The name Cranesbill comes from the bill-like seed pods that violently disperse their seeds when dry. This is also the origin of the Greek geranus (“a crane”). The flowers shown here are a little over 1" across.

The well-known Geranium house plant is a separate but closely related genus. This is an early bloomer in the swamp, with extremely tiny flowers in a head, an “umbel.” The whole cluster shown in the photo is only 1/2" across, and the individual flowers in the inset are highly magnified. It is a low, inconspicuous plant, but the flower heads rise several inches above the leaves.

The Dwarf Ginseng looks like a small version of the closely related American Ginseng, prized by the Chinese as an aphrodisiac and heart stimulant, and in the U.S. as a tonic (and a tea, I guess). The Ginseng has been so overcollected that it is now a threatened species in many states. The Dwarf Ginseng is not so highly prized, but its tiny tubers can be nibbled raw or boiled.

The Ginseng family includes English Ivy and other cultivated species.

Goldenrods

Goldenrods and are two genera so large that most books don’t even try to list more than a few varieties. There are about 125 species of Goldenrods, most of them indigenous to the U.S., with 75 in the east alone. People blame Goldenrods for hay fever, but hay fever symptoms are caused by which happens to lose its pollen in the fall when the much more conspicuous Goldenrods are flowering. Even forgetting about the false accusation, they aren’t much liked. One reference calls Goldenrods “too weedy to be allowed into even the wildest garden.” Yet, in ancient times they were thought to have healing powers.

Goldendrods with scattered flowers in the axils are easier to identify than the more common type with curved terminal clusters. This one is also distinguished by the bluish, sligthly zigzag stem, and the lance-shaped, sharply pointed leaves, smooth on top and toothed below. This is one of the more common Goldenrods of fields. The basal leaves have sharp teeth, while the middle stem leaves are entire, with tiny winglike leaflets in the axils. The plant has a smooth, green stem. The flat-topped cluster with narrow leaves having 3-5 veins is distinctive. Notice the 3 parallel veins in the toothed leaves and the smooth, purplish stem with a whitish bloom. One of the most common species of Goldenrods in this area is also highly variable, blurring the distinction with other species. The very hairy, rough stem and leaves are a distinghishing characteristic. This is the one of the showiest of the 125 species of Goldenrods in the U.S., with dense clusters of relatively large flowers. The basal leaves are very large and irregular or obscurely toothed. A similar species, the Stout Goldenrod has flower head bracts with green, spreading tips and lower leaves more regularly toothed. This species is mind-numbingly similar to several others in the guidebooks, but because it grows in the swamp, the tentative identification is Swamp Goldenrod.
This picture is not particularly representative, as the leaf shown in the inset is one of the smaller leaves of the terminal stems, which are a different shape from the main lower leaves that are supposed to look more like Maple leaves, which this specimen did not have.

The Goosefoot family has 102 genera and 1400 species, many of which are weeds, but it also includes Beets, Swiss Chard and Spinach. One very common Goosefoot is , also known as .

Grapes

Wild Grapes are common in this area. Often they grow in dense masses choking out many other plants including trees. By late September or October, about one in five of these masses produces, thick-skinned purple grapes in varying degrees of sweetness. They are a great treat, though you have to chew the tangy skin and spit out the large seeds. Strangely, some of these masses periodically appear to die off completely, either early in the year or later in the summer, leaving nothing but dead vegetation in a large area. But then the next year they come back. The Fox Grape differs from the Summer Grape in that the latter is missing a tendril every third leaf. The leaves have hairy undersides. Note the leaves with 3 main points on the lobes. The fruit does not get sweet until after the first frost, but by then it is a bit squishy, so we like to eat them in Octoober when they are deep purple but still fairly tart.

Greenbrier, and are the few plants in this area that will draw blood, sometimes even through clothing and heavy leather work gloves. This vine can form an impenetrable tangled thicket over large areas in the swamp. Greenbrier is resistant to herbicides, but can be constrained easily by cutting. Just remember to pick up the dead stems, because the spines get even more nasty when hard and dry.

The small green flowers are inconspicuous and very hard to find. The dark blue berries resemble blueberries, but are not edible. They are important food for birds. The young shoots, leaves and tendrils can be eaten cooked with butter, or in salad.