Monthly Archives: April 2017

Notorious Orobanche

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When I finished shooting small-flower phacelia, I just sat and enjoyed the view for awhile, but then the sky darkened and rain looked imminent, so I got all the gear into my daypack and started hoofing it fast back to the car. And then I stopped short, because I saw this.

I suppose a truly dedicated photographer and botanerd would take the time to set up the tripod and get decent close-up shots, but I hate getting wet, and more importantly I didn’t want the camera to get wet, so I took a few handheld shots and then really started hoofing it fast.

This is Orobanche uniflora, known by the common names one-flower cancer root, one-flower broomrape, and ghost-pipe; it’s placed in its own family, the Orobanchaceae. It can be found throughout the continental US and most of Canada, in moist woodlands and open areas, often growing right among species of Sedum or plants in the aster and saxifrage families*. In Maryland it can be found from the Appalachian plateau to the western edge of the coastal plain.

Notice that the stems are yellow, and there’s no green? That’s because this species has no chlorophyll: it’s parasitic, requiring a suitable host in order to germinate and grow. The leaves surrounding the flowers in these pictures are from other plants. Some of them look to me like one of the asters, though I can’t be sure unless I go back in a few months and see the plants blooming.

The various Orobanche species are on the federal noxious weed list, and are classified as noxious, prohibited, quarantine, or pest by eight states; Florida excepts O. uniflora, though. It’s hard to imagine this little thing causing significant crop damage, but apparently it can.

*USDA Forest Service

Yet Another Phacelia. Last One For Awhile. Really.

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It was an overcast day, and I was working at my volunteer job downtown when I realized that rain was likely soon, and could continue for the next several days, and if I waited too long I’d miss seeing small flower phacelia blooming. Quel horreur! since this was a “new to me” species.

So I packed up, drove out to Old Anglers Inn, and hiked quickly through occasional light drizzle to the place where fellow muddy-kneed photographer and wildflower enthusiast LW directed me. (See comments in One More Phacelia for location.)

 

Phacelia dubia (smallflower phacelia, small-flower scorpionweed, Appalachian phacelia) is a short-growing annual forb in the Boraginaceae (currently). It’s found in parts of the Deep South but more frequently in the Mid-Atlantic states (Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and one part of New York). It’s presumed extirpated in Ohio.

Like P. purshii, P. dubia is listed as S3/watchlist in Maryland. The two species are much alike, about the same height, flowers about the same size. Based on a one-time only observation in this large patch of plants, I’d say the cauline leaves of P. dubia are a little smaller, with fewer lobes, and mostly sessile rather than almost clasping as in P. purshii; also there seem to be fewer of them.

Most of the flowers in this patch were white, though some of them had a blue-ish cast and a few were an outright light lavender. But color is seldom diagnostic. The obvious difference between small-flower and fringed phacelia is the fringed petals on the latter species. In small-flower phacelia, the petal margins are entire.

Thanks for the tip, LW!

Geraniums, Native and Alien

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It seems like after a slow start, everything is blooming all at once. It’s hard to keep up with it all. Last Tuesday, for example, I saw thirty species of plants flowering in a few locations from Old Anglers Inn to Lock 10. Among them were two geraniums, one native and one alien.

Geranium maculatum (wild geranium, Geraniaceae) is a clump-forming perennial forb that grows up to two and a half feet tall in moist soils. You can find it in open woodlands, meadows, and woodland edges. There’s a good amount of it growing off the Billy Goat B trail, along a footpath that leads up to the canal from about the trail midpoint, where it crosses a small stream.

Wild geranium is found in a few parts of the easternmost Great Plains and the South, but mostly in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New England, and eastern Canada. In Maryland look for it everywhere except the southern parts of the coastal plain. It’s a great plant for the garden: it spreads, but not aggressively, is pest-free, and rabbit-proof (my new gold standard for native forbs).

The other geranium native to the Maryland Piedmont, G. carolinianum (Carolina cranesbill) can also be found in the Carderock-Marsden Tract area, but I haven’t seen it yet this year. It usually starts blooming a few weeks after wild geranium. Note that the flowers are smaller and the foliage more finely cut.

The Maryland Biodiversity Project shows 11 species of geraniums in the state, probably seven of which can be found in the Piedmont. Five of them are aliens. This one is G. molle, which I found growing next to the parking lot at C&O Canal Lock 10. As is often the case, I was looking for something else when I found it (more on that in a future post). In a frequently-mown area this plant is quite short and branched, as you’d expect, but left to grow it still doesn’t get as tall as G. maculatum. The flowers are smaller, too, and a more lurid shade of pink, and the leaves more intricately cut.

Rainy Earth Day Blues

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Typical Mid-Atlantic spring weather today, cool and rainy. Not that I’m complaining: we need the rain, and I need to stay indoors and catch up on a huge backlog of photos and posts to write. But it does make me feel blue, so here’s an antidote: azure bluets. More on them in a few days. I just wanted to post this picture.

The Third Large White Flower

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Twinleaf and bloodroot  are well past blooming now, but their cousin mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum, Berberidaceae) is just getting started.

All three have large white flowers (one inch across or more) with yellow stamens; the flowers are borne singly on long stems. Twinleaf flowers usually have eight petals and stamens, bloodroot has eight to sixteen petals and numerous stamens, and mayapple has six to nine petals and numerous stamens.

young mayapple plants

 

 

bloodroot leaves

 

 

 

Bloodroot leaves, when older and fully opened, are sometimes confused with mayapple leaves.

 

 

twinleaf

 

 

 

 

Younger bloodroot leaves are sometimes not as elaborately lobed; possibly they could be mistaken for twinleaf, but it’s not likely.

 

 

 

Mayapple reproduction is mostly vegetative: the rhizomes form colonies, often vast, from which individual stems with single leaves emerge. But these plants don’t bloom. If you find some blooming, look at the plants and you’ll see that the stem forks and bears two leaves, with the flower growing at the junction. Only the two-leaved specimens will have flowers, though not all of them will.

Maypple can be found in rich, moist woodlands from the easternmost parts of the Great Plains to the Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico into Ontario and Quebec. It’s endangered in Florida.