Autumn Olive

Autumn Olive
Elaeagnus umbellata

Autumn Olive is one of those invasive species that was purposely introduced to the United States for its beneficial traits, but then became a serious problem.  In the early 1800's, it was common practice and encouraged to move plants to new places to make the world a better place, for humans.  The three worst examples on my property, and in the area, are Autumn Olive, Honeysuckle, and Multiflora Rose.  All three of these were used to improve wildlife habitat and erosion control.  Now they are considered to just be a nuisance.

Autumn Olive has the ability to fix nitrogen, thus enabling it to thrive in poor soils, particularly soils depleted by human activity; surface mines and construction areas are often cited.  They were used extensively as erosion control along highways.  Due to this ability to fix nitrogen, it can significantly alter the soil and groundwater, not necessarily for the better.  Lots of studies have been done on its impact and find that it puts lots of nitrate in the soil, which can leach into the waterways.

Given the huge amount of human disturbance to the soils of Indiana, it's hard to say if the effects of Autumn Olive are deleterious or not.  It is nice to see that a lot of research is being done on this topic.

One good thing about Autumn Olive are the berries.  If you can get them at the point where they are ripe but before the birds get them, they are delicious.  They're small and have a big seed in the middle, so they're best for making juice, which can then be made into jelly or other tasty items.

The flowers have this unusual shape which makes them easy to ID.

The berries can be quite prolific one year, then almost absent the next.

American Alumroot

American Alumroot
Heuchera americana

This species, and others in the genus Heuchera, are the basis for the common garden plant, Coral Bells.  There are now so many varieties of Coral Bells that it's hard to pin down the exact species of any variety.

At first, I thought it was a good thing to use cultivars of native plants in a garden, but then I started thinking about local genotypes, etc. and did some studying from Professor Google.  It turns out that there are some downsides to doing this.

Basically, the genetic makeup of a cultivar has been unnaturally modified to create a garden plant.  It is possible for that garden plant to fertilize the native plants via wind or insects, thus creating wild plants that are a combination of the native plant and the cultivar.  These hybrids, or "nativars", often don't have the traits that make it a good inhabitant of the local ecosystem.  Some don't have the vigor of the native plant.  Some have different colored flowers, thus confusing wild pollinators.  The foliage is generally modified, perhaps making it less edible to wild critters.  There is a good explanation of nativars at https://extension.umd.edu/resource/cultivars-native-plants.

There have been various studies done showing that nativars are either good, or bad, but mostly we don't know.

Suggestions for your garden are; use native plants, use non-native, non-invasive plants, use native cultivars that are sterile.

The flowers of the native plant aren't as pretty as the garden cultivars.

Agueweed

Agueweed
Gentianella quinquefolia

Sometimes you can learn so much from the name of a plant.  I use the names supplied by the USDA Plants Database website - USDA Plants Database.  Most references use the name Stiff Gentian for this plant, but an alternate name is Agueweed, which refers to its medicinal properties.  Look up the word "ague" and you'll find "a fever or shivering fit".

Mrs. Grieve, in her 1931 book, "A Modern Herbal", states that "A tincture is also made from the fresh flowering plant of Gentiana quinqueflora (Five-flowered Gentian) and used in homoeopathy as a tonic and stomachic, and in intermittent fevers.", thus the name Agueweed.

She also uses the name Five-flowered Gentian, which also matches the species name quinqueflora.  The scientific name was given by John Kunkel Small since many of the flowerheads included 5 flowers.  He did most of his collecting in Florida, where they might have mostly had 5 flowers per flowerhead, but I've seen them with all different numbers of flowers.

This flowerhead has way more than 5 flowers.

This is not a very common plant, but can be found in a variety of habitats, from prairies to wet areas, although most if there is limestone close to the surface.

Canada Mayflower

Canada Mayflower
Maianthemum canadense

Just to prove that nothing is simple when attempting to classify nature, this plant is in the Lily family, but only has 2 petals, 2 sepals, and 4 stamens rather than the usual Lily pattern of 3-3-6.  This brings up a general question that I have, can nature really be classified, or are all individuals merely an instance of the evolutionary continuum?

It seems that no matter how the taxonomy is organized, there are always difficulties distinguishing one taxon from another.  In my experience, it seems that the number of species in a genus is directly proportional to the amount of time spent by a taxonomist studying the genus!  It has gotten to the point where they are using DNA to classify species, and even with that, it's still up in the air.

It sure would be nice if things were cut and dry, i.e. a lion is a lion and a tiger is a tiger, however, there have been as many as 26 lion subspecies described, pared to 11 by 2005, and down to 2 in 2017, and there is still much debate going on about the number of tiger species, subspecies, clades, etc.

So, I suppose this plant is in the Lily family until it is decided otherwise.  I'm sure the Mayflower knows who it is.

This small plant of rich woodlands typically has two leaves and a raceme of starry flowers.

This rhizomatous plant also sends up infertile shoots, which consist of one leaf.

Lesser Yellow Lady's Slipper

Lesser Yellow Lady's Slipper
Cypripedium parviflorum

Back by popular demand (someone told me they liked my blog), I am going to do a Plant A Week.  In 2014, I did a Plant A Day, but that sucked up my whole year, so this time I'm only going to do one per week.

For the first one, I chose Lesser Yellow Lady's Slipper since it's a beautiful plant.  I'm not sure if the plants that I shot are truly wild or were planted there a long time ago since it's a small group in an area nearby and I don't know of any others anywhere around here.  I won't say where these are since there is a tendency among some people to collect them for gardens, as well as a number of other orchid species.  That's a shame since they add an unexpected beauty to a walk when you spot them.

These pretty flowers grow in woodlands, although with not too much shade.

Lady's Slippers are in the Orchid family, and the genus, Cypripedium, is represented by four species in Indiana.  All four can be hard to find.  The rarity is due in part to collectors so if you find some, don't broadcast their location.

An interesting aspect of this genus is that they have no nectar, yet are pollinated by insects.  They are basically so showy and inviting that insects will go into them looking for a treat, but then find none and move on to the next flower.  To be even more efficient, the flower structure is such that the insects have to squeeze under the stigma and then the anthers to get out, thus collecting pollen on the way out, and then rubbing it onto the stigma of the next flower.  The next time I see these flowers in bloom, I'll try to get a picture of insects doing this.

Note that the leaves look somewhat like Solomon's Seal, but are
different enough to be able to identify the plant when the flowers are absent.