Flowers That Bloom on Tree Trunks --Cauliflory

This was not unfamiliar but I did not know there was a word for it.  Flowers can bloom from the trunks of trees, in this case the red bud.  It was short-lived, the photo is from May but you can still see the resulting fruits dangling from the trunk.

This is apparently more common in tropical plants and the redbud fits in a tropical category .  There may be a microscopic version of a twig under the flower.  It may be related to variations in pollination .   Check the redbuds along Rolandvue for the pods arising on large branches and the trunks.

Newer foraging books still note that the pods are barely edible but probably not worth the trouble, at least not toxic.

Flowers,and later fruit growing from trunk of redbud, cauliflory

Unknown Vine (To Be Announced)

A vine growing over the fence south of the post office at Joppa and Bellona

Close-up of the leaf, same vine, on the north or more shady side of the fence.

Close-up of the fruit, same vine, mid  December.

This is not very mysterious.  It is an ivy, I was just surprised that it is THE ivy.  This will not be a surprise to gardeners, and means I was dozing in some 101 plant talk. I thought it might be a slightly different species.  The mystery might be in the reason a plant would do this: have two forms of leaves depending on age and growing conditions. This is common or English ivy, just at a different stage.  Here is a comparison with the more standard English ivy, smaller more geometric leaves.  As far as age, the specimen below was taken from a bed that has been there for thirty years, perhaps not the same plants.  It was growing at about the same height. The latin is Hedera helix.

One clue from the internet may be the fruit.  The vast majority of illustrations are the common leaf unless there are fruit or berries, when you do see the larger heart shaped leaf.

The two leaf types together, smaller geometric leaf and the larger heart shaped leaf.

Common leaf pattern from old bed, about the same height, facing west, higher elevation.

What's that Plant? From Flower, Black Cohash, Beggar Tick

These are plants not common along Rolandvue but brought in to be analyzed from nearby areas.  They are probably here in low numbers.  There is a survey going on of Lake Roland plants taken along pre-planned transects.  I have skipped the grasses and sedges for the time being, since details are microscopic.

Tiarella cordifolia or foam flower is now more a garden plant but escapes here and there.  It is considered native to the east coast. It will be more obvious when flowering in May.  The photos show the plant in flower and a close up of the leaf.  A number of birds and insects make use of foam flower but it is not mentioned in the usual foraging texts.  It is a low plant, more of a ground cover, with variable markings on the leaves.

foam flowers, from Natural history society, to watch for in May,seen locally but not yet in neighborhood

The black cohosh or common black snakeroot will flower in June to early July.  The white spike of flowers may be six feet tall.  It is a source of patent medicines including Lydia Pinkham's compound. The photos show the basal leaves with five leaflets and the tall fairy candles. The burr like fruit can stick to fur or clothes.

black cohash blossom turning to seed. Locally seen not in neighborhood

Bidens frondosa was seen last month, similar to the bidens along Wagner shown earlier this year. The photos show the leaf pattern and a close-up of the beggar tick, the adherent fruit which gives the common name.

Biden like the one along Wagner last month, different flower.

Seeds have the double spike, which gives the name bidders

                                                                                                                             

End of November: What is a Novice Forager to Do?

This is in response to a question about the seasonal changes in foraging,what is available?.  It will also be a short sketch of what is out there along Cloverlea and Rolandvue.  The summary at least at the foraging 101 level is --not much.  You would need to be both hunter and gatherer.  And fire-builder.  The little remaining food out there would need proper cooking to break down the cell walls, aid digestion.  If you can't build a fire your plant identifications will be mostly worthless.

There is still a lot of green.  I will not picture the dandelions, plantain, and dock.  They are still there and probably still useful in emergencies. Most references suggest the early leaves, particularly in the spring.  In the fall there is a tendency for the nutrients to concentrate more in the roots, there is not much science on the nourishment left in the fall greens.  There is the wild onion/garlic which will be there most of the winter.  With softer soils they can be pulled, may require digging to get the small white bulbs.  This would be a little support and prevent scurvy.   Greater celandine is still up, has some medicinal uses but a toxic orange sap, creeping charlie is green and probably safe.  Next to the wood poppy(celandine) was winter creeper.  This is a newly noticed invasive vine also not popular as a forage.

There does not seem to be good use for the holly. The birds can eat the holly berries and us apex predators eat the birds.  Ivy is also not generally suggested as forage although V mentioned that it can be an animal feed when necessary, not a preference.  The arbor vitae can provide a tea with vitamins but not much calories.  Most of the invasive vines have died back, the kudzu and the porcelain berry. The acorn crop seems light this year, it does go in cycles, and acorns take almost as much energy to prepare as they yield in form of food.  It would be better to let the feral pigs eat the acorns and the beechnuts, then enjoy a luau.  But I have not seen many pigs eating the mast at the end of Wagner Road.

You could chew on the twigs of the spice bush, corner of Cloverlea and Rolandvue, to assuage the hunger pangs.  I can imagine the ancients approaching the winter solstice with a feeling of unease.

Wild garlic,species of onion,allium oleraceum, present most of winter

Garlic mustard, looks healthy,same smell and taste, some vitamins?

Greater celandine,toxic, some herbal uses when properly prepared

probably mock strawberries, leaves edible, variable GI effects

Ground ivy, edible in moderate quantities,should be creeping, attached at nodes, mint family

Arbor Vitae, tea of terminal leaves can supplement vitamins.

A lot of holly with berries but not forgeable 

Also a lot of Poke Salad, looks tempting but poisonous.

Deeper in the Weeds: Feverfew vs Chrysanthemum

We found an interesting plant in the woods a few yards off Rolandvue, no where near a garden which looked like some of the images of feverfew.  When the botanists looked at it the first impression was a garden variety (escapee) chrysanthemum.  Now a former name for feverfew was Chrysanthemum parthenium so the distinction could be considered minor.  The latin now is Tanacetum parthenium.  This post will raise more questions than it will have answers.   Ultimately are you interested in these microscopic characteristics, or happy with the general title of chrysanthemum?  What does this imply for the medical and chemical qualities of the the various plants?  What about the use as foraging? There may not be true science as yet.  We will illustrate some of the fine characteristics that would be needed for a final opinion with the detailed dichotomous keys.

We had a garden chrysanthemum for comparison, but again there is uncertainty.  There are many cultivars of the garden flower and some possible hybrids in the woodland flower.  The true central flowers appear some what different the garden flower being concave and the woodland flower convex.  This could be a different stage in maturity.  The inferior calyx is different with the longer tighter green sepals on the woodland flower.  After a detailed dichotomous key analysis the woodland plant did seem to be more like the feverfew than the cultivated plant.

There is little science behind using feverfew for actual fevers, but it has been used as a treatment for migraine. the active agent is parthenolide.  The cultured varieties also have chemical activity ,an insecticide with the active agent being pyrethrin.  There is no clear analysis of which variety has the medical benefit, which has the insecticide or how the two merge into one another. The commercial interest focus on either migraine or the insect repellant not both, and they may be totally separate.

If you do get interested in the magnified appearance or even microscopic appearance there are many variations to learn.  It is not clear which if any correlate with the chemistry of the plant.  If the cup is smooth rather than rough is it therapeutic or not?

garden leaf below,woodland ? feverfew above

close up of flower with the possible feverfew on the  right

difference in the calyx, feverfew above

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Plants in the Parking Pad: Plane Tree, Locust, Elm , Redbud

You have your favorite latte and your favorite paper, but before you relax you just have to know "what is that unusual tree near the curb?"  It's a common problem because the trees around the Starbucks are not the same you would have seen walking along the trail.  I will start with the Charles Street store near Eddies(Towson area of Maryland) but may add to this post until we get to most of the common street trees in the immediate area.

Straight toward the street from the entrance is a line of sycamores along the sidewalk. Sycamore is the general category but these are probably London plane trees a cross between the oriental and the American sycamore.  The details of the cross are lost in the 18th century.  Leaves are intermediate between the two species and the fruits are two per stem vs one per stem on the American sycamore.
The hybrids are fertile and seedlings might be found in the area.  It is difficult to get a good count although the seed balls are present this time of year(October).  Part of the ID is based on the location, the tree is more tolerant of pollution and may actually remove some toxins from the air.  The native sycamore likes its feet wet and would be less likely to grow well in the urban setting. The latin would be Platanus x acerifolia.

Some negatives are fine hairs on new leaves which can exacerbate asthma, the leaves breakdown slowly, and it may be a host to some pests such as the ash borer.

Across the parking lot are trees with the bipinnate locust leave arrangement but with no thorns and no pods. they are turning yellow in the fall as expected and do have the dappled shade of the locust.  There are variations in the cultivars going under the names such as Sunburst and Shademaster.  Pluses are the lack of messy pods, the absence of thorns, the partial shading, bright yellow spring and fall colors and tolerance of urban conditions.  It is subject to some diseases such as webworm.  The latin gets complicated, Gleditsia tricanthos var. inermis.  A honey locust which lacks the usual three thorns.

Between these two groups of trees, also near the street are some redbuds, these seem to be the native trees preferred for their fast growth, pink spring flowers and the golden fall colors.  Latin is Cercis canadensis.  Negatives for the street use are the relatively short life, some disease susceptibility and the need to manage the multiple trunks to preserve the structure.

Dutch elm disease has taken the numerous original elms but resistant cultivars are being widely planted.  If you are sipping coffee in Roland Park there are elm variations in the median.  Also note the same thornless locust along the sidewalk.  There are so many cultivars I made no effort to ID further but interesting to see the elm making a comeback.  Next trip  I will get more detailed picture of the leaves and bark.

So it is a little off the trail but it is all part of nature in the broad sense, even Starbucks.

What's That Plant? Gout Weed, Burr Cucumber, Japanese Honeysuckle, Fringe tree,Yellow Buckeye,Virginia Creeper

Much of the second September session at the Natural History society was spent on the grasses, particularly those from Lake Roland.  There is an ongoing project to control some of the invasives in the park, which will require some spraying.  The project is an attempt to measure the effect of the herbicides on the surrounding flora.  This is up on the serpentine area, and involves the current grasses.  The discussion was interesting but we would need a guest post to do grasses.  Take away for foragers is the plan for spraying deep in the park, you need to know your area for safe harvesting.

Someone brought in a burr cucumber, a native plant, but invasive in the sense of interfering with corn and soybean culture.  We have that growing over the cunninghamia tree on the north side of Rolandvue where the greenhouse had been.  It has the unusual fruit and the coiled tendrils.  One plant can grow to almost 100 pounds and put out 40,000 seeds.  The photos are from internet for convenience, it was covered last year. Latin is Sicyos anqulatus.

There were a few additional points made about the fringe trees and why both trees are bearing fruit even though they were supposed to be a male-female pair.  The leaves are opposite, at first breaking the MAD Horse rule, but as close relatives of olive trees fringe trees are also in the ash family and thus  should have opposite leaves.  The leaves were small for the native species and so the two trees are probably asian.  They may have both been female, but some trees including olives can change there sex according to environmental conditions, such as temperature, polyandrodioecious (sp), this can be whole or only some branches. A tree appropriate for the political times.

  The fruiting of both trees may indicate other asian fringe tress in the area, or maybe hybridization if there are native fringe trees nearby. Finally there was a question about emerald ash borer.  Fringe would be in the Ash family but apparently not a lot of data as to the susceptibility.  The Asian variety may have an edge, or maybe not.

We showed a branch from the horse chestnut at the top of Cloverlea.  There was agreement that the two trees are yellow buckeyes, but no argument with calling them horse chestnuts.  They are in the horse chestnut family, just native to Ohio and have the smooth capsule around the nuts.  They have the opposite leaves and the opposite branching as expected.  It is hard to estimate the age of the two buckeyes, almost certainly planted, flanking the driveway, they probably pre-date the house built in 1952.  They may account for many of the small buckeye trees in the neighborhood but most have not yet been bearing nuts.

The nut of the horse chestnut A. hippocastanum above and the yellow buckeye, A. flava  below

There were two vines, a Japanese honeysuckle, and the Virginia Creeper.  Virginia creeper with the five leaves grows like poison ivy but not the leaves of three.  It is turning a deep red in some areas.  The honeysuckle is the addition to MAD Horse, MAD CAP Horse to include honeysuckle and viburnum.  Leaves in opposite pairs go with red berries in opposite pairs.  Apparently being the vine it is not a native variety statistically.

A late entry was goutweed, Aegopodium podagraria.  The illustration is also from the net, since I have not recognized it in the neighborhood.  It is so common it is almost certainly around. Other names are snow-on-the mountain, ground elder, and bishops weed.   It is an invasive from Eurasia, in the carrot family like Queen Anne's Lace.  It is about three ft high, flowers in umbrellas and hollow grooved stems.  The stem may have a triangular profile indicating no toxicity(compare with water hemlock).  Leaves are compound with more leaflets at the base.