November 26, 2007

• Weekly Photo Challenge, Fungi and Wildflowers

   

  We are back from our Thanksgiving getaway  so now, I can post my entry for the challenge. 

  I hope everyone had a good week wherever in the world you are.

  Weekly Photo Challenge

  the subject is:

  
    ”Fungi and Wildflowers”
  Suggested by:  TheSunnyC

   

  My Photos are all WildFlowers with one exception, a single Mushroom.  All photos were taken in my own yard except for the Jewelweed photo displaying the whole plant. 

  

  Bloodroot:  can be fatally toxic.  It comes up very early in the Spring and if you dig into it’s roots, they bleed like a cut finger might.  That is an easy identification tool.  Handling the oozing plant can be treacherous.

  

  This is the Bloodroot leaf after unfurl.  The plant comes up like a finger with the leaf curled around the flower.

  

  MayApple / Mandrake: The MayApple does flower but the flower hides beneath the leaf.  The flower matures into an edible fruit which Racoons and other animals have a taste for so they usually beat humans to the matured fruit.  The root is listed as poisonous.

  

  WakeRobin or Trillium:  Listed as poisonous this species of Trillium is still a favorite of mine in my garden.  The flower is the deep red center you see here.

  

  Jack-in-the-Pulpit OR Cuckoo-Pint:  This is a species of Jack-in-the-Pulpit also known as Indian Turnip.  It grows early Spring and it has toxic qualities.  There is a lot of information on the internet about the plant.  I consider it highly interesting but, like some of the others displayed, a plant to be careful with where it comes to anyone eating it.

  

  Viola:  Most of us love Violets and this is a common one in our area.  It grows in my yard in purple, yellow and in white but the yellow and white are much less aggressive or explosive in population than the purple.  The Violet flower is edible.  See a list of edible flowers HERE.

  

  Dandelions:  I expect Dandelions grow all over the world.  I love them even if they do persist in lawns or seed and blow leaving a naked stem standing by the thousands.  I had much rather have the naked stems than the pesticides and chemicals used to poison the plant and the worlds groundwaters which is what has been happening for years by people convinced they must have a well manicured lawn.  The greens are edible and the roots can be ground for a coffee and the flowers make Dandelion Wine.

  

  Jewel Weed:  It’s a lovely flower but tiny, about the size of the tip of your finger.  If you have poison ivy growing, you can usually discover some Jewel Weed.  Scrunch the leaves and stems up kind of mushy and rub them on skin if touched by the ivy to prevent an outbreak of the poison ivy rash.  I am not sure how long you can wait to use this remedy for it to work.

  

  My exception:  This is what the Jewel Weed plant looks like and the stems are very succulent plant type looking, filled with water.  I took this photo at a state park in Rockford, Illinois a few trips back.

  

  Fungi:  I am only posting this single mushroom as it grows regularly across from my drive.  Other photos I have of fungi were not taken in my yard and limiting to my yard gave me an out for numbers of photos to post.  There are a lot of edible Mushrooms and a lot of Poisonous ones.  I have no idea which this is but I have a deep respect for what some of them can do to you if you eat the wrong thing. 

  “CHOOSE WISELY” is an excellent quotation used in the Indiana Jones movie, “The Last Crusade”.  It works well for caution with mushrooms and in fact, all wild plants.  The world of medicinals stems from the plant world and we all know how trecherous medications are.

   

  Keep on taking those photos,
  

  • 11:43 pm
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