Dear Wood Folk, We’ve covered a tinier iris before: blue-eyed grass. It’s a miniature lookalike you might find in your lawn around cottage country Ontario. Our title iris on the other hand can grow close to a few feet tall. Common along wetlands here, Northern blue flag (Iris versicolor) is our native blue flag iris. … [Read more…]
Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) is common around Haliburton, Ontario, in bogs and on the edges of wetlands. This shrubby evergreen plant is often walked past, but if you notice it and get close you may see its white bell shaped flowers covered in ants. If you see leatherleaf, you’re in a wetland! The flowers may remind … [Read more…]
Beggarsticks (Bidens spp.) may look like flowers to choke on, but they are more edible and medicinal than they appear. We currently have around half a dozen species of beggarticks (Bidens spp.) in Haliburton county, Ontario. But the only one I’ve noticed is devil’s beggarticks (Bidens frondosa). It’s fairly common in waste areas, sand flats … [Read more…]
Known as bugleweeds or water horehounds, these edible and medicinal plants are one of the least minty of the mint family. Water horehounds (Lycopus spp.) can be found, as the name suggests, in wetlands, damp meadows and stream banks. There are two found around Haliburton, Ontario. The most common is American bugleweed (Lycopus americanus), also … [Read more…]
Swamp milkweed is not as edible and medicinal as its common relation. So we’re all the more talking about how much of an all-star this plant is for pollinator gardens and native landscaping. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) can be found in the margins of swamps, marshes and other low wet areas. It’s not as prolific … [Read more…]
Purple loosestrife is causing a bit of strife here. This introduced edible and medicinal plant sure is pretty, but purple loosestrife is taking over our marshes and crowding out native plants necessary for a healthy ecosystem. Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) was rare here when Haliburton Flora was compiled. They only found it in two locations. … [Read more…]