Flowers Found in the Allegheny Foothills

Skunk Cabbage

This plant possesses the high honor of being one of our earliest spring flowers. It grows in swampy or boggy ground and can be found sometimes in late February and early March. Many know it as 'swamp cabbage' and 'Polecat weed'. One can find its artistically curled and colored spathe coming up through last year's dead leaves.

Unfortunately it has an odor so unpleasant that it has won for itself this most unromantic name. This plant is a relative of the stately calla lily. The sheathe-like spathe covers a lovely dark red flower before the large leaves, measuring twelve inches or more, develop. Its fruit is also scarlet red berrylike units.

This plant can be found from Nova Scotia to Florida and westward to Iowa. Cattle feeding in an area where this plant grows let this plant alone because of its stinging acid juices secreted by its leaves. It is surprising to know a small bird, called the yellow throat, takes advantage of the plant's odor and builds its nest in the hollow of the large leaves.

Often scavenger beetles and bees can be found within the spathes of this plant.

The various Indian tribes used this plant for various illnesses. One used it by tying a bundle of leaves around the head to cure a headache. Several others used its dried and powdered roots for asthma and catarrh as well as a poultice on sores and swellings and to draw out splinters and thorns or other wounds. One tribe also used the fine root hairs to treat toothache. They also knew the secret of making this plant a palatable and nutritious food. Apparently the white settlers never adopted this as one of their household dishes.

Wild Ginger

This plant with its large beds of dark velvety leaves gives off a gingerlike odor and the leaves when crushed taste like the spice.

It, too, grows during April and May in rich moist woods and hillsides from Canada to the Carolinas.

The flowers are generally hidden close to the ground. Often it is necessary to dig the previous year's accumulation of drifted leaves and soil away from the plant in order to find the small deep cup shaped petals with a creamy white center.

The two leaves are usually heart-shaped with long stems. Cattle and even rodents will not touch the leaves because of the bitter taste, however, many of the earliest Colonists used this plant as a tonic medicine.

Wild ginger was also called 'Canada Snakeroot, Colic Root, Colt's foot and Indian Ginger' .

The Indians used this plant by powdering the root for the treatment of various diseases. They also applied it to wounds to prevent bleeding. Some used it for sore throat, earache and sore ears as well as lung trouble and stomach cramps.

Dutchman's sreeches

This is one of the favorite spring flowers of many botanists. The plant got its name from the odd shaped flowers. The small white flowers resemble the old style of the Colonial Dutchman's breeches.

This plant is also known as 'Soldiers Cap, Ear Drops and White Heads'. It is found in rich rocky woods from April and May in Nova Scotia to the Carolinas.

Bumblebees love these flowers. In order to get to the nectar they must chew small openings in the flowers. There are no other species of this spring plant.

Mayapple

Perhaps the most familiar spring plant is this umbrella-like stalk and leaves. It is found in moist woods and along roadways. It bears a single-medium large white flower. In the summer it bears a lemon-yellow colored fruit that has a flavor similar to strawberries. A famous botantist once wrote 'this harmless fruit was eaten by pigs and boys'. Children should be warned that although the yellow fruit, when ripe, is not poisonous, the rest of the plant is very poisonous. This plant is known as 'Mandrake, Hog Apple and Wild Lemon'.

Jewelweed

Anyone walking through the moist ground along streams or ponds in June will find thousands of light-green plants growing from two to five feet tall. Its orange or dark yellow flowers droop from slender branches. When the seeds ripen into pods in the late summer and fall, one who is unfamiliar with these pods will have a surprise when they are handled. They suddenly explode. By this means the seeds are scattered.

This plant has various names-'Touch-me-not, Snapweed, Silver cap, Wild Balsam, Lady's eardrops and Wild Lady's Slipper'.

Many believe the liquid in this plant contains certain properties that will cure poison ivy as well as neutralizing the formic acid of the stings of bees and other insects. A recent publication descibed where one individual boiled down a quantity of jewelweed juice and froze it into cubes. When workmen were exposed to areas infested with poison ivy they merely rubbed themselves with the solution of the melted ice cubes. Those who used this solution seemed to be immune from the ivy rash. Those who failed or refused to use it became infected.

An interesting little experiment can be carried out that will mystify the young and old. Take a small part of this plant and insert it in a glass jar containing water. The plant appears to turn silver color. Try it.

The plant begins to wilt immediately when it is torn out of the soil or a part is broken off the main stem. If permitted to dry completely, very little remains.

It is believed this plant could not exist without the aid of the humming bird. They help the flowers to become polinized.

Spring Beauty

This is one of our earliest and most charming spring plants. In driving through the country sides, one can see thousands of these blooms in the fields and open woods. The small flower is pink to white with a deeper pink vein.

These little succulent plants, of which there are twelve species in the United States, have starchy bulbs which the Indians ate as a part of their spring foods.

The dainty clusters of this delicate starry blossoms expand in the sunshine only. At night and during cloudy or stormy weather they close their petals to protect their nectar and pollen from rain and pilferers. When the flowers are picked the whole plant will droop and the flowers will close. The only way they can be coaxed to open is to place the stems in warm water and set them in the sunshine.

Daisies

Very few realize this common wildflower belongs to the Thistle family. Myriads and myriads of these white petal and golden disk florets cover our fields and roadsides from May to November. It is found throughout the United States and Canada.

It, too, has a number of names-'White weed, White or Ox-eye Daisy, Love me, Loveme-not'.

I am certain there are many who still remember when they were young and they used to pick the daisies and not only stick them in their hair but in their mother's tresses.

Many songs and poems have been written about this lowly flower over the years.

The daisy is not a native to this continent. It is an immigrant from Europe and Asia. It is easily understood why this plant spread so quickly when on close examination by means of a high power lens one can see that the yellow center is composed of hundreds of minute tubular florets huddled together in a green cup. Inside each of these tiny tubes stands the stamens literally putting their tiny heads together. The immense quantities of these fertilized heads becomes seeds which are spread after the plant dies.

Bluets

This small plant is one of the daintiest of our wildflowers. It grows in dry fields and meadows. Many fields seem to have millions of them so that they seem to be covered with powdered light blue grass.

It is also known as 'Innocence, Quaker Ladies, Quaker Bonnets and Venus' Pride'. This little plant grows from April to July in eastern Canada to the southern states of Georgia and Alabama.

One botanist said that among all the flowering plants of the Alleghenies one would have difficulty in selecting a more delicately tinted flower.

It is possible to gather a number of these small roots in the fall and place them in a flowerpot in a sunny window. They will soon send up a colony of these small star-like flowers throughout the winter.

Bloodroot

This little known plant is one of our loveliest spring flowers. Its white flowers can be found in April and May in rich woodlands and low hillsides. One odd fact about this flower is that it blooms only for a few hours Strong winds soon blow the delicate petals from their stems.

The Indians called this plant 'Puccoon' It has been said they used the red juice of this plant to paint themselves. Also, many of our grandmothers used to place drops of this red liquid on lumps of sugar and administer this to their children when they had coughs and colds. The red fluid will stain anything that touches or crushes its rounded and deeply palmately leaves.

This plant can easily be transferred to our flower gardens , however, it can best be enjoyed by leaving it in the wild state.

Most of the eastern Indians used this plant also for various ailments. The Onandagas used it as an emetic as did the Mohegans. The Ojibwas and Potawatomis squeezed the root juices on a lump of maple sugar and held it in his mouth to treat sore throat.

Captain John Smith noted in his diary a description of how the Indians would dry this root and apply poultices to swellings and aches. Also the women would be painted with this plant. In another instance, a chaplain of a party in 1729 was told that women were thus painted to improve their hidden charms.

Violets

This little plant is another of our very popular spring visitors. It can be found almost anywhere. Not all violets are blue. There are white, yellow and two toned varieties. Approximately one-hundred species can be found in this country and at least seventeen in this county. Several states have adopted the violet as its state flower.

The common blue violet is usually called 'johnny-jump-up'. Country children used to play games by engaging the violet stems and flowers. The trick was to see who could jerk the others Hower-head from the stem.

Southern families use this plant for thickening soup. They call it 'wild okra'. The early German settlers also used the violet blossoms in salads.

It may be surprising to know that during the Middle ages violet preparation were used to treat a number of different ailments. Violet syrup was used in England. The Colonists made violet jam and jelly. Even ointments were made from violets for treatment of boils, old wounds and swellings.

Columbine

This wildflower, in its scarlet and gold color, grows anew each year from the underground root stock. There are at least twenty-five species of this plant. In its wild state stocks secure a foothold against the most precipitous rocky cliffs. It is one of our most widely known spring flowers. It can be found in almost every state, even in Canada.

This is one wild plant that is not harmed by the blossom picker. It seems that the plant grows stronger and more vigorous if not allowed to develop too much seed. Children in the spring love to bite off the knobs of the long spurs and suck the nectar. In some areas this plant is called the 'Wild Honeysuckle'.

This exquisite plant was carried back from the Virginia Colony to England and planted in the gardens of Hampton Courts.

The ruby-throated humming bird loves this plant. It poises before each flower and inserts its long tongue to drain each hollow spur of the five knobs. It is also a favorite flower for the bumble bee and some varieties of the butterfly. Smaller bees are not equipped to get into the long hollow tubes.

There are many colored varieties of the domesticated plants. Very few gardens exist without this beautiful plant.

Chickory

This is not a native plant. It is a native of Europe and Asia. Its seeds were brought to America by the early Colonists for the purpose of growing it for its beverage properties. Now it has become a weed in pasture fields, along road sides and waste lands.

This plant is really a summer and fall resident. It grows to a height of four to five feet and is covered with bright azure to gray blue. They open early in the mornings and sometimes on dark cloudy days. However, by noon the blooms close. In early spring the young plants resemble those of dandelion. The young leaves can be used like dandelion and spinach. The colonists also used the tenur roots. They prepared them like carrots and parsnips. The roots were also dried and ground by the Colonists then roasted millions of pound of these dried roots are imported from Europe and used as a substitute or adulterant of coffee. Chickory is known by various names- Succory, Bunk, and Blue Sailors.

Trillium

The name 'Trillium' was taken from the Latin word 'tres', meaning three. This is in reference to the fact that all parts of the plant are arranged in threes.

Perhaps the most familiar is the large flowered trillium found in rich woodlands. It grows sometimes to a height of twenty inches.

Another member of this family is the Wake Robin, often called the 'III-scented trillium. The unpleasant odor of its flower resembles that of carrion or sometimes a wet dog.

Trilliums can be found from March to May in rich moist woods and thickets.

The snowy trillium can be found in cold damp mountain ravines. It is the earliest, yet smallest and rarest of this family.

The painted trillium is also found in cold damp woods especially in the higher Alleghenies of the state. It is smaller than the large flowered trillium but just as attractive with its white petals painted with red strips at the base.

One should never pick the flowers or stalks of this plant. When this is done the entire tuber-like root stalk dies. This is why the trillium has become so rare in our forests today.