Plant of the Week: Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)

The wild strawberry is one of those native plants that provide fruit that is edible by humans and a variety of other creatures.  The fruits, smaller than horticultural varieties but much sweeter and better tasting, is now ripening in the fields across the Commonwealth.  This is a low growing loose colony forming perennial that has trifoliate leaves with each leaflet about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide.  The five-petaled 3/4" wide flowers bloom in early spring with fruit usually arriving about this time of year.  This plant likes full sun to partial sun and loamy soils if possible.  It produces long, hairy runners about 2" long which will produce more plantlets.  The most important pollinators for this species are small bees although some flies and skippers will also visit the flowers.  A wide variety of birds and mammals will readily eat the fruit.  There is a very nice Native American folk legend about strawberries that does something like this.  Soon after the Great Spirit created the first man and woman they got into an argument.  Because of this, the woman ran away and left the man, who became lonely and sad and began to weep and moan.  The Great Spirit heard the cries from the man and asked him if he wanted the woman to return.  The man said yes and if she returned he would never fight with her again. So the Great Spirit told the man to go find the woman.  Well the woman had a tremendous head start and so to slow her down so the man could catch up to her, he placed a large patch of blueberries in her way hoping she would stop to eat.  However, she was so mad she ignored them. The Great Spirit then tried raspberries, currants, and blackberries, all to no avail.  The woman was so angry she ignored the thorns and her clothing that had been ripped to shreds.  Finally the Great Spirit decided to create a new fruit growing near the ground.  The woman had never seen this fruit and was intrigued and she ate some berries.  It was so good, she actually stopped to pick some to eat them and the man caught up to her.  He apologized and they made up and the strawberry was shaped like a heart because it symbolized the love between the man and the woman and the Native Americans called the fruit, heart berry. This species and one from Chile are the ancestors of our domesticated strawberries that we purchase at the market.

Plant of the week: Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

I remember years and years ago when I took my first range management course and we discussed plant increasers and decreasers (those that increase with grazing and those that decrease) and leadplant was high on the list of decreasers because it is not tolerant of heavy grazing, fire exclusion, or frequent mowing.  It's absence from tall grass prairie systems indicates the prairie is in poor ecological condition.  This is because it is a highly palatable and highly preferred browse species relished by most grazing animals, including deer.  It is an amazing legume because one single plant can produce more than 3,000 seeds, it is an important source of nectar for butterflies and more importantly, honeybees, which also eat the pollen.  At least 47 different insects feed on this plant.  Another amazing fact is that the taproot can extend 2 to 20' deep into the soil which makes this species quite drought tolerant. It is also very good at fixing nitrogen in the soil.  This also makes a fine garden plant and can be used in rocky, gravelly, or loamy soils that are dry and well-drained.  It grows to about 1 to 3' although if burned or grazed it can maintain itself as a relatively short (1') plant.  It typically flowers in July through September and it can re-sprout from rhizomes or root crown if the top dies back. The bi-pinnately compound leaves may have up to 50 leaflets and can be up to 12" long and have a whitish soft or grayish green appearance.  The stems are hairy.  Each flowering spike can be up to 4" or more in length and it is striking to see the bright yellow anthers against the purple flowers.  If you are a honey producer, this is an outstanding plant to use for bees.  It can stay in flower for up to a month, giving you plenty of time to enjoy the varying textures and colors of this small shrub.

Plant of the Week: Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

Wild geranium is one of the easiest, and showiest of the late spring woodland wildflowers.  I love this plant because it forms nice clumps and when combined with eared coreopsis in part sun, the lavendar and yellow color combination is quite stunning.  This shows and individual flower, but when mature it will have clusters of the five petaled lavendar flowers standing tall about about 18" and spreading out about the same.  It is quite drought tolerant, deer and rabbits don't really like it and it will tolerate tougher growing requirements than most native woodland wildflowers.  Like blue phlox and foam flower, this is a staple in the native woodland wildflower garden.  The leaves are also quite interesting and are deeply cut five lobed palmate that can reach 4 to 5" wide.  Some people call this plant crane's bill because the seed pod does in fact resemble a beak of sorts. In fact, geranium in Greek means crane.  These plants are pollinated by a variety of bees, including bumblebees, and butterflies and skippers.  Native Americans used the plant as an astringent to contract tissues and stop bleeding and also to treat toothache and hemorrhoids. There are a few cultivars out there including album with white flowers, Elizabeth Ann with bronze colored leaves, and Beth Chatto with fingered leaves.  Good companion plants include eared coreopsis, dwarf crested iris, Indian pink, spiderwort, and of course native ferns.  Give this wonderful plant a try in the garden because it is so easy to grow.

Plant of the Week: Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

This is one of the most unusual of all the native woodland wildflowers. When you say you are looking at the flower, you are not really looking at the flower but rather the inflorescence or cluster of flowers because the individual flowers are tiny and hidden in the "jack" which is located inside the rolled leaf-like structure, the "pulpit." This is a unique species in that individual plants are either male or female.  Most plants have both flowers on the same plant.  In this species to see the individual flowers, which are located at the base of the spadix (the pulpit) inside the jack or jill as it may be which is called the spathe.  If it is a jack you will see tiny yellow to brown thread like anthers and if it is a female you will see tiny green berries. All members of this mostly tropical plant family has a similar structure and while rare in nature, people are familiar with this family because of the calla lilies, peace lilies, philodendron, and caladiums.  Most people are unaware that this plant can change sex multiple times over it's 20 year lifespan.  Plants that have grown for a sufficient number of years that get large enough and have enough resources are often females.  However, when times get tough, they can revert to becoming a male or non-flowering plant.  So what determines the sex of this plant?  We have all heard the rumors about size and does size matter?  In this species the answer is definitely yes, size matters! Bigger plants are usually female plants. The sex of the current year’s plant is determined by the size of the previous year’s root storage structure, called a corm. Larger corms yield females, while smaller corms yield males or nonflowering plants. In addition, in those plants that have produced larger clusters of the red berries, the next year they are most likely going to be male plants. Another factor affecting sex is that skunks, slugs, and deer will devour these plants, even though they contain oxalate crystals that makes them distasteful.  Since this species has both male and female flowers, how do they get pollinated because the flowers are not accessible to bees?  Basically, the jack produces a fungus type odor that attracts its primary pollinator, the fungus gnat.  Unfortunately, once the female fungus gnats get down to the base of the flowers, the tube is too slippery and they can not get out, hence dying at the bottom of the tube along with their valuable pollen.  If the flowers were pollinated the red berries will begin to grow and by the end of the summer the female plants can have large, showy clusters of red berries. Immature plants usually one have one leaf with three leaflets and mature plants typically have two leaves with three leaflets each. These are easy to grow in the woodland garden as they tolerate a wide range of soil pH and it appears about the only thing that will kill the corms is excessive water in the winter and spring.

Plant of the Week: Intermediate Wood Fern (Dryopteris intermedia)

This is one of the largest and most showy of all the ferns in Kentucky.  It loves rich woods and has a tendency, particularly these days, to be somewhat evergreen, although the fronds do lay on the ground during the winter.  It is now just growing in the woods and makes a wonderful foundation planting in the woodland garden.  It has several cousins including Goldie's wood fern (D. goldiana), marginal wood fern (D. marginalis), log fern (D. celsa), southern wood fern (D.ludoviciana), and autumn fern (D. erythrosora) among numerous others. For the most part, they all look alike superficially except the autumn fern which can turn a beautiful cinnamon color.  Furthermore, this group of ferns is known to hybridize which can make exact field identification difficult. However, that is not a concern for the gardener. The intermediate wood fern grows from about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet tall. It is very delicate, graceful, and lacy and has lobed leaflets on twice compound fronds. The spores on the underside of the leaflets are usually produced in mid to late summer and there is a translucent tissue that covers the spores, which are circular. This species likes slightly acidic to neutral soils that are well drained and high in organic content, which is typical for most mesic woodland wildflowers like trilliums, lady slippers, etc.

Plant of the week: Foam Flower (Tiarella cordifolia)

Foam Flower is one of the main stay plants with any woodland or shade garden.  It is very adaptable to a wide variety of conditions and numerous other woodland wildflowers work well in creating a dynamic and colorful garden.  Some excellent companion plants are wild blue phlox, dwarf crested iris, Jacob's ladder, bellwort, trilliums, jack in the pulpit, violets, yellow lady slipper orchids and even may apples as seen in the photograph above.  This is such a delightful and charming plant that has captivated plant breeders and there are now dozens of varieties in the market place.  Some cultivars have dark brownish, blackish, or reddish veins, some have foliage that turns bronze in the fall and winter, some have pinkish flowers, others have bluish flowers.  I have observed a tremendous amount of variation in the wild with leaf and flower color.  This plant gets its common name from the fact that the tiny white, spider-like flowers on a short stem look like foam.  The scientific name arises from the Latin name tiara which is a Persian crown and ella which means a turban shaped dry fruit. This species is member of the Saxifrage family which includes the commonly planted Alumroot.  The wild version of this species is a natural clump forming species that sends out above ground runners and if given enough time can become an excellent shade ground cover.  The leaves look similar to maple leaves but are highly variable in shape where some look more like Japanese maples (highly dissected) to a more thickened type leaf representative of a red maple.  The plant gets no taller than 8 to 12" and the leaves are evergreen to semi-evergreen. This is a good deer and rabbit resistant plant and it has no serious insect or disease problems. The tiny 5 petal, 10 stamen flowers are pollinated by small bees, syrphus flies, and butterflies.  It is relatively easy to grow but does best in rich organic soils that drain well because they are killed easily in the winter if the soil stays waterlogged.  They like dappled sunlight as well.  This is one of those species that every woodland garden should have and should be a foundation species for small woodland spring wildflowers.

Plant of the Week: Robins Fleabane (Erigeron pulchellus)

When most folks think of fleabanes, they concentrate on the tall, weedier species that can be found in road ditches and other weedy, idle areas in the spring and early summer.  This species, however, makes a great woodland garden species because it grows no taller than a couple of feet and the flowering heads are quite large, sometimes up to 1.5 inches across. It has basal leaves that persist throughout the growing season and these soft, fuzzy like leaves add considerable interest to the summer woodland garden. During the flowering period, the leaves and stem are soft and hairy. This is an easy species to grow as it likes average to dry garden soil,  The flowers attract numerous different types of small insects from bees, to flies and butterflies. Mammals like the leaves and small rodents like the seeds.  I love the flowers when they first emerge and have a pinkish to lavender tone to the ray flowers.  Planted in a nice clump, this species would make quite a showing in the front of a native plant wildlife garden.