Local Flora and Fauna – Plus

Time for another nature related post from our neighborhood… ‘Progress’ can be ugly or unpleasant, but nature doesn’t easily give up its hold on the land.

This giant weed sprouted up in the cleared but seemingly abandoned home lot right across the street from our house.  There were several of these huge weeds scattered around the lot before someone showed up and cut them down.  What blew my mind were the gorgeous flowers that opened up on these gangly plants every day in the early evening.

After a bit of research, I discovered that this plant is Jimson weed, aka thorn apple, devil’s snare or devil’s trumpet.  The Jimson weed is in the nightshade family and it is an aggressive invasive weed in temperate climates around the world.  No matter the fact that this plant is invasive, the flowers are beautiful!

Jimson weed has been used as a hallucinogen to cause intense, sacred or occult visions.  The effects on mind and body are perceived as highly unpleasant, giving rise to a state of profound and long-lasting disorientation or delirium…with a potentially fatal outcome.

Nothing like a cluster of black-eyed Susan flowers to brighten up a garden!  They are so cheerful…  Native to Eastern and Central North America, it is now found in all 48 contiguous states and 10 of Canada’s provinces.

Native Americans used it as an herbal medicine for various ailments.  The roots are used to boost immunity and fight colds, flu and infections, but this hasn’t been scientifically substantiated.  The Ojibwa peoples used the roots of this plant as a poultice for snake bites and to make an infusion for treating colds and worms in children.

Notes: If ingested by cats, the black-eyed Susan is toxic.  This plant is the state flower of Maryland.

Our lime-lite hydrangea near the street in front of our house still continues to flourish after 13 years since we bought the property.

Hydrangea is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants that are native to Asia and the Americas.  Lime lite hydrangeas are a variety of a species of this plant.  While most hydrangeas are shrubs, some are small trees and others are lianas.  An interesting tidbit is that hydrangeas can either be deciduous or evergreen.

Hydrangea root and rhizome, with possible diuretic properties, are indicated for treatment of conditions of the urinary tract in the Physicians’ Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine.  The plant is moderately toxic if eaten and it is sometimes smoked as an intoxicant…but there is significant danger of resulting illness and/or death due to the cyanide contain in the plant.

Our neighbor Sherry brought over this big display of Gladiolus just to brighten up our day.  They certainly brightened our hearth for a few days. 

FYI, gladiolus is the diminutive of ‘gladius’, a sword.  This plant occurs naturally in Asian, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa and tropical Africa.  Gladiolus is the ‘birth flower’ of August and these flowers are associated with a fortieth wedding anniversary.

Continuing with the floral theme, Laurie took this photo of one of the attractive flower baskets decorating the sidewalk in downtown Loudon Tennessee.

The flowers are petunias, one genus of 20 species that originated in South America.  Other members of family of plants include tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomato, potato, deadly nightshade and chili peppers.  Both the Maya and Incan peoples believed that the scent of petunias could ward off underworld monsters and spirits.

The vines in the planter appear to be wild potato vines, aka manroot, wild sweet potato and wild rhubarb.  It is native to North America.  This plants large tuberous roots can be roasted and eaten or they can be used to make a poultice or infusion.  The uncooked roots have purgative properties.

Laurie took this photo of an annual happening in our front yard…eastern goldfinch feasting on the seeds of our coneflowers.  Despite the fact that once this plants flowers are ‘done’ and they’re looking ugly, that’s when the goldfinches show up to feast on the seeds.  We never cut down the plants until the seeds are gone.  FYI, coneflowers are self-seeding...

The Eastern goldfinch is one of 4 different subspecies of finch in North America.  This is the most common of the subspecies.  This finch undergoes a complete molt, with the males achieving this bright yellow color in the summer.  In the winter, their color is olive but the female’s colors only change slightly over the seasons. 

Eastern Purple Cornflowers are members of the daisy family.  There are 10 species that are commonly referred to as coneflowers…and they are found only in eastern and central North America.  This plant’s generic name, Echinacea, is derived from a Greek word meaning “sea urchin” due to the flower’s spiny seed bearing spiny central disk

As I’ve mentioned several times previously, home building in our neighborhood has been constant…even rampant.  More lots on our street have been cleared in recent weeks with almost all the trees being removed.  The preceding photos show a couple of the newly cleared lots and recent beginnings of the building process. 

However, if you look closely, (enlarge the photos), you will see some opportunistic critters, our local flock of turkey, looking for tasty food items in the newly disturbed soil.  So far, we are still seeing plenty of wild turkey wandering through the neighborhood.  It’s estimated that there are about 300,000 wild turkey wandering around Tennessee.  In the second photo, these big birds are near the erosion 'fence' at the back left so I added the 3rd photo so you can actually see them...

What I didn’t know was that the earliest turkeys evolved in North America over 20 million years ago.  Turkeys were domesticated in Mexico about 2,000 years ago.  Weirdly, they were first exported to Spain ca. 1519 and then to England in 1541.  From there, settlers brought them to North America in the 1600s.

In addition to continued visits from flocks of turkey, as the first photo shows, we’re still being visited by our local white-tail deer population.  This doe was snacking in the 'cleared' lot across the street.  In the 1940s, the range of these deer was limited to just a few counties in east Tennessee, but now, with an estimated state-wide population of about 900,000, they are found in all 95 counties.

Viewing the crushed bed of Hosta’s that grow right up beside our deck and given the shape and size of the impacted area, our initial assumption is that a doe had bedded down her fawn here for its safety.  Wrong!!

A few days later, Laurie spotted the “Hosta Destroyer” at work!  It was just one of our local bunny rabbits.  In the first photo the rabbit was just noshing away but in the second photo, it was almost like…”You looking at me?  Ok, you caught me!  So what are you going to about it?!”  We checked out that bed of hostas again today…and that bunny has pretty much destroyed the whole thing.

That’s about it for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave