Jewel of the Woods

Posted on 10/17/2019 by chick
Orange Jewelweed
According to the U.S. Forest Service website, in addition to the eye-catching orange flowers that draw pollinators to them for fertilization, this plant also has smaller, unobtrusive flowers that fertilize themselves. Who knew?
Unlike so many of the flowers I’ve researched recently, jewelweed is a native North American plant. It loves moist ground, and it thrives near streams.
The two things I love best about jewelweed are watching bumblebees get in and out of the flowers and, after the flowers are gone, the exploding seedpods. It’s so much fun to pop the pods. The pods in this picture were so obviously ready to go. I didn’t pop them, though. What was I thinking? Popping them helps to plant more jewelweed for the future. My parents popped jewelweed pods when they were kids. So did I. And now, so do my kids. Jewelweed is a gift that keeps on giving, from year to year and from generation to generation.


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4 Responses to Jewel of the Woods

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