow flowers that are sometimes hard to see because they can be hidden in leaves. The yellow “petals” hang in a disorderly, twisted fashion and the petals are…
Virginia Pennywort
Obolaria virginica We were out hunting for morels when we came across this somewhat obscure spring ephemeral, Virginia Pennywort. These plants were growing along the edge of the forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Virginia. Pennywort is difficult to spot in the springtime forest because it is very short and non-descript. It only reaches…
Golden Ragwort
Senecio aureus or Packera aurea Blooming now, April through May, is Senecio aureus, or Golden Ragwort! The flower stalks of this spring wildflower can grow 12 to 30 inches in height, towering over a low, spreading groundcover of heart-shaped leaves. Each of the basal leaves is bluntly toothed and has a long stem, or petiole. The underside…
Cutleaf Toothwort
Dentaria laciniata or Cardamine concatenata The leaves of this early spring wildflower occur in distinctive whorls of three. Each leaflet is deeply cut, sometimes so much so that it looks like there are five leaflets. Clusters of white to pinkish flowers are born at the top of the plant; each flower has four petals and…
Hepatica
Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) Three-lobed leaves that resemble the human liver! Hepatica! Liver leaf! On the east coast, you may find this early-blooming spring wildflower in the sharp-leaved or round-leaved form. And just to make it more complicated, they sometimes hybridize! Here is a description of hepatica from Wikipedia: “Bisexual flowers with pink, purple, blue, or…
VIRGINIA WILDFLOWERS 