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4681 County Road JJ
Black Earth, WI 53515
608-767-3553
office@quercus-ls.com

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4640 Selje Road
DeForest WI 53532
608-842-0550
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Once again: Wildflower Wednesday! Canadian lousewort or wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis). The tightly spiraling inflorescences of hooked yellow flowers are a nice pop of spring color as Wisconsin’s prairies (and woods) green up. Each flower has a protruding hood-like upper lip arching over a shorter lower lip. Generally the flowers are yellow with the upper part more-or-less tinged with maroon, or even solid maroon. The flowers also have the unusual trait of twisting to one side making them obliquely asymmetrical. The deeply toothed leaves often take on a red color early in the spring or if exposed to lots of sunlight (pic 5). This member of the Broomrape family of plants (Orobanchaceae) was formerly placed in the catch-all Figwort family (Scrphulariaceae). The Orobanchaceae is a much more sensible arrangement as wood betony, like most everything else in the Orobanchaceae, is parasitic on other plants. Wood betony still has green leaves and conducts photosynthesis with them but it also parasitizes some of the plants it grows with. This type of partial parasitism is termed hemiparasitic. It is especially adept at parasitizing grasses. So much so that wood betony will severely stunt the growth of bunchgrasses it grows with. I have tried to show this in pics 7-10 where you can see large semi-circular areas of stunted prairie grasses (I've highlighted the areas in the second pic of each pair). Because of its effectiveness at reducing grass cover, wood betony is valuable in native prairie restoration projects as it can be used to control aggressive bunchgrass and reduce their dominance. Wood betony can be found throughout Wisconsin and is a valuable spring nectar source for native bees. I am also quite fond of the spiral patterns the leaves and inflorescences exhibit – very pleasing. What a cool plant! #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #woodbetony #orobanchaceae #pedicularis #pediculariscanadensis #lousewort #canadianlousewort #parasiticplant #hemiparasite #parasite Hump day means time for this week’s Wildflower Wednesday! Here is another of our native species in the Barberry family (Berberidaceae) the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) – we saw blue cohosh last week. Mayapples are a common sight right about now in much of Wisconsin being one of the classic early spring wildflowers. Often forming large colonies with numerous stems, each stem has (usually) two round, deeply toothed, leaves (pic 5) with a single drooping flower arising from between them. Non-flowering stems may have a single leaf (pic 6). The flower has 6 light green sepals, 6-9 white (or pink) petals, and twice as many stamens with yellow anthers. If fertilized, the single carpel forms a many-seeded yellow berry that is edible in small amounts. The flowers are easy to miss, as they remain hidden under the leaves. All parts of the plant except the fruit are poisonous and contain the chemical podophyllotoxin. Not surprisingly, Native Americans used mayapple medicinally and the isolated podophyllotoxin is currently used to treat warts. The specific epithet part of the scientific name, “peltatum”, refers to how the leaf is attached to its stalk or petiole; peltate leaves are attached in the center of the leaf like an umbrella. I think mayapples look just like a Dr. Suess umbrella plant! The last pic shows a very early stem emerging from its winter slumber and just about to unfurl its leaves. This native can be found growing in partial sun in moist rich soils of forests and woods in the counties of the southern 2/3rds of Wisconsin and now is a great time to see it! #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #mayapple #berberidaceae #podophyllum #podophyllumpeltatum #podophyllotoxin Bee sure to check out the Madison Bodega tomorrow night! 🐝 🌸 (see what I did there? 😏) Quercus will be there selling native pollinator, rainscape and woodland garden packages along with other goodies! We are so excited to see all the other local vendors, enjoy live music, play yard games and more. See you there!! Spring is upon us! For this Wildflower Wednesday let’s take a look at blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides). Blue cohosh has very distinctive greenish to yellow-green six-parted flowers. Normally, flowers with six parts is a good sign you are looking at something related to lilies, but not in this case. Caulophyllum belongs to the Barberry family (Berberidaceae) and the flowers in this family are often strange with no consistent number of petals and/or sepals between them. In fact, the most notable petal-like parts of the blue cohosh flower are actually sepals! The petals are reduced to small curled nectar-producing flaps at the base of the sepals (pic 4). Following pollination and fertilization the ovary forms a beautiful bright blue berry-like seed (pic 5 shows end-of-season seeds). These seeds are odd in that the blue outer part is formed by the actual seed coat, which is fleshy; there is no secondary fruit tissue, which is what would normally have a colored skin (think blueberry). They are literally just blue seeds! Some animals can eat the seeds but you shouldn’t. Blue cohosh is considered poisonous to humans. Of course, being poisonous means it is chemically active and blue cohosh has a long history of being used as a medicine. Native American tribes used it for menstruation and childbirth aliments. The leaves and flowers grow up out of the ground together in the early spring and flowering is done by the time the tree canopy leafs out (pics 6&7). However, blue cohosh is not a “spring ephemeral” as it persists all summer. The dried stems with their blue seeds may last through the winter in some cases. This native wildflower favors moist rich soils of forests and woods and can be found in nearly every county in Wisconsin. #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #bluecohosh #berberidaceae #caulophyllum #caulophyllumthalictroides Happy Wildflower Wednesday! This week’s plant is a little one that goes by many names: wintergreen, eastern teaberry, checkerberry, and boxberry are all common names for Gaultheria procumbens. The shiny green leaves and bright red berries of this low-growing plant are easy to spot when other vegetation is dormant. The white teaberry flowers are the classic urn-shaped pendant flowers characteristic of the blueberry family (Ericaceae). Fertilized flowers develop into bright red berries that persist through the winter. One of the most notable things about teaberry is the intense menthol or minty scent of the crushed leaves and berries. In fact, the berries are quite edible and the flavor is amazing! This is due, at least in part, to the volatile chemical methyl salicylate. Methyl salicylate is chemically related to salicylic acid – which you may recognize from aspirin. Teaberry has been used to flavor gum, candy, ice cream, and (not surprisingly given the common name) tea. Since the leaves are green all winter (hence the name wintergreen) and the berries are present from the fall through most of the winter, teaberry is an important food for many species of wildlife as it is available when other plants have withered away. Deer eat the leaves and many birds forage for the berries. This short little shrub (shrublet?) is common in dry to moist forests with acidic soils throughout WI where the plants spread via shallow underground stems (rhizomes). The next time you come across this plant, crush a leaf and enjoy the aroma! If there are berries, treat yourself to one or two but make sure to leave some for the wildlife! #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #methylsalicylate #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #wintergreen #easternteaberry #ericaceae #gaultheria #gaultheriaprocumbens #teaberry #checkerberry Let’s take a look at another Wisconsin native orchid for this week’s Wildflower Wednesday! This is the striped coralroot orchid, Corallorhiza striata. The small genus Corallorhiza, with about 10 species, is found almost exclusively in North America as far south as Mexico and parts of Central America with only one species found in boreal Eurasia. All Corallorhiza species parasitize mycorrhizal fungi living in the forest litter for nutrients. This lifestyle is termed mycoheterotrophy and is very common in orchids. Since coralroot orchids don’t make their own food via photosynthesis (except possibly in the one circumboreal species) they have reduced their leaves to simple bracts sheathing the stem and have lost their green chlorophyll. The loss of chlorophyll results in the stems being bright red to yellow. Striped coralroot is unique in the genus in having drooping flowers with prominently red and white(ish) striped sepals and petals. The lip petal, unique to orchids, is usually a much darker red with the stripes merging towards the tip. Some individuals are a much lighter color than others and there is considerable variation in color overall. The roots are a mass of bumpy tuber-like knobs within which the interaction with the fungi takes place. These resemble little bits of coral hence the common and genus name “coralroot”. There are 4 species of coralroot orchids in WI with C. striata being found in the northernmost counties where it can be seen growing in the moist litter of conifer forests. Due to the highly specialized relationship with the mycorrhizal fungi and the very specific habitat needs of both organisms, coralroot orchids cannot be cultivated. They should never be dug up and moved to a garden setting: they will die. Please appreciate all native orchids in the wild and do not disturb them! #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #orchid #orchids #orchidaceae #nativeorchid #corallorhiza #corallorhizastriata #coralroot #coralrootorchid #stripedcoralroot #mycoheterotroph Here is your Wildflower Wednesday for this week! This beauty is poke milkweed aka Asclepias exaltata. Poke milkweed is a little different from most of the rest of our milkweeds in a couple of characters. The most noticeable may be that the clusters of long-stemmed flowers (umbels) are pendent or drooping, almost like they have been broken and forced downwards. The other milkweed species in the state have flowers in spherical ball-like or upright umbels. The other difference is that poke milkweed prefers the dappled light of shady moist woods – a rather unique habitat for a milkweed. Most milkweeds prefer full sun. Each white (occasionally blushed with pink) flower is made up of five parts, which are extremely complicated but unmistakable as being a milkweed. The actual petals are green and the prominent inflated white parts are the anther hoods – outgrowths of the anthers unique to milkweeds. The curved horns of the toothed anther hoods look like little claws sticking out! Poke milkweed has large opposite leaves and can grow to about 1.5m/5ft tall. The seedpods (follicles) are smooth and held upright at the end of the stems (pics 6&7). Of course, being a milkweed, Asclepias exaltata is host for monarchs (pic 8)! Poke milkweed occurs throughout nearly all of WI with only a few counties lacking records of it. This would be a great plant for a woodland garden planting that provides considerable shade. #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #milkweed #apocynaceae #asclepiadaceae #asclepias #asclepiasexaltata #pokemilkweed #poke Hurray! Wildflower Wednesday has come around again! Let’s visit another grass as a follow-up to the big bluestem post back in February: Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans). Growing up to 2m (7ft) tall, indiangrass is another of the major “tallgrass” species that gives the tallgrass prairie ecosystem its name. It flowers in the late summer and has the characteristic highly reduced flowers typical of grasses with only the stamens and styles being readily identifiable (pic 5). Indiangrass is a shade intolerant perennial bunchgrass, meaning it forms roundish clumps of one to many stems versus forming a sod or lawn. On high quality dry-mesic sites, it may form very dense stands (pics 6-8). Indiangrass occurs throughout the central and eastern US but is(was) most prevalent in the tallgrass prairie portions of the Great Plains region. In WI, it is mostly found in the southern and western parts of the state. Most of the historic tallgrass praire ecosystem where indiangrass dominated was destroyed over 100 years ago with conversion to cropland. What was not converted has been negatively impacted by the loss of frequent fires. However, indiangrass responds very well to burning of remnant occurrences and is easily seeded into prairie restoration projects. This makes it a valuable species for rejuvenating and rebuilding native grassland ecosystems. Indian grass can be found in most of the areas preserving tallgrass prairie in WI but is particularly easy to see in the restored prairies of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #grass #poaceae #sorghastrum #sorghastrumnutans #indiangrass #tallgrass #tallgrassprairie #endangeredhabitats Here is a strange one for this week’s Wildflower Wednesday! This easily overlooked little plant is known as White Buttons or Common Pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum) in the Pipewort family (Eriocaulaceae). Each pipewort plant has a little basal cluster of narrow tapering leaves and a single (relatively) long flowering stem with a sheath at the base. The several tiny flowers are crowded together into a round button-like cluster at the tip of the stem about 1cm across. Each individual flower is fairly nondescript but has white hairs that are quite showy. The most obvious part of the flowers are the black anthers that stick up slightly above the flower head (Pic 2). Pipewort is semi-aquatic and can be found growing in wet saturated soils of bogs and pond edges as well as underwater. Often it is found with the flowering stem sticking up above the surface of the water while the body of the plant is submerged. Plants growing on land tend to have fairly short stems while submerged plants may have much longer flowering stems. There are around 10 species of Eriocaulon in the US but only this single species is found in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, pipewort is reported from the northern half of the state with an outlying occurrence in Dane County. Common pipewort appears to have recently colonized Europe naturally where it is the only species. #wisconsin #wisconsinflora #wisconsinplants #nativeplants #plants #botany #wildflowerwednesday #WildflowerWednesday #wildflowers #aquaticplants #eriocaulaceae #eriocaulon #eriocaulonaquaticum #pipewort #whitebuttons #commonpipewort #wetlandplants #easytooverlook #tinyplants

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