May's flowers

As I am out of the office next week, here's a small piece on May's birth flowers in advance of May Day.

Our provincial flower, Epigaea repens, is commonly called Mayflower locally. Elsewhere in Eastern North America, it is called Trailing Arbutus.

Elsewhere in the world, Mayflower is reserved for the hawthorn shrubs and trees, representing hope and supreme happiness. The Pilgrim ship, The Mayflower, was actually named for the English Hawthorn commonly seen in hedgerows in Europe.

The Lily-of-the-Valley is actually May’s birth flower and is introduced to Maritime gardens as a spring ground cover. Inferring sweetness and humility, these shade lovers also convey a return to happiness. After the past Nova Scotian winter, it is easy to be happy as each snowbank melts! If you give Lily-of-the-Valley to a loved one, you are telling them that your life is complete, with their presence.

In Nova Scotia, we have a smaller native version, we call Wild Lily-of-the-valley,Maianthemum canadense. Colonies of its shiny green leaves may be seen in shady or partially shaded mixed forests.

Convallaria majalis, Lily-of-the-valley, photo by Martin Thomas

Crataegus sp., hawthorn, by Martin Thomas

Wild Lily of the valley, Maianthemum canadense, Martin Thomas

Fiddleheads- a spring treat

A culinary delight, fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of the Ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris. Delicious in soups, chowders and as a side, they must be thoroughly rinsed and cooked before eating. Best to purchase fiddleheads from farmers’ markets and grocery stores, they are often confused with other ferns when young. Only the Ostrich fern produces the edible fiddlehead, although all ferns produce fiddleheads. Most of our commercial fiddleheads are grown and harvested in New Brunswick. They are available during April and May usually.

In Nova Scotia, look for these ferns early in spring in lowlands, while the river beds are still cool and soggy from spring melt. The fiddleheads are harvested by cutting and not digging or pulling. This way the plant thrives to produce more fronds next year. Ostrich fern is often planted by gardeners in shady wet spots for added texture and interest. Be sure you collect fiddleheads from only the Ostrich fern.

For more information on fiddlehead toxicity, please turn tohttp://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/eating-nutrition/safety-salubrite/fruits-vegetables-legumes-fruits/fiddlehead-fougere-eng.php

And my colleague Jim Goltz wrote an interesting rebuttal to popular reports touting raw consumption of these plants.


Ostrich Fern fiddleheads, Photo by Ross Hall

Upon the Earth - slime moulds

Slime Moulds

Soon after snow melt and once the strong spring sun reaches freshly turned saturated soil, biological activity reaches a frenzy. In particularly wet springs sometimes appear masses of shiny jelly. These slimy masses appear to be moving. These are the Slime Moulds, neither plant nor animal, but now added to the Kingdom Protista.

They are slimy only when they first appear in clusters,  as protoplasm. They have the ability to move, in a streaming fashion and engulf nutrients. This contraction and expansion of the plasmodium continues until fruitbodies are produced. Generally, when food is abundant, these masses are not produced. Rather the slime moulds exist as tiny single-celled individuals. Their food is decomposing plant material and form part of the nutrient cycle and recycling.

These bizzare forms are especially prevalent in areas of constant moisture. They frequent lawns, bare soil, rotting logs and many other places. Look for them in compost and bark mulch in urban areas. The photographs shown were included in a Virtual Museum of Canada exhibit, The Fungus Among Us, produced by the NS Museum of Natural History. They were used with permission granted by the photographer, Dr. George Barron.

Hemitrichia serpula, photo by George Barron
Lycogala epidendrum, or Wolf's Milk Slime, photo by George Barron
Tubifera ferruginosa, photo by George Barron

The noble liver

Hepatica nobilis

The beautiful purple hues of Hepatica appear in spring, usually before the leaves are out on the trees above. Flowers are followed by the appearance of lobed leaves.

The scientific name of this buttercup relative refers to an ancient belief in the doctrine of signatures. Before the discipline of western medicine arose as we know it, herbalists such as Dioscoroides and Galen believed that the shape of a plant’s parts indicated the corresponding part of the human body which it healed. This plant then was associated with the hepatic system or liver.

Marchantia, a genus of liverworts, was also proscribed for liver ailments. Wyrt from the Old English, meant a plant used for food or medicine. So we have not just liverworts, but moneywort, bellwort and bladderwort.

The image of Hepatica shown here was photographed by Martin Thomas. It joins nine other plant portraits on exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. It is also one of many images donated by volunteers to illustrate Nova Scotia Plants, launched this month. For your free copy merely select the 'Contact Us' button on this page.

Hepatica nobilis, photo by Martin Thomas

What Is It?

Find out during Ask a Curator chat

We did a late March Ask a Curator hour. For those of you who missed it, there will be aTwitter Thursday April 16. This a live chat opportunity for you who use Twitter. My handle is@NovaScotiaFlora. Feel free to join us with comments and questions, images of spring flowers and general botanical silliness.

Last month we asked you if anyone had seen Coltsfoot flowering yet. As not even roadsides were visible, we had few answers. So a small request: please check in April 16 10-12 if you see these yellow flowers of spring along the roads and sidewalks where you live.

We asked you to tell us the name of our provincial wildflower. Some of you named the Mayflower, Epigaea repens. Absolutely! This delicately fragrant vining plant has not yet been reported in Nova Scotia. Or has it? Tweet us and let us know if you have seen it.

Another participant posted two beautiful images of mushrooms. One was the honey mushroom, a wonderful edible that takes care and practice to identify. I have to say, mushroom identification is not my strength, but I can probably find someone who can help us with those.

I love to keep a couple of “did you know” type questions at the ready. Last month’s of course related to the elusive coltsfoot. So, did you know what branded product contained coltsfoot?

Please mark April 16, 10-12ADT and sign in to twitter.com Post using @NovaScotiaFlora or#NSBotany and join the conversation.

Mayflowers photographed by Ross Hall
Coltsfoot in flower, also photographed by Ross Hall

Balsam-fir candles

As a student of botany I often need to develop short-cuts and visual field cues to aid in remembering key features. I am certain that we all have mental blocks about remembering certain facts. For years I confused identification of mature balsam-fir and spruce trees.  Just could not seem to remember which was which, when the branches were 'way up there'. I could never discern the bark differences.

All conifers produce cones. The familiar woody cones we find on the ground are the mature female cones that open to release the seeds. Rightfully called strobili (singular: strobilus), the staminate or male cones are herbaceous, dropping soon after pollen is released. The female or pistillate cones may take 6 to 24 months to open, depending on whether it is a spruce, pine, cedar or juniper. Each cone is made up of overlapping scales, spirally arranged. Each scale bears a seed. 

So fir-candles were a result of these musings. The balsam-fir is an important tree in those counties that produce Christmas trees. They are rarely so tall that the two-ranked needles can't be seen. However on the large, mature trees the presence of these lovely purplish cones serves as a visual cue for me. After all candles are never upside down and spruce wear their cones pendant. I am down with that!

Reg Newell shot this beautiful close-sup of a cluster of balsam-fir candles. It is one of 10 posters that wil be on display Wednesday April 8 at 7:00PM at the Museum of Natural History. Admission is free to the Museum that evening and the occasion marks the official launch of the NS Plants publication. Reg was one of nearly 40 photographers who donated the use of their plant images for this comprehensive eBook.

Happy April Fool's Day and a month of daisies

Daisy – the flower of April

But no fooling here. Some would say those born in April are blessed with two birth flowers. Both the daisy and the Sweet-pea are attributed to this spring month. However, their giving means different things.

The daisy conveys innocence, loyal love and purity. Between friends, the giving of a daisy means I will never tell our secret!

Sweetpeas indicate blissful pleasure, but are also given to say good-bye. In Nova Scotian gardens certainly we see the Sweetpea earlier than we see daisies, even the ornamental Shastas are summer flowers.

They are available as cut flowers at florists. For the pet lovers amongst us, daisies are a safe choice in houses with cats and dogs.

Simple daisies, photo by Debbie, at queenbee1924

Sweetpeas, photo by Marian Munro