Viola sororia AKA Common Blue Violet 

I love when in early spring our back yard becomes blanketed with violets!  These beautiful wildflowers are called Viola sororia.  They are a plant native to Connecticut, one that is not only beautiful but edible. There is a close imported look-a-like called Viola odorata, a variety from Europe.  Viola odorata shares many aspects of our native violet but its flowers have a pronounced sweet fragrance.  Viola odorata flowers are considered just as edible our native violets as are most species of viola. Historically our native Viola sororia was a source of both food and medicine for Native Americans. The flowers which range in color from white to various shades of purple can be eaten freshly picked.  Simply toss raw flowers into salads where they will add a colorful accent. Fresh flowers can be frozen into ice cubes or pressed into a soft cheese such as brie.  The flowers can also be preserved for a time as crystalized violets.  Crystalized violet flowers are a delicate confection impressive when used as a decoration on a cake or a garnish floated atop a drink. To make them, simply dip the flowers in slightly beaten egg whites, then dip in granulated sugar. Place the flowers on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a slightly warm oven until they are dry to the touch.  Stored in airtight containers in a dark place, they will keep for several months before the color fades. Just today I found out that the heart shaped leaves of this plant are edible as well!  The leaves can be steamed like spinach.  Although I have yet to try the steamed leaves, the flavor profile is said to be similar to peas, so I imagine slightly sweet. It is advisable to wait until the plant is in bloom before gathering violet leaves for consumption so that you are certain that you have accurately identified the plant.  Please be certain any plants you gather have not been treated with chemicals!

 

Erythronium americanium AKA Trout Lily, Yellow Dog Tooth Violet  

This a beautiful little flowering plant is native to Connecticut, and a harbinger of spring.  The leaves have a mottled splotched pattern as well as a shape that much resembles the body of a trout hence Erythronium americanium's most common name trout lily.  You will find this plant growing on the damp forest floor during the months of April through May where it takes advantage of the sunlight before the forest canopy fills in.  The plant is a reluctant bloomer with only a fraction of plants producing blooms during the month of April.   A short time after any blooms fade the foliage of all the trout lily plants dies back for the year.  The leaves turn yellow and wither away returning again the following April. 

 Many of the trout lily colonies you encounter in the woods can be hundreds of years old.  When you encounter a large colony, you will likely notice only one or two plants with flowers.  Because the flowers are one of the first in the season to bloom, they are pollinated almost without fail by bees that are extremely hungry after a long winter.  A great deal of energy goes into producing any of the flowers you see. It may take up to five years of stored energy to produce it.  The stored energy comes from the process of photosynthesis, which these days may be best explained using the analogy of a solar panel connected to a battery. A solar panel gathers energy, and when connected to a battery any of that energy not expended for other things is stored within the battery for future use.  In the case of the trout lily, it can take up to five years of stored energy finally allowing for the production of a single bloom making you wonder how a colony of trout lilies can be so massive when there are so few flowers resultant in so few seeds.  Trout lily plants have a second method of reproduction, an unusual cloning method.  Each plant sends out a long slender threadlike stem called a dropper.  These droppers grow up to 10" long.  As they grow, they turn a 45-degree angle and burrow deeply into the ground.  After planting themselves the droppers gradually form a corm (sort of a bulblike structure) that grows into another plant.  This is how trout lilies are able form a dense carpet on the forest floor.  The seeds that form from the flowers are also viable.  Several are produced within a capsule.   They are designed to be planted by ants.  Each of the seeds within the capsule is coated with a sugary substance irresistible to an ant.  They carry the sugar-coated seed home to share with their buddies. After the coating is consumed, the seed gets tossed in their trash pile where it eventually germinates creating another trout lily plant that over time given the right growing conditions can develop into a new colony. The ant feeding process is called myrmecochory.  A variety of plants share this method of survival.   

 

Hate To Rush Things but Spring Now Please!

I am so thankful for the folks who put together the 10-day forecast.  I don't know what I would do without them.  I study that forecast with great anticipation every morning during the winter.  I frequently look several times a day, in hopes it might improve. Today, just when I didn't think I could take another day of ridiculously frigid snowy weather, and snow squalls, I see there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Finally, a warming trend is included in the forecast, and it seems to include several days predicted to be in the 40s! Combined with days getting noticeably longer, and the occasional calls of a few very brave early voyaging birds, it gives me hope that spring may be in the air!  It may be time to at least consider emerging from hibernation and pondering some potential tasks for the days ahead. One of the first I'm contemplating, once the snow cover melts back some, is cutting the bittersweet vines as low to the ground as possible. I promised one of my partially strangled sycamore trees I would do that last year, but time got away from me. Late winter is a great time to accomplish the job as there is no competing vegetation and best of all no ticks!  It is a fairly easy job, a good way to break into the gardening cycle slowly.  There is no need to remove the vine from branches of the tree. Once the vine dies back it becomes light and fragile and it will lose its chokehold.  There is no need to paint herbicide on the cut portions at this time either.  Herbicides aren't effective during the spring months.  Plants are busy sending stored nutrients from the roots to the upper story beginning to produce foliage during the spring months.  Herbicides are always best applied when a plant has fully matured foliage.  It is at that point when the transfer of nutrients reverses and nutrients are transferred from the leaves back to the roots.  This allows the herbicide to be carried to the roots along with the nutrients which effectively kills the plant.  Sometimes herbicides aren't even needed.  Provided you have the time and patience, just keeping up with cutting the bittersweet vine, and pulling it out, when possible, will in time be enough to control an infestation. Cutting the lower branches of adjacent trees also helps as it deters the vine from climbing them.  Yup, after my second cup of coffee, I am actually looking forward to the physical aches that the spring tasks will bring!  In addition to the extended forecast, I am especially grateful for caffeine and Aleve!

 

Brush Fence

Somewhere along the line, I came across a photograph of a brush fence and thought what a good idea!  There are so many dead trees in the woods everywhere, and while there are many ways to dispose of the resultant branches, this one seems less labor intensive then most, and it creates an attractive border.  With the vertical posts in place additional brush can be added as it falls.  Best of all it makes a great home for the tiny creatures that populate the woods.

 Connecticut Flower and Garden Show

Experience spring even if it is only for a day!  The Connecticut Flower and Garden Show will be a great place to get some gardening ideas for the coming year!  The show will be running Thursday through Sunday February 19th - 22nd at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford on Columbus Blvd.  For more detailed information regarding hours, admission prices, parking options, and exhibitors, I have provided a link. https://ctflowershow.com 

 

Variegated Pipsissewa AKA Chimaphila maculata

Shortly after we moved here, a friend visited to see exactly what we had gotten ourselves into with this old house.  While we were walking along Merrick's brook his booming voice called out.  "Christine, do you know what this plant is called?"  Before I could guess an answer, his authoritative voice replied "Christine, this is variegated pipsissewa."  Now years later my friend Lou is gone, but each and every time I see that plant growing, I hear his voice, I mean he may as well have invented the darned plant!  Variegated pipsissewa always makes me think fondly of Lou, and I believe that is typical of the sentiment inspired by certain plants.  Plants have the ability to haunt us with our own memories.  Sometimes it's a memory of a person who perhaps gifted the plant from their garden, or perhaps a plant will inspire a memory of a place you once visited. For some it may be a fond memory of a home left behind, willingly or not.  Perhaps a plant serves as a fond reminder of a distant country once home and sadly never to be revisited.  Bringing a plant or a seed with you is as close as you can get to bringing a piece of your past with you, and as the seed grows into the plant it was meant to be, it feels like you are visiting with a familiar friend, in my case that is Lou.  

Variegated pipsissewa is a small 8-10" tall plant considered native to Connecticut, as well as much of eastern North America.  Another of its common names is spotted wintergreen.  It is a pretty little plant bearing small white flowers during early to mid-July. It is an attractive plant year-round because of its striking variegated evergreen foliage.  Unfortunately, this plant does not have the minty wintergreen fragrance or flavor of Gaultheria procumbens, the other wintergreen plant from which that flavor derives.  In the case of spotted wintergreen, the wintergreen portion of its common name seems to refer to the fact the plant has evergreen foliage. The plant often grows in a shaded upland forest setting in dry sometimes sandy or acidic soil.  It spreads in colonies by underground rhizomes but can also reproduce through the very tiny seeds released from the seed capsules that follow the flowers.  It is in the heath and heather family and like those plants it is capable of growing in what may seem harsh conditions.  The reason it can do so is that it has a mycorrhizal relationship with certain fungi. Pipsissewa exchanges sugars and lipids gathered through the process of photosynthesis with the fungi. In exchange minerals are broken down from the soil and leaf litter and provided to the plant by the fungi.  Mychorrhizal relationships are extremely common in the plant world.

This plant has a history of use by Native Americans who would brew a medicinal tea from the leaves. The tea was said to relieve arthritis.  Another of the plant's Indigenous medicinal uses was as a cure for gallstones or kidney stones. For that reason, the Creek Indian name for the plant is pipsisikweu which translates roughly to breaks apart into smaller pieces. 

Keep an eye out for variegated pipsissewa when hiking, and when you encounter this plant be sure to say hi to my friend Lou! 

Recreational Trails Proposal

Here's my artistically untalented picture of what we are asking DEEP to pay for. There's actually a 20% match but that can consist mostly of volunteer time, so we're hoping people will step up. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do leave a comment. Any suggestions or possible resources are welcome. And neighbors, don't worry, we're going to have the property surveyed and the boundaries clearly marked.