Plant of the Week: Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)

This early spring blooming woodland flower is not that showy for the garden, although I do like the texture and leaf/stem color and the blue berries in the fall.  It is mostly grown for it's medicinal purposes (more on that in a minute).  This is a 1 -3' tall plant that is unbranched and has a smooth stem that varies from light green to light purple. Non-flowering plants have a single compound leaf at the top of the stem.  Flowering plants have two compound leaves and each leave is subdivided into 9 subleaflets.  The flower clusters range from 5 - 30 individual 1/3" wide brownish to reddish-brown flowers with 6 petals.  A member of the Barberry family, this is a long-lived species which has both rhizomes and fibrous roots so it can form small colonies because it is somewhat difficult to grow from seed.  It likes dappled shade with very rich organic soils. The flowers are pollinated by various small flies, parasitoid wasps, and small bees.  The berries are toxic to humans and the foliage is also toxic to many mammals, including white-tailed deer, hence it is a plant that can be used where deer densities are high. The name cohosh comes from the Algonquin word meaning rough, which refers to the root. While this is not that showy of a plant in flower (it is showier with the bright blue berries - hence the seed is most likely dispersed by birds), what is fascinating about this plant is it use as a medicinal plant.  It has been used for starting labor and menstruation, constipation, stomach cramps, sore throat, hiccups and seizures. Unfortunately most of these claims are unverified by research. The established medical community generally considers blue cohosh to be unsafe to take for both children and adults. There is scientific evidence that it makes the uterus contract and should not be taken if pregnant or to aid in delivery and there have been cases reported that blue cohosh taken at the time of delivery may cause; 1) perinatal stroke, 2) acute myocardial infarction, profound congestive heart failure and shock and 3) severe multi-organ hypoxic injury. It makes chest pain (angina) and high blood pressure worse; it raises blood sugar in diabetics; makes diarrhea worse, and has a tendency to act like estrogen affecting breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids. The list of drug interactions is long and makes nictoine more addictive and harmful.  As with any herbal medicine, if you decide to use this, and it is widely available, you should consult your doctor prior to beginning a treatment regime.

Plant of the Week: Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis)

The foliage of this early spring wildflower is easily mistaken with the foliage of its close cousin, Dutchman's Breeches (D. cucullaria). The easiest way to tell the plants apart is via the flowers, but the leaves of squirrel corn are typically shorter and there is one compound leaf per flowering stem compared to Dutchman's breeches which has longer leaves and there are typically two leaves per flowering stem.  In addition, squirrel corn leaves have a tendency to have a more "open" appearance.  Like many members of the fumitory family, these plants are highly toxic and make for good garden plants because mammals, even deer, do not like to graze on them.  The leaves appear early in the growing season and completely disappear by mid-May but they can form dense colonies when established in the garden.  The plants are typically about 6" tall and squirrel corn gets its common name from the underground food storage structures that look like corn kernels.  The flowers are quite distinctive and look like small hearts and the plant is named Dicentra which refers to the two spurs on the flowers and canadensis means from Canada.  This plant is easy to grow in the garden and it is one of those species that must be interplanted with ferns or later blooming species because it is so ephemeral in nature.  Squirrel corn had great significance as a Love Charm to the Mennominee Indians and a young man would throw the flowers to his intended love or chew the roots which gave a perfumed smell in the face of the woman causing her to follow him from that time forward. The Onondaga called this plant the "Ghost corn" believing it was "food for the spirits." Like trilliums, the seed of this group is dispersed by ants because the seeds contain a fatty substance called elaisome, which is highly relished by ants.  At the nest the elaisomes are eaten and the seeds are left to germinate.  The plants are primarily pollinated by bumblebees.  Hisotrically the plant was used as a tonic and for use in treating syphlis.

Plant of the Week: Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Some folks consider these delicate spring wildflowers to be weeds because they flourish in older, established neighborhoods and carpet the ground in spring.  I love them because it looks like a spring beauty winter when the yards are all white.  I love them for their use in a woodland wildflower garden because they can act as a "filler" between some of the larger, and more showy species.  These gems, unique in the Purslane family, grow about 3" tall and have long, linear like leaves and a drooping cluster of flowers at the top that bears 1/2" wide flowers with 5 petals, tinged with varying amounts of red stripping, The 5 anthers are also quite showy and vary from light pink to hot pink.  This species reseeds very easily and can form large colonies but they stay in flower for about a month which makes them a desirable woodland garden plant. They are pollinated by bees and the roots and corms have a sweet potato taste and are quite tasty.   The plant is named for John Clayton, a famous Virginia botanist.

Plant of the Week: Harbinger of Spring (Eringenia bulbosa)

I absolutely love this tiny, dainty early spring wildflower.  It is sometimes called "pepper and salt" plant because of the white petals and anthers that turn black.  This is an easy plant to identify but is often overlooked because of its small size, usually around 3" tall at best.   It may even beginning flowering in the next several weeks and brings a spot of color to an otherwise brown, winter looking forest floor.  It has stout reddish stems that sometimes stand up tall but usually are creeping along the ground.  It has compound leaves and three leaflets for each leaf and each leaf generally has three lobes.Each flower is about 1/4" across and has 5 narrow white petals, 5 stamens, a divided white style, and no sepals and the anthers turn from dark red to black.  It has a corm with fibrous roots and usually self seeds itself and thus typically does not form large colonies. It is pollinated by small bees and flies like carpenter, Mason, halictid, and Andrenid bees and Calliphorid, Anthomyiid, Fruit,  Lance, and flower flies. As with most woodland species, this one likes rich, well-drained soils with very high organic matter and light dappled shade.  Good companion plants will be any of the woodland species that grow later and will cover up the diminutive plants later in the spring season.The genus name comes from the Greek word erigeniea which means early born, a reference to the early flowering season and the species bulbosa refers to the bulb-like rootstock.

Plant of the Week: Carolina Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera)

Perhaps one of the most loved small flowering trees planted throughout Kentucky is the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).  It is a quintessential sign of spring as those beautiful white trees stick out against the background of a forest returning to green of summer.  While the flowering dogwood is an excellent landscape plant, perhaps as an alternative you might want something a little different.to provide that outstanding white color, the Carolina Silverbell.  There is nothing more delicate and showy than a Carolina silverbell in full flower. This tree has lots of interest because in the spring it has clusters of 1/2 to 1" long bells that hang below the branches, in the summer it has interested "Chinese latern" like seed pods, and in the fall it usually turns a nice yellow color. In the wild it usually occurs as a multistemmed understory species that doesn't exceed 35' tall but it can be found as a single stemmed tree growing to heights of 80 to 100'.  It flowers best with full sun to partial shade but it can tolerate quite a bit of shade and is an excellent specimen plant or focal point in the woodland garden.  It likes somewhat acidicm well-drained soils high in organic matter and doesn't care much for clay.It has dull, finely toothed, dark yellowish-green, oblong leaves ranging from 2-5" long.  Great companion plants and a special area of a woodland garden would be to have a silverbell surrounded by our native azaleas which would be very showy. It gets its name tetraptera which means 4- winged from the 4 winged fruits it produces.  There are a fair number of cultivars available in the trade and some have more pinkish flowers. This is a fairly slow growing species.

Plant of the Week: Rue Anenome (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Don't let this delicate and dainty plant fool you because it is one tough native woodland wildflower that will survive almost anything in the shade garden.  It is one of the earliest to flower and in general the earlier flowers are larger and as the season progresses they seem to get smaller and more white.  Flower color varies from pink to white and range in size from 1/2 - 1" wide.  Even the foliage is showy for this species with nice reddish to pinkish colored stems and the three lobed leaves often have a rusty tinge to them.  It only grows to about 4" tall and will spread around the garden, but it takes plenty of time for this to happen.  Like most members of the buttercup family, the showy "petals" you are looking at are not petals, but rather sepals as the petals fall off the flowers in this plant family.  This plant superficially resembles the false rue anenome but that species only has 5 sepals and the leaves occur more in whorls. The scientific name arises from Greek and means, "an unknown plant that is like a Meadow Rue."  This is one of our most common woodland wildflowers and can begin flowering in March and will continue into May.  It is also quite easy to grow and while it doesn't tolerate clay, if you have organic matter and it is well drained and even somewhat dry, this species will do just fine.  Like many woodland plants, the seeds are dispersed by ants and they place them in their nest and it provides an incredible medium, rich in nutrients, for this species to germinate.  Because this is a small and dainty native plant, it will do well in the front of the native woodlands shade garden and good companion plants would be various violets (but not Canada because it is aggressive and invasive), foamflower, Jacob's ladder, or even trout lilies.  This plant is toxic although Native Americans did use it to treat vomitting and other stomach disorders.

Plant of the Week: Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa)

Many folks are surprised that we have a native cactus in Kentucky and that it is actually quite common pretty much across the state.  I have seen it growing on limestone and sandstone glades, rocky cliffs and outcroppings, open woodland with shallow soil and rocks, and even in the middle of railroad tracks!  Like most cacti, this species has incredibly large, beautiful and showy flowers.  Each flower is about 3 - 4" across and is only open a single day.  However, in a large colony the individual flowering period may last up to a month depending on how many buds are present.  This plant has very shallow, fiborous root system and you can easily establish it by simply breaking off a pad and placing it on the ground such that a part of the pad has constant contact with the soil  It is a relatively fast growing species and the individual 10" long, 7" wide and 1 " thick pads grow quickly and appear bright green at fist but fade to bluish green over time.  You need to be careful when handling these cacti because the large spines are easy to see but the glochids, tiny hairlike bristles that occur in little tufts are barbed and treacherous  This is one of those plants that anyone can grow as long as it is dry and gets full sun.  While it can tolerate a good bit of moisture, it likes it dry, with little soil.  Like most of the prickly pears, the pads, called nopales, and fruit, called tunas, are edible.  The pads are either eaten fresh or cooked and taste like green beans.  Of interesting note regarding the fruits, they are eaten worldwide and in terms of commercial production they have about twice the production of strawberries, avocados, and apricots!  The tunas, when picked ripe in the fall when bright red, are used in making juice, jellies and jams and even butter.  Prickly pear is high in magnesium and Vitamin C.   It is an amazing low calorie food and each fruit generally has a half gram of fat, 4 grams of fiber, and 42 calories.  To make jellies or candies, simply cut the fruit in half (handle with tongs to avoid the spines and glochids) in a large kettle and cover with water.  Bring to a boil for about 15 minutes, mash with a potato masher and strain the juice in a cloth bag.  Add a little lemon juice and seal in sterilized jars with paraffin wax and use the juice in your favorite jelly recipe.