Plants Archives - Heartland Safari

Tender leaves and delicate, white flowers of Garlic Mustard belie this aggressive invader's ambition of world domination.

Invader’s Arsenal: Garlic Mustard

Updated April 29, 2024

One of the earliest plants we see in the spring is known as garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). It is a member of the mustard family. It gets its name because all parts of the plant taste like garlic. Deer won’t eat it, and other native herbivores such as rabbits, geese, opossums and native insects don’t […]

Plants

This year’s leaves and last year’s stalk at the base of a tree in the north fencerow. As a perennial, Motherwort is one of the first plants to green up in the spring.

Medicine for Moms: Motherwort

Updated April 8, 2024

On a windy day in early April, we took a walk-about in the yard on Owl Acres to see what was happening. The weather had been erratic, getting warm, then cold, then warm again. It rained, snowed, and blew a gale for several days. For the most part, winter was hanging on, with last year’s […]

Plants

Dark green leaf of Virginia Creeper. Also called Five Leaf Ivy, the hand-shaped leaves are made up from 5 smaller, sawtooth-edged leaflets attached to a common petiole.

A Banquet for All: Virginia Creeper

Updated December 7, 2023

There’s a pile of it in the southeast corner of the yard. It’s growing on the fences and climbing the barn. We knock it back, ruthlessly severing it with the weed eater. And it comes back with a vengeance. It could be mistaken for poison ivy—we have plenty of that around here. But a careful […]

Dark purple berries of pokeweed hang in an inviting drupe from a plant in the ditch next to Owl Acres.

Red is for Poison: Pokeweed

Updated November 6, 2023

It was a beautiful autumn day. The walnuts had turned yellow, and the maples sported orange and red. The elms were still green, and several plants with berries were inviting the birds to feast in the ditch. It was a perfect morning for a walk with the dogs, so we headed out with Dave, my […]

Plants

Standing upright against the blue sky of late summer, the (in)famous Ditchweed, aka Iowana, aka Hemp. Hand-shape leaves made of 5 to 7 long, saw-tooth leaflets. Seed clusters run along rambling branches that stand out from a beefy stem.

Up in Smoke: Hemp

Updated November 2, 2023

It’s standing in the ditch with its scrawny arms outstretched. At its center, the pole-like stem is about an inch thick and slightly faceted. It rises above my head. Its leaves have gone from robust hand-shaped to curled and dried fragments entangled with clusters of little seeds at the ends of each branch. The seeds […]

Plants

Stinging nettle color plate from a book published in Germany in 1885. Shows the plant and details of leaves, stem, seeds and stinging hairs. Upcoming post: a critter that eats this stuff.

Ouch: Stinging Nettle

Updated October 23, 2023

When I bought Owl Acres 20-some years ago, the place had been significantly overgrown. Although it had been regularly mowed, around the buildings where the tractor couldn’t get to, the weeds grew thick and happy. My initial efforts at learning about those weeds ended abruptly when I grabbed a stalk of stinging nettle. That stuff […]

Plants

A fist-sized bunch of the papery cones of Common Hops ripens in the road ditch in front of Owl Acres

IPA Anyone? Common Hops

Updated October 19, 2023

Clancy, our nine-month-old golden retriever, loves to pick things up and bring them to me, or pick them up and eat them, depending on what he has. So the other day when he came bearing a rattly branch of something-or-other, I took it away, identified it as the hops branch we’d brought home from a […]

Plants

Velvetleaf in the summer sun. Heart-shaped leaves and branching stems, terminating in the button-shaped seed capsules that give the plant its common name, buttonweed.

From Friend to Foe: Velvetleaf

Updated October 16, 2023

When I was growing up on an Iowa farm, I thought velvetleaf was a most lovely plant. Its leaves were so velvety soft to the touch. It was so soft I’d want to rub it on my cheek. Even the stems were velvety. And the coolest part was the buttons that formed in the fall. […]

Plants

Close-up cluster of 7 shiny black berries hanging from a single stem. American Black Nightshade.

Double-Edged Sword: American Black Nightshade

Updated October 5, 2023

There’s a square cutout in my sidewalk intended to be used as an herb garden. In past years it has yielded lush basil plants and a tomato plant that took over the world. This past spring, between travel schedules, I planted a few marigolds in there and left it to its own devices. Conducting a […]

Plants

Karen is dwarfed by a forest giant ragweed, towering overhead in the ditch across from Owl Acres.

Ambrosia, really?: Ragweed

Updated September 28, 2023

When I was growing up, we took our vacations in August. And we usually went north. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Canada, Michigan. Dad would load up the car top carriers with tents, sleeping bags and camping gear. Then he’d load up Mom and all seven of us kids into the station wagon and off we’d go. The […]

Plants