However, because plants like these tended to grow copiously, it was important to keep them in check. Every place a person went, these plants could be seen and recognized." -- National Park Service
I'm thinking of making a birdhouse out of a gourd for this upcoming cold season.
"Gourds continued to be used throughout history in almost every culture throughout the world. European contact in North America found extensive gourd use, including the use of bottle gourds as birdhouses to attract purple martins, which provided bug control for agriculture. Almost every culture had musical instruments made of gourds, including drums, stringed instruments common to Africa and wind instruments, including the nose flutes [GROSS!!!] of the Pacific." -- WikipediaOne of these days, maybe I will be lucky enough to find out how these soybeans will be used.
It may be known as Common Yellow Wood Sorrel to some, but it appeared quite uncommon to me as I ambled along the Norwottuck Rail Trail last week. I thought at first that it must be a kind of shamrock. Then I read this on thespruce.com:
"Wood sorrel is also often confused with shamrocks—another plant in the clover family. Sorrel is sometimes called 'false shamrock,' and during St. Patrick's Day season, it's common to find yellow wood sorrel misbranded and sold as shamrock."
Spotted this specimen on a trail near my home. Not too difficult to figure out how it got its name:
"The small, inconspicuous flowers of Jack-in-the-pulpit are borne on a fleshy, spike-like inflorescence called a spadix ('Jack'), which is enclosed (or nearly enclosed) by a large, sometimes colorful bract called a spathe ('pulpit'). The flowers are clustered around the base of the spadix inside the spathe. A sterile spadix appendix protrudes from the mouth of the spathe tube. The appendix is covered by the leafy tip of the spathe, referred to as the spathe hood (or spathe lamina). The lip along the mouth of the spathe tube, used as a landing platform for winged insects, is called the spathe flange." -- Wikipedia
"The naturalist, explorer and plant collector William Bartram first noted this . . . shrub on his travels through Carolina, Georgia and Florida in 1773–78. An old example was still to be found in Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, in 1930." -- Wikipedia