You may be aware that the viceroy butterfly mimics the monarch because birds don’t like the taste of monarchs. The reason for this is that Milkweed is the sole food for Monarch larvae, and it contains caridiac glycosides, similar to digitalins used for treating heart disease. The glycosides are absorbed by the larvae, making them and the adult butterflies toxic to birds. (What do viceroy larvae eat?) This is distinguished from the by flowers that are brighter purple and with “horns” emanating from the hoods of the flowers much longer than the hoods. A low plant of salt marshes and beaches. The flowers, not visible in these photos, are white, pink or purple about 1" across. These photos were take on the coast of Mt. Desert in Maine. The flower is said to look like a monkey's face, and the Latin name mimus means “a buffoon”. This creeping plant is easy to find in in the bog, but the flowers are not. This moss gets up to 9" tall. There are several other species of Hair Caps: P. juniperinum, P. formosum, P. piliferum with similiar cylindrical capsules on stalks. This is a , differing from the others in that it has just one or two flowers in a head, and the flower is bigger than that of other Hawkweeds. There are about 14 species of Artemisia or Wormwoods in New England. with leaves deeply loped or finely divided and aromatic. The Common Mugwort has tiny green flowers and grows in dry waste places. This fuzzy, introduced plant is a bienniel, producing a rosette of large basal leaves the first year and a flower stalk up to 8' tall the second. The dead stalks persist all winter.
The plant has been used for a great many purposes. Romans dipped the dead stalks in grease to make torches, and Indians and colonist lined their mocassins and socks with the leaves for insulation. The leaves make a tea used to treat colds and lung disorders, and flowers and roots were used to treat various other ailments, including migraines, ear aches, sunburn and various skin injuries. The leaves cause irritation, redness and warming of the skin when handled, and contain rotenone, a natural insecticide supposedly non-toxic to mammals. The flowers make a yellow dye used for cloth, and with additives will make a green or a brown dye. This is one of the members of the Nettle family that does not have stinging hairs, and fortunately the only common Nettle in this area. The fuzzy stem is a spike of tiny green flowers about 2mm long, with leaves on the ends of some spikes. It grows mostly in moist, shady areas of the swamp, flowering in late August and September. While this is supposedly a common weed of roadsides and waste places, it is strangely not listed by in the book. Despite the name, this is not a member of either the Hemp or Nettle families. It resembles the other Nettles only in the leaves and its hairy stem. A distinguishing feature of this plant is the swollen stem just below each joint.
The Nightshade family (Solanaceae) includes a few poisonous varieties, but includes many common foods such as chili, bell pepper, tomato, potato, eggplant and groundcherry. Also tobacco and petunia belong to this family.
This is an introduced vine growing profusely in the mostly shaded areas under spruce trees in the yard, where some light shows through, and also next to some buildings. It’s a prolific, unruly plant but easy to pull out of the ground. The flower has a distinctive yellow “beak” in the center.This plant is the famous “deadly nightshade,” but in fact the toxin solanine that it contains is not fatal, although a large quantity of the berries can cause poisoning. Parts of the plant first taste bitter, then sweet, and it was used in England to counteract witchcraft. It flowers late spring through summer. This variant of nightshade with its very black berries was found growing only in a former tomato patch, a year after the tomatoes went to seed. Is it a coincidence that they are from the same family as tomatoes? We saw these only that one season and all the other Nightshades in this area are the.
Like the , the leaves and berries of this plant contain the poisonous alkaloid, solanine. The toxicity of the berries decreases as they ripen. This is not related to the other at all, though it shares a common name. It is one of the few flowers that you can find in medium-dark woods, although it does require a small clearing or path. This is the only flower in this catalog with two petals.