Plants of Devil's Lake (and a Fungi)

Obviously, I saw thousands of plants in five days. And many, many of them were doing something phenologically interesting. I limit, therefore, my reporting, to a few that are new to me, or special, or just pretty.

This pale corydalis was new to me, and not the easiest to identify, either. Its leaves are similar to Dutchman's breeches -- feathery -- and its irregular flowers have striking color changes, though, which gave it away once I figured it out. It seems to prefer growing in rocky areas.

Native honeysuckles, of which we saw a few, including this hairy honeysuckle, are always exciting. They provide a nice contrast to the evil invasive things that out-compete native trees and shrubs that we usually refer to when talking about honeysuckles.

I did get to see my hoary puccoon at the Shack after all... just a month later.

I did not know that the foxglove beardtongue, quite common and blooming all over right now, had a native sibling, the large-flowered beardtongue -- Penstemon grandiflorus. The pale purple flowers are really very lovely, and I want one badly. Next native plant purchasing season, this will be my quest. They will look lovely in our side yard, which is next year's major project...

The squawroot or cancerroot was a mystery plant last year (see entry on May 21) and I was happy to remember it and its habits this year... though I did have to look up its name again!
These fungi had such a neat purple color...

See people? I really edited myself on the plants.

Next: Vertebrates, and then we're done with the trip!

Mystery (Solved) Plant

I have much to report from my four-day school trip to Devil's Lake, but I think for today, I shall begin with my mystery plant. Last year, upon returning from this same trip, I reported on a mystery plant -- a parasitic plant commonly called squawroot or cancerroot. I also came across that plant this year, in even greater numbers. How interesting, then, that this year's mystery plant is also parasitic...

This year's discovery is Orobanche uniflora. Its common names are many, and include one-flowered cancerroot (odd, right? both have cancerroot as a common name...), one-flowered broomrape (its family, incidentally), and ghost pipe. The parasitic plant feeds underground on the roots of other vascular plants. It lives throughout most of the US, but tends to keep to rocky forests. It seems to come in a range of colors, from nearly pure white to deep purple, but the ones I saw were interestingly pale with deep purple tinges on the petal edges and a darker calyx as well. I noted, if you can read my handwriting in the sketch, that it was leafless, but it turns out that there are small (well under 1 cm) leaves at the base of the stem if you dig for them.

Other notations I made in my journal: The stem and entire flower are fuzzy. The flower has two bright yellow pistil stigmas (I think) and, inside the tube, only visible upon dissection, which I did to one that was already dying, 5 small stamen.

An Image Revisited

Remember this picture from Devil's Lake last week?  I have discovered that it is a squawroot or cancerroot, Conopholis americana.  Squawroot is a non-photosynthetic parasitic plant that feeds on the roots of several species of trees, most commonly oak.  (Note the oak leaves surrounding it in the photo -- we can be pretty sure this is its energy source here).  The suckers on the squawroot's roots cause large knobs to form on the oak's roots.  Despite being parasitic, they don't hurt the oaks because they are small and few, compared to the huge trees they steal nutrients from.  Squawroot blooms in May and June and is native to the eastern USA.   

Squawroot gets that particular common name because Indian women used to use it to help alleviate the symptoms of menopause.  When steeped in boiling water (then cooled) it will shrink or pucker the skin.  So the idea is it will shrink the uterus...