At the time and in the place I grew up, pretty much all the original prairie had been plowed over and
planted to crops. Because of regular cultivation and persistent use of herbicides there weren’t a lot of original plants left – it was more or less corn and soybeans and a few other crops from horizon to horizon. Most people in that area
and era considered any remaining naturally occurring plants to be “weeds”. I'm sure my thoughts on the subject, when I thought about it at all, were right there with everybody else. Then Mr. Hjelmeland entered my
world. Martin Hjelmeland was the local
Norwegian bachelor science teacher. The
school was small, so he taught science to all grades from the seventh graders
to the seniors, and he was a firm believer in teaching by traditional methods. He would draw elaborate illustrations of the
constellations on the blackboard, and would drill us on them. Then on a dark night we would assemble on the
baseball diamond behind the school and Mr. Hjelmeland would point out the real
constellations and stars – every one of them constructed just like he had drawn
them on the blackboard.
In the spring he would bring
potted spring ephemerals into the classroom and one-by-one, over and over, his students would struggle to identify each one. Then on a Saturday sometime in
the spring we would take a bus trip to a nearby state park and we would follow
him through the woods as he pointed out those same plants in their native
habitat.
I credit him for sparking my
interest in science which eventually resulted in my career as a medical microbiologist - where I would spend my days identifying the microorganisms that were making the patients I served sick - one-by-one, over and over. He probably also
deserves a lot of credit for my living on nine acres of mixed
hardwood forest.
This time of year as I trek
around the woods, the spring ephemerals are popping up everywhere, and as I
enjoy them, and stop to take a closer look, I think of Mr. Hjelmeland.
Ephemerals are plants that spring
out of the ground, bloom, and die in a very short time. Desert ephemerals,
for example, are those plants that take advantage of wet periods after rare
rains to go through their entire life cycle.
Spring ephemerals are plants
that live in densely shaded deciduous forests and complete their entire life
cycle between spring snow melt and the leafing out of the trees. Most of them grow from bulbs or tubers so they can poke shoots up through the ground quickly without waiting around for seeds to germinate. By late May or early June, once the trees have completely developed their foliage, they're gone.
Here are a few of my old favorites
that I’ve recently been bumping into here and there around the ranch. I shot all of the photos right here in the woods.
Bellwort (Uvularia) – The little yellow flowers of the bellwort hang downward from the plants which stand a foot and a half to two feet high. Bellwort is one of the many plants that acquired its scientific name from Linnaeus, who felt that the drooping flowers were like the little flap that hangs down in the back of your mouth.
Blood
Root (Sanguinaria canadensis) – Blood root
is hard to misidentify – The round lobed leaves and the small waxy flowers with
white petals and yellow centers are classic. And true to its name, if a root is broken open, it oozes a red juice. This is one of the earliest wildflowers to bloom and I
like to keep an eye on the patch that always comes up near one corner of the
deck as an indicator of the progression of spring. The red juice is fairly toxic and can
actually even kill skin cells if left on unprotected skin for a period of
time. Because of the toxic effect on
skin cells, it has been used as a home remedy for warts and skin cancer. Kids, do not try this at home!
Blue
violets (Viola sororia) – The flower with
the confusing name. Are they blue or are
they violet? Obviously, “blue”
is the color in this case and “violet” is the name of the flower – and there
are also white violets, yellow violets, etc.
This flower is practically everywhere – you can get a picture of its
wide range by considering that it is the state flower of Wisconsin, Illinois,
New Jersey, and Rhode Island. And this
flower is practically everywhere – as in I have to weed great quantities of them
out of my gardens and flower beds and they are plotting to take over my
lawn. Still, what’s wrong with having
pretty little blue flowers polka-dotting the lawn? Not only do the bees love them,
but they’re edible—before you mow your lawn, snag a bunch of these little guys
and add an attractive blue garnish to your salad! They’re chock full of vitamin C, too! Just make sure you've got the right flower - other flowers growing on your lawn can be quite toxic.
Yellow violets
(Viola pusescens) – There are actually a bunch of different
kinds of yellow violet and they can be difficult to differentiate, but the one pictured is the Downy Yellow Violet, which is exactly what nobody around here calls it.
Plain old “yellow violet” works just fine since it’s the only yellow
violet that's common in wooded areas during spring in Minnesota. The plants are larger and rangier than the
blue violets, but they have the same cute little flowers – only yellow!
Heptatcia (Anemone acutiloba) – These are another really early bloomer. They used to grow in great abundance south of my house, but in recent years there have not been so many and I’m not sure
what has changed to cause the decrease.
They have delicate little flowers that range from white through pink to lavender and get their name
from the fact that their leaves have three lobes, just like a liver.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) – I took a walk in the woods
with my three-year-old grandson last weekend and taught him all about
Jacks. He became fairly proficient at
finding them, and when he did, he would open the flap at the top of the “pulpit”
so he could say hi to the “Jack” inside.
Jack-in-the-Pulpits really are flowering plants, and the Jack part
really is the flower even though it doesn’t look anything like what we think of
as flowers. The Jacks function, like that
of any flower, is to attract pollinators.
Jacks produce a smell that flies like a lot and the flies carry pollen
from the male flowers to the female flowers. Male and female Jack flowers look
exactly alike – the male and female parts are hidden deep at the base of the
flower. Any given plant may produce male
flowers one year and female flowers the next – it seems to depend on stored nutrients –
young plants and plants that put a lot of energy into fruit production the year
before are more likely to produce male flowers while plants with sufficient
available nutrients to produce fruit will produce female flowers. While the flower is not at all colorful, the fruit is
a spectacular shiny red cluster (see inset).
Do Not Eat These Plants or Their Pretty Red Fruit! They contain more calcium oxalate than you
can shake a stick at! Calcium oxalate is
a sharp insoluble crystal that can cause tissue damage because it is sharp and
form kidney stones because it is insoluble.
Calcium oxalate occurs at varying levels in a variety of plants we
consider edible – some of the plants we eat with higher levels include
pineapple, spinach, and rhubarb. The
level of calcium oxalate in Jacks is so high that they are quite
poisonous.
Wild geraniums (Geranium maculatum) - The plants, which can be up to two feet high, produce a multitude of pretty purple flowers a couple inches across. They grow in wonderful profusion in certain spots in my woods late May and early June. They are easily transplantable, thus a certain number of these guys are now living in some of the beds around the house. The plant, and especially the roots are rich in tannins, and were used in traditional folk medicine to treat inflammation and hemorrhages. You can still find wild geranium extract at herbal stores being sold for this same purpose.
Interrupted
Fern (Osmunda claytoniana) - These guys are not spring ephemerals, but I mention them because they are so plentiful on my acreage.
I probably have a couple of acres of ferns and the most common fern is the Interrupted. These ferns are unique because unlike most
other ferns that produce their spores on separate fruiting fronds, the
vegetative fronds of Interrupted Ferns are interrupted
in the middle by 2 to 5 pairs of small spore producing structures that look a
little like tiny clusters of brown grapes.
Once the spores are gone, the fronds are left with a big empty “interrupted”
space. These ferns grow mostly in the
most densely shaded parts of the woods and on north-facing slopes. The thick cover of ferns in an already dim
part of the woods pretty much guarantees that no other plants will grow. But I figure with fronds like these,
who needs anemones.
Thanks in joining me for this walk through the woods. On the next post we'll go back to the birds!
