Celandine

© Dave Spier

Celandine, Chelidonium majus, is a somewhat invasive alien with attractive yellow flowers arranged in an umbel (think inside-out umbrella), although the blossoms tend to open one at a time. Each showy flower has four petals. Black seeds growing in long capsules continue the superficial resemblance to mustards, but Celandine is actually in the Poppy family, although it's different than Celandine Poppy, a more Western native species. Celandine's somewhat grayish-green, compound leaves are irregularly lobed and scallop-edged.

This species is often called Greater Celandine to distinguish it from Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, a quite different plant in the Buttercup family.

You can find a range map on the USDA plants database website. Celandine is widespread in the Midwest, Northeast, Eastern Canada plus outlier states like GA, NE, UT, MT, WA and adjacent BC. Clicking on some of the states will give you more refined maps down to the county level. For example, clicking NY will show Celandine's distribution across the Finger Lakes. It appears to be missing from Schuyler County, but I have photographed it in Wayne County, so that omission is an error.

When broken, Celandine's stems exude a somewhat-poisonous yellow latex that can cause dermatitis or eye irritation in sensitive individuals. A final note of warning -- Celandine is toxic due to a range of isoquinoline alkaloids so avoid ingesting the plant, and wear protection if you're pulling the plant to remove it.

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Rhododendron

Great Rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum) grow wild in scattered colonies across New York and New England as far as southwestern Maine, but it's found primarily in the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to northern Georgia. Beyond that it has been widely planted as an ornamental. Wherever there is sufficient moisture, these evergreen members of the heath family can form dense thickets generally reaching a height of 13 feet, but old bushes are capable of growing to a height of 30 or even 40 feet and a crown diameter of 12 feet, essentially becoming small trees. The main requirement is acidic soil with a high organic content.

The concave leaves are long and leathery and curve down to smooth edges that may curl under during dry or cold weather. Most of the leaves are clustered in whorls around the end of twigs and surround the showy, rose-pink to purple, sometimes white, flower clusters that open between March and August, depending on the local climate. Our ornamental version opens in late May here in the northern Finger Lakes region.

In the wild, rhododendron is an understory plant and does well in the shade of taller trees. Combine that factor with the shrub's dense, evergreen foliage and you can understand why it's difficult for smaller plants and wildflowers to grow underneath rhododendrons.

This species has a number of alternate common names including Late or Summer Rhododendron, Great, Bigleaf or Deertongue Laurel and Rosebay. It's the state flower of West Virginia. The name Mountain Laurel is reserved for its smaller relative, Kalmia latifolia.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at

northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Shagbark Hickory

emerging hickory leaves can sometimes resemble praying hands

 © Dave Spier

A week of warm weather has created a green paradise in the northern Finger Lakes region of New York. Among the many transformed deciduous trees, the Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) leaves have emerged. When the giant bud scales first peeled open, the "fingers" of miniature leaves resembled "praying hands." Once fully opened, the hickory's feather-compound leaves become distinctive. There are five (sometimes seven) leaflets with four opposite and one at the tip. The smallest are the inner, the middle pair are larger and the terminal leaflet is the largest. All are toothed and long-pointed. By the time it's done growing, a compound leaf can reach over a foot in length.

young hickory leaves unfolded and growing



hickory flowers are wind pollinated

Shagbarks, aptly named for the long, peeling shreds of bark, can easily grow to a height of 60 to 90 feet. The record is 120 feet. The wood is strong and elastic and was once prized for tool handles, gunstocks, skis and chair backs. When burned, it gives off a lot of heat and makes high-grade charcoal.

Shagbark Hickory bark

In late summer and early fall, the thick-walled nut husks split into four sections and release the four-ridged nuts which are good to eat. (Squirrels, possums, Wild Turkeys and Wood Ducks would agree.) The nuts also can be ground in a meal-like flour or crushed and boiled to separate the oil. Rabbits and deer browse the twigs. In late winter, the trunks can be tapped in the manner of collecting maple sap.

child holding hickory nuts, some with the husk on (Bayberry Environmental Education Center, Junius, NY, when I was a naturalist there)

Hickories are related to walnuts and butternuts (Juglans spp.) which have numerous leaflets, all roughly the same size. All these trees are in the same family (Juglandaceae) along with pecans.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Wild Geraniums

A true member of the Geranium family, the wild variety has small clusters of flowers with five showy, rose-pink petals. After the petals fall, a long "beak" remains and gives geraniums the nickname "cranesbill." The Greek word for crane is geranos, which is the root of our common name, geranium. The wild one is also called spotted crane flower, but the reason for "spotted" eludes me.

Growing one to two feet tall, Wild Geraniums (Geranium maculatum) are found in woods and shady roadsides, often near streams, from Maine to Georgia and west to Arkansas and Manitoba. The attractive, soft-green, hairy leaves are deeply divided into five (sometimes 3-7) radial lobes reminiscent of Silver Maple leaves.

The roots are rich in tannin and were once used in folk medicine to treat a variety of ailments. This earned the plant the name astringent-root.
With attractive flowers that are 1-1.5 inches in diameter, the plant rates a place in ornamental gardens. Wild Geraniums are now available commercially, as are many native wildflowers.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Dandelions

Can't Beat 'Em? - Eat 'Em!

© Dave Spier

What's your opinion of dandelions? Consider this: the young leaves (before the flowers appear) are edible, assuming you don't use pesticides or other chemicals on your lawn. The leaves grow in a rosette like the spokes of a wheel and average 20 per cluster. A large root system can support a double head that appears to have 40 leaves. The individual leaves are long and pointed, sometimes like an arrowhead at the tip, and coarsely toothed along both sides. The jagged teeth are often reflexed and may even point toward the center of the plant. Long ago, someone thought they resembled the teeth of a lion. In French, the name was "dent de lion" which morphed into dandelion. Other common names for this plant include blowball (a reference to the globular seed heads), lion's-tooth, wild-endive, priest's-crown and Irish-daisy.

The Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a member of the Daisy family, also known as the Aster family and sometimes the Composite family. The complex flower head is a composite of numerous yellow rays designed to attract insects and a central disk of florets that produce the seeds. In exchange for transporting pollen, the blossom rewards insects with nectar. Bumblebees, butterflies and a host of other arthropods visit the radially symmetrical heads. What insects have you seen on dandelions?

Garden lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a distant relative in the same family so it might be no surprise that dandelions are also food for people. Collect the young leaves and add them to a salad. They are rich in vitamins A, C and E plus iron, potassium and calcium. Slightly older leaves can be boiled to remove any developing bitterness and eaten like spinach. Young flower buds, still tucked down in the rosette of leaves, can be boiled and served with butter or they can be pickled. The buds can also be added to soups, stews and pasta dishes. The yellow flowers can be dipped in batter and fried like fritters. [A word of caution: the hollow flower stalks contain a white, milky latex that can irritate sensitive skin.] The heavy taproots can be slow-baked until brown and brittle, then ground and used like coffee in the manner of Chicory, another Composite. During the Great Depression, dandelions were an important part of the diet for many people. Likewise, in World War II, European country folk nearly eradicated this plant. Dandelions are native to Europe and were originally brought to this country for their food and medicinal value. Some homeowners would like to send these invasive aliens back.


Common Dandelion leaf and blossom

Worldwide there are about 60 species of dandelions. Many can reproduce asexually, meaning they are capable of cloning seeds without pollination. These populations are found in northern latitudes where they are presumably remnants of the Ice Age when insects may have been in short supply.

Regardless of how they are produced, the dandelion has a very effective seed dispersal system. After pollination (or cloning, as the case may be), the yellow flower head temporarily closes, then opens into an almost white ball of fluff. Each seed comes with its own parachute and the next wind will carry it on its way. A number of birds eat the seeds, and I would guess the goldfinch is among them, given the finch's fondness for thistle seed (still another member of the Composite family). Has anyone counted the number of seeds produced on one head?

Once established, the dandelion plant keeps its leaves flat to the ground, shading out anything beneath them while avoiding your mower blades above. Like any number of other plants, including certain ferns and garlic mustard, the dandelion emits chemicals that inhibit the growth of nearby vegetation, usually grass. The deep taproot resists attempts to pull the plant becasue it breaks near the surface and then grows a new rosette of leaves and new blossoms. The month of May is the peak flowering month in New York, but sporadic blossoms appear throughout the summer and late into fall, weather permitting.

If you can't admire the dandelion as a prolific survivor, then at least save your money and eat it. Given the rising cost of food, that's not a bad idea.

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Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Variegated (Teratologic) Trilliums

© Dave Spier

Have you ever found a Variegated (a.k.a. Teratologic) Trillium? I've encountered this variety of Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflora) in a number of locations including the Towns of Manchester and Junius in the northern Finger Lakes region of New York State. The green stripe down the center of each petal is due to a harmless virus in the plant. (As I recall, that was the explanation from a botany professor at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua.) However, I found another reference on In Defense of Plants listing the cause as a mycoplasma bacteria that weakens and eventually kills the host trillium.

My friend Ed Snyder from Williamson, NY, found one near Zurich Bog in the Town of Arcadia. He commented that there were few other trilliums this year where many had grown before. In contrast, down the road from our house, the woods is carpeted with white trilliums. I don't know whether this species goes through cycles, but they are a favorite deer food, so I suspect that might be the problem this year. Any other opinions out there?

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.