Wildflowers/Weeds

A bit of roadside botany and I learned something new in each case.

First up, we have Woodland Sunflower, Helianthus divaricatus. These sunflower relatives drive me nuts. I can never remember how to tell them apart.

Well, the most common ones that have a pair of flowering stalks coming up in the top leaf axils are this one, Woodland Sunflower- which is the smoothest of the three, Hairy Sunflower- which is hairier, and Jerusalen Artichoke- which is really rough. Wonder if I can remember that.

This next one made me stop and say, "Huh." It's obviously a Brassicaceae (cabbage, mustard, cress, etc) because of the 4 petals and long skinny seed pods. But I wasn't aware of ones that bloom in the fall.

It's Diplotaxis tenuifolia, or yes, Arugala. It's not native here, but often escapes gardens. The leaves are probably tough and more bitter than usual at this point, but here are the leaves which are distinctive. This was growing right along the road. Not a great place to collect edibles. But I think I'll know how to ID it in the future.

Finally, I always called this one Cudweed. That is one of the common names, but that also gets used on some other plants. Perhaps a more distinctive common name is Rabbit Tobacco, Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium. Yes, it's a relative of the Pussytoes and Everlastings- all of which have flowers that look like they don't open. It's a biennial, and this is the first year.

The stems and flowers are wooly with soft hairs. In the second year it gets taller and the pods get yellow-brown and burst open with seeds. I'll have to watch for that.

My mouth really doesn't hurt much at all. Face is a little swollen. I tried to be quiet today because of the stitches, but I think I'm pretty much good to go. Well, I'll eat soft foods a couple more days. The original direction for two weeks of soft food was when they originally thought I would have one more thing done at the surgeon. Now, I may skip that. I'll explain if it comes up again.

The computer managed to repair one of its problems with repeated urging, but I think I'll be going tomorrow to get started on getting a different one. I spend too much time working on a computer to have to worry about regular crashes.

See Gale's Pond Botany