Sunday, August 9, 2020

Wild Summer Flowers, Black-Eyed Susans and Queen Anne's Lace ©

 

The author’s front yard, photograph by the author.

 

Author’s Note – It’s Summer and the schools are closed, but the Plant Identification 101 class is still meeting.  For my readers who are Boy Scouts in the United States, this article can help you with the plant identification requirements for your First Class rank.  This is the fifth article in the Plant Identification 101 series, for other plant identification articles go HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE

  

I have always loved Black-eyed Susans, they are one of my favorite flowers.  My yard is covered with them, along with daisies, echinacea1 and other wildflowers.  When I was little, I used to pick Queen Anne’s Lace and put it into glasses of water, into which a couple of drops of food coloring had been added, just to watch them turn colors. 

 

An old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, photograph by the author.

 

Since these two types of flowers are commonly found in fields and along roads and train tracks blooming during the late summer months and into the fall, I thought we might take a moment to talk about them.

 

 

Wild black-eyed susans, growing in an old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, photograph by the author.

 

The range of Rudbeckia hirta, an excerpt from United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, “Rudbeckia hirta L., blackeyed Susan”.

 

There are many plants that share the name, black-eyed susan, and they are all part of the daisy family, with the genus rudbeckia containing over 23 species: all of which grow in North America.  In Latin, the word “hirta” means hairy and in this case, it is used to describe the hairy stems and leaves of this type of black-eyed susan.  There are four variants of Rudbeckia hirta, the Rudbeckia hirta variant floridiana, which is found in Florida; Rudbeckia hirta variant augustifolia, which is found in the southeastern United States north to North Carolina and west to Texas; Rudbeckia hirta variant hirta, which is found in the eastern Unites States; and Rudbeckia hirta variant pulcherrina, which is the most widespread and is found throughout the Unites States, except in Nevada and Arizona.  Black-eyed susans are pioneer plants, which means that they are often the first thing to grow after a fire.  They can be found in fields, pastures, prairies, ditches, along railroad tracks and roads, in open woodlands and in brownfields and other abandoned areas this time of the year. 

 

A closeup of Rudbeckia hirta, note the hairy stems and the hairy lanceolate leaves, photograph by the author.

 

Rudbeckia hirta and other types of black-eyed susans are biennial and are from one to three feet (30 to 90 cm) in height.  Sometimes a flower will appear in the first summer after gemination, however usually black-eyed susans do not produce flowers until their June to September of their second summer: after that they will regrow from a taproot.  Rudbeckia hirta have hairy stems and the hairy lanceolate leaves, other types of black-eyed susans do not have hairy stems or leaves and have saw-toothed leaves, instead.

 

A picture of one of the black-eyed susans growing in the author’s front yard, note the saw-toothed leaf edge and the relatively hairless stem, photograph by the author.

 

Additionally, they are thought to have medicinal properties and the Native Americans have historically used the entire plant; with yellow and green dyes being made from the flowers, and the roots, stems, leaves and florets have been used to treat colds, earaches, sores, swellings due to worms, and heart problems2.  Originally these flowers were native to eastern and central North America but have now spread and are found throughout the western half of the North American continent, as well as in China.

 

 

Wild black-eyed susans, growing in an old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, photographs by the author.

 

 

 

Queen Anne's Lace, growing in an old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, photograph by the author.

 

The range of Daucus carota, an excerpt from United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, “Daucus carota L., Queen Anne's lace”.


Daucus carota which is its Latin name, is better known in North America as Queen Anne's Lace, it is also called wild carrot, bird’s nest, or bishop’s lace, is an invasive species, originally native to the temperate areas of Europe, southwestern Asia and North Africa: its current range now includes North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.  It is believed that the wild carrot spread to North America, during the early 17th century as a contaminant in grain imports and that it migrated to Australia with carrot seed that was shipped to the continent during the late 18th century3.  Just like black-eyed susans, it can be found growing in fields, pastures, prairies, ditches, along railroad tracks and roads, in open woodlands and brownfields and other abandoned areas at this time of the year.  Queen Anne's Lace is the ancestor of todays cultivated carrot and it is a biennial plant that grows to as much as four to five feet (120 to 150 cm) tall, but it is commonly much shorter than that.  The flowers are small, about 5/64 of an inch (about 2mm) and the white flowers are bisexual, while the few purple-red flowers, which are sometimes found in the center, are sterile.

 

A closeup of Queen Anne's Lace, growing in an old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, note the few purple-red flowers in the center surround by the white flowers, photograph by the author.

 

Queen anne’s lace is not poisonous, in fact it is edible, as you would suppose given that it is the ancestor of today’s carrot, however, in appearance it is like five other plants.  Some are poisonous to touch, all are poisonous to eat: think Socrates and the cup of poison hemlock!  They are giant hogweed, heracleum mantegazzianum; poison hemlock, conium maculatum; spotted water hemlock, cicuta maculate; cow parsnip, heracleum maximum; and wild parsnip, pastinaca sativa.  All except the wild parsnip have clusters of small white flowers, the wild parsnip has yellow flowers, and all are very tall plants, with the giant hogweed reaching up to 18 feet (5.5 meters)4.  So, before you pick that queen anne’s lace, make very certain that you know what it is!

 

 

 

Closeups of Queen Anne's Lace, growing in an old brownfield, along the Buffalo, NY waterfront, note the hairy stems and carrot like leaves, photographs by the author.

 

So enjoy the friendly yellow flowers of the black-eyed susan and if you are interested in picking some queen anne's lace to go with your summer bouquet, just make sure that the white flower that you are picking is in fact queen anne's lace and not one of its poisonous look-alikes.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

1 Echinacea purpurea, also known as eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, or hedgehog coneflower.

 

2 United States Department of Agriculture, “Rudbeckia hirta L., blackeyed Susan”

 

3 Invasive Species Compendium, “Daucus carota, (carrot)”

 

4 For a good article on these look alike plants go to “Don’t touch these plants! Six lookalikes you want to avoid”, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, HERE.

 

 

Sources

 

“43 Different Types of Black-Eyed Susans”, [© 2020 by Home Stratosphere], https://www.homestratosphere.com/types-of-black-eyed-susans/, accessed August 7, 2020

 

“Black-eyed Susan, Hairy (Rudbeckia hirta)” [© 1998-2020 The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation], https://www.all-creatures.org/picb/wfshl-blackeyedsusan-rh.html, accesses August 7, 2020

 

Invasive Species Compendium, “Daucus carota, (carrot)”, [© Copyright 2020 CAB International], https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/18018#tosummaryOfInvasiveness, accessed July 25, 2020

 

Mitchell, Stacey; “PLANTS Database Provides Answers for Vegetative Questions”, February 21, 2017, [United States Department of Agriculture], https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2013/09/26/plants-database-provides-answers-vegetative-questions, accessed July 25, 2020

 

United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, “Daucus carota L., Queen Anne's lace”, https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=DACA6, accessed July 25, 2020

 

United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, “Rudbeckia hirta L., blackeyed Susan”, https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=RUHI2, accessed July 25, 2020

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Don’t touch these plants! Six lookalikes you want to avoid”, May 22, 2020, [Department of the Interior] https://www.fws.gov/midwest/news/PlantsToAvoid.html, Accessed August 5, 2020

 

 

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