Cardinal-flower

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Cardinal-flower,
Montezuma Audubon Center, Savannah, NY

Cardinal-flower -- © Dave Spier

This native perennial grows wild along streambanks and in swamps and other wet places up and down the eastern half of the U.S., northeast into Canada and south to Columbia. Look for it at the Montezuma Audubon Center (Rt. 89 N, Savannah, NY) where it grows along Crusoe Creek and also around the building where it has been planted to attract hummingbirds. The plant can reach two or three feet in height, making it a nice addition to any garden.

The Cardinal-flower (Lobelia cardinalis) gets its name from the bright-red blossoms hugging the upper stem. (Although sometimes called a spike, it is technically a raceme because of short flower stalks called pedicels.) Look closely at an individual corolla [flower] and you’ll notice three wide lobes forming a lower lip while two narrow lobes extend to the sides like arms. The male and female parts, also scarlet colored, form a narrow tube emerging like a crane above the petals. It looks custom-made to work with hummingbirds!



There was a hummingbird at these Cardinal-flowers when Donna and I first stopped on the boardwalk at Tinker Nature Park (Hansen Nature Center) in Henrietta, NY.

Cardinal-flower leaves are lance-shaped, long-pointed and serrated or toothed on the edges and they alternate on a single, main stalk. The plant contains alkaloids and should be considered toxic, as are other members of the genus Lobelia. In spite of this, Native Americans used root and leaf teas for various ailments. Cardinal-flower and its relative, the blue-violet Great Lobelia (another moist-ground species growing at the MAC) belong to the Lobelia subfamily of the Bluebell family.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com  Now you can connect through my Facebook photo page at Dave Spier (photographic naturalist) or my personal page, Dave Spier, northeast naturalist. 

Bee-balm

Bee-balm -- © Dave Spier

I’ve discovered a "new" bird species – the yellow-crowned hummingbird. Okay, before the birding community gets too excited, it was just a ruby-throat with pollen on top of its head. While visiting our Bee-balm flowers, the bird’s head was brushing against the stamens and being dusted with yellow grains of pollen. Unwittingly, the hummer would carry this to the next flower where some would reach the pistil (female part of the flower), thus assuring cross-pollination. Isn’t nature clever? By the time I got my camera, the pollen had rubbed or blown off.

Bee-balm (Monarda didyma), also called Oswego Tea, is a bright-scarlet member of the mint family. Related to bergamots, the showy flowers grow in dense whorls at the top of a square stem with opposite pairs of pointed leaves. The leafy bracts under the flower head are also reddish. This native plant grows wild on rich, moist soil, often along wooded stream banks, but it has been tamed for garden use. It’s a favorite nectar source for hummingbirds.

You can make an aromatic tea by steeping fresh or dried leaves and flowers for 10 minutes, or you can mix it with other teas. Enjoy…

If you live or travel in the vicinity of Savannah, NY (southeastern Wayne County), stop at the Montezuma Audubon Center (on the west side of Route 89 about 1.7 miles north of the village) and see how the hummingbird/butterfly garden is doing. The Bee-balm is on the east end of the garden. There’s usually a hummingbird feeder hanging on the wooden fence that hides the propane tank behind the garden. From one of the picnic tables, you can watch both the garden and all of the feeders on the north side of the building.

Do you plant any native flowers for hummingbirds or butterflies? To find out what else we can do to help wildlife, visit Wild Ones or contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com If you're in central New York, there's a chapter at http://www.hgcny.org/

Photo notes: Canon 300mm/f4 on 8-mp XT body; exposure = 1/500 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400. Our Bee-balm just started blossoming this year, so I pulled a file photo taken July 5 at 3:44 pm in the afternoon when our garden is still in full sunlight.  Original cropped to 1923 x 1354, then resized for the blog.