Wildflower I.D. – red clover

The clover is now dying out but back in June, we had tons of it that was attracting tons of butterflies! I thought this red clover pic was really pretty and it has a very small grasshopper on it!

Wildflower I.D. – Creeping Thistle

Here’s another annoying wildflower that I wish I could have the flower of without the prickles and invasiveness! Unfortunately these are too prevalent in our yard!

 

Wildflower I.D. – Birdfoot Trefoil

Here’s another common weed that I photographed from our yard. I’ve seen these flowers all over quite a bit in my lifetime but never really looked at them close up. Though they’re obnoxious, the symmetry of the flowers is interesting!

Wildflower I.D. – Daisy Fleabane

We saw these daisy fleabane near a wooded area where we were hiking back in June. They resemble daisies in coloring but are smaller and the white part is more fringed.

Wildflower I.D. – Rough-fruited Cinquefoil

I found this flower blooming in our yard in June. The heart-shaped leaves are pretty. It’s probably considered a weed, but hasn’t been too invasive yet and is pretty. I don’t have a good pic of the rest of the plant here, but here’s the flower.

Bumblebee on Sunflower

I have a cool sunflower plant that we started from bird seed during a homeschool science experiment. We decided to transplant it into the garden to see what it would turn out like and here it is!

 It’s beautiful right now. I took some close-up pics of the flowers and was watching the bees buzzing around them. There was a huge bumblebee that was fun to watch. It would land and get covered with pollen and then would take it’s legs to “groom” itself before flying off to another sunflower. Here are some pics. You may be able to see some pollen on the first pic on the bee and in the 2nd pic, the bee has it’s leg up by it’s head cleaning it. It looks much cleaner in this pic!

Flower I.D. – Triple Orange Kwanso Daylily

I found these cool triple-stacked daylilies growing behind our house. They’re very unique looking – they look like you have 3 of them stacked together!

Wildflower I.D. – Common Mullein – wildflower with herbal uses

 

Last week I went on a hike to St Peter’s Dome in the Penokee “Mountain” Range in Northern WI. I put “mountain” in quotes as you can imagine, there’s nothing like a real mountain out there! Anyways, it’s a beautiful 3.8 mile hike round trip. You hike out to a high point on what used to be a “bald” “mountain top” and have a beautiful view out of the trees and lakes around. On clear days you can see out to lake Superior, but not the day we hiked.

 

Anyways, as we neared the top we saw these pretty wildflowers that I took a pic of. They were just starting to bloom their yellow flowers along the tall, straight stalk sticking up. I looked up some info on this common mullein and found out it has been considered a useful herb. It is used commonly for treating bronchial infections and other respiratory illnesses. You can make a tea by pouring 1 cup boiling water over 1-2 tsp of it’s dried leaves and letting it sit for 10-15 min. Drain this and drink it 3x/day for best results.

 

It has also been useful for treating ear infections by mixing it with olive oil. Always take care in using with other medications and don’t take this as medical advice! Enjoy this flower and if you have an abundance of it, consider it’s medicinal uses!

Wildflower I.D. – Common Yarrow

 

We discovered common yarrow out on a walk recently. Since then we have seen that this wildflower / weed is quite common around us. I did a little research on this plant to see if I could learn anything interesting about it.

I found out that it was commonly used by armies to help treat wounds to make them stop bleeding quickly. It has also been used for nosebleeds – people would push the fresh leaves up into the nose and it would help the bleeding to stop faster! Maybe I should try that with my daughter who frequently has nosebleeds!

It can also be used to fight fevers. It helps the body to sweat more and helps the thirst that a fever brings on. Make a tea out of the leaves and drink it to help get the liquids the body needs and help sweat out the impurities from the fever. A lotion can also be made out of the flower top which can help reduce fever.

It is easy to grow and grows in poor soil. It can be grown from seed (needs light to germinate) or be divided and transplanted in early spring or fall. Some gardeners may find it a nuissance, but I think it’s pretty and has some great uses!

Wildflower I.D. – Orange Hawkweed and Yellow Hawkweed

I have enjoyed seeing orange hawkweed and was all excited to take some great pics.

I also saw a yellow flower today when out on a nature walk and took pics and decided it’s a yellow hawkweed.

They were attracting a ton of butterflies to them. I e-mailed the e-naturalist to try to figure out what these butterflies are – they’re tiny and they’re everywhere right now! Check out www.enaturalist.org if you have something you’re having trouble identifying!

I was excited about all of this and then I decided to read about these plants on the web today. I found out that both of these are invasive species and are considered very undesirable. Personally, I think they’re beautiful! So if it’s invasive but beautiful is that bad? Of course, normally in life, the beautiful plants that you want, you can’t get to grow, but only the weeds that you don’t want. So maybe this is a weed and invasive, but if I think it’s beautiful, maybe there’s actually an easy-to-grow pretty flower!

Then again, dandelions are pretty until their seed heads come out. There are many weeds that are pretty at times. Well, time will tell whether I like having this plant around or not. There aren’t many in my yard – yet….

P.S. – can you count how many butterflies are in the pic above?