Stream Banks – Tendrils

Got a spot in the woods? If you do, I hope you have this plant somewhere close by. An amazing color and a beautiful flower. Ironweed. Quite possibly New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), but then again it might be Upland Ironweed (Vernonia glauca), or Tall Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea). These three species all reside in Virginia and to add to the confusion they hybridize. So I won’t go out on the proverbial limb and try to identify which species my photos contain. They are Ironweed!

This photo above is an Ironweed, lakeside at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, in Richmond, Virginia. In less formal settings you’ll find them in ditches, edges of ponds, moist meadows and stream banks. But they are also quite happy on drier mountain slopes that get full or partial shade, as my gardens can attest. If you have Black Walnut trees around, Ironweed is tolerant of the juglone that those trees present as a challenge to gardeners.

In looking very closely at the blooms of Ironweed, I immediately think of itty bitty bighorn sheep, looking out through the intense magenta petals of the disk flowers. Those curlycue, white, “sheepsheads” that I see are actually the split stigmas of each individual flower.

A host plant of the American Lady Butterfly, Ironweed also attracts many species of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. I love having these flowers here in my gardens, both as gifts to me from dear family, and volunteers.

I’ve only ever seen the caterpillar of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton). Never the adult. That one sighting was an hour from my cabin at Buck Hollow in Shenandoah National Park. Since that brief observation I’ve learned that the main larval host plant of the beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot is White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra).

I’ve learned that the Baltimore Checkerspot is the state insect of Maryland. A state that means a great deal to me. So I’ve planted White Turtlehead in one of my gardens. Hoping it might bring me luck. And with that luck a Baltimore Checkerspot to my garden.

One of the Turtlehead’s pollinators is the bumblebee who uses brute force to reach the flower’s precious nectar.

My flowers are white while others of this same species sometimes have a slight hint of pink or lavender.

White Turtlehead is a herbaceous perennial, native to most of the eastern half of the United States. It prefers damp conditions such as stream banks where it grows two or three feet tall. Full sun to partial shade will keep it happy. Blooms arrive mid summer into early fall. And in the meantime I’m patiently waiting and hoping.