Native Plant Garden: June 11, 2015

From my archives:  Native Plant Garden, New York Botanical Garden

Marcia Strean

June 11, 2015

Blooming new this week: Spigelia marilandica Pink Root/Wormgrass. Native Americans used it to expel tapeworms and they taught their technique to colonists. The difference between poison and medicine is often a matter of how much used, and how carefully. Spigelia is a case in point.

Does well in gardens and the flowering season can be prolonged by removing the flowers as they wither.

Spigelia marilandica

Inkberry Ilex glabra in bloom today; easy to miss the 1/4 inch flowers. Berries will follow, used by Native Americans for ink. 

Plymouth Rose Gentian Sabatia kennedyana The folklore says that the Pilgrims of 1620 named the plant after the Sabbath, the holy day on which they first saw the flower.

Sabatia kennedyana

Phlox, numerous species of Beardtongue, Wild Bleeding Heart, Red and White Clover (non- native to be removed), Baptisia, Wild Quinine, Bluestar, Columbine, Fleabane, Mountain Laurel, Meadow Rue, Solomon’s Seal, Wild Ginger flowers still there, one Lady’s Slipper, Bowman’s Root, Iris, Common Rush, Pitcher Plants, Ladies’ Tresses, Pickerel Weed in the water, Iris, Common Rush, Golden Alexanders under the River Birch (but elsewhere the remains were being cut back), Milkweed, Butterfly Weed Asclepius tuberosa, Spiderwort, Lanceleaved Coreopsis, Black-eyed Susan, Yellow Coneflower, Poppy, Mallow, Deptford Pink, Coneflower, Cactus, Beebalm, Fire Pink Silene virginica, Dog Hobble, Queen Columbine, Celandine Poppy, Alumroot Heuchera, Sorrel, Magnolia, Dogwood, Narrow-leaved Blue-eyed Grass.

See the apples on Mayapple. Stop to hear the frog croaking.

The red-berried shrub along the approach is Amelanchier Shadbush/Serviceberry.

People ask about Joe Pye Weed which is not blooming yet. By 1893 he legend had become that Joe Pye was the name of an Indian who cured typhus fever in New England by means of this plant (Dana). 

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