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"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour."
-- William Blake
Click on a letter.A B C D E F G H I J K L M Glossary N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Citations
A [TOC] Aster
B [TOC]
C [TOC]
D [TOC] Dandelion Daisy Deptford Pink Devil's Guts Devil's Paintbrush Dogbane Dogwood Dragon's Mouth Dutchman's Breeches
E [TOC] Evening Primrose
F [TOC] Forget-me-not Fireweed Fleabane
G [TOC] Gill-over-the-Ground Goats-Beard Goldenrod Goldthread Grass Pink Ground Holly
H [TOC] Hare Bell Hare's Tail Hat Pins Heal-All Horehound, Cut-leaved Water Horsetail
I [TOC] Indian Pipe Indian Turnip Iris, Blue Flag Ivy, Ground
J [TOC] Jack-in-the Pulpit Jewelweed Joe-pye Weed
K [TOC] King Devil Knapweed
L [TOC]
M [TOC] Mallow Mayflower Mayweed Meadowsweet Milfoil Mint Moccasin-Flower Mullein
N [TOC] Nightshade
p [TOC] Partridge-berry Pearly Everlasting Pickerel Weed Pipewort Pitcher Plant Primrose, Evening Purple Fringed Orchid Pussy-Toes
Q [TOC] Queen Ann's Lace
R [TOC] Raspberry Ragwort Rattlebox Rhodora Rose Rose Twisted-stalk Rose Pogonia
S [TOC]
T [TOC] Tansy Teaberry Thistle Touch-Me-Not Trailing Arbutus Trillium, Nodding Trillium, Painted Trillium, Purple Trout Lily Turtlehead Twinflower
V [TOC] Vetch Violet Violet, Common Blue Violet, Dog Violet, Marsh Blue Violet, White Violet, Yellow Virginia Meadow Beauty
W [TOC] Water Horehound, Cut-leaved Water Lily, Bull Head Water Lily, Fragrant Wild Carrot Willow-Herb Wintergreen Woundwort
Y [TOC] Yarrow Yellow-Eyed Grass
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- Aster (Images):
- The asters form a large genus, of which, in North America, there are numerous species. The display of flowers of the aster is usually fairly dense. As the name would indicate (aster is Greek meaning star), the flowers of the aster are showy and radiated.
The asters are the latest blooming wild flowers we have here in Nova Scotia. One will spot them as showy bouquets in the late September, flowering profusely in pinks and blues and whites until a series of frosts takes them away during the month of November. While the aster is a readily identifiable genus, it is one which presents a considerable challenge if one is to sort out the 19 varieties listed in Roland. The five most common asters in Nova Scotia, are: the umbellatus, the acuminatus, the nemoralis, the lateriflorus, and radula.
White Aster (umbellatus): This aster will be found in your first hunt: its white and tall and common. It likes wet ground. Audubon describes the white aster as bearing its flowers in flat-topped clusters which clusters can stretch to being a foot wide. The plant itself, can grow to quite a large size: one to seven feet.
Wood Aster (acuminatus): The wood aster prefers drier soils and is usually found handy to the hardwoods (deciduous).
Bog Aster (nemoralis): This aster is "low and wiry" with only one or a couple of lilac-purple flowers upon its stem.
Tiny Aster (lateriflorus): Roland describes it as tiny and much branched with numerous small flowers. It is abundant throughout the province.
Atlantic Aster (radula): This aster is ascribed by Roland as being one that is more common to the Atlantic side of the province. Its habitant: "boggy barrens, peaty swales, bogs and damp thickets."
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- Bakeapple (Rubus Chamaemorus):
- The bakeapple is a small erect sub-shrub allied to the raspberry bearing one large white terminal flower, and a large well-flavoured orange-coloured fruit. It flowers in July. The solitary white flower has five petals and many pistils and stamens. Unlike its cousin, the blackberry which grow as rough prickly shrubs, the bakeapple is a small plant growing close to the ground with one to three leaves. It grows in acidic sphagnum bogs, barrens and meadows near the coast and on headlands. It is to be discovered in greater numbers along the eastern shore and in Cape Breton. A correspondent writes and advises: "The berry is also known as: Cloudberry (UK), molte (Norwegian), hjortron (Sweden), lakka (Finland), chicoutai (Innu, Montagnais) chicouté (Quebec)." It is to be found in Scotland, and I read (OED) where a sprig of the Cloudberry is the badge of the Highland clan MacFarlane.
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- Bane Berry (Actaea rubra) (Image):
- Common in the Annapolis Valley area, less so along the Atlantic coast, the bane berry is usually to be found along the edges of open areas of hardwood forests. The plant is a perennial. It has large pinnate leaves that can run three feet across. It has a red berry (there is a variety which has white berries, Actaea neglecta.) The flowers (berries) grow in a cluster on a separate stock growing from the leaf axil. Both the roots and the leaves are poisonous.
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- Beach Pea (Lathyrus Japonicus) (Image):
- This is the most common plant, of the limited number, one will find along the sea shore. It, like pea plants, is a runner. It grows above the tideline flourishing amongst the rounded stones and sand. Any one familiar with the garden pea plant will immediately recognize the flower of the beach pea. Its flower is of a rather complicated arrangement and coloured pink-lavender; it is quite showy. And, yes, little pea pods will show up where the flowers have been.
It is thought that the herbage of the beach pea contains a poisonous alkaloid.
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- Bindweed; Devil's guts; Cornbine (Image):
- The bind weed is of the morning glory family. Note the arrow or spade shaped leaves. It puts out runners; loves fences or adjacent bushes which it will use for support. A novice might mistake the bindweed with the mallow, but a comparison of the two will show that there are considerable differences. The bind weed blooms from May to September. Its flowers may be white or pink. The bind weed is to be found all over in thickets and roadside tangles. It seems to like to be in the sunshine and will be found abundantly in open waste lands.
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- Bird's-Foot-Trefoil:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Blackberry (Raspberry) (Image) (Rubus):
- When it comes to brambles, the taxonomer, or scientific classifier, has before him a lifetime project. I quote Roland: "The blackberries form a complex group where proper species are almost impossible to define. ... Numerous populations may be found in which the members more or less resemble each other. Some 400 have been named and hundreds more may exist. ... This large genus comprises the cloudberry, dewberry, rasberries and blackberries. The flower has many pistels on a conic receptacle and each ovary forms a small succulent drupelet; the aggregate when mature forms the characteristic thimble like fruit." Roland then proceeds to deal with a number of species of the brambles to be found in Nova Scotia and then refers off to the works of Bailey, Aalders and Hall, and Hodgdon and Steele.
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- Black-Eyed Susans (Images):
- This native prairie biennial forms a rosette of leaves the first year, followed by flowers the second year. The flower of the Black-eyed Susan is a showy composite. Its like a daisy except it has yellow "petals" and a brown button. It is one of my personal favorites. The black-eyed Susan sits on a slender bristly stalk. It likes dry waste places where nothing much else will grow; often it can be spotted along the road side growing in sandy soil. State flower of Maryland.
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- Bladderwort (Images):
- These delicate little aquatic beauties are distinguished by the small air containing bladders found on the roots, stems, and leaves. In addition to keeping the plant afloat during the period of flowering, the submerged bladders are designed to trap small organisms on which the bladderwort feeds.
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- Blood Root:
- Often found growing just above the high-water mark along rivers. It likes the shade. I read (Roland) that it is common around Truro; scattered in Cumberland County; and in Cape Breton, along the Margaree, it forms great carpets. It is a relatively early spring flower and probably not to be found beyond May. The roots are poisonous, however, the red juice was prized by the natives as a dye and used for baskets, clothing and war paint, -- as well, as for an insect repellant.
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- Bluebells (Campanula rapunculoides) (Image):
- Though now common in the wild throughout, this particular variety of bluebell is a garden escapee and is alien to Nova Scotia. The rapunculoides is to be compared with the native variety, the Hare Bell (rotundifolia). The flowers of the two are very similar, except rapunculoides cluster up on an erect terminal spike; the flower of the rotundifolia is single on a frail little stem.
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Blueberry (Images):- The wonderful blueberry -- of which the animal kingdom (including humans) are very fond -- is completely at home in the acidic soils of Nova Scotia. The common Nova Scotian variety is, Vaccinium angustifolium. This low growing bush likes dry places, especially the rocky barrens; they do not do well in open sunny places. I show the blossoms, but it is the famed blue berry that is sweet to the tooth of the native animal populations. One of my favourite deserts is blueberry pie.
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Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium Montanum) (Image):- Without its flower it would look like just another blade of grass. It is of the iris family. The plant, while small, is stiff and erect, and holds a flamboyant mauve flower to the world; its six petals, tipped with a small points, streaked to its brilliant yellow center. Look for blue-eyed grass along the meadows, the marsh edges and the shore.
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- Bluets (Image):
- Of the bedstraw family, Bluets mass together and some times in a field will present a carpet of baby blue. The flowers shade away from a pale blue to almost a white. The flowers are born singly on slender 2 to 8 inch stems which rise in a group from a common base. The tiny leaves are short and slender, arranged in pairs along the stem. This tiny plant has a preference for acid soil.
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- Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) (Image):
- It is easily discovered. The white flowers heads are up to five inches across; the plants themselves up to five feet tall. The lanceolate leaves are opposite and united at the base so as to completely surround the stem. They like wet places along the shores of lakes, bogs and streams. They flower in late summer. Audubon gives the origin of its name: because the stem seemingly grows straight through the leaves, it was thought by the ancient doctors to be good when setting bones. The leaves were wrapped around the splints to assist in the healing process. More generally, it is a plant highly valued for its medicinal properties. I quote Audubon: "The dried leaves have also been used to make a tonic, boneset tea,thought effective in treating colds, coughs, and constipation."
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- Bunchberry; Dogwood; Dwarf Cornel (Cornus Canadensis) (Images):
- This small (3"-4" wide) herb of the forest floor, surprisingly, is of the dogwood family, one that mainly consists of bushes and tall trees. The short stem of the bunchberry supports a whirl of broad, smooth edged leaves: 'ovate, pointed, with veins curved into an arc." On the top, sunny-side up, is the single flower, seemingly, with 4 white petals; I say seemingly because in fact they are bracts. Within is a cluster of tiny yellowish-green flowers. Later in the season the flowers develop into a bunch of bright red berries. One shouldn't have any difficulty finding the bunchberry, it will often be found covering the forest floor, especially where it is cool and damp. The red berries are edible but some what tasteless. Could be thrown into a pudding for color.
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- Butter-and-Eggs (Image):
- Of the snapdragon family, butter-and-eggs put out clublike spikes of yellow and orange flowers. They are unmistakable.
"It yields what at one time was considered a valuable skin lotion; its juice, mingled with milk, constitutes a fly poison." (Griffin.)
Butter-and-eggs will be found in dry fields and waste places. It is one of the few wildflowers which grow well in the city.
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- Buttercup (Ranunculus):
- Remember, when as a child, a playmate would hold it up under your chin and as the sun reflected off the shiny yellow cups unto your chin, the declaration went out: "you like butter." Most everyone knows the buttercup when seen. The buttercup is a runner and will seek the company of its neighbors tangling up with them for support. It is considered poisonous.
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- Burdock:
- Burdock is a natural born hitchhiker: nature's velcro. I remember as a child how they could be balled up into a light throwing ball; harmless, unless, of course, it got caught up on your sister's hair. The flowerhead of the burdock looks like the thistle, but it has none of the prickles and spines of the thistle plant; except of course for the ball under the tiny lavender floret - the burdock wears as a crown.
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- Cattails:
- The cattail is a marsh plant which grows in dense stands and which dominate most all of the shallow ponds to be found in Nova Scotia. The "flower" is wrapped, sausage-like, around the top of a sturdy stem. The sausage part consist of tightly packed pistillate (female) flowers; it is tipped with a narrow yellow spike (the male part). The sword like leaves range from 3 to 9 feet tall.
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- Chicory; Blue sailors (Image):
- "The flowers bloom a few at a time, last one day, turn towards the sun as the earth moves, and close on an overcast day." (Griffin.) I read that the leaves "yield a blue dye." (Clevely.)
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- Cinquefoil (Potentilla) (Image):
- The cinquefoil (five fingers) is of the rose family. The flower is yellow and consists of five petals; they are not to be confused with buttercups. The image which I have scanned in shows, at the bottom, the leaves of five fingers; the leaves mid-left, are not of the cinquefoil.
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- Clintonia; Blue-bead Lily; Corn-lily (Clintonia borealis) (Images):
- Named after the former governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, the clintonia blossoms from May through to July in the cool woods; it is of the lily family. "Two or three yellowish green bells rise on a leafless stalk above 2 or 3 broad, shining basal leaves..." Each flower consists of 3 Sepal and are grouped 3-6 in an Umbel. The leaves are tulip like, "parallel-veined leaves are oval to elliptical and wrap around each other at the base of the plant." (Griffin.) The plant produces in the place of the flowers two or three deep blue berries.
The very young leaves, we read in Griffin, might be used as eatable greens, but they become bitter as they become older (just like some people I know). The berries are poisonous. "Hunters used to rub their traps with the roots because bears are attracted to the odor." (Griffin.)
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- Clover, Alsike:
- The flowers of the alsike clover range from white to pink. This type of clover can be easily distinguished from the white clover in that the alsike does not exhibit the pale chevrons. Further this alien plant branches whereas the white clover flower has each its own stem.
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- Clover, Hop (Trifolium procumbens):
- You will usually see Hop Clover from June to September along the gravelly shoulders of many of the highways of Nova Scotia. The small yellow flowers (turning brown with age), low to the ground, spread themselves along like a yellow carpet. The leaves are divided into 3 wedge-shaped leaflets. The Hop Clover is one of three similar species in North America, all weeds from Europe.
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- Clover, Rabbit-Foot:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Clover, Red (Image):
- Most people will recognize the regular clover plant. The reddish flowers are sessile in large (relative to the other clovers) spherical heads. Each leaf usually shows a pale chevron. In referring to the uses of red clover, Clevely writes: "dried flowers produce a volatile oil and a soothing tea for promoting sleep; taken medicinally as an expectorant for respiratory disorders, and to treat skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis. Externally, an infusion soothes burns and sores. Flowers also make a good wine and yield a yellow dye." The Red Clover is the state flower of Vermont.
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- Clover, White:
- See the description of the alsike clover where the white and the alsike clovers are compared. Both the white and alsike clovers are old world invaders.
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- Clover, White Sweet:
- The white sweet clover does not look much like the traditional clovers (red, white and Alsike); it is more like a bush. It likes to grow along the shoulders of the roads like so much tumble weed. Two to 8 feet high; flimsy, spindly plants with spikes of white flowers at the top. This too is an alien to Nova Scotia.
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- Coltsfoot; Son-before-the-father (Tussilago Farfara) (Image):
- The Coltsfoot is unusual in that it first flowers, then puts its leaves out. It is, in my estimation, the first wild flower that one will see in the spring. Its flower looks much like the dandelion, but it is smaller and will be found before dandelions make their appearance. The flowers sit on a distinctive looking stem, colorless with small leaflike scales folded around it. The leaves look, in shape like rhubarb leaves, however they are smaller and dull in appearance. The plant takes its common name from the shape of the leaves, a coltsfoot imprint. By the time the leaves push out from the root the plant is usually finished blooming. And, Oh Yes! The coltsfoot comes to us from, Europe. Coltsfoot likes growing in the worst of places; one will spot them quicker in the city than in the country.
The coltsfoot is used in old folk remedies. If one had a cough then likely a batch of sugar drops would be boiled up using the leaves. Also, they made a tea from the leaves. (See McLeod, p. 70, for recipes.)
I read (Griffin) that the "leaves can be dried and burned and ashes used as a salt substitute."
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- Cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccos (small) and v. macrocarpon (large)) (Image):
- The cranberry is a creepy crawler. It is a trailing evergreen plant which is very low to the ground. The botanical name is of Greek origin, from oxus, sour, and coccus, a berry. It is a bog plant and is often associated with mats of sphagnum moss. The large cranberry (v. macrocarpon is the one the berry pickers are after late in the fall. Look around the margins of lakes during June and July for the tiny peach-blossom tinted flowers. The flowers have four, deep, petal-like divisions which later curl back, revealing the inner parts. Though not difficult to find in the right habitant, the most impressive spread that I remember seeing was on the southern banks Lake Rossignol, where there will also be found the sundew.
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- Daisy (Ox-Eye) (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum) (Images):
- "Sweet Daisy!
"A little cyclops, with one eye
"Staring to threaten and defy;
"Whole Summer-fields are thine by right." (Wordsworth)
The most cherished of our wildflowers, the daisy, will be immediately recognized by most everyone. Here is an interesting piece of information: the daisy flower is a composite, viz., the yellow buttons at the center are a tight bunch of very small yellow flowers and the white "petals" are really rays of the composite flower. The daisy has been introduced from Europe. I read (Griffin) where, if cattle eat it, it can impart a disagreeable taste to the milk; thus, the daisy is not a plant the dairyman likes to see in his pasture.
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- Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) (Images):
- Everybody knows what a dandelion looks like. What appears as one brilliant yellow flower at the top of a long hollow stem, is in fact many small flowers which spring forth from a small disk. (I read that notwithstanding this very showy flower, the dandelion reproduces itself wholly non-sexually and does not require the visits of insects.) The stem arises from a rosette of basal leaves. The leaves are jagged and its the leaves from which the plant gets its name, in French, "dent de lion," lion's teeth. Note the "reflexed sepals" below the flower head. And, as all children know, the stems when broken exude a milky substance which will dry as black smudges on the hand. And, too, who hasn't blown the tiny parachutes off, into the air, from the round, fluffy, translucent seedballs of the dandelion. There are, seemingly, two types: the one smaller and close to the ground, and the other taller and erect, more often found in the open wild and not hiding down amidst the grass of your front lawn. The dandelion was introduced by Europeans. Dandelions are one of the first wild flowers we see and thrive in Nova Scotia through the entire growing season. Seemingly they will grow everywhere, especially on people's lawns.
Edibility: The young leaves -- before the flower blooms, and, only if picked away from where people spread their poisons -- make a very tasty and healthy meal: "... very nutritious, containing Vitamins A, C; thiamine, riboflavin, calcium, sodium and potassium." So, Dandelion greens can be treated much like spinach, cooked or raw. They may, however, prove to be a bit bitter; so, like brussel sprouts or fiddle heads (fern sprouts), they should be soaked for an hour or so in water after being sprinkled with baking soda; rinse well with cold water in a colander before cooking.
Roots can be dried and used as a coffee substitute. (See Griffin.)
"The young roots, dug before the last frost of spring, make a good cooked vegetable. To prepare them, peel, slice and boil in two waters with a pinch of baking soda. These roots can also be made into a coffee. They can be dug any time of the year for this. Just roast them for four hours, grind them into small pieces and perk in boiling water, and you've got a good drink." (McLeod, p. 34.)
Wine can be made out of the flowers. A recipe can be found in McLeod (p. 34).
Reference earlier was made to the flower stems which when broken exude a milky substance, according to Clevely this, while temporarily staining the skin, soothes burns and stings.
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- Deptford Pink:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Devil's Paintbrush:
- (See King Devil.)
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- Dogbane, Spreading:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Dutchman's Breeches:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) (Images):
- There are a number of different kinds of evening primrose. The typical evening primrose has a few bright, yellow, four petaled flowers on the top which blossom by the evening and wilt by the next day. They will continue to put blossoms out over a considerable part of the season, proceeding in line above the old, on a flower stalk at the top; the lower ones forming distinct pods. The flowers have an "X-shaped stigma in the center of the flower, and reflexed sepals [pointing downwards]." Once you have first identified the evening primrose you will not have any difficulty thereafter. The stems of the evening primrose are often reddish in colour. The evening primrose likes dry sandy soil and can be readily found in the open, often where dry soil has been recently disturbed.
Edibility: A considerable claim by certain health research people has been made on behalf of this roadside plant with its little yellow flowers. The plant has been linked to a family of hormone-like substances known as prostaglandins. There are claims that prostaglandins once within the human system can help people with such diverse ailments as: "high blood pressure, ulcers, asthma, allergies, migraine headaches, arthritis, glaucoma, menstrual cramps and possibly some types of cancer." In the 1930s, a Dr. Goldblatt in England and Dr. Euler in Sweden independently identified prostaglandins. Euler named it on the basis that high concentrations were found in the prostrate gland. Prostaglandins, so we are told, is part of the larger picture which science is only just coming to grips with; that is, that certain essential substances are needed by cells if they are to function properly. Prostaglandins is one of these substances generally known as "essential fatty acids," EFA. Further, we are told, that EFA is not something that can be made up within the body, but rather must be taken in through a person's diet. The difficulty is that we run the risk of not taking in sufficient quantities of EFA "because of junk foods, an excess of the wrong fats, too much alcohol intake, and the aging process, itself ..." What we are told is that the oil of evening primrose is one of the very few substantial sources of prostaglandins.
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- Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis scorpioides) (Images):
- These unforgettable little natural creations take their position in disorganized rows on 2 diverging branches (they "grow in a raceme"); each sky blue flower looks at you with a yellow eye. They favour wet places.
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- Fireweed; Large Willow-herb (Epilobium angustifolium) (Images):
- The fireweed is of the primrose family. Though it might be mistaken at first with the purple loosestrife it can be distinguished without too much difficulty. Like the purple loosestrife they put out tall spikes of magenta-pink flowers. However, one will not find them growing in wetlands and the flowers (4 round petals) open progressively from the bottom of the spike leaving behind a pinkish hue as the bottom ones drop off. They take their name from the observance that the fireweed is usually one of the first pioneers covering the blacken earth after a fire has sweep through. "The young leaves and stems may be eaten as greens, and the older ones may be made into tea. The roots are reported to have been cooked by the Indians to make a cure for boils." (Griffin.) The Fireweed is the floral emblem of the Yukon.
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- Fleabane:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Goats-Beard (Tragopogon pratensis) (Image):
- Of the genus Tragopogon pratensis, the goats-Beard is a composite plant. The yellow flower looks much like the dandelion; it is, however, smaller; and it can be easily distinguished by looking to the stem and the leaves. The stem is not hollow; and the leaves are not ragged, but are long and slender, looking like grass. The green cup, the bracts, which support the flower at its base, are upward pointing, whereas the bracts of the ordinary dandelion are bent downward. Goats-beard bloom not near as early as the dandelions. They will be found in the fields and pastures of the country side amidst the king devils with which they might be compared.
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- Goldthread, Canker Root (Coptis trifolia, groenlandica):
- Of the Buttercup family, the goldthread is a small plant which lies upon the forest floor. It has a solitary white flower; it has evergreen basal leaves rising from a thread-like, yellow underground stem. The flowers are like small (less than «") and white with fussy centers. And while there is only one flower per plant, the plants patch together, so, likely, the trial walker will come upon quite a number of them together usually in an area where the clintonia and wild lily-of-the-valley gather. The leaves are divided into three leaflets with scalloped, toothed margins. We have seen the gold thread on May 24th along the MicMac Lake trail, Dartmouth. They continue to flower through to July.
The elongated yellow roots of the goldthread, from which use it takes its name, had a use for the aboriginals as a thread for bead work. Medicinally it was used by the Indians and the early colonists to treat mouth sores, natures dental floss. Boiled goldthread root was used as a tonic.
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- Goldenrod (Solidago) (Images):
- A plant having a rod-like stem and a spike of bright yellow flowers. Twenty different species of goldenrod are known to exist in Nova Scotia and are identified by Roland. The more common seem to be: the canada goldenrod (s. canadensis), the rough goldenrod (s. puberula), the seaside goldenrod (s. sempervirens) and the bog goldenrod (s. uliginosa). I see from MacLeod that the "young leaves may be used as greens and the dried, older leaves and flowers can be used to make tea." The goldenrod comes into bloom late; and, thus, with its blossoming (widespread), the observer will become melancholiac with the awareness that summer is soon to be over.
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- Grass Pink (Calopogon pulchellus) (Image):
- One of Nova Scotia's beautiful little orchids; they are to be discovered in acidic bogs, of which, there are any number in Nova Scotia, some, right off the main highways. The 1˝ inch flower is a brilliant pink, in addition to having two petals this little beauty has three sepals (same color as, and would be taken by the uninitiated, as petals). The upper most petal of the two is bearded. The flowers open sequentially up the leafless stalk. The leaves are grass like and are basal. The plants, at least the ones I have seen, do not seem to stretch more than 6 inches.
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- Hare Bell; Flower of Memory; Campanula rotundifolia (Image):
- The Hare Bells (c. rotundifolia) is to be distinguished from Bluebells (c. rapunculoides), the latter being a European escapee. The blossom of the Blue Bell, it seems to me, is much the same as the Hare Bell but are numerous to the plant coming forth from a spike; whereas the hare Bell are usually single on top of a nodding thread-like stalk. The blossom is about 3/4 of an inch. The corolla is bell shaped with five clefts, or lobes. You will usually find it clinging in the most inaccessible places, such as rock faces, exposed as they are, there to brave the wind. They flower throughout the summer. Catherine Traill (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/moodie-traill/index-e.html : 12/29/2005) wrote of them in 1868, as the Flower of Memory: "when found in lonely spots in Canada [it carries] ... one back in thought to the wild heathery moors or sylvan lanes of the mother country."
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- Hare's Tail (Eriophorum spissum) (Image):
- Typical of a plant of the sedge family, the Hare's Tail is a coarse grassy, rush-like or flag-like plant. It is very common throughout Nova Scotia. It is usually found in bogs (dryish spots) in mass. It can hardly be identified from other sedges except after it has been pollinated, then it is unmistakable with a cotton like seed head (end of May, and throughout June). The leaves, in keeping with the sedge family, is reduced to one long bladeless sheath covering the stem, the effect being, when the seed head is mature, a long green stem topped by a single blob of cotton. When around, this plant is one you cannot miss spotting often with the white hairy heads of the clustering plants elongated in a single direction of the prevailing wind.
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- Hat Pins; Pipewort (Eriocaulon septangulare) (Image):
- This is one of the most identifiable aquatic plants that we have (see, Pickerel Weed and Water Lily). It will be found in still waters, and, at the sandy edges of ponds and lakes. A cluster of common pipe wart is aptly call, hat pins. The leafless flower stalk will be seen piercing out of the water, usually not much before the month of July. The stalks emerge from a submerged tuft of grass-like basal leaves.
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- Heal-All; Selfheal; Woundwort; Carpenter's Herb (Prunella vulgarus Linnaeus) (Image):
- The heal-all is of the mint family. If allowed to grow (it likes lawns and because of constant mowing it has evolved to grow low down) it can rise up to a healthy plant of about 12 inches tall, as is depicted in our Image. It possesses "hooded violet flowers that form a squarish or oblong head." It will bloom through out the entire season. The heal-all is "regarded as a panacea by North American Indians and Chinese physicians, the latter using the seeds for nervous complaints." (Clevely.)
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- Horehound, Cut-leaved Water (Lycopus americanus) (Image):
- The water horehound is common throughout; to be found in wet places such as a long lakes, ponds or streams. Its tiny white flowers grow in dense whorls in the upper leaf axils.
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- Horsetail; Bottlebrush, Foxtail, Horse Pipes, Pipe Weed, Jointed Rush, Cat's Tail, Mare's Tail, Pinetop, Pine Grass, Snake Grass, Shave Grass, Paddy's Pipe, Corn Horsetail, Toadpipe (UK) (Equisetum arvense) (Image):
- A rush-like plant which is common throughout Nova Scotia. It is considered a bad weed.
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- Indian Pipe; Corpse Plant (Monotropa uniflora) (Image):
- I quote Roland: "These unbranched, low herbs are parasitic on roots or saprophytic on decaying organic matter and have lost all green colour. The Indian Pipe, with its single recurved flower and pure white plant, is strange in appearance." It can be found about anywhere in Nova Scotia. My experience is that it is best spotted where it is damp and shady, and where there is forest mould.
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- Iris, Blue Flag; Fleur-de-luce (versicolor) (Image):
- Beautiful lily - dwelling by still river,
- Or solitary mere,
- Or where the sluggish meadow brook delivers
- Its waters to the weir.
- The wind blows, and uplifts thy dropping banner,
- And around thee throng and run
- The rushes, the green yeoman of thy manor -
- The outlaws of the sun.
- O fleur-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river
- Linger to kiss thy feet;
- O flower of song, bloom on, and make forever
- The world more fair and sweet.
Longfellow.
- Standing two to three feet tall, the blue flag iris is one of our most elegant wildflowers. It is unmistakable with its sword like leaves and its showy violet flower with its "erect petals and broad, heavily veined, down curved sepals." The blue flag iris will be found where it is wet. Apparently, the blue flag along the Atlantic coast is a different variety; though hard to distinguish, it is smaller with narrower and more grass like leaves. The Blue Flag Iris is considered poisonous.
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- Ivy, Ground; Gill-over-the-Ground; Creeping
- Charlie (Glechoma Hederacea): Ground Ivy is of the Mint family. It is yet another invader from Europe. It possesses creeping stems (they can grow upwards to 2') and has small, blue-violet flowers (in twos or fours) whorled in the axils of scalloped heartshaped leaves («" across). The flower is a 2 lipped corolla. The lower lip is 3 lobed with the center one having a cleft stretching out like a "tongue." On this "tongue" is a set of deeply coloured set of rails, purple, leading back into the throat of the corolla, where the rails continue together with extras left and right. Roland points out that there are two varieties the smaller of the two, g. micrantha, being the weed, to be found "around buildings, in shady places, on roadsides and in fields, and often a bad weed around habitations where it forms large patches almost impossible to eradicate. It is considered by many to be a weed "since it roots readily at the nodes and spreads rapidly." The name "gill," incidentally, comes form the French guiller, to ferment; it was used to help ferment or flavour beer.
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- Jack-in-the Pulpit, Indian Turnip (Arisaema triphyllum, or A. Stewardsonii):
- We saw it in great profusion along the Meander River handy Smileys Provincial Park (West Hants), just across the road up from the bridge along the small flood plain. The jack-in-the pulpit is of the arum family. There are three trillium-like leaves; just beneath, the flower grows. It consists of a curving ridged and striped hood (the spathe), the "pulpit." This ridged hood is green or purplished-brown and envelopes an erect club (spadix), this is, of course "Jack." In the late summer or fall "Jack" turns into a cluster of shiny red berries. As indicated, jack-in-the pulpit, prefers damp alluvial soils. Jack-in-the pulpit is rarely found along the Atlantic coast.
The aboriginals would like to gather the roots (corms) for food. They can be bitter if eaten raw (calcium ozate crystals); but cooked, they are represented to be OK. (Audubon.) (By way of editorial comment: certainly, these days, one cannot recommend the gathering up of these delicate and relatively rare plants for the purposes of food; one should, as a general rule, just look at and take pictures of wild flowers; for food, go to the grocery store; for flowers go to the floral stores; and for medicine, go to your doctor.)
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- Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) (Images):
- The Joe-pye Weed grows in moist places, though well drained, and can be quite a large plant with stout stems that can push its crown, an inflorescence of a flat cluster of pink flowers, upwards to six feet. The plant does not come into flower until about half way through the summer. Audubon writes: Folklore tells that an Indian, "Joe Pye," used this plant to cure fevers and that early American colonists used it to treat an outbreak of typhus."
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- King Devil (Image):
- King devils will be found in the fields and pastures of the country side amidst the goats beard with which they might be compared. The difference is that the king devil is taller and has a cluster of yellow flowers at the top of the stem, whereas the goats beard has but one. A variety of king devil, which will usual be found in the field amidst its more common cousin, is the devil's paint brush (Images), looking the same but of a brilliant orange colour.
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- Knapweed, Spotted (Images):
- The flowerheads of knapweed look like thistle, but they are to be distinguished by their lack of prickles and/or spines. Knapweed, it seems, grows everywhere; it is a very widespread species. The flower bracts supporting the flowerheads have fringed black triangular tips. The uses of knapweed: "a medieval wound salve; used to soothe sore throats and bleeding gums. Also acts as a diuretic." (Clevely.)
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- Labrador:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Lady's Slipper, Moccasin-Flower (Cypripedium):
- Pink (acaule) (Image):
- When you see it you will know it. The blossom possesses, like a proud peacock beneath its chin, a heavily veined and deeply cleft pouch, or "slipper." The blossom of the pink lady's slipper is about 2.5" long with sepals and side petals, like so much discarded brown paper, flying off from its top. The pink lady's slipper puts out a single flower on top of a smooth leafless stem coming directly from the ground where it is clasped by two broad basal leaves which can run 8" in length and are highly ribbed. This is a plant, like the even rarer trillium, that IS NOT TO BE PICKED as it will not, without allowing its blossom to cycle through, regenerate itself. Consider yourself fortunate when you spot this beauty in the woods. The pink lady's slippers prefer to be in acid soil, and, thus, are the most common lady's slippers to be found throughout Nova Scotia; seemingly, more frequently, to be found west of the Halifax/Truro line. The pink lady's slipper is one of the earlier wildflowers and blossom only for a couple of short weeks. Look for this pink beauty around the beginning of June.
There are three other lady's sippers which can also be spotted in Nova Scotia, though more difficult to come by.
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- Yellow Lady's Slipper (parviflorium) (Image):
- Like the pink lady's slipper, except its stalk has leaves and can have two flowers at its top. The lip is somewhat smaller (2"); the leaves are the same size but there are more of them. The yellow lady's slipper native to Nova Scotia will most likely be found where it is damp and where nearby there are outcroppings of limestone .
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- Showy Lady's Slipper (reginae) (Image):
- The "showy" is difficult to find, it is not likely you will see it on a regular trail; it has to be sought out and will mean tramping through a bog. The reward of seeing this beautiful flowery product of nature is one a flower lover will treasure. The description of the showy lady's slipper will be much like that of the yellow lady's slipper except it is considerably larger, indeed, the tallest of our northern native orchids. Its stout, hairy, often twisted, leafy stalk bears 1 to 3 large flowers with a white and pink, pouch-like lip petal. The lip is upwards to 3" long; the leaves up to 10" long, ribbed and elliptic. They will be found in "swamps, moist woods, especially limestone sites." (Audubon.) The "showy" likes calcareous soil, so look for alkaline bogs; its reported they are often to be found "in tamarack swamps." (Holland.) A warning is appropriate: the "glandular hairs of the foliage may cause a rash similar to that caused by Poison Ivy." (Audubon.)
- Lady Sipper - Ramshead (arietinum) (Image):
- The ram's head lady's slipper is a rare find in Nova Scotia. The "ram's head" is tiny compared to the other three lady's slippers described. It is but a pink and white little ball tucked into the top of the plant and could easily be missed unless one knows what to look for. It reminded me of a miniature Iris with its several linear leaves clasping the stem the last of them acting somewhat like a hood over the flower. The ram's head likes to be up on the ridges above outcroppings of limestone, at least that is where we found them. Not too many people have seen the ram's head; and, if you should be one of them, consider yourself privileged.
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- Lady's-Thumb (polygonum [knotweed: a plant with jointed stems with a sheath at each node] Persicaria) (Image):
- Like all of the smartweed family, the lady's-thumb is known by its tight, spike like clusters of tiny pink or whitish flowers and their knotted stems. They have a papery stem at each joint. the leaves are narrow, often with a dark triangular blotch upon them (a distinguishing feature). The stems are reddish.
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- Lambs Quarters:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Lily-of-the-Valley; Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) (Image):
- This plants can cover the forest floor like a green rug; and one of the first to appear in the spring under the conifers. It has two heart-shaped leaves that clasp the stem. The tiny white flowers are bunched in a small tower. The berries, white with spots, later turn pale red.
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- Lily, Trout, Dog's Tooth Violet, Fawn Lily, Adder's-tongue (Erythronium Liliaceae americanum) (Image):
- The trout lily needs rich soils thus will not be found just anywhere in Nova Scotia. Try in and around the Minis Basin: Kings, Hants and Colchester counties. The mature plant can run up to ten inches tall. A pair of leaves (mottled in brown) sheath a single stock on the top of which is a single flower (typical lily look), yellow to the inside and bronzy to the outside. It is an early bloomer and will not be seen much beyond May.
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- Loosestrife, Spiked (Purple):
- Like so many of the wild flowers we now see around us, the purple loosestrife is alien to America. It has arrived, however, and is making itself quite at home in much of our marshlands much to the concern of some people. No matter that it does or does not give an unfair competitive edge in the fight for survival to its fellows plants, the purple loosestrife gives, when it masses together, as it does, a very attractive presentation. Its six petaled flowers, magenta in colour, stream upwards along slender and tapered spikes. The downy leaves clasp the stem in pairs opposite each other (sometimes in threes).
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- Lupin (Lupinus leguminosae):
- When driving in the month of June, the alien lupin can be seen in great colourful masses along certain of the roadways of Nova Scotia. While there as many as 90 species in North America, there are, according to Roland, two varieties of lupin are to be found in Nova Scotia: polyphyllus and nootkatensis. The polyphyllus has 10-17 leaflets which are widest at the middle, while the nootkatensis has but 6-9 leaflets and are widest near the tip. The flowers, blue, rosy-purple and white, grow in clusters of long tapering spikes. Poor sandy soil suits Lupines well. Being of the pea/bean family (leguminosae), the "seeds of Lupines are sometimes suggested as food, but they are poisonous to livestock; thus, it is doubtful if people should eat them." (MacLeod.)
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- Lychnis, Evening, White Champion, White Cockle (lychnis alba):
- The Evening Lychnis is not native to America but now is quite common and considered to some to be a weed. It is a perennial and once established it can be very difficult to eradicate. Its white flowers attract moths which carry out pollination. The leaves of the Evening Lychnis are clasping and ovate. The flower consists of 5 deeply cleft petals and below it is an inflated sac or calyx. This calyx is coated with a sticky substance so to prevent the ants from getting at the sweets of the flower intended for only the moths.
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- Mallow, Musk (Malva Moschata) (Images):
- The mallow is another wildflower of Nova Scotia which comes to us from Europe. There are two principle varieties of mallow: the Dwarf (neglecta) and the musk (moschata) and quite frankly I have yet to figure the difference between the two; I suspect a lot can be told from the arrangement of the petals. I have seen pink and white flowers. The leaves are described as intricately cut.
"Leaves used to reduce inflammations and ease bee stings, and in poultices to treat ulcers and hemorrhoids. Tea made from an infusion of the flowers given for colds and bronchitis." (Clevely.)
Habitant: The mallow will grow in sunny places, along roadsides, field edges and vacant lots.
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- Mayflower, Trailing Arbutus, Ground Laurel (Epigaea repens) (Image):
- It is one of the very first wildflowers to be make its appearance in the spring. It creeps along the forest floor and its pink and white blossoms seemingly hide themselves from view underneath its oval, evergreen and leathery leaves. It is one of nature's most fragrant plants; put the blossoms to your nose and breath deep -- Ah! Spring has arrived. The Mayflower likes to grow in well drained acidic soil in open lands. The Mayflower is the floral emblem of the Province of Nova Scotia (1901) and the State Flower of Massachusetts (1918). (Fergusson wrote an article on the Mayflower in the The Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly (NSHQ#4:1).)
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- Mayweed; Stinking Chamomile (The Sunflower Family, Anthemis cotula) (Images):
- This alien from Europe looks like your typical daisy with 10 to 20 white petals (ray florets) and a yellow disk at the centre. The leaves are another matter; they are dissected and fern like with an unpleasant odor and acrid taste. One will begin to spot them in June and will be found until the fall when the frost takes them. They like waste places and the roadside ditches usually close to the seasides of Nova Scotia.
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- Meadowsweet; Hard-hack (Spiraea latifolia) (Image):
- The Meadowsweet is a woody shrub. It is of the rose (Rosaceae) family. The flowers grow from the end of the branch, a dense cluster, spike like, of small, white or pale pinkish flowers. The shrub -- it is very common -- can be easily spotted growing like an impenetrable hedge at the edges of wild fields, meadows.
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- Mint:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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- Mullein, Common (Verbascum thapsus) (Image):
- The Common Mullein is of the Snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae). Let me set out Audubon's description: "An erect, woolly stem has a tightly packed, spike-like cluster of yellow flowers and white-woolly stem leaves, and rises from a rosette of thick, velvety basal leaves." You will readily spot this tall (two to six feet) single stemmed beauty from June to September, usually in a dry, roadside ditch. The plant is a biennial and is not native to the province; it was introduced. The early colonists and the natives used the thick, velvety leaves to line their stockings and shoes for warmth in the winter. I quote Audubon, again: "A tea made from the leaves was used to treat colds, and the flowers and roots were employed to treat various ailments from earaches to croup. The leaves are sometimes applied to the skin to sooth sunburn and other inflammations."
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- Nightshade; Bittersweet; (Solanum dulcamara, nigrum) (Image):
- Bittersweet is a climber, a pretty one with its blue or violet flowers, and, in time, berries that go as the season progresses from shiny green to bright red. The flowers hang down in drooping clusters, each flower showing a yellow beak at its center. The plant is sometimes called "deadly nightshade." This is because the leaves and the unripe fruit contain alkaloid solanine. ("The alkaloids act most powerfully on the animal economy; some, such as strychnine, nicotine, &c., form the most violent poisons with which we are acquainted, whilst others, such as quinine and morphine, act as most valuable medicines." -- As quoted in the OED.) We read in Audubon that "the toxin is not normally fatal." Further, the Bittersweet was used in England to counter the effects of witchcraft.
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- Partridge-berry (Mitchella repens) (Image):
- You will find this little attractive ground creeper in shady places usually with moss nearby. It bears twinned, waxy, fragrant, pink or white tubular flowers born in pairs and united at the base and which appear in the axils of the uppermost leaves in the early summer. More noticeable then the flowers are the bright red little berries that show up later in the season and which with their evergreen leaves (opposite to themselves) will last through the winter so to feed many of the forest's little critters. Incidently, the partridge-berry is an example of a plant which gathers up more then one of its flowers to form one fruit, viz. the berry is formed of the ovaries of two blossoms united into one fleshy fruit.
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- Pearly Everlasting (Image):
- The pearly everlasting has male and female plants. The flowers look, as there name suggests like a bunch of pearls, with their whitish bracts and tiny yellow flowers at the center. The stems are pale, cottony with downy hairs. The leaves are linear; gray-green above, wooly-white beneath. The Pearly Everlasting likes dry soil and pastures.
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- Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata) (Image):
- Another of our common aquatic plants (see, Water Lily and Hat pins). Pickerel weed grows in the still shallows of ponds; it is often found along with water lilies, though I have found that pickerel weed is generally less frequent than the water lilies. The small blue flowers of the pickerel weed cluster together at the top of a clublike stalk. Its leaves, arising from the bottom, are: large, glossy and arrowhead shaped. The nutlike seeds are edible and the young leaf stalks can be cooked as greens.
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- Pitcher Plant; Soldier's Drinking Cup; Side-Saddle Flower; (Sarracenia purpurea) (Image):
- This carnivorous plant, the pitcher plant, will be found growing in sphagnum bogs. It is unique and cannot be missed as you walk along the established pathway. It has a single, nodding, dull purplish red flower. The flower rises on a leafless stalk clasped at the base by a rosette of heavy veined, dull red or green pitcher-like leaves which hold water. The flower is composed of five sepals with three little bracts and five blunt broad petals. Insects will find their way down into this leafed pitcher and usually will come to their end; but, in the process, supplies the needs of the picture plant by adding to the nutrient soup within the pitcher. The Pitcher Plant, incidentally, is the floral emblem of the province of Newfoundland.
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- Purple Fringed Orchid (Image):
- When I first started seriously to take notes on our wildflowers here in Nova Scotia I was much surprised to learn we had orchids here in Nova Scotia; I though they were peculiar to the tropical parts of our world: Nova Scotia has its full share of beautiful orchards and some of them can be easily found, but no less beautiful in their graceful presentation. The Purple Fringed Orchid can be more often found in the wet ditches along the road side, as anywhere else. These beautiful little orchids (one must get down and examine them carefully) present as a frilly lavender torch standing erect no more than 10". With a careful look one will see that the stem is clustered half way up to the top with numerous tiny little orchids, each exquisite. The flower consists of an "upper sepal and 2 lateral petals, erect; lateral sepals ovate, spreading; lip petal with 3 fan-shaped, fringed lobes and backward pointing spur; sepal and petals similarly colored." (Audubon.) The stem beginning at the bottom is sheathed with lanceolate leaves.
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- Pussy-Toes:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Queen Ann's Lace; Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) (Image):
- The plant puts its blossoms (very small, five-petalled, white flowers) out in large flat clusters (umbels), looking, as its name suggests, like lace. The leaves and stem are hairy. The plant can stand two to three feet tall. The old umbels curl up and will form a cuplike "birds nest". A successful invader from the old world, by mid summer it can turn fields white with its lacy blooms. It is considered poisonous.
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- Ragwort; Stinking-Willie (Senecio Jacobaea) (Image):
- With the Scottish immigration to Nova Scotia, undoubtedly, came the Ragwort, or Stinking-Willie [Named after The Duke of Cumberland who led the victorious English troops at Culloden (1746)]. I have spotted the ragwort with its bright yellow display, usually by the sea shore up around Pictou County, usually wrapped with numerous, and voracious striped (black and yellow) caterpillars who will clean the leaves off in no time. It is a noxious weed and poisonous to live stock.
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- Rattlebox, Yellow:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense) (Image):
- "Rhodies" are among my favorite plants; just as are daffodils and all the early spring flowers. For northerners they herald the end of winter and the beginning of the warm season. Daffodils are not native to Nova Scotia just as the various species of Rhododendron which people grow as ornamental plants. We do, however, have our native rhododendron, Rhododendron canadense. Rhododendron is a Greek word meaning rose tree. Blooming in the month of May and into June, it is one of the our dominant spring-flowering shrubs and large areas of rose-purple colour will be seen on the edges of bogs and in the rocky barrens. The effect, this mass of colour, is mainly due to the fact that the plants first puts out its blossom, then its leaves. The stems of this shrub are woody and wiry; its leaves, thin and deciduous. There apparently is a species (albiflorma) which has white; it is however reported as rare.
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- Rose, Pasture (Rosa Virginiana and/or carolina) (Images):
- The familiar wild rose of Nova Scotia grows on a shrub which can be 1 to 4 feet tall. The flowers, which are in abundance over the tops of the shrub, are showy and fragrant. Though I have seen white ones and red ones, normally, the flowers are pink and found at the tip of thorny stems. The flowers have five petals and develop into reddish or orangish fruits, rosehips. Roland makes a distinction between the virginiana and the carolina, viz., the virginiana "is a coarser plant throughout ... stouter and broader-based ... flowers are almost always borne on branches from the old wood." The carolina is a smaller bush and "shoots from the ground will often bear flowers on the first year's growth." Roland suggests that considerable field work needs yet to be done on these two common wild roses of Nova Scotia. Roses will flower throughout the growing season, but slow down as August comes. The rosehips fatten up during the last of the summer and will remain on the bush, if undisturbed, through to spring and are a source of food to our little overwintering friends in the forest. As indicated by their name, a pasture rose is usually found out in the open. It likes sandy or rocky places. "... wet pastures, thickets and common along the heads of the salt marshes, dykelands and swamps." (Roland.) Edibility: Rosehips are rich in Vitamin C; there is as much Vitamin C in three small rosehips as there is in a large orange. They can be made into jams, jellies and syrups. (See McLeod, p. 58, for recipes.) Either dried flowers or rosehips can be used to make tea.
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- Rose Twisted-stalk (Streptopus roseus) (Images):
- This is to be compared to the Solomon's Seal, and, for that matter with False Solomon's Seal; when you look close; you will see the difference. The stems have a twisted appearance and from the axils hang their nodding, pink bell-shaped flowers.
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- Sarsaparilla (Wild) (Aralia nudicaulis) (Image):
- The Wild Sarsaparilla, a perennial herb, of old cowboy fame, is common throughout Nova Scotia. Sarsaparilla like "dry woodlands and old forests." (Roland.) Forey reports that the early native populations used to steep the rhizomes of the Wild Sarsaparilla to make a tonic or root beer. Its blossoms, which are white with a green hue, are to be seen early in summer. Leaves ("long-stalked, pinnately divided sections") and the flowers (formed on rounded umbels) are born by separate stalks. The berries are blue/black.
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- Sea Rocket (Cakile Edentula):
- The Sea Rocket is not difficult to spot, as one wonders along the many beaches of Nova Scotia, whether sandy or stoney. The Sea Rocket is an annual plant that blooms July through to September. The flowers are small and delicate, lavender in colour, and having four petals. The leaves are fleshy, or, as they say, succulent; lanceolate and wavy-toothed. The stems are many branched and also fleshy. The plant is low to the ground and will usually be found creeping along just above the high tide line. The plant is said to be a European introduction.
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- Sheep Laurel; Lambkill (Kalmia Angustifolia) (Image):
- This is an evergreen shrub, pretty common in the scrubby parts of Nova Scotia. The Sheep Laurel is of the heath family. The flowers (about «" wide), clustered toward the top of the bush, are like saucer-like buttons, dark pink, with an array of 10 black points circled around midway to its greenish-white center; these black points are the anthers, sunken in impressions in the petals, which will pop out when touched. The leaves and stems of the Sheep Laurel have long been known to be poisonous to livestock. [There is an interesting historical side note to be made concerning Kalmia Angustifolia: it is named after Peter Kalm (1716-1779) the Finnish clergyman and partime botanist who traveled to North America during the years 1748-51.].
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- Shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica) (Image):
- The leaves (not shown in our Image) are broadly oval or elliptical, and, are not evergreen. The five petaled flowers are whitish and nodding, fragrant and line themselves up on a stalk 5 to 10 inches tall.
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- Skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) (Image):
- The skullcap is one of the mint (Lamiaceae) family. The flower of the skullcap runs from pale to bright bluish-lavender. The small showy flower has two lips forming the corolla with the calyx having a prominent bump on the upper side; the overall effect is a little helmet like skull cap. The flowers, sometimes more than one, are to be found in the axils of the leaves.
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- Snake Mouth, Rose Pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides) (Image):
- Another of Nova Scotia's beautiful little orchids. Like the Grass Pink, the Snake Mouth is to be discovered in acidic bogs, which are in plenty in Nova Scotia. This little pink beauty sits alone on the top of a slender stem with a single lance-shaped or elliptical leaf part way up. The blossom has a showy lip petal spotted with a darker pink with yellow or whitish hairs, and which, is fringed or frilly. It has three pink sepals, trillium like in the back, the whole being held in a leaf like bract. The Snake Mouth is to be compared with the Dragon's Mouth or Bog Rose (Arethusa bulbosa) which is similar, except, while in flower, the pink blossom sits on top of a leafless stem; further the lip petal is not as fringed or frilly as the Snake Mouth.)
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- Sorrel, Wood (Oxalis montana) (Image):
- The leaves are heart shaped, clover like; like shamrocks. The flowers, each on their own individual stalk, are 3" to 4" high. The flowers are 5-petaled, white or pink, veined with deeper pink. Less common, is the yellow sorrel (stricta). They bloom from June through to July and are to be found on the floor of the cool woods. The wood sorrel is to be distinguished from the spring beauty.
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- Straw Berry (Fragaria virginiana) (Image):
- The wild straw berry is one that might be readily recognized even by the rankest of amateurs. Of course, its the sweet red berries (there is a variety which has white berries) to which we will stoop; and, to do more then just examine. If we have patience, we will pick; and, after cupping a number of them in our hand, we will throw them back into our mouth; it is a special summer treat. The smallish flower has five white petals with a yellow cluster of its productive parts at its centre. The leaves and flowers do not grow on the same stem. The leaves, I read, can be thrown into boiling water for a tasty tea, rich in vitamin C.
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- St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum) (Image):
- St. Johnswort are bushy plants, on the tops of which will be found clusters of bright, 5-petaled, yellow flowers with dark dots on the edges and numerous stamens. The blooms of St. Johnswort will be found plentiful in the months of July and August.
St. Johnswort have a role to play for certain superstitious people; it use to be hung on doors and windows to ward off evil spirits; often it was brought out during thunder storms.
We read (Clevely) that the leaves are mildly sedative but that it makes the person photosensitive requiring the person to stay out of the sun. A dye can be made out of the flowers.
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- Solomon's Seal (Smooth) (Polygonatum pubescens) (Image):
- This is to be compared to the False Solomon's Seal, and, for that matter, with Rose Twisted-stalk; when you look close; you will see the difference. The bell like flowers, greenish-white, hang from the axils on an arching stem; hanging below the full leaves, these little flowers are often hidden. Roland writes that the Solomon's Seal is "found only in the richest [deciduous] woods." Audubon writes: " The rootstalk, or rhizome, of the Solomon's Seal is jointed; the leaf stalk breaks away from it, leaving a distinctive scar said to resemble the official seal of king Solomon." And further, "Indians and colonists used the starchy rhizomes as food."
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- Solomon's Seal (False) (Smilacina racemosa) (Image):
- What makes a False Solomon's Seal, false, is the placement and shape of its flowers. Like the Solomon's Seal, there exists the same arching stems and leaves much the same. The flowers, which present in a feathery, creamy-white mass of flowers, a pear shape cluster of tiny little flowers, are at the tip of the stem; this is what visually distinguishes it from the true Solomon's Seal.
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- Spring Beauty or Fairy Spuds (claytonia caroliniana) (Image):
- The spring beauty is a perennial plant, which, needless to say, blooms in the spring. At root level is a corm from which spring several stems stretching upwards to 12 inches. Half way up the stem will be found a single pair of linear leaves and at top, in season, white flowers, pink hued and pink veined. The spring beauty prefers rich hardwood lands as may be found in Annapolis and Cumberland Counties, and, northeast, through Pictou County, and then on over into Cape Breton. The spring beauty is to be distinguished from the wood sorrel. If you do the Cape Split hike hike between mid-May and mid-June you will see blankets of Spring Beauty under the hardwoods along with their neighbors, in a spotty fashion, the Purple Trillium.
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- Swamp Candles; Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia terrestris) (Image):
- Of the primrose family, swamp candles will be found in damp places standing up in numbers, like their name betrays, like so many yellow candles. These candles are spikes of numerous small flowers. If the yellow petals are examined one will see small red spots which circle about. Check for blossoms of the swamp candles beginning in July.
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- Starflower (Trientalis borealis) (Image):
- A delicate white flower on top of a thin stalk arising from a whorl of 5-9 leaves. The flower is described as being about a half an inch in diameter with seven petals; at the center are its 7 stamens with its golden anthers. The starflower blooms from May through to August and can be found on the floor of the cool woodlands.
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- Sundew (Drosera Rotundifolia) (Image):
- The Greek name, drosera rotundifolia, might be translated, "dewy, roundleafed." Margo and I have found the sundew usually while we are walking along a lake margin. When first we spotted them, sparkling up at us, we found them to be disappointingly small. It is necessary to get down on one's knees amongst the pebbles, so to get get a good look, and to see, and to appreciate these little beauties: it is as strange a plant as one will ever see. They lay flat amongst their few neighbours in nutrient poor soil. They blossom from mid-July to mid-August; the flowers being small, yellowish-white, five petaled, and opening only one at a time and then only in the bright midday sun. The flowers are born on a short leafless stock rising from a rosette of leaves. But its not the flowers of this plant that are the most fascinating, - it's the "leaves." They are reddish, basal; rounded at the tip; with bristles all around that have spiked glistening drops at each of their tips, like dew in the early morning. These drops form as a result of a viscous liquid exuded in order to attract and stick any little nosey creature that may happen by; they are in turn consumed by the insectivorous sundew as a nitrogen source.
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- Tansy (Tanacetum) (Image):
- If you see a road side plant topped with a cluster of golden buttons, then, likely, you would be looking at the tansy. The flowers of the tansy look like daisies, minus the adorning white rays. The leaves are fern like and have a strong scent. "The strong odor, finely divided leaves, and button-like yellow rayless flower heads are distinctive." (Roland.) "Tansy was supposed to be capable of expelling intestinal worms and of stimulating the appetite. A solution was made from boiling the leaves to use in treating sprains and tired muscles. The plant has also been used as a savoury, in tansy tea, and for making tansy wine." (Griffin.) One will see the tansy in July and in August.
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- Thistle (Cirsium) (Image):
- We learn from Roland that there are about 200 species of thistle of which a number are native to North America. The "bull thistle" (c. vugare) is the classic thistle, as most of us picture it. The bull thistle is another invader from Europe, as so many of our wildflowers seem to be. The native thistle is more properly identified as the "pasture thistle"; it is the pasture thistle which I show in my photograph. Both the bull and the pasture thistles have prickly bracts, the supporting ball immediately under the flower, whereas the swamp thistle and the Canada thistle (see Peterson) do not. What relatively, easily, distinguishes the bull thistle from the pasture thistle is the stem: while they both possess deterring spines, the stem of the pasture thistle is hairy. Also, the pasture thistle is generally a larger plant then the alien bull thistle.
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- Touch-Me-Not; Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) (Image):
- Touch-me-nots are bushy succulent plants. They have orange spotted blossoms which hang like pendant jewels, little flower capsules, squid like with spurs coming away from the back; they hang from their threadlike stems which are fixed at their centres. The flowers produce a pod like seed from which they take their name. Pick the full and mature seed pod carefully holding it by its stem, drop into a waiting hand and ask your friend to hold it loosely in his or her clenched fist: watch the facial expression as the seed pod, seemingly spring loaded, pops its contents: nature has made it sensitive to heat. Touch-me-nots come into bloom during midsummer in places where it is damp and shady. "Its stem sap has fungicidal properties which have been used to treat athlete's foot and relieve the itching from poison-ivy rash." (Davies.)
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- Nodding Trillium (Cernuum) (Image):
- The nodding trillium is rarely found on the Atlantic side of the province and "absent from the four southwestern counties." (Roland.) The nodding trillium flower is unlike the painted and the purple trillium; its stem coming from the top of the plant is bent over and the smallish flower, pale pinkish, hangs down, underneath its three trillium like leaves. One can see the odding trillium in great numbers at Smileys Provincial Park (in West Hants, on the Meander River), check along the margin between the camp sites and the river at the end of May. (Incidentally, Smileys at this time of the year is also a great place at this time to see a variety of violets; and, too, one will be able to see Jack-in-the Pulpit (especially above the bridge along the flood plain).
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- Trillium, Painted (Undulatum) (Image):
- The painted trillium, I have found is a bit of a loner, unlike clintonia or the wild lily-of-the-vally which are often found in profusion near by. (Incidentally, it is my experience, that the painted trillium and common or pink lady's slippers tend to patch together, though the lady's slipper is less difficult to find.) Because the painted trilliums do not hang out together, in any great numbers, and are finished blooming within weeks of the start of spring, one might not spot it within its season. It is has always been, for us, therefore, one of the special treats of early spring to come upon a painted trillium. The entire plant sits upon a single stock with its three pointed leaves of dark green being not much more than 3 to 4 inches across; layered above these three leaves is their echo of three white petals of its single flower. The wavy white petals display a red blaze towards its center. This is a rare plant, and like the lady's slipper, IT IS NOT TO BE PICKED as it will not, without allowing its blossom to cycle through, regenerate itself. Consider yourself fortunate when you spot this beauty in the woods.
One of the very first flowers of spring, look for the painted trillium towards the end of May. Their blossoms are out slightly ahead of the pink lady's slippers, but often you will get a double treat seeing both of these lovely flowers in the same woodsy neighborhood, during the first part of June; both prefer acidic soil.
Unlike its cousins the purple trilliums, which prefer "the richer woodlands" -- we are told by Peterson -- the painted trillium prefer to be in damp acid soil. We have seen the painted trillium on May 24th along the MicMac Lake trail on our way to Shubie Park which, in season, has a great number of both the Painted Trillium and the Pink Lady's Slipper.
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- Purple Trillium; Death Flower; Birth Root (Erectum) (Image):
- The purple trillium is "common along the hardwood slopes of the Annapolis Valley and east to Pictou County. It is not found west of Digby nor has it been seen east of Pictou County." In season, it can be found in considerable numbers along the trail to Cape Split.
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- Turtlehead; Balmony (Chelone glabra) (Image):
- The Turtlehead is of the Snapdragon (Scrophulariaceae) family. It is, as Forey writes, "a stiff-looking plant, with a dense terminal spike of two lipped, white flowers resembling turtles' heads." Found in "swamps, wet roadsides, along rocky streams, meadows and estuarine rivers above the influence of the salt water." (Roland.)
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- Twinflower:
- The twinflower is, I read, of the Honeysuckle family. It is a dainty creeping plant which sends its pair of nodding bell like flowers, pink, up on one stalk of 3 to 6 inches. The leaves cluster around the bottom of the stalk and are small and roundish. Look for the twinflower in cool mossy woodland, wooded swamps, and spruce bogs.
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- Vetch, Tufted; Cow Vetch (vicia cracca) (Image):
- The tufted vetch is a member of the pea family. There are about 200 species in the genus with seven to be found in the Atlantic provinces. It is an alien plant and it has now taken hold throughout most all of North America. As the summer advances, one will see tufted vetch just about everywhere: meadows, fields and roadsides. It is a small scrambling plant but can get to be upwards to 3 feet tall twining itself with its tendrils through other plants. Its bright, bluish-purple, pea-like flowers grow on long stalks in the leaf axils which are followed by squarish pods (legumes) holding several seeds. The leaves have 20-24 leaflets.
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- Virginia Meadow Beauty:
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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- Violet (Viola):
- The wild violets are small plants which usually like damp and shady places. There is numerous species of viola; seventeen are described in Roland's The Flora of Nova Scotia. I deal with a few, next following: I am not at all sure that I have it right.
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- Violet, Common Blue (papilionacea) (Image):
- The common blue violet is a smooth low plant; stemless, its flowers and leaves are on separate stalks growing directly from the root. The flowers (.5"-.75") are blue to white, or white with purple veins. They have 5 petals, the lower one longer and spurred, the two lateral ones are bearded. Leaves are heart-shaped with scalloped margins. Overall height of the plant, 3"-8". Blooms through to June. The common blue violet prefers damp woods and moist meadows.
Violet leaves, we see from Audubon, are high in vitamins A and C and can be used in salads or cooked as greens.
The Blue Violet, incidentally, is the floral emblem of the province of New Brunswick.
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- Dog Violet (Conspersa):
- The dog violet has leaves and flowers on the same stalk. The flower (.75") has five light bluish-violet petals, the two lateral ones slightly bearded, the lower one with purple veins and a spur. Leaves: To 1.75" long; round, heart shaped, weakly scalloped; leaf like stipules in leaf axils finely toothed. Overall height of the plant, 2-6". The dog violet arrives early and continues blooming, if conditions are right (damp), straight through to July.
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- Marsh Blue Violet (Cucullata):
- Very similar to the common blue violet, except it prefers very wet habitant. It has dark blue-centered flowers borne well above the leaves..
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