Blue-Footed Musings

Once I’d trained my eyes to recognize hairy Solomon’s seal, I saw it everywhere. We probably have more of it than we do of its false cousin, but it’s so small and unobtrusive that it’s no wonder that I never noticed before. And, while poking around the edges of the woods, gawking at my new plant friends, I found yet another wildflower, sessile bellwort, that is similar in appearance.

One way to tell the two plants apart, according to what I’ve read, is that Solomon’s seal has a single stem with alternating leaves. Sessile bellwort has a main stem that branches into two. This flower appears twice in my field guide, because its color could be characterized as either white or yellow, as it falls somewhere in-between. The plants I’ve seen each had only a single flower, but the field guide says there could be two. You can read more about sessile bellwort here at virginiawildflowers.org.

I first identified this plant a few years ago. It was growing in the woods behind the house, so I’m not surprised that it’s made its way over here, along my path into woods. It’s amazing the way wild plants get around. My list of local flora is getting longer by the day, and I’ve hardly even scratched the surface.

My husband read my previous post and insisted that I show him those three-leaved plants right away. That saved me the effort of having to remember to mention them to him, and I happily went outside with him and pointed them out. Here are some pictures of the plants in question:

My husband was not impressed by the plants. He said, “Those are Nothing Plants. I’ve killed them before.” I can hardly blame him for treating them that way. They’re not very interesting to look at right now. But I’ve asked him to leave them alone, because I am reasonably certain that they’re Jack-in-the-pulpit, which you can read about at Wikipedia, the U.S. Forest Service, and Minnesota Wildflowers.

How did I come to that conclusion? Each plant has three leaves (actually, a single leaf with three leaflets) that are arranged at roughly 12:00, 3:00, and 9:00, as distinguished from trillium, which is said to be more like 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00. Looking closer at a leaflet, there’s another clue.

The vein running around the edge of leaflet is a characteristic of Jack-in-the pulpit. Of course, what would easily prove the case would be Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers, because they are unmistakable. But, as you can see from the pictures, these plants are not blooming. That means that they won’t bloom this year, because Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers come out before the leaves do. It’s not strange that there aren’t any flowers, though, because Jack-in-the-pulpit plants that grow from seed can take several years to bloom. We’ll just have to be patient and watch for them again over the next few springs.

As Marshall and I were walking outside the other evening, he asked me if people would think our yard was ugly. I had to tell him that the answer is yes. Our yard would be considered by most people to be both ugly and unkempt. Our neighbor, who is trying to sell his house, probably hates us. Most homebuyers want neat plots with green, grassy lawns, and they’d prefer prospective neighbors to have the the same. But that’s just too bad for them. I prefer wildflowers.

If you can only recognize a plant by its flowers, then you can only identify it for a short period of time each year. I want to do better than that. I want to be able to recognize my favorite plants whenever I see them. So, this spring I’ve been paying extra close attention to what’s growing in my yard and taking pictures of the plants as they develop so that I can get to know them better.

False Solomon’s seal has long been a favorite plant of mine. I knew several places where it was likely to sprout this year, and sure enough, it showed up exactly where I thought it would. Primed for noticing the plant, I found it sprouting in several other places, too. But then, looking closer at some of the individual plants, I realized that not all of it was false Solomon’s seal. Some of it was Solomon’s seal!

Solomon’s seal and false Solomon’s seal are related and, as their names imply, they look a lot alike. I don’t know if I’ll be able to learn how to tell them apart all year round, but their flowers and fruit are dead giveaways. Solomon’s seal flowers hang below the plant and the berries are blue-black. False Solomon’s seal has a showy plume of flowers (it is sometimes called “Solomon’s plume”), and its berries are speckled red.

It’s likely that hairy Solomon’s seal has been growing here all along and I simply never noticed it because it was smaller and less showy than its cousin. But I’ve noticed it now, and I will keep an eye on it over the course of the year, too. More pictures to come soon, I hope!