wildfloers – DEERING'S NATURAL HISTORY

My daily (ok, frequent) walk leads along a diet road at the edge of forested land. Late last year I noticed large rosettes of deeply lobbed leaves. The leaves looked like dandelion, the tips of the lobes being acute — pointed, but these were much larger than dandelion leaves, more than a foot long and correspondingly broader. I did not know what they were. Winter ended and I began to see tall-stalked plants with the same oddly shaped leaves. As the season progressed, the stalks, elongated, ultimately reaching one or two meters in height. Flowers formed from elongated, openly branched clusters at the tip of the stalk and from the axils (where the leave departs from the stem) of the upper leaves. I realized that there were two, different but closely similar species of plants. When the species flowered, the first early in July and the much more common second a month later, I could confirm the two tall plants to be species of wild lettuce.

These were not cute or pretty wildflowers – – one might call them ‘weeds!’

L:actuca canadensis

Canada lettuce is a native of North America, widespread in Eastern N. America – Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south to Georgia and Colorado. It grows in part to full shade, usually in disturbed sites in thickets, woodland borders and clearings, and moist open places in a wade range of soils.

Lactuca canadensis is biennial, which means that each plant lives for two years. Seeds germinate in late summer to fall, producing a rosette of leaves and i the second year long stalks arise from the leaves. Flowers and, ultimately the seeds form at the tip. That plant then dies. The genus name Lactuca implies a milky exudate that flows from the stem when the plant is wounded. In Canada lettuce the latex is light brown or white. The sticky sap can cause a skin rash in some people. The sap contains ‘lactucarium’, which is used in medicine for its anodyne, antispasmodic, digestive, diuretic, hypnotic, narcotic and sedative properties. The sap s sometimes collected commercially.

The plant should be used with caution, and never without the supervision of a skilled practitioner.

Small dandelion-like yellow flowers, each about 1/4 inch in diameter, occur in a narrow panicle up to 2″ long at the apex of the plant. The flowers are replaced by dark brown seeds – – achenes – – with tufts of white hair, which are attached together by thread-like beaks. Various bees pollinate Canada lettuce.

Lactuca biennis

2022 was the first year that I have seen this wild lettuce on my road — and it is difficult to overlook a seven-foot tall flower stalk! But this year several plants of this species are spread for a distance of about 50 meters along the shaded road.

Lactuca biennis, tall blue lettuce or wood lettuce, is native to North America. It is widespread across much of the United States and Canada, ranging from Alaska and Yukon south as far as California, New Mexico, and Georgia. The biennial plant is very similar to that of L. canadensis, and the two can be found growing together in disturbed sites, forest edges, meadows and fields. However, leaves of L. biennis are longer and broader and it’s little daisy-like flowers are blue. The plants can reach two meters in height. Various species of bumble bee have been recorded as pollinators of tall blue lettuce.

Like dandelion, leaves of L. biennis can be eaten in salads when young, but become bitter with age. Various medicinal uses have been attributed to tall blue lettuce including treatment of pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and heart trouble.

Rock-harlequin is a very pretty and unusual native wildflower. A wonderful addition to Deering’s flora.

Capnoides (Corydalis) sempevirens, Rock-harlequin or pale corydalis, is a delicate, lacy, 1-2 ft biennial with compound leaves that are divided into many lobes. The bicolored, tubular flowers are very pretty and morpologically unusual for Deering’s flora.

In the plant’s first summer the only foliage is a basal rosette, but in its second year the plant sends up many branched stems, each tipped with bunches of pink and yellow, flowers. The flowers are sac-like, tubular, pink and yellow and they occur in clusters at ends of branched stems bearing intricately divided leaves. The flowers give way to long, narrow seed pods. Seeds are spread by ants.

Rock-harlequin flowers from early summer through to early fall. It grows in rock crevices, talus, forest clearings, open woods, and on burned or otherwise disturbed areas in shallow, often dry soil. In burned zones it occurs within five years of a fire. In Deering I have found this pretty flower in two locations: the northern end of the Hedgehog Mountain Trail at the overlook, and on Little Hedgehog Mountain overlook, which is a short north leading trail from Hedgehog Mountain Road near the Landing. Both of these sites are exposed and rocky.

Rock-harlequin is native to North America, occurring widely in Eastern USA as far south as Tennessee and Georgia and as far west as Minnesota and Iowa, and it is found in Alaska and all Canadian provinces.

Capnoides sempervirens is a member of the poppy family (as might be guessed by the deeply dissected leaves). Additional species of Capnoides occur in Eastern North America. The Iroquois used a decoction prepared from plants of Corydalis sempervirens medicinally to alleviate piles. Some Corydalis species contain toxic alkaloids.