Good [insert time of day here], readers! I hope this post finds you well.
My roommate’s birthday just recently passed, and her cousin organized a birthday party for her outside the DOC house, on the far side of Occom Pond. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of going outside for longer than a few minutes at a time, but for my roommate, I was willing to make this sacrifice.
On this fairly warm (~65ºF), slightly windy day, I made the long trek from the Co-op Food Store out to the DOC house, and actually had an enjoyable walking experience.
Along the way, I noticed many beautiful flowers as I walked, and stopped to take pictures as reference for my field journal drawings. I was not able to identify any of these flowers on site, but I searched online using Wildflower and Tree Identification websites, and was able to to figure out what they were.
For wildflower identification, I used this website; for tree identification, I used this website.
The flower pictured above features clusters of small, round blue flowers vertically oriented on their stems. The bottom rim of each flower has a circle of white, and the plants’ leaves are long with smooth edges. After using the wildflower identifier, I found that this flower is called the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari genus, not to be confused with actual Hyacinths), and are perennial plants that grow out of bulbs.
Next I came across the above blue, six-petaled flowers. After searching, I identified this plant as the Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica), which is an invasive species in the Northeast United States. These radially symmetrical flowers are slightly bell-shaped, and their perennial plants also grow out of bulbs.
As I continued on my journey, I stumbled across these tiny, asymmetrical purple flowers that grew vertically in clusters on their stems. This plant was the most difficult to identify of all the species I came across, but eventually I found that this plant has many common names, including Ground-Ivy, Gill-Over-the-Ground, Creeping Charlie, Alehoof, Tunhoof, Catsfoot, Field Balm, and Run-Away-Robin. This plant, native to Europe and Southwestern Asia but now fairly common in the U.S., is a perennial, aromatic, evergreen creeper from the mint family, and is scientifically known as Glechoma hederacea.
My last flower came in the form of a tree with stunning yellow flowers. For me, this was ultimately an easy plant to identify, since I had previously come cross another maple tree with similar flowers, though in red, not yellow. With the help of the internet, I identified this plant as a Norway maple (Acer platanoides). This species is invasive to North America, and has in fact been banned in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. …Perhaps I should call Hanover Police?
I had a great time at my roommate’s birthday party, but this walk made my day even better. My favorite part of this experience was identifying each plant. I look forward to another rewarding nature experience.
Have any of you ever tried identifying plants you’ve seen out and about? What do you think of these selections? Do you have a favorite flower?
See you next time,
Janine ☀️