Gosh, it's been ages since we went on a wildflower walk. Autumn is the perfect time to spot wildflowers that may have rather insignificant flowers in the spring, but very conspicuous berries in the fall. So let's go for a woodland walk and see what we can see.
The woods on Locust Hill are full of the shiny green leaves of partridgeberry lying flat against the ground. Right now they're covered in bright red berries. My kids, giggling, used to call this little ground cover the people flower because it takes two blossoms to make one berry. The small pinky-white blooms are born in pairs at the end of each stem and join to make a single berry. If you look carefully you'll see - a stem at one end and two calyxes (remains of a blossom) on the other end.
I don't see any baneberries here,
either the red or the white. I spotted
the one in my photo last week growing
at the side of the road. In the spring
both baneberries have fuzzy white blos-
soms that are very hard to tell apart,
but by September they are showing off
their differences. These two members
of the buttercup family grow one to two
feet tall with leaves subdivided into
sharply-toothed leaflets. The blossom
of the red is round while the white variety
is more oblong, but without the two to
compare, being sure which one you've
found can be tricky. Obviously they are
easy to distinguish in the fall when the
red baneberry has intensely crimson
berries and the white - ah, you guessed
it - white berries.
These white berries are born on thick red stalks and are known as doll's eyes. Each one contains a single purplish black dot making it look just like the china eye of an old-fashioned doll. If you have an appropriate shady spot on your property to grow wildflowers, you can gather the berries right now, remove the seeds from their fleshy covering and plant them. Next spring new baneberry plants will appear.
They will bloom in their third year, and shortly thereafter can be dug up and their roots divided. Their bright berries make an eye-catching display against a dark background, but if you have small children, be careful. Both red and white fruits are poisonous.
Another wildflower that has very inconspicuous yellow blooms in spring is known as bluebeads because at this time of year its flowers have been replaced by large blue berries. It is a member of the lily family and has smooth oval leaves similar to those of the lily of the valley. Its Latin name is Clintonia borealis. It was named for a one-time governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton.
Why, for heaven's sake, name a wild flower for a politician? Well, because although Mr. Clinton was most famous for becoming governor of New York, he was first, last, and always a naturalist, spending all his free time in the woods and fields identifying plants. But for the fact that a wildflower was named for him, his love of nature would be lost in politics.
Wintergreen also has red berries at summer's end. Take a tiny bite of one of this wildflower's shiny green leaves. It has such a lovely sharp taste of chewing gum, doesn't it? Bunchberry, Cornus Canadensis, also has red berries. It is just like its big cousin, the dogwood tree, handsome at both the beginning and the end of the summer. In spring its flowers look just like miniature dogwood blossoms, its petals (technically bracts which surround the true flowers) white and notched. It can form a lush white carpet on the forest floor.
Whose berries are these? They
belong to Jack in the Pulpit. When
Jack retires, he takes his pulpit with
him and what remains are these red,
poisonous berries.
There are dozens of other wildflowers with bright berries, but we'll save them for another day. It's time to head home, and when we get to the long lot I want to show you one of the few delicate wildflowers to bloom in Autumn, the fringed gentian. This meadow has always had these biennials. Aren't they beautiful?
If this Sunday is as nice as last Sunday, take another walk and see what wildflowers you can find. It's a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.
