Native Plants found in the Wild.

Hello Everyone,
One of our members on this forum Paalexan has expressed a desire to explore native plants growing in the wild, so I thought I would start a thread about this subject and get it going.
Please post pictures and links for information of the plants you find growing in your area.
If you have no pictures tell us about the plants and post a link so we can see them.
I love to go to the nature preserves around us and look for the plants we read about in books.
Some plants are very simple and plain and some are spectacular, but they are all very important and all should be appreciated.
I took these pictures on a nature walk at Southwest Arlington Preserve in January.

Camphor weed, Heterotheca subaxillaris, this plant is very common around here and blooms profusely from July till frost. This is the winter rosette. The scented foliage gives it the name, I find the scent very pleasant.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HESU3

I will be happy to add some, but still have a foot or more of snow on the ground. It will be a while before I can share my new "finds"

This should be interesting and educational. Thanks for starting this thread for Paalexan and all of us.

Here is a new one for me. Miner's Lettuce-- Montia perfoliata
I found it in a park near my home.

Lettuce? Yes, you can eat it--raw in salads or boiled like spinach. Early settlers and Indians collected and ate it. It is said that California Indians used to place it by red ant hills to pick up formic acid as a dressing. (I found this really interesting) But I won't give it a try.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CLPE

I hope to get back to this area in a few days to get photos of the blooms.
Here is a photo with my hand to give you an idea of it's size.
cpartschick, I hope you will soon see spring!
-Kin

I can add a few to this. These will all be from years past as we've received over a foot of snow since yesterday and had ice before that.

yellow mandarin
Disporum lanuginosum

These grow in our woods - in fact unless I mention otherwise all my pics will be from our woods.

a close up of the mandarin

This message was edited Mar 8, 2008 7:10 AM

Partridgeberry Mitchella repens taken last fall. I love the way the plant has both blossoms and berries at the same time.

Partridgeberry is one I've managed to get growing in my yard. This picture was taken where I used to live in Maine, but it grows throughout the east. Indian Cucumber plant, Medeola virginiana. It's in the Lily family. The roots are edible but I haven't tried it.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MEVI

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/medeolavirg.html

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1370/

This one was more than two feet tall, growing among red spruce (I think), Lambkill/ Sheep Laurel/ Kalmia angustifolia, Blueberries, ferns, etc. Photos taken in September.

What interesting plants!! The Miners lettuce is so neat, and so is the Yellow mandarin.
The Indian cucumber is so pretty, and the Partridgeberry as well, that one grows in Texas but I have never seen it, I believe it grows in the south east.
There are so many wonderful plants, I love to learn about all of them.
Josephine.

These are Adam & Eve orchids, Aplectrum hymale. These are growing outside the kitchen door at the cabin we just bought and are moving into. I am looking forward to seeing everything else that comes up this spring!

Gran, I looked those up, and they are really pretty, here is the link;
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=APHY

claypa, the root tastes like very mild cucumber. We have quite a bit of that and Canadian May Flowers Maianthemum canadense, and miniature ginseng that grow in a more open area of the woods.

Fendler's Bladderpod seems to hang around on hillsides, roadcuts and above creeks. It doesn't need fine fertile soil, often making do in rocky areas with scarcely anything resembling soil. It coexists well with Ashe Juniper, Devil's Shoestring and Sotol in my area.

Linda I'm still trying to get the plant you gave me to do something, I think it doesn't like it here.

I'll probably either add to this thread as spring/summer get here,or start another one.There are a lot of plants unique to the West coast rain forest that extends from Northern California to Southeast Alaska.Right now everything is dormant,but the buds are swelling.

Such interesting plants. Quite a variety.

Ned, I look forward to seeing the plants form your area.
Josephine.

Indian cuke is a hard one to spot.
We found some here a couple years ago. It is a neat plant. Never tried to eat it, as there are so few plants and our book said that they are fairly rare.

Another plant found on a nature walk in Arlington, Glenrose Yucca, Yucca necopina, this plant is endemic to north central Texas, and is very drought resistant.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/yuccanecop.htm
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=YUNE

Here are some California natives in the wild (many of these I identified myself, so while I'm relatively confident of the genus, on occasion I may have the wrong species)

Astragalus nuttallii (photographed on the central coast near Monterey) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=896

Another shot of the A. nuttallii, showing more of the plant

Some species of Castilleja, my guess is C. affinis (photographed along the central coast near Monterey) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=1668

Clarkia unguiculata (photographed in Sunol Regional Wilderness in the eastern SF Bay area) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=2224

Marah oreganus (photographed in Muir Woods) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=5366

Oxalis oregana (also photographed in Muir Woods) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=6015

Platystemon californicus (photographed along the Sonoma County coast near Jenner) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=6635

Spergularia macrotheca (photographed along the central coast near Monterey) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=7709

Stachys bullata (photographed on the central coast near Monterey) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=7756

Erigeron glaucus (photographed on the central coast near Monterey) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3140

Cupressus macrocarpa (the famous Lone Cypress on 17 mile drive in Pacific Grove) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=2522

Eriogonum latifolium (Sonoma/Mendocino county coast near Gualala) http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3293

great picture ecrane. When you consider the number of habitats we have in this country and how different the wild plant populations are from one to the next it is astounding that we need to bring in any other plants. Don't get me wrong - I'm not giving up my non-native plants, but there is such wondrous variety in the natives of this country, it is nearly overwhelming.

I will post a picture of a little weed bed I had, long before we built our house here by the marsh.

The deer found it soon after and they had a slightly different plan for grooming the spot. I have never had it look quite as nice again.

Great pictures. The castilleja affinis is a type of indian paintbrush. Yet, it looks so different from what I call indian paint brush in New Mexico. It is another species, I guess. I really need to learn more Latin names.

The berries of Poison Ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, found in January on a nature walk. It is good to know what it looks like at this stage.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=TORA2

frostweed:

Partnered with the Smilax in that picture, you've got quite the 1-2 punch there.

Absolutely, you have to be really careful in the wild, I had never seen the Poison Ivy with berries like that.

Scribner's Rosette Grass, Dichanthelium oligosanthes var. scribnerianum
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DIOLS&photoID=pasc5_002_ahd.tif
found in the woods on a nature walk, lovely colors on the new leaves.
This is a very widely spread grass.

Pasque flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris, taken south of Bozeman