Two Flowers and a Weed
Blue Harebell
This bright little flower has a great history. It was once used as the blue dye for tartans of the MacDonald clan and is also their symbol. Its common name refers to folklore that either the flower grew where rabbits denned or that witches used a juice concoction to turn themselves into hares. In the Pacific Northwest, Native Americans called them ‘blue rain flowers’ and they thought picking them would bring rain.
Wild Rose
“Children with great delight eat the berries thereof when they are ripe and make chains and other pretty geegaws of the fruit; cookes and gentlewomen make tarts and suchlike dishes for pleasure.” unknown author.
In current Germany, they are used to make preserves, and Russians and Swedes ferment the fruit for wine.
Harold Culpepper (an early 1800s physician) states that the hips are ‘grateful to the taste and a considerable restorative, fitly given to consumptive persons, the conserve being proper in all distempers of the breast and in coughs and tickling rheums’ and that it has ‘a binding effect and helps digestion.’
Orange Hawkweed
This harmless looking flower is on the “10 most wanted” list of weeds. It is on the hunt and destroy list, which requires commission of a pretty serious crime. Hawkweed spreads voraciously and crowds out every plant in its way, destroying prairie and meadow diversity, and is considered a noxious weed by many countries, (US, Europe and Australia included.) Some consider it rather pretty and it is one of only a few truly orange flowers, but there is plenty of reason one of its nicknames is Devil’s Paintbrush. It was originally called Hawkweed because it was thought hawks’ eyesight improved after ingesting the plant. (How they figured that out is beyond me.)
barbara © 2007
Instinct told us as children in a cold country that rose hips with their vitamin C content so high were good for us. We nibbled them often, and ate the petals too….so beauty and practicality came together.
Bo, where did Hawkweed originate? Usually things that take over come from different areas than the one they take over, because most plants that are native to an area have some natural means that keeps them under control and preserves the ecological balance.
All equally lovely and yet one is considered dangerous and noxious because it’s so prolific it crowds out other species. Hmmmm. Makes one wonder how plants and amimals would list the human species.
Despite its wicked ways, the Hawkweed is beautiful to the eye. Humans should never interfere with natural selection. The introduction of foreign specias almost always creates a problem.
Jane, The hawkweed was brought over by Europeans who thought it would be a nice addition to their gardens. How you say ‘oops?’
Bo
I think these are all lovely and pretty for their own reasons. I don’t think there are any more rogue plants than any other thing on the earth. Of course we have to exercise caution in everything! These are lovely studies, Bo.
Ah, like the starling and English ivy–thought to be harmless, but both overran their original use and their boundaries. And their welcome. But these are beautiful pictures and an easy way to learn more. Delightful!