I have been at the lake for a few days, organizing myself for the upcoming field season and helping my parents set up the gardens. Today, I was working a bit less and so took the opportunity to take a walk and enjoy the weather.
I took quite a few photos, but the real surprise for me was discovering Claytonia borealis (common name: bluebead lily). While I'm familiar with the plant, this is the first time I've seen it blooming in person (probably because it blooms right in the middle of the bug season and I usually make it my business to have business elsewhere than the woods at this time of year). It's more familiar to me as a plant with metallic blue berries toward the end of July or the beginning of August.
Clintonia borealis whole view
This lovely little plant is at least 12 years old, as it takes at least a dozen years for an individual to establish itself sufficiently to bloom [1]. This plant was actually here alone, though this species is commonly colonial [2] , as it can reproduce through rhizomes (spreading root stalks) [1]. Once it flowers, it can either self-pollinate or outcross (receive pollen from other individuals) [1]. Because it is so slow to reproduce, this species is particularly vulnerable to disturbance such as excessive deer herbivory [1]. If you have this species on your property, please do not cut the flowers or disturb the plants, if at all possible; despite their small stature, flowering individuals are quite old and the next generation will only replace them very slowly.
C. borealis is found in boreal forests in eastern North America (range map here) and is exclusively found in wooded/shaded areas [1,3] . In the more southern parts of its range, it is restricted to mountainous areas with appropriately cool, shaded habitat. This lovely little plant is endangered in Indiana and Ohio, threatened in Maryland, and of special concern in Tennessee [4]. Unfortunately, the Plants of Canada database is currently down so I can't easily access information about its legal status up here. One Ontario source lists the plant as common, however, suggesting that at least in this province the plant isn't at any particular risk [5].
C. borealis is a member of the Lilaceae (lily family), and displays the 6-partite character of that family in the flowers, as shown in the picture below. The flower has 6 tepals (not petals, which only occur when there are also sepals).
C. borealis flower, close view
There appears to be some disagreement between sources about whether or not the berries are safe to eat. One source lists them as poisonous and posing a potentially fatal risk to children who cannot reliably distinguish between these berries and blueberries [5]. In my experience, C. borealis can grow in the shade of blueberry bushes and it does take some care to make sure to only collect blueberries when out foraging. That said, I've never accidentally consumed one of these and I was actively foraging for berries quite young. Another source, however, asserts that the berries are not toxic, merely extremely unpalatable [6]. I have always known it as a poisonous plant, but not through direct experience or any particularly definitive source. That said, I would recommend against ingestion of the fruit and that some care be taken to ensure that the berries aren't accidentally collected and consumed with blueberries.
I was only able to go out and truly enjoy the weather because the bugs were less severe today. We're just hitting the tail end of bug season; even yesterday, things were bad enough that my mother was frequently singing The Blackfly, sometimes cheerfully and sometimes more resignedly. Since it's a hilarious and delightful song, I've embedded the video below; the animation is a real treat, too, done by the National Film Board (of Canada). Enjoy!
In my meanderings at the lake (my parents's property in the Upper Gatineau), I came across some Moneses uniflora (aka wood nymph, oneflower wintergreen, single delight, & many other names) that was well-placed for some photos.
Moneses uniflora
For those familiar with the property, it grows fairly abundantly in the cedar bush. Today's shots were taken by the metre-deep pond.
For those unfamiliar with the property, this plant is native to and found in temperate, moist coniferous forests in the Northern hemisphere [1] and was thus quite predictably found in an area where the water table is quite high (we know of at least one spring letting out in the area; the place is crisscrossed with little streams and puddles and is always very damp; it is not a place you walk if you plan to keep your feet dry), and which is populated primarily by Thuja occidentalis (white cedar). This is its native and natural habitat.
The pictures were taken quite close up (I had to lie down on the ground to take it and rose predictably quite damp as a result), so the size of the plant is not immediately obvious. In spite of its reasonable stature in the photos, Moneses uniflora is actually a very small, unpreposessing flower; the one I photographed here appeared to be quite typical of the population and was no more than 3 or 4cm high, though some sources seem to indicate that it can grow as big as 6 inches tall [2] (this may be more likely in warmer climates with longer growing seasons).
Moneses uniflora side view ; note the prominent pistil
It is very likely that people have walked by this plant many times without ever noticing it, small and plain as it is. But though people may walk by without taking note of it, it is possible that they still perceive its presence. It isn't visually dramatic, but it produces a strong and very pleasant fragrance [2] that, where it grows abundantly, sweetens the air. The scent of this flower is part of the sweet, moist, earthy smell I associate with the cedar bush.
The strong fragrance of the flower is attractive to bees, but the plant is in this respect deceptive; they will find no nectar in these flowers [2]. Nevertheless, the bees are able to collect pollen, which rather than being borne on the surface of the anther, is actually inside it. There is a pore at the tip of the anther through which pollen will fall when a bee shakes the anthers by vibrating its wings [2], thereby shaking the pollen loose -- this is called buzz pollination (which is a fascinating topic for another post).
Moneses uniflora
From a North American perspective, Moneses uniflora is native to much of the continent (US range map here, Canada range map here). It is endangered in Connecticut and Ohio, and threatened in Rhode Island [3]. It is secure in most of its native Canadian range, except Nunavut where it may be at risk and Newfoundland & Labrador, where its status has not been assessed [4].
A few sources suggest the Moneses uniflora's potential medicinal use against colds [2,5] and as an antibacterial agent [2].
Because of my mother's musical predilections, I associate all this summer heat with the Tragically Hip, whose music my mother frequently played when we were driving up to the lake. Here's to the beauty of a Canadian summer. I hope you all are able to make the most of it.
An ephemeral plant is a plant which has a very short life cycle, which takes place during a brief window of opportunity for growth due to environmental factors.
In my neck of the woods, the type of ephemeral plant that we see is the spring ephemeral. Spring ephemerals are perennials which grow in wooded areas. Spring ephemerals are wildflowers; the most crucial characteristic to keep in mind about them is that they are small/short.
Sunlight is a resource which, in the forest, is in short supply; woody plants (shrubs, trees) compete with each other for sunlight by growing higher than others. This strategy isn't an option for spring ephemerals.
So what can a spring ephemeral plant do in order to survive and reproduce in a place where woody plants take up all the sunlight? Well, that's the key... they don't take up quite all the sunlight, not in northern climates where deciduous trees shed their leaves each fall and produce new ones each spring. There's plenty of sunlight hitting the forest floor between fall and springtime.
Spring ephemerals are plants which take advantage of the brief window of time between the snow melt and the closure of the canopy, where there is abundant sunlight hitting the forest floor, warmth, and reasonable insect pollinator activity.
Carpet of Dicentra sp. leaves in the wooded section of the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, taking advantage of the brief window of sunlight to spread their leaves and make as much sugar as possible
Spring ephemerals are perennials in large part because the window of resource availability is so brief that it is essential to have some form of stored energy to get a head-start -- so spring ephemerals tend to have bulbs, rhizomes, or tubers which store energy over the winter and can be used to put out a spurt of rapid growth before sunlight is received to produce more energy.
Some spring ephemerals even set their flowers in the fall prior to their reproductive season (eg T. farfara) to broaden even more the amount of time that they can take advantage for reproduction early in the year.
The period of sunlight availability is a few weeks at most, so the plants must race to put up their leaves as quickly as possible to start producing sugars that can be used to make their flowers with the metabolically expensive nectar that attracts pollinators, and the similarly expensive seeds and fruit that are produced for reproductively successful flowers. They have all sorts of interesting adaptations for this, which I have talked about in a few of my posts about spring ephemerals already on this blog. A few examples of spring ephemerals found in Ontario and Quebec include:
The spring ephemerals had better hurry. The leaves are already starting to emerge on some of the trees, like this Salix x sepulcralis (weeping willow) I noticed nearby already looking green and lively:
Salix x sepulcralis with leaf buds already opening
This is another introduced species - I'm starting to feel like most of the wildflowers I like seeing at the lake are introduced species, actually. Anyway, cinqfoil (fr: potentille), potentilla recta, is a rather unassuming and undramatic flower at least where I've seen it, likely because growing conditions are very harsh at the lake.
P. recta inflorescence
For perspective, this flower is less than 1cm across. Tiny thing, really. They don't bloom or grow particularly profusely at the lake, either, so they're rather easy to miss. The fun of this flower is getting closer to it and starting to see the small details, like the wedge shape of the petals and the way they don't touch each other, forming a sort of inverse star, an asterisk of negative space. And the shaky-looking dots of the anthers on the near-invisible filaments, or the slightly fuzzy-looking pistil. I like the base five form of this plant a lot.
P. recta inflorescence after pollination
The petals have fallen off of this blossom, likely because it's been pollinated. The base five shape is still very much in evidence, with the base five sepals (leaves under the petals) visible. The anthers are more clearly visible here against a greener background. I like the subtle gradation of yellow to green from the centre of the flower outward along the sepals. The rather spiky appearance of p. recta's leaves is visible in this shot. I really like the foliage of this plant; angular and slightly aggressive but still lacy and delicate.
I find myself daydreaming about childhood today...
Le silène enflé (silene vulgaris), ci-dessous, est comestible (les feuilles). On peut les mettre dans une salade ou les sauter. Moi, je les manges crus cueuillis directement du sol, parce que je m'amuse à goûter aux plantes comestibles quand je me promène dans les bois. Un très bon goût jeune, devient amer quand mature.
S. vulgaris inflorescence
The bladder campion, silene vulgaris, is edible. The young shoots are tender and sweetish, but it gets bitter as the plant matures. A rather tasty plant early in the season, though I don't sample it more than two or three times in the season. It's quite a peculiar-looking flower, with its large bulbous shape topped by those delicate, almost frilly petals. But when you get close you can see that it has some beautiful, subtle colour gradation in the filaments and anthers, giving this light hint of purple colour. The central flower in this photograph has been damaged (missing stamens), but because of that you can clearly see the purple tips on the bulbous part of the flower. The bulb itself surrounds the part that, once fertilized, develops into a seed. I like it's stained-glass appearance. The bladder campion is usually considered a weed in North America (it's native to Europe), but I quite like it regardless.
This evening I'm going to unwind a bit in the garden. I have to thin my radishes a bit and the tomatoes need to be pruned and trained; they're developing suckers that need to be removed. My eggplants are suffering; the weather has been unseasonably cold and it just hasn't been good for them. Ditto the peppers. I'm hoping for some better weather. I bought some endive seeds to replace my lettuces once it got too hot to grow them, but so far that hasn't happened at all. I suppose one can't dictate the weather. At least the brussels sprouts are happy.
I took this photo of orange hawkweed (hieracium aurentiacum) at the lake. From a distance, it's a rather small and unassuming plant. It's only when you get closer that its drama becomes more evident. Where this photo was taken orange hawkweed is rather rare, so this was a nice find.
Yellow Hawkweed (H. pratense) flower buds
Yellow hawkweed (hieracium pratense) is more common in the area than orange hawkweed. It's a reasonably frequent find in the area. What I like about the closed ones is the visibility of the spikes on the flower buds. All those spines make it look quite forbidding up close.
I'm snuggling with my Molly cat on the couch with a pot of bee balm tea while I try to plan out my day. E is going to be working out of town for the next two months, so we'll only be able to see each other on weekends until I start my vacation mid-August. Since we will essentially no longer be living together for a bit, I'm trying to figure out how to organize household management around the gap. It's slightly depressing work, especially since E will be taking Molly with him starting next week (after she gets her rabies shot). Still, it isn't all bad; we'll still see each other on weekends, and I enjoy having the run of the household, too. We'll manage.
