Today’s featured flower is native to most of North America and prevalent in Iowa wooded areas. Anise root (Osmorhiza longistylis), also known as longstyle sweetroot or wild licorice, typically blooms in April and May in central Iowa. The plant is a close relative of sweet Cicely. In fact, I did not realize these were separate species until Eileen Miller mentioned the fact a couple of months ago. For me, words from the Minnesota Wildflowers website ring true: the hairy stems of sweet Cicely “are the most noticeable difference.” The Illinois Wildflowers website explains the distinctions as follows:

Aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis) can be distinguished from many similar species in the Carrot family by the anise fragance of its foliage and roots. This species closely resembles Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza claytonii) and they are often confused with each other. However, Sweet Cicely has only 4-7 flowers per umbellet, while Aniseroot has 7-16 flowers per umbellet. While the fruits of these two species are still immature, the persistent styles of Sweet Cicely are 1.0-2.0 mm. in length, while the persistent styles of Aniseroot are 2.0-3.5 mm. in length. The foliage and roots of Aniseroot have a stronger anise scent than those of Sweet Cicely, and its root can be used as a substitute for black licorice.

Except where noted, I took most of the pictures enclosed below in Windsor Heights during the month of April.

Top photo by Wendie Schneider, used with permission. Click here for more of her prairie ragwort pictures, taken in Story County in May 2016.

Most of Iowa’s spring wildflowers have gone to seed, and summer flowers are blooming or well on the way. In the last couple of days, I’ve seen buds on common milkweed and the first elderflowers starting to open. Steer clear of wild parsnip, which is blooming near some Iowa trails and roadsides. That plant can cause a horrible, blistering rash.

Today I’m catching up on a native plant I saw for the first time in April during a visit to Dolliver Memorial State Park in Webster County. Prairie ragwort (Packera plattensis) is native to most of North America and is sometimes known as Prairie groundsel.

I’m always grateful when Iowa naturalist Eileen Miller shares her photography on this blog. Bleeding Heartland readers have seen her incredible eye for detail in wildflowers such as golden corydalis, hoary puccoon and fringed puccoon, marsh marigold, snow trillium, hepatica, blue cohosh, and pasque flower. She also once contributed a post featuring unusual fungi.

Eileen became an expert on wildflowers by virtue of her fascination with insects. If you or a child in your life are into bugs, I highly recommend joining the Raccoon River Watershed Facebook group, where Eileen sometimes posts unbelievable insect photo series, such as an Eastern Comma caterpillar making a shelter, some Giant Ichneumon wasps drilling into a dead tree to lay their eggs on larvae of Pigeon Horntail wasps, a male giant water bug carrying eggs on his back, or a little planthopper winged adult emerging from the last nymph stage.

Today I’m excited to share Eileen’s description and pictures of a plant and insect that are “the classic example of a plant and animal obligate symbiotic relationship where each organism requires the other to survive.”

I’ve never seen Yucca glauca, commonly known as yucca or soapweed yucca. Iowa is on the eastern edge of this plant’s native range, and in our state, yucca is found only in the Loess Hills. According to Charlie McDonald of the U.S. Forest Service website,

As the name implies, the crushed roots of soapweed yucca produce a lather that makes a good soap or shampoo. The lathering substances called saponins are found in many plants, but are exceptionally concentrated in yucca roots. The dried leaves of soapweed yucca can be woven into baskets, mats, or sandals. The strong coarse leaf fibers can be extracted to make cordage.

Of the approximately 120 kinds of wildflowers Bleeding Heartland has featured since March 2012, none look more like a Dr. Seuss creation than Geum triflorum.

Native to most of western North America and the upper Midwest, these plants are among the earliest to bloom in prairie landscapes. They can continue to produce flowers into the summer. However, the common names prairie smoke and old man’s whiskers are drawn from the appearance of Geum triflorum seedpods (technically achenes)–not from the pink or pale red blossoms on the flowering stalks.

I took the pictures enclosed below in mid-May along the Meredith bike trail in Des Moines. Several colonies of these unusual plants can be found along the southern edge of the trail, just west of where it passes under SW 9th Street.

Like last week’s featured plant, Dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) was a new addition to my wildflower “life list” recently. I went hunting for it at the Woodland Mounds Preserve in Warren County on a tip from Marla Mertz. (By the way, her guest post about showy orchis is a must-read if you missed it earlier this month.)

Sometimes known as spring larkspur, dwarf larkspur is native to more than 20 states east of the Rocky Mountains. I enclose below more pictures of this species, which is “quite hardy and very adaptable to home gardens,” according to garden writer Gene Bush.

This week’s featured wildflower eluded me for years. The Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge has some plantings near the nature center, and I’ve seen the seed pods during the summer, but every spring I miss the blooming period. Good fortune struck on the way home from the downtown Des Moines farmers market last Saturday. Approaching Gray’s Lake on the Meredith bike trail, I saw some bushy plants with ivory-colored flowers. John Pearson of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources later confirmed the ID as Cream wild indigo (Baptisia bracteata), also known as cream false indigo, longbract wild indigo, and plains wild indigo.

This “exquisite perennial” has been described as “a spectacular specimen in the flower garden.” Cream wild indigo is native to most of the Midwest, plains and southern states. I enclose below more pictures of this “showy and attractive” prairie plant.

I am thrilled to have Marla Mertz share her stunning pictures and description of a native plant I’ve never seen “in real life.” -promoted by desmoinesdem

When someone comments about an orchid, what do you envision in your mind; beauty, grace, delicate, romantic, exotic, tropical? Seeing beautiful orchids in a gardening center or store, I always have to stop and look at each individual one. If I were to a choose one I don’t think I could…each one is more beautiful than the other. It becomes very personal and sometimes it takes a connection to one over the other.

Did you know that Iowa has 32 species of native orchids? According to Bill Witt, author of “Iowa’s Wild Orchids,” an article written for the Iowa Natural Heritage magazine, “Orchids are among the most prolific of all families in the plant kingdom. Over 20,000 species inhabit almost every imaginable habitat to be found between the polar ice caps, from cold, alpine regions to the deserts. Iowa’s orchids, too have matched themselves to just about every available niche, from the white oak swamps of Muscatine and Lee counties to the dry, windswept Loess Hills of Monona and Plymouth counties.”

In 1995, I had the great opportunity to extend my career as the Naturalist for Marion County, Iowa. I had only been working out of the Cordova Park office a short while when a very kind gentleman stopped by to introduce himself and extend an invitation to come to his Christmas tree farm the following spring. He didn’t hold back his welcoming gesture and enthusiasm, and it wasn’t an invitation to see the trees, it was an invite to introduce me to a special woodland orchid growing on his farm called the Showy orchis.

This venture and the gentleman’s enthusiasm inspired a 20 year affair with the Showy orchis. I located one beautiful orchis at Cordova Park, which, unfortunately met its demise with some timber management and clearing. I didn’t know that the plant’s demise would create such personal turmoil. Over the course of the next 19 years I have tromped the earth at Cordova Park searching for more of these hidden treasures. Naturally, some come and go due to successional changes, but I have never located more than five in a year.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone in the Bleeding Heartland community who is celebrating this weekend. Although abolitionist and feminist Julia Ward Howe originally envisioned the holiday as a “Day of Peace,” our culture approaches today as a time to thank mothers with cards, phone calls, visits, or gifts. In lieu of a traditional bouquet of flowers, I offer wild geranium, a native plant now blooming in many wooded areas, and a shout out to some of the mothers who are active in Iowa political life.

These Iowa mothers now hold state or federal office: U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, State Auditor Mary Mosiman, State Senators Rita Hart, Pam Jochum, Liz Mathis, Janet Petersen, Amanda Ragan, Amy Sinclair, and Mary Jo Wilhelm, House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, State Representatives Deborah Berry, Timi Brown-Powers, Nancy Dunkel, Ruth Ann Gaines, Mary Gaskill, Lisa Heddens, Megan Jones, Vicki Lensing, Mary Mascher, Helen Miller, Linda Miller, Dawn Pettengill, Patti Ruff, Kirsten Running-Marquardt, Sandy Salmon, Sharon Steckman, Sally Stutsman, Phyllis Thede, Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Cindy Winckler, and Mary Wolfe.

These Iowa mothers are running for state or federal office this year: U.S. Senate candidate Patty Judge, U.S. House candidates Monica Vernon (IA-01) and Kim Weaver (IA-04), Iowa Senate candidates Susan Bangert, Pam Dearden Conner, Rene Gadelha, Miyoko Hikiji, and Bonnie Sadler, Iowa House candidates Perla Alarcon-Flory, Jane Bloomingdale, Claire Celsi, Sondra Childs-Smith, Paula Dreeszen, Carrie Duncan, Deb Duncan, Jeannine Eldrenkamp, Kristi Hager, Jan Heikes, Ashley Hinson, Barbara Hovland, Sara Huddleston, Jennifer Konfrst, Shannon Lundgren, Heather Matson, Teresa Meyer, Maridith Morris, Amy Nielsen, Andrea Phillips, Stacie Stokes, and Sherrie Taha.

Mother’s Day is painful for many people. If you are the mother of a child who has died, I recommend Cronesense’s personal reflection on “the other side of the coin,” a piece by Frankenoid, “Mother’s Day in the Land of the Bereaved,” or Sheila Quirke’s “What I Know About Motherhood Now That My Child Has Died.” If your beloved mother is no longer living, I recommend Hope Edelman’s Mother’s Day letter to motherless daughters or her commentary for CNN. If you have severed contact with your mother because of her toxic parenting, you may appreciate Theresa Edwards rant about “13 Things No Estranged Child Needs To Hear On Mother’s Day” and Sherry’s post on “The Dirty Little Secret.”

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

Wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis) is native to most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, but I’d never seen this wildflower until Iowa naturalist and photographer Eileen Miller showed it to me during my first-ever visit to Dolliver Memorial State Park (Webster County) last spring. The plants were only starting to bloom, and by the time I got back to the park, they were past their peak.

This year I managed to get better shots of wood betony, also known as Canadian lousewort. It’s probably still flowering, so if you want to find it, take the trail that leads to Dolliver’s unusual “Copperas Beds” sandstone formations, then continue across a creek until the trail eventually turns right, going up stairs the Civilian Conservation Corps built during the Great Depression. Many wood betony colonies are growing on either side of that trail as it goes uphill.

I enclose below photographs of wood betony and a couple of bonus shots of those Copperas Beds, which have minerals and petrified wood embedded in the sandstone.

Spring flowers are exploding across Iowa. If you’re out in the woods this coming week, expect to see plenty of violets, spring beauties, sweet William, and littleleaf buttercup or larger buttercups. If you’re lucky, you may see some bellwort or Jack-in-the-pulpits too. Toothwort and Virginia bluebells are fading in my corner of central Iowa, but sweet Cicely and May apples (umbrella plants) are starting to bloom, and buds have formed on wild geranium and Virginia waterleaf.

Today’s featured flowering plant is a shrub native to much of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. In Iowa, it usually blooms in April or May. Missouri gooseberry (Ribes missouriense) plants produce fruit that is sour but edible for humans. However, it’s a challenge to harvest the berries before the birds pick the bushes clean.

After the pictures of Missouri gooseberry, I’ve enclosed a couple of shots of another shrub you are likely to see flowering in Iowa woods now. Unfortunately, those sweet-smelling honeysuckle plants are considered invasive.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Aside from dandelions, violets are probably the wildflowers most likely to turn up in Iowa yards, whether you live in the city, suburb, or countryside. Common blue violet (Viola sororia) is prevalent and blooming in large numbers now. I see quite a few Downy yellow violets (Viola pubescens) near wooded areas of Windsor Heights. Today’s featured plant is native to Iowa and most states to our east, but according to John Pearson of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, it is relatively rare in our state.

I enclose below more pictures of Striped cream violet (Viola striata) in the company of other spring wildflowers.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Pasque flowers (Anemone patens) are native to much of North America and derive their common name from the French word for Easter, because they are often blooming around the time of that holiday. I’ve never seen today’s featured wildflower, also known as Eastern Pasque Flower, Prairie Crocus, or Cutleaf Anemone. Fortunately, Iowa naturalist and photographer Eileen Miller found a patch of them a couple of weeks ago at Brushy Creek State Recreation Area in Webster County. She agreed to share some of her pictures and her description of the plant here.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

First spring beauty of 2016

As bloodroot blossoms fade, an explosion of early spring wildflowers begins. Almost every day lately, I have noticed new wildflowers in Windsor Heights. Instead of focusing on one native plant today, I’ve enclosed below pictures of flowers you are likely to see in wooded areas this coming week, as well as a “preview of coming attractions”: stems and leaves of plants that will flower within the next month or two.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

The fifth year of Bleeding Heartland’s Iowa wildflower Wednesday series kicks off with the native plant that got the ball rolling in 2012. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is native almost everywhere in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Follow me after the jump for more pictures of one of the first spring wildflowers to bloom in Iowa woodlands.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome. I recommend the Iowa Wildflower Report and Raccoon River Watershed public Facebook groups for native plant lovers and nature photographers.

After today’s installment, Iowa wildflower Wednesday is signing off for the winter and will return sometime in March or April. All previous posts in the series are archived here. I often hear positive feedback about the wildflower diaries. To my surprise, one that struck a chord with lots of readers this year featured Poison hemlock and Wild parsnip, a pair of potentially harmful invasive plants.

Guest authors are welcome to contribute posts anytime at Bleeding Heartland. Please get in touch if you would like to be part of Iowa wildflower Wednesday during 2016. I’d be particularly grateful if some talented photographer could capture usable shots of “plants that got away” from me: Cardinal flower (Red Lobelia), Four O’Clock, Purple poppy mallow, or Common rose mallow. I never get any depth or definition on flowers with red or deep pink petals.

In keeping with a Bleeding Heartland tradition, I’m closing out this year’s series with asters, some of which are among the latest-blooming fall wildflowers. Click through to see New England asters and Frost asters (I think) from 2012, 2013, and 2014.

According to Elizabeth Hill, the first plants you’ll see after the jump are Heath aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides). I took those pictures in early October at the Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area. Elizabeth deserves a lot of credit for Iowa wildflower Wednesday’s existence, because she inspired me to learn more about native plants.

Iowa naturalist and photographer Leland Searles identified the next plant featured today as a subspecies of Calico Aster called Symphiotrichum lateriflorum ssp. lateriflorum. They are growing near the bank of North Walnut Creek in Windsor Heights.

I have trouble distinguishing aster species with white ray flowers and yellow disk flowers, so a few mystery plants are pictured below too. They include some unidentified asters I found today just off the Windsor Heights bike trail, behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road. Last weekend’s snowfall finished off the last few flowering black-eyed Susans and brown-eyed Susans, but even now, a few asters are in full bloom.

The first snow since last winter is expected to hit much of Iowa this weekend. Next week’s edition of Iowa wildflower Wednesday will be the last before this series goes on hiatus until the spring. Click here for Bleeding Heartland’s full archive of wildflower posts since March 2012, depicting more than 115 native plants and a few European invaders.

As its name suggests, late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) blooms relatively late in the year. This plant is native to most of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. The Illinois Wildflower website explains,

The delicate flowers of Late Boneset closely resemble the flowers of other Bonesets, such as Eupatorium altissimum (Tall Boneset) and Eupatorium perfoliatum (Common Boneset), in both color and structure. These Bonesets can be distinguished readily from each other by an examination and comparison of their leaves. Tall Boneset has leaves that are pubescent, more narrow, and less coarsely serrated than Late Boneset, while Common Boneset has leaves that wrap around the stem and are without petioles.

Bleeding Heartland featured common boneset here. The stem appears to be growing through (perforating) the leaves. After looking at tall boneset leaves pictured on the Illinois Wildflowers or Minnesota Wildflowers websites, I am fairly confident I photographed late boneset plants.

I took all of the shots enclosed below between late August and mid-October near the north or south ends of the Windsor Heights bike trail. Some late boneset plants are growing in the small prairie patch in Colby Park. Many more are thriving in the larger patch of native plants behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road.

Credit for this week’s edition of Iowa wildflower Wednesday goes to Matt Hauge. In September, he posted a gorgeous picture of wildflowers I’d never seen before. They turned out to be Wild blue sage (Salvia azure grandiflora), also known as Pitcher sage, after “Doctor Zina Pitcher, a 19th century U.S. Army field surgeon and amateur botanist.” Matt found these flowers at the Kuehn Conservation Area in Dallas County. I enclose below his picture as well as some photographs of wild blue sage I took a few days later in a field dominated by Maximilian sunflowers.

Wild blue sage is native to much of the American South, Midwest, and plains states, but it is relatively rare. In fact, the plant is a state-listed “threatened” species in Illinois. Although wild blue sage does not appear on Iowa’s lists of “endangered, threatened, and special concern plants,” knowledgeable people tell me they have not seen this plant often in Iowa. According to Leland Searles, wild blue sage used to grow along the Neal Smith Trail in Polk County, between the Saylorville Visitors Center and the Butterfly Garden. He does not know whether those colonies still exist.

Unseasonably warm weather this fall has produced some surprisingly late blooms in central Iowa. Scroll to the end of this post for two bonus shots of common evening primrose and goldenrods that were flowering on November 7 in Windsor Heights.

A surprising number of wildflowers are still blooming in central Iowa, thanks to unseasonably warm weather for most of the autumn, with no hard frosts yet. This week’s featured plant is brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba), which is native to most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Although it’s not a rare plant, black-eyed Susan is much more prevalent.

The Illinois Wildflowers website explains, “Brown-Eyed Susan can be distinguished from similar species by the smaller size of its flowerheads and the smaller number of ray florets per flowerhead. It is usually more tall and bushy than Rudbeckia hirta (Black-Eyed Susan), but it is shorter with fewer lobed leaves than Rudbeckia laciniata (Cutleaf Coneflower).” Iowa wildflower Wednesday profiled cutleaf coneflower here and black-eyed Susan earlier this fall.

The Minnesota Wildflowers website notes, “While a Minnesota species of special concern in the wild from loss of habitat to agriculture and invasive species, Brown-eyed Susan flourishes in gardens across the state. One of the best cut flowers around it can last for weeks in a kitchen vase.” Gardeners may appreciate that this plant “attracts numerous nectar-seeking and pollen-seeking insects to its flowers.”

I took all of the photographs enclosed below just off the Windsor Heights bike trail, behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road. Whoever is maintaining this restored patch of native plants is doing a fantastic job. So many native species are thriving, including some wildflowers that are rare in Iowa, and I’ve hardly seen any invasive plants there all year.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Today’s featured wildflower was new to me until a few weeks ago. I noticed a handful of plants with purple flowers blooming in the patch along the Windsor Heights bike trail, behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road. Several people in the Raccoon River Watershed Facebook group suggested they might be Blue giant hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), also known as anise hyssop. Leland Searles told me the easiest way to identify this plant is to crush a leaf. Sure enough, a strong anise smell confirmed the ID. This member of the mint family is native to most of Canada and some northern parts of the U.S., but Searles speculated, “If the plant is anise hyssop, I suspect someone [from the DNR] ordered a moist-medic seed mix from Prairie Moon in Wisconsin. The plant is endangered in Iowa mainly because two northern counties are at the limits of its range.” It’s rare in Illinois as well.

I enclose below several pictures of blue giant hyssop.

As a bonus, I also included two shots of what I believe to be the smallest white snakeroot plant in bloom I’ve ever seen. I noticed the tiny white flowers yesterday next to the curb of our street. Usually white snakeroot plants are a few feet tall before they start flowering. White snakeroot is prevalent in Iowa and won’t hurt you, provided you don’t drink milk from animals that have grazed on it. Before the connection between this native plant and “milk sickness” was understood, thousands of people (including Abraham Lincoln’s mother) died on the American frontier.

Today’s featured plant is native to most of the United States and Canada. In Iowa, it can start blooming as early as July and continues well into October. I took all of the enclosed pictures of Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) in mid-September at the Kuehn Conservation Area in Dallas County. Many plants still had unopened buds.

Sometimes called Maximilian’s sunflower, this plant is named after the naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian, who described it and many other flora when he explored the American West during the 1830s.

Trigger warning for arachnophobes: this post also includes two pictures of spiders, which had spun their webs across Maximilian sunflower plants. I can’t remember seeing so many spider webs in a patch of native plants before. The coloration and the “bold, zigzag band of silk” running down almost all the webs suggest that these are female black and yellow garden spiders.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Today’s featured wildflower, Blue vervain (Verbena hastata), is native to most of the United States and Canada. Also known as Blue verbena, Swamp verbena, or Simpler’s joy, this plant is a survivor. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fact sheet, blue vervain “can grow in disturbed sites and is commonly found in moist meadows, thickets, and pastures, as well as riversides, marshes, ditches, and river-bottom prairies.” I took all of the photographs enclosed below in late August in the patch of native plants along the Windsor Heights bike trail, behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road.

This plant resembles its close relative hoary vervain, which Bleeding Heartland featured last summer. I see hoary vervain more often along roadsides. Blue vervain typically has more branches with flowers, which can give the plant the appearance of a candelabra. The Minnesota Wildflowers website says that compared to hoary vervain, blue vervain “has smaller flowers, stalked leaves that are longer and proportionately much narrower, and prefers moist habitats.”

Blue vervain has various uses in herbal medicine but “can interfere with blood pressure medication and hormone therapy” and may “induce vomiting and diarrhea” if taken to excess. I’ll stick to enjoying the purple flowers.

This past weekend, my family visited the Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area for the first time. The “365-acre field station used for class field trips, student and faculty research, and quiet enjoyment” is about eleven miles from campus. Staff member Elizabeth Hill showed us around; she is incredibly knowledgeable about Iowa landscapes and native plants. Most of the plants we saw had gone to seed, but I am fired up to return next summer to photograph flowers Bleeding Heartland has never featured before, including round-headed bush clover, tall thistle, field thistle, sawtooth sunflower, false boneset, Virginia mountain mint, tall goldenrod, and showy goldenrod.

Elizabeth is also the accidental godmother of Iowa wildflower Wednesday, though she didn’t realize it until I told her this story. In May 2009, she took my family on a nature hike at Whiterock Conservancy, where she was working. My then three-year-old was fascinated by the Jack-in-the-pulpits–one of very few wildflowers I could identify at that time. My son was excited to hear we had some “Jack flowers,” as he called them, growing near our house in Windsor Heights. That spring and summer, we started looking more closely at the wildflowers in our neighborhood and along local bike trails. Over the next several years, he remained interested in native plants, and I learned the names of more flowers we saw on our walks. In 2012, I thought it would be fun to do a wildflower series here, and Iowa wildflower Wednesday was born. As soon as I could, I put up some pictures of Jack-in-the-pulpits. People often tell me these posts are their favorites at Bleeding Heartland. The full archive is here.

Today’s featured plant is native to most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Goldenrods can be difficult to distinguish, even for experts, but after talking with Elizabeth, I am confident that these plants are elm-leaved goldenrod (Solidago ulmifolia), sometimes called elm-leaf goldenrod. I took the pictures last month at the Kuehn Conservation Area in Dallas County, an under-appreciated spot within easy striking distance of the Des Moines area. I hadn’t heard of Kuehn until a couple of years ago.

Seeing the Prairie Cairn by Andy Goldsworthy was a highlight of our visit to the reconstructed prairie at Conard Environmental Research Area. At the end of this post, I’ve enclosed a picture of some skin a snake shed while slithering through the cairn’s rocks.

You don’t have to venture to natural habitats to find this week’s featured Iowa wildflower. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is popular in gardens and urban landscaping, maybe even more so than the Virginia bluebells that bloom in the spring. During the summer, I see black-eyed Susans in neighbors’ front yards every day while walking the dog.

Black-eyed Susan is native to almost all of North America and can thrive in many different habitats. You probably already know what the plants look like; for a botanically accurate description of the foliage and flowerheads, see the Illinois Wildflowers website.

I took most of the pictures enclosed below along the Windsor Heights bike trail, in the area behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road. I am reasonably confident that they are all black-eyed Susans, but some of the taller plants may be Brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Have you taken a walk in the woods with a toothache? Relief may have been nearby. This guest wildflower blog, like my last one, doesn’t describe a colorful, flashy flowering plant. Instead, you will read about Common or Northern Prickly-Ash, sometimes called “Toothache-Tree.” Its scientific name is Zanthoxylum americanum, meaning “American yellow-wood.”

First, the details of identification. Prickly-Ash grows in dry to moist (but not usually wet) woodlands, in places where sun shines: woods edges, clearings, gully and stream banks, and sometimes in open disturbed sites. Often you’ll find more than one because it spreads from underground roots, as well as seeds. During the growing season, two features readily identify it: paired thorns along the twigs, especially at leaf nodes, and long, compound leaves that are feather- or pinnate-compound. Walking through a patch of this woody understory tree, you may notice the thorns raking your clothes. It is not nearly as unpleasant as getting snagged by a Multifora Rose, which may stop you dead in your tracks.

Unlike ashes (its namesake), walnuts, hickories, and other trees and shrubs, it sports attractive, dark-green, shiny leaflets that tend to be oval, but tapering to the base and tip (most obvious on the leaflets near the end of the frond), and the leaflets closest to the stem are shorter and smaller than the leaflets near the tip. There are usually 5 to 11 leaflets on each leaf.

I haven’t featured enough prairie wildflowers this summer. The Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge (Jasper County), Whiterock Conservancy (Carroll County), and Kuehn Conservation Area (Dallas County) are some of my favorite prairie outings within easy striking distance of Des Moines. Within the Des Moines city limits, the plantings around Gray’s Lake are the best place to find prairie natives. I took all of the pictures enclosed below at the Neal Smith refuge.

This week’s featured plant is native to much of the eastern U.S. and Canada. Tall coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris) lives up to its name, growing up to eight or nine feet in height. Like many prairie wildflowers, it’s a member of the aster family with yellow ray flowers. Distinguishing it from other tall plants in the same family is straightforward. Cup plants and compass plants have completely different leaves, don’t branch much near the top, and have yellow center disks rather than brown ones, like tall coreopsis. Ox-eye flowerheads have yellow centers too, and the plants rarely grow taller than four to five feet.

Tall coreopsis is also known as tall tickseed. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden website, “Plants in the genus Coreopsis are sometimes commonly called tickseed in reference to the resemblance of the seeds to ticks.”

This post is a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Many late summer wildflowers are loving the hot and wet weather we’ve had recently. I’ve noticed Jeruslaem artichoke, wingstem, and common sneezeweed thriving along trails in the Des Moines area.

This week’s featured Iowa wildflower is native to most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains and typically grows in wet habitats, including roadside ditches as well as higher-quality wetlands.

I took all of the enclosed photos of Common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) near the Windsor Heights bike trail, behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman Road.

As a bonus, I’ve included at the end of this post some pictures of goldenrods with bizarre leaf clusters. I found them growing in Colby Park, near the other end of the Windsor Heights trail. Naturalist and photographer Leland Searles told me the strange foliage comes from a disease called aster yellows. Caused by a “bacterium-like organism called a phytoplasma,” aster yellows can affect some 300 different species, including common food crops and garden plants. Experts recommend removing infected plants as soon as possible, so keep that in mind if you see signs of aster yellows in your yard.  

I don’t often feature vines for Iowa wildflower Wednesday, because I can rarely identify them. This vine is so abundant near the Windsor Heights bike trail that I was motivated to learn more. At first I thought it was Moonseed (Menispermum canadense), but the flowers didn’t match, and the vines are blooming now, rather than in late spring/early summer like moonseed.

Naturalist and photographer Leland Searles confirmed that this vine is Bur cucumber (Sicyos angulatus), “central Iowa’s only native cucurbit.” Sometimes called Star cucumber or one-seed burr cucumber, this species is native to most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The vine “produces both staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers on the same plant.” I enclose below pictures of both kinds of flowers, blooming on vines large and small.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

A recent day trip to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City drove home that I haven’t visited enough restored prairies this summer. So many native plants are blooming along the walking paths near the visitor’s center there. Cup plants are past their peak, but several kinds of goldenrods are coming on strong, and sawtooth sunflowers and stiff goldenrods are starting to bloom.

Hay fever sufferers, be warned: more and more giant ragweed plants are budding along central Iowa bike trails. Those are responsible for many of the seasonal allergies commonly blamed on goldenrods.

This week’s featured plant is native to much of the U.S. and Canada. It thrives in a wide range of habitats: “open to partially shaded areas in floodplain forests, swamps, thickets, moist black soil prairies, low areas along rivers and ponds, seeps and fens, marshes, and drainage ditches.” It also “grows easily in a home garden with average to moist soil.” I took these photographs of Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in a butterfly garden next to a local school.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Mid-summer wildflowers are giving way to those that bloom in late summer. I am still seeing some American bellflower, jewelweed, and white snakeroot flowering along central Iowa bike trails, but more common evening primrose, wingstem, and goldenrods have been blooming lately.

Today’s featured plant is in the Monarda genus of the mint family. Many mints are of European origin, but Monarda plants are native to North America, including Monarda punctata. Better known as spotted bee balm or spotted horsemint, Monarda punctata is related to horsemint (wild bergamot, or bee balm), which I see much more often along bike trails, as well as to the bright red Oswego tea. Spotted bee balm doesn’t grow as tall as those relatives; plants can range from six inches to three feet in height. The Illinois Wildflowers and Minnesota Wildflowers websites contain botanically accurate descriptions of the leaves and flowers. The plants attract many pollinators and grow easily in gardens. The Minnesota Wildflowers site notes, “Crushed leaves and seedheads both green and dried give off a wonderful pungent odor and which I’ve…loved as a potpourri.”

Several pictures of spotted bee balm are after the jump. I took all of the photographs just off the Windsor Heights bike trail, in the large patch of native plants growing behind the Iowa Department of Natural Resources building on Hickman. Thanks to Bleeding Heartland user zborinka, who was one of the people to identify this plant for me.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Today’s featured native plant is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), and its flowers may look familiar if you grow tomatoes. While the edible nightshades include some popular foods, you wouldn’t want to eat Buffalo bur nightshade (Solanum rostratumum) fruit. In fact, you’re better off admiring this plant from a safe distance: “every part of it is covered in very sharp, spiny prickles.”

I enclose below several pictures of Buffalo bur nightshade, also known as Buffalo-bur or Buffalobur nightshade. It’s native to the U.S.; the Minnesota Wildflowers site says “It was once considered a county-level noxious weed, but Round-up Ready crops took care of that.” Buffalo bur nightshade is not on Iowa’s noxious weeds list, unlike Carolina horse nettle, another Solanum genus plant.

If you missed last week’s Iowa wildflower Wednesday, I highly recommend checking out the incredible photos of sedges by guest diarist Leland Searles.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Mid-summer wildflowers are near their peak now, and you may not have to leave town to find them. American bellflower is prevalent along most of the bike trails in the Des Moines area. During the past week I’ve seen the first common evening primrose and wingstem flowers opening.

Gorgeous stands of cup plant are in full flower too. Look for those along the trail that heads north from Gray’s Lake along Martin Luther King Drive in downtown Des Moines, or off the Windsor Heights trail near the junction with the Clive Greenbelt trail, or along the entrance to the Valley View Aquatic Center parking lot in West Des Moines.

Today’s featured plant may or may not truly belong in central Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service shows Iowa within the native range, which covers most of eastern North America. But I have been told that the original range of Black cohosh, also known as black bugbane, probably did not extend as far west as Des Moines. The common names are a bit confusing, given that this plant has white flowers. According to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden’s website, “The ‘black’ in the name refers to the color of the root (a rhizome) which is a dark brown.” Incidentally, Blue cohosh, the focus of an Iowa wildflower post last month, has yellow flowers.

I enclose below several pictures of black cohosh, a popular plant with herbalists, especially for inducing labor and treating symptoms of menopause or hot flashes in breast cancer survivors. Scroll to the end for a bonus picture of an Asiatic dayflower blooming. As the name suggests, that plant is not native to North America, but it has become widespread, and you’ll often see it in gardens. Many people consider dayflower an undesirable weed, but I enjoy seeing the flowers pop up in our yard.

This week’s featured plant is my favorite summer woodland wildflower. American bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum or sometimes Campanula americanum) is native to much of North America east of the Rocky Mountains. You can find its bluish-purple star-shaped flowers all over central Iowa now, especially along bike trails. If you take a closer look, watch where you step, because poison ivy thrives in similar habitats and soil conditions.

The American bellflowers pictured below are all blooming near woodland edges in Windsor Heights and Urbandale.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

More plants in the aster family are now flowering across Iowa. I have trouble identifying asters, especially the ones with white ray flowers and yellow center disks. The website of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas took the pressure off by commenting, “The many small-flowered asters found in eastern North America are often difficult to distinguish from one another, as are many of the large-flowered species.” These descriptions of similar-looking white asters give you a sense of how complicated it can be to identify plants in this group, even for experts.

I enclose below pictures of three or four different aster species you may find blooming in Iowa this month. I believe at least two of them are native; one is an invasive plant from Europe. You don’t necessarily need to explore natural habitats to find these wildflowers. Some are opportunistic enough to grow on low-quality soil in vacant lots or along roadsides. I have a soft spot for the weedy aster species, because unlike, say, wild parsnip, they aren’t hurting anyone.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

I’m bending the rules again by featuring a European native rather than a plant endemic to Iowa. Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) can be found in most of the United States and Canada, especially “in the eastern and north-central United States, […] the upper Great Lakes states […] and the Pacific Northwest.” This “semi-woody vine” is sometimes known as climbing nightshade, wood nightshade, or European bittersweet. Like dayflower, it has become widespread in Iowa and many other states. Some people call such plants “nativized.”

Bittersweet nightshade is not on Iowa’s noxious weed list, unlike fellow European invader poison hemlock or Carolina horse nettle, a native North American plant. I’ve mostly seen this vine growing on fences at the edges of yards, rather than in unspoiled habitat. I took all of the enclosed pictures right here in Windsor Heights. Canadian photographer Brian Johnston has taken phenomenal close-up shots of Bittersweet nightshade flowers. Click through; you won’t be disappointed.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Happy Independence Day to the Bleeding Heartland community! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend–preferably not by setting off amateur fireworks. Although the Iowa House voted this year to legalize fireworks, the bill never came to a vote in the Iowa Senate. So amateur fireworks are still illegal, which is just as well, since they cause too many emergency room visits and distress for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. We caught the fireworks display after the Iowa Cubs baseball game on Friday night and are going out in a little while to see the Windsor Heights fireworks.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation marked the holiday by posting some stunning pictures of Iowa wildflowers, “nature’s fireworks.”

Alfie Kohn noted today that socialists authored both the Pledge of Allegiance and the words to “America the Beautiful,” which for my money should be our national anthem.

Speaking of which, former Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Iowa Cubs baseball game last night. Who knew she had such a good voice?

Two Democratic presidential candidates spent the day in Iowa. Senator Bernie Sanders and many supporters walked the parade in Waukee, a suburb of Des Moines. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley was in Independence, Dubuque, and Clinton.

As is our family’s custom, I took the kids to the Windsor Heights parade this afternoon. It’s one of the smaller parades in the Des Moines area, which explains the relatively sparse presidential campaign presence. On the Republican side, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was there; he also walked the Urbandale parade route earlier in the day. A few volunteers handed out stickers for Ben Carson, and I didn’t see any other GOP campaigns represented. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s campaign had a small presence; apparently more supporters walked for her in Waukee.

U.S. Representative David Young (IA-03) was working the crowd along the parade route. One of his potential Democratic challengers, Desmund Adams, mingled with Windsor Heights residents before walking the Waukee parade.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome. After the jump I’ve enclosed a few photos from the Windsor Heights parade, including one wildflower shot, inspired by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. I also posted the roll call from the Iowa House vote in May to approve the fireworks legalization bill. That legislation split both the Democratic and Republican caucuses.

Since last week’s featured wildflower was so unobtrusive, I’m going to the other extreme today with one of the showiest wildflowers around. The bright red flowers, not often seen in natural Iowa habitats, are also appropriate for July 4 week. Ruby-throated hummingbirds and Swallowtail butterflies feed on the nectar.

Technically, Oswego tea (Mondarda didyma), also known as scarlet bee balm or red bergamot, is not an Iowa wildflower. Although the Natural Resources Conservation Service website shows Iowa within the native range for this plant, the Illinois Wildflowers website describes the plant as “native to the Northeastern states, but its original range did not extend as far to the west as Illinois.” Likewise, Sylvan Runkel and Alvin Bull write in Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands that oswego tea is indigenous to the eastern U.S. and “has escaped from garden plantings in our area. Its beautiful crimson flower may brighten woodlands in late summer.”

Oswego tea is closely related to Horsemint (bee balm, wild bergamot), a native plant common throughout Iowa along roadsides, pastures or woodland edges. Both plants have flowerheads that are a cluster of tube-shaped flowers without scent. However, the leaves of horsemint and oswego tea have a “minty aroma.”

Lately I’ve noticed the first American bellflowers blooming along central Iowa bike trails. That’s one of my favorite summer wildflowers. I don’t have any recent photos of bellflowers, but at the end of this post I included two shots of summer fruit growing in the wild.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.  

Today’s featured native plant is a perennial that “can be used as a ground cover in shaded areas,” but I doubt anyone in the Bleeding Heartland community will seek it out for a garden or flower bed. Common black snakeroot (Sanicula odorata), known in some sources by the common name Clustered black snakeroot and/or the Latin name Sanicula gregaria, has flowers so unobtrusive they can be difficult to see. Clusters of them develop into burs, which stick to clothing, shoes, and pets. White avens plants use the same effective, if annoying, seed dispersal method, but the black snakeroot flowers are not as eye-catching as white avens.

I enclose below several pictures of common black snakeroot, which is prevalent in and near wooded areas throughout much of North America east of the Rocky Mountains.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.  

Naturalist and photographer Eileen Miller has contributed stunning pictures as well as a description of Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) for today’s installment of Iowa wildflower Wednesday. She found these plants, which are native to most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, at Dolliver Memorial State Park. I highly recommend visiting that park if you are in striking distance of Webster County. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources website notes,

A unique facet of the sandstone formations at Dolliver are the “Copperas beds.” The towering 100-foot bluff on Prairie Creek is a cross-sectional view of the ancient river bed that is over 150 million years old. Over the ages, the erosive power of Prairie Creek uncovered this unique feature. The porous nature of the sandstone has caused many minerals such as calcite and sulfur to dissolve as the water seeps through. As the water evaporates, the mineral deposits are left behind. You can see many of these deposits in the sandstone cliffs, as well as petrified logs and sticks.

This post is also a mid-week open thread: all topics welcome.

Technical issues prevented me from publishing my wildflower diary on Wednesday, as planned. So today’s feature on a woodland native will double as the weekend open thread: all topics welcome.

I enclose below photos of Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) at various stages of development.

Elderflowers are starting to bloom along central Iowa trails. If you notice these clusters of small white flowers (some pictures are near the end of this post), consider circling back to harvest the berries later this summer–if you can get to them before the birds do. Scroll to the bottom of this diary to see a ripe cluster of elderberries.

Who says wildflowers are harmless, pretty things? This week’s first featured plant can kill you. The second can give you a horrible blistering rash.

Normally I focus on native plants for my wildflower diaries, but I’m making an exception this week because European invaders poison hemlock (yes, that poison hemlock) and wild parsnip have both become widespread in Iowa. Learning to spot them will help you steer clear. If you have children who like to explore nature, I strongly encourage you to teach them to avoid wild parsnip. A friend’s son ran off the bike path to play and ended up with second-degree burns.

Speaking of wildflowers you should observe from a safe distance, larger poison ivy plants tend to bloom in June. The flowers are not conspicuous, but they are attractive.