By Susan Sprout

Purpleleaf Willowherb is a perennial native plant in the Evening Primrose Family, Onagraceae, that can grow up to four feet tall. I love its scientific name, Epilobium coloratum, which means “colored flower upon a pod” in Greek. Very tiny pink to white flowers appear to be perched atop a long stem, except that the long tube-like stems are actually their ovaries where seeds will develop! This unusual configuration is the main characteristic of willowherbs.

Seven species of them live in Pennsylvania. Their traits are variable from one species to another and sometimes difficult to see. I had to make a second photo trip to check and recheck characteristics I missed the first time, including some with a magnifier: curled hairs in lines on the stems below leaves and on new growth, purple splotches on older leaves growing opposite each other, upper leaves with alternate leaf arrangements.

The flowers of this species of willowherb are only about a quarter to a third of an inch across. Each petal is notched in the middle on its outside edge and has thin colored lines extending out from its center. The flowers attract bees and small flies seeking nectar and pollen. Once pollinated, the thin tube of ovaries   will elongate to about three inches as it matures, drying to a brownish color. Splitting open lengthwise, the pod will disgorge tiny seeds, each with tuft of reddish-brown hair to carry it high in the air and off to a nice disturbed area where it can germinate immediately or within two years. Those reddish-brown hairs are responsible for another common name for this plant – Cinnamon Willowherb.

Willowherbs are considered pioneer plants and are close relatives of Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium. It was one of the first plants to colonize the heavy ash deposits of Mount St. Helens. You see, pioneer species are hardy plants and animals that are the first to colonize barren environments or ecosystems that have been disrupted, like after a fire, or a construction site or road cuttings.

Purpleleaf Willowherbs are native to the eastern part of North America and much of Canada. You may find them in wetter open areas next to swamps and riverbanks and ditches, too. The photos I took were of volunteer plants that showed up growing in a garden at church! There are wetland areas across the street.

By Susan Sprout

On the march, a three-inch-long millipede was crossing a dirt road in Ravensburg Park, going from the dry forest towards a creek bank. Its journey may well have been ended as a car came zooming towards it. My quick intervention moved this leggy critter, placing it in the roadside ditch that it appeared to be travelling toward. Millipedes are one of the first and largest air-breathing invertebrates (without a backbone) to walk on land some 420 million years ago and growing to six and a half feet long and a foot and a half wide. That fast car would surely have wrecked if it had run over one of those. What a speed-bump that would have been!

The species of millipede I saw was probably Narceus americanus AKA American Giant Millipede, Worm Millepede, Iron Worm. It is not a worm and certainly not made of iron, but an arthropod more closely related to shrimp, crayfish, and lobsters. The outer covering of its segmented body is made up of plates of chiton (like your fingernails) and has two pairs of jointed-legs per segment. “Millepede” means thousand-legged, but this type only has between150 and 200 legs total.

Why am I writing about a millipede? Well, it was underfoot (almost undercar) and found in the woods where I find so many great plants! Actually, millipedes are considered a beneficial species for all of us, plants and animals, because they decompose decaying plant matter. They, and thousands of species worldwide, live by breaking down and recycling nutrients back into the soil much faster than plants decompose naturally. Bacteria, algae, fungus, critters in the soil, as well as the more obvious green plants and trees on top of it, will uptake their rich body byproducts to keep on growing.

Millipedes breathe using spiracles on their segments – small openings that deliver oxygen into a trachea and their body tissues. Most arthropods can regulate (open and close) these openings. Millipedes cannot and must live in a moist or humid environment or they will desiccate and die. Eyes on both sides of their heads can detect light and movement. Their amazing antennae have the ability to taste food, smell odors like pheromones for sensing mates, feel their way as they dig or perambulate across a road, tell differences in temperature and find water. My guess is, the millipede I was lucky to find, was on its way to moister ground near a stream. Although blessed with remarkable senses for use in its habitat, it could not detect a moving car. So, drive slowly through the woods, save these guys when you can, and then wash your hands. Their defensive secretions, though they show promise as sources for new medicines, can make you itch!

Check out National Wildlife Federation and Animal Diversity Web for lots more interesting info on Millipedes.

By Susan Sprout

Virginia Bluebells, or Virginia Cowslips, are ephemeral – here in the spring and gone during summer. Look for them blooming now with nodding but showy, blue trumpet-shaped flowers. They arrive early, eager for the higher amounts of unhampered sunlight before the trees above them leaf out to block it. As the name suggests, their bright blue flowers hang in loose clusters like bells, their trumpets shaped by the fusing of five petals. The buds, which usually start out pink, bloom blue. They grow quickly to their eight-to-twenty-four-inch height before dying back and reverting to just underground parts. Considered dormant because they are not photosynthesizing, I will bet the woody roots that we do not see are still busy getting nutrients and water during the summer and fall. With all of their stored resources, they are ready to go when it is spring!

Virginia Bluebells have oval leaves ranging in length from two inches at the top of the plant where they almost clasp on to the stem, then downward to the lower parts where they are eight inches long and tapered. Situated alternately on the stems, the leaves do not shade each other out – more sun for all. Another reason they can grow upwards in such a hurry. Seeds develop at the base of the flowers after they are pollinated by bees, especially bumblebees that look for pollen and nectar early in spring. The bumpy, roundish seed pod turns from green to tan to brown as it and the four seeds in each one mature.

These native perennials tend to grow in masses when water is near, in bottom lands and riverwoods, where the soil is rich and the land occasionally gets flooded. Once established, they will bloom year after year. Their seedlings will flower in their second year. They can be found from E. Canada south to North Carolina and west to Arkansas and Minnesota (lots of lakes there for bluebells to grow near).  The native people in those areas used the plant as a treatment for tuberculosis and whooping cough. And, guess what? Deer do not like to eat it!

By Susan Sprout

Ever been hiking off trail in the woods and get your foot caught by a shrub with drooping branches that had become rooted in the ground? You may have had a run-in with Hobblebush AKA Tangle-legs! If you can remember where you got entangled, hike back in for positive identification now because Hobblebush is in bloom from late April into May with flowers that are very distinctive and easy to recognize.

Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides), a native perennial shrub, is found in what Thoreau called “the under-woods” – the understory of woods. It was cool and moist there, and down a ravine that I simply could not negotiate. I sat on the ground at the top of the ridge and scooted down as far as I could, without sliding to the bottom on my bottom. I leaned forward and got some photos. What lovely white flowers greeted me! Looking down from the trail above, I had spied some bushes with white on them, but could not distinguish if it was the flash of sunlight on shiny leaves or white flowers. Yeah, flowers! Elegantly arranged on sparse branches, the blossoms are made up of two kinds of flowers –small fertile ones in the center and larger, five-petaled infertile ones on the outer edges. I get the feeling that those bigger flowers are there to get the attention of pollinators who will service the inner cluster. When pollinated, those inner flowers will make red berries that change to a bluish-black as they mature in the early fall. The bright green leaves of Hobblebush grow opposite each other on the twigs. They were wrinkled and not yet fully extended when I found them. When fully grown, they are heart-shaped with a bumpy or irregularly-textured surface.

Hobblebush is listed as “occasional” in my PA plant reference, declining due to over-browsing by deer. The ecological importance of this shrub is without doubt. Gamebirds, songbirds, small mammals, butterflies, browsers – all make use of its bounty. Humans, too, have eaten the berries or made them into jam. Rubbing the head with its crushed leaves was a medicinal use of this plant by Native Americans who suffered from migraines. So, if you have a run-in with Hobblebush while hiking, extract your foot carefully so you do not pull the roots out. If you accidently do, tamp them back down into the dirt and duff gently.  We need them for the health of our woods and its inhabitants.

Editor’s note: Thank you Sue!! As someone who frequently trips while walking in the woods, I feel better now knowing I have a native shrub to blame.

By Susan Sprout

Going out and about, you have probably noticed our wonderful Eastern Redbud blooming now in Central Pennsylvania. So attractive and conspicuous with those magenta blossoms decorating all the branches! They certainly stand out whether they are growing along a country road or in people’s yards. A closer look reveals that the flowers have appeared before the leaves and are coming straight out of the bark. Growing in little clusters as they do, the branches look upholstered with the blossoms! A common folk tradition stemming from their early arrival is to take some branches inside the house “to drive the winter out.”

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is considered a shrub or small tree and a member of the Pea or Legume Family, Fabaceae. It is a native species as are two close relatives, Honey Locust tree and Kentucky Coffeetree. Redbud’s flowers are pea flower-shaped with a lower keel like a sailboat, and two vertical wings spreading out above like sails. The buds can remain unopened for quite a while and retain a darker pink color.  As they mature, the keel splits open revealing two rows of pollen-bearing stamens and the female receptacle called the stigma that receives pollen. At this time, they become a paler pink color. After pollination, groups of two-to-four-inch seed pods that resemble those of garden peas begin growing from the flowers and dangle downward. Starting out green, they mature turning dark brown to black and split open along one side to release four to ten flat bean-like seeds.

Redbud leaves are bright green and heart-shaped with smooth edges and pointed tips. Three to five inches in diameter, they grow alternately on the branches or twigs and have five to seven veins radiating from the leaf base where it connects to the stem. Underneath, they are a lighter color and have some tufts of hair where the veins meet.

Although slightly sour to taste, Redbud flowers are edible and high in Vitamin C. Several sources reported their use in salads and pancakes. In folk medicine, tree bark was used to treat dysentery. Our colonial ancestors used the green twigs to season wild game. Funny thing, the game, AKA venison on the hoof, enjoys those same green twigs as browse!