A bumblebee comes in for a landing at a Wood Sage flower blooming in front of the abandoned St. Wenceslaus Church in Schweitzerloch.
For a description of the species, see the Teucrium canadense reference page.
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Wood Sage (Teucrium canaedense)
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Bicolor Bugles (Ajuga reptans)
Photographed April 15. Above, an unusual strong bicolor form of Bugles, where white flowers have strong deep-blue veining. Below, another bicolor, but with the blue veining dominating. These plants were growing in the Seldom Seen Greenway.
For a description of the species, see the Ajuga reptans reference page.
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Purple Archangel (Lamium purpureum)
Photographed April 1. One of the earliest spring flowers, sometimes blooming in the middle of the winter if there’s an extended warm spell, the Purple Archangel or Purple Dead-Nettle is everywhere. It is happy in open city lawns, and just as happy along a woodland trail in Bird Park, where we photographed these plants. The most decorative aspect of the plant is the contrast between the pale flowers and the dark leaves at the top of the stem; but the colors of the leaves are variable, and many plants show no significant purplishness at the top.
For a description of the species, see the Lamium purpureum reference page.
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Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
Photographed June 4. A member of the mint family whose furry little flowers grow in the leaf axils, forming a column in the center of the plant while the leaves project perpendicularly. The flowers themselves look soft and fuzzy, but the rest of the plant is unpleasantly prickly. This dense stand was growing along Fifth Avenue in Soho.
For a description of the species, see the Leonurus cardiaca reference page.
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Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Photographed July 14. Lemon Balm, or just Balm, was brought over to this country for its delightful scent and flavor and for its supposed medicinal properties. It was believed to cure melancholy, among other things, and certainly gathering a handful and making a tisane from it is a good way to raise one’s spirits. Often planted in herb gardens, it easily escapes, and the tiny seeds wash downhill and form colonies anywhere they find a foothold. It can become quite weedy, but its delightful scent and many uses make it hard to resent. These plants were growing along a fence and by a sidewalk in Beechview.
The name Melissa, from the Greek word for a bee, reminds us that this plant makes bees happy, too, and who doesn’t want happy bees?
For a description of the species, see the Melissa officinalis reference page.
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