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Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Yooper Plant Fun

 
You didn't think I would come back from a trip without plant pictures, did you?

Two of these are common, but I hadn't previously gotten decent pictures. One of them is a good surprise.

The first one is Climbing False Buckwheat, Fallopia scandens. It's related to the horrible Japanese Knotweed, but this is native and not really problematic. Notice that the leaves look like a bindweed, but the flowers are small and borne on stalks, rather than looking like tiny morning glories.

climbing false buckwheat

The next one is really common, but I've never gotten such nice pictures. It's an agrimony, I think Tall Hairy Agrimony, Agrimonia gryposepala.

tall hairy agrimony

The flowers are often more sparse, and other species of agrimony have much smaller flowers.

tall hairy agrimony

But they all have leaves that look like this. The important thing to note is that there are small leaves in between larger ones. Weird, huh?

tall hairy agrimony

The focus isn't great (darn- but I may have stumbled on to how to make macro shots focus better), but the seed pods are terrific! They are also talented at sticking to your clothes in the fall.

tall hairy agrimony

Now, drum roll please. Seeing this next plant has been on my wish list forever. Then, when I did see it, I didn't recognize it. I've been fooled by so many plants with leaves and stems like this that I didn't even suspect it was something unusual. However, the red berries did tickle my brain that they were not typical. I thought it was some variant of Solomon's Seal. Instead, it's the Twisted Stalk, Streptopus amplexifolius that I've been stalking! I've still never seen the flowers, but this is a start. Note the zig-zag stem.

For any plant people who may be reading, its coefficient of conservatism is 8. This is a high quality plant. And for my future reference, it likes to grow on seepy banks in valleys just like this one at Cut River. That will help me look for it in flower (Or I can drive 6 hours at the right time of year now that I know where to find some!)

climbing false buckwheat

See Flowering Plant, No Flower
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2 comments:

The Furry Gnome said...

Never seen Twisted Stalk, but find lots of those Agrimony burs on my socks in the fall.

Sharkbytes said...

Stew- those burs are really stubborn too!