Ferns Unfurled

Sensitive Ferns

Ferns add a touch of freshness and elegance to Nova Scotia’s forest floors in late spring.  These beautiful green plants can also be found growing along ditches and in rock crevices.

Ferns first appeared on the planet hundreds of millions of years ago and are still thriving.   They reproduce by spores or rhizomes and are quite resistant to disease.  Ferns provide the surrounding soil with mineral nutrients while the structure of their rhizome root systems reduce soil erosion.  The sensitive leaves of these bioindicators are easily damaged by acid rain.

Cinnamon Ferns

Even in Nova Scotia’s temperate climate, ferns can grow to several feet in height.  Their leaf litter is so great that mounds are often formed in forest areas where they thrive from year to year.

Polypody Ferns

Moisture, shade and acidic soil attract the growth of both ferns and mosses.  Polypody ferns, shown above, crop out of rocks near the salt marsh.

Bracken Ferns

In springtime, many people enjoy eating fiddleheads, the shoots of young ferns.  Ostrich ferns are especially tasty.  However, the safety of bracken ferns, shown above, is questionable.  Its consumption has been implicated in cases of stomach and esophageal cancer, especially in Japan where it is widely eaten.  Water from sources near growths of bracken ferns is also considered suspect.  (For more information on the toxic effect of bracken ferns on water, see The Fatal Fern).

Northern Beech Ferns

Shaded northern beech ferns, shown above, capture bits of sunlight through gaps in the forest canopy.  The effect is enchanting.

In Finland, gathering fern spores on Midsummer’s Eve is believed to give the gatherer the ability to become invisible.  Also, if one was to perchance acquire the elusive fern bloom on this special night, one would be able to uncover the treasure hidden beneath the magical lights of the Will o’ the Wisp.

Even if you don’t believe in the magical powers of ferns, or partake of fiddleheads in spring, they nevertheless make a wonderful contribution to the biodiversity of the forest ecosystem.

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A Time for Blossoming

Trees and shrubs are blossoming in yards, orchards and even in the marsh.  It’s blossoming time in Nova Scotia.  The air seems enchanted as delicate white and pink petals are blown in the wind.  The time to enjoy them is now. 

Chokecherry blossoms are blooming in the woods and near the marsh. 

Break open a cherry tree and there are no flowers, but the spring breeze brings forth myriad blossoms.
~ Ikkyu Sojun

The flowers of Elder trees are nearing the end of their blooming time.  By Midsummer’s Eve, their green fruit will already be visible. 

Serviceberry, also known as shadbush, are among the first of the trees to blossom.  Their delicate flowers have already been blown off many of the trees near the marsh.

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~ Anais Nin

Pin cherry blossoms are not as showy as most of the other blooms.  Their tiny fruit will be appreciated by the birds later this summer.

The crabapple tree is blossoming next to the house.  I always wonder where the pinks of the buds go once the white flowers open.  This tree seems to bloom for such a short time.  The strong winds we’ve experienced over the past day have blown so many of the petals off the trees.  Blossoming time will soon be over. 

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A Victorian Secret Code

Imagine a secret code of communication that doesn’t rely on the written word.  One that allows exchangers to express a range of emotions that might never even be spoken.  Such is the language of flowers, developed during the reign of Queen Victoria, whose birthday is celebrated today in Canada.

It became popular at the time to send coded messages by flowers or small arrangements of blooms, called posies, which were frequently worn on ladies’ dresses.  Each flower came to represent a specific message.  Although this code was well known among all layers of society during Victoria’s time, it was eventually forgotten. 

Here are a few meanings behind some of the flowers presently in bloom in Nova Scotia.

Apple blossoms, shown above at left, would send the message that you prefered the recipient over another.  If you felt sorry for someone, you could send elderflowers, shown above at centre, as they indicate compassion.  Dandelions, at top right, communicate flirting.  There are certainly enough of these bright yellow blooms to send to everyone these days.

In contrast, forget-me-nots, shown above at left, would be sent only to one’s true love.  Blue violets, shown above at centre, are symbols for faithfulness.  Considering how easily these tiny flowers can be overlooked, it’s no wonder that the white violets, shown above at right, communicate modesty.

Coded floral messages could also make it easier to deliver awkward sentiments.  If you wanted to communicate the message that you wanted to be alone, lichens, symbols of solitude, would say it well, especially dusted with a frost of snow. 

Today, the Victorian era (1837-1901) is considered an age of romance that saw a revival of family values and improved social morals, inspired in part by Victoria’s long-lasting affection for her husband Albert.  The secret code of flowers is part of that legacy.

For more information on the language of flowers see the entry at Wikipedia.

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Spring Coltsfoot

The first wildflowers to bloom in Nova Scotia every spring are often mistaken for dandelions.  Coltsfoot has small yellow flowers that will appear along the roadside and in moist waste areas as early as March.  Their appearance usually coincides with first sightings of robins and pussywillows.

Non-natives, they were introduced to North America from Europe and are presently widespread across the Eastern Seaboard.  In Europe, their image has sometimes been used as a logo for apothecaries (pharmacies).  The blooms, stems and leaves have been regarded for millennia as a helpful medicinal herb.

Coltsfoot blooms appear long before the leaves.  Once the blooms die away, large hoof-shaped leaves emerge.    Dried leaves from last season can be seen in the image below.  In summer, the leaves are usually a dark green with a velvety white underside.

Like dandelions, coltsfoot blooms close at night and on overcast days.  Their closure often acts as a bioindicator for predicting rain.

Dried coltsfoot leaves have been smoked as a tobacco for relief of asthma and bronchial infections.    As a cough remedy, they’ve also been steeped as a tea.  Recent scientific research indicates that coltsfoot causes toxicity in the livers of rats.  Whether it’s considered a remedy or a poison is likely dependent on dosage.

Downy coltsfoot blooms that have gone to seed are used by goldfinches as a lining for their nests.

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Keeping Nature’s Mystery

You must not know too much, or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and water-craft; a certain free margin, and even vagueness – perhaps ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things…
~Walt Whitman

Sometimes, it’s good to know less than more.  Acquiring more knowledge of a subject often removes a soft veil of mystery that leaves only the bare facts visible.  The magic disappears. 

The numerous types of lichens, mosses and fungi make the woods seem more magical for many of us.  Is this because we typically know less about them than other living things in the forest?  If I encounter new, unknown varieties on a walk in the woods, why does this make the excursion more enchanting?  Perhaps, sometimes, it’s best to not know the names of things so that mystery and wonder can survive.

Though correct identification is helpful if they’re going to be eaten, nature’s myriad types of fungi need not be named in order to be enjoyed for the beauty of their subtle colours and forms.  Their ability to uplift our spirits are nonetheless.  And it may just be easier to imagine them eaten by elves or sat upon by delicate faeries if their exact variety is unknown to us.

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
~  Harry Emerson Fosdick

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The Sleeping Place

The word cemetery has its roots in the Greek, meaning ‘sleeping place.’  In Cow Bay, this place is the Bowes Cemetery located just off Cow Bay Road. 

  

Typical of many outdoor surfaces in Cow Bay, both the cemetery sign and several headstones are covered with lichens.

The ones on the sign include usnea hirta, also known as Old Man’s Beard. The lichens on the headstones are particularly bright in colour.  This provides an especially striking contrast on the dark stones.

Yellow lichens contain usnic acid.  Some German scientists have researched the site preferences of different types of lichens and concluded that the yellow varieties are most likely to prefer sub-strata that is also more acidic.  

This cemetery is the only place in Cow Bay where I’ve noticed yellow-coloured lichens.  Most are the dull greenish grey characteristic of the Old Man’s Beard.

Jessica at Jessica’s Nature Blog has photographed several bright varieties of lichens in her neck of the woods in the UK.  When I first saw them, I wondered why these brighter varieties were less common here in Cow Bay.  Perhaps the sub-strata is more acidic in her area.

Regardless of the science behind their preferences, these lichens add their own distinct beauty to this special sleeping place overlooking the ocean.

A grave is braced not just by a tombstone but by angels as well.
~Adabella Radici

For more information on the Bowes Cemetery in Cow Bay, see This Life of Mortal Breath.

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The Earth Remembers

The heart of the poppy remembers. 

During the Napoleonic era,  it was first noticed that blood red poppies bloomed in fields that had seen battle.  Somehow, the earth remembered.  Later it was discovered that the chalk in the soil reacted with the lime left from the rubble  created during battles.  Regardless of the science, what is most important is that the poppies remembered.  Human activity did not go unnoticed by nature.

And if the earth can remember pain and suffering, I wonder, can it not also remember joy?

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

~ Kahlil Gibran

Does the grass remember the children who ran across it barefoot all those years ago?  Do the trees remember the boys who played their army games from their makeshift bases among them in the woods?  Now the boys are grown and war is no longer a game.   If the forest can remember, does it also long for their return?

Long after I am gone, and the trees and grass are still here, will they continue to hold the memories of the boys who played among them?  These boys who too quickly grew into men and travelled far from home?  And one who especially liked to run barefoot through the woods and is now serving in Afghanistan, a land known for its poppies, and the ravages of its war?  

I hope so.  But if the trees and grass forget, I’m sure the poppies that spring up every year in the front yard will remind them.

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Autumn Mandalas

Through the ages, mandalas have been employed by Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Native people the world over to create sacred spaces and focal points for prayer and meditation.

Often painted, they may also be made of stone, colored sand or stained glass, such as in the rose windows found in Gothic cathedrals. Some, like Tibetan sand mandalas, possess an impermanent quality, as their deconstruction is also part of the ritual surrounding their creation.  Mandalas might be intended as representations of the universe, the unconscious self or the relationship between the inner and outer realms. 

Mine are simple creations made with natural materials found in my yard:  leaves, flowers, twigs and tree cones.  The first mandala shown at the top of this post was made from the colorful leaves of a sugar maple and a yellow birch.  The second was created on my gravel driveway from sea smoothed stones gathered near the ocean.

This peony leaf mandala also includes fern leaves, purple asters and two-flowered Cynthia blooms.  A curled up wooly bear caterpillar is at its centre.

Above, heal-all flowers have been arranged with balsam fir cones around a mushroom centre.  The creation of each mandala gave me an opportunity to reflect on autumn’s beautiful colours and textures.  I’m thankful to live in a place where nature’s palette is ever changing and fresh.   

My mandalas will slowly fall apart, be moved by the winds or wild creatures, decay and return to the earth.  Their ephemeral quality only serves to enhance their present beauty.

Have you ever considered using natural materials to create a mandala outdoors?

 

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Angelic Asters

Flowers in the Aster family are a common sight in September.  With disk-like heads, these flowers are composites that are all considered edible.  Each petal is actually an individual flower.

Daisies, sunflowers and dandelions all belong to this family but so do flowers that are known by the name of the family itself:  asters.

Blue and white asters are common both in my yard and along roadsides in September.  The white asters are the first to appear, often in woodland settings.  These go by the name of parasol and flat-top aster. 

 

Asters with a blue or purple hue are various.  The intensity of their colour varies.  Some are low bush while others grow tall.  Often known generally as Michaelmas daisies, these are in bloom around the feast of Michael the Archangel on September 29th. 

An ancient feast, Michaelmas is considered the Christian equivalent to the autumn equinox. In times past, it marked the beginning of a new quarter and new year for business, making contracts, starting school or electing officials.

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How to Identify Flowers

Finding the name of a mystery flower can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.  It’s often a  frustrating task.  Where do you start?

If you’re doing an online search, two other keywords besides color can be helpful:

• A flower’s habitat. Is it growing in a meadow? a pine forest? a bog? on a lakeshore? a seashore?

• The English or Latin name of the flower’s family. There are 7 floral families (listed below), each with a specific set of characteristics.

Mustard Family - Cruciferae

- 4 petals
- seedpods follow a radial pattern around the stalk
- pods open from both sides to expose a clear membrane in the middle
- all edible

 

 

 

 

Mint Family – Labiatae

- 5 united petals
- square stalks
- leaves grow opposite one another
- usually aromatic
- all edible as long as they smell minty

 

 

 

 

Pea or Legume Family -
Leguminosae

- irregular shaped flowers with 5 petals
- pea-like pods
- pinnate leaves
- vary from being barely edible to barely poisonous

 

 

 

 

Lily Family - Liliaceae

- flowers with parts in 3s with 6 stamens
- sepals and petals identical
- parallel leaf veins
- produce bulbs
- some edible, some poisonous

 

 

 

 

Mallow Family -
Malvaceae

- 5 separate petals
- column of stamens in middle of flower
- moist and sticky texture
- edible

 

 

 

 

Aster or Sunflower Family –
Compositae

- composite flowers
- disk-like head
- each petal is an individual flower
- edible

 

 

 

 

Parsley or Carrot Family -
Apiaceae or Umbelliferae

- radially symmetrical (5 petals, sepals and stamens)
- compound umbrella-like design
- usually hollow flower stalks
- many are not safe for eating and can be deadly

 

 

 

You may still have to look at several images before you’re able to find the exact flower, but these keywords should help you narrow your search.  At the very least, you should be able to identify its family.  Good luck!

For more information on floral families, see:
Learning to Identify Plants by Families

For more information on flowers in northern North America, see:
Ontario Wildflower

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A Time for Grasses

Grass is the forgiveness of nature – her constant benediction.
Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal.
~ Brian Ingalls

The gradual fading of flowers at this time of year makes the presence of grasses more apparent on the landscape.  They’re suddenly everywhere in the salt marsh and their variety seems boundless.

Some are still holding on to their green hue, but the majority have turned golden.  They’ve gone to seed, and are awaiting the autumn winds to scatter them about the land.  Carried by the tides, those that are not eaten by birds in the colder days ahead will also travel far and wide.

Reeds and sedges are often also called grasses.  Each is easily identified:  grasses are flat, reeds are circular and hollow, while sedges are triangular.  Who would have thought something so simple could be both so beautiful and complex?

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

~ Henry Miller

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Bunchberries

The fastest plant in the world resides unassumingly in Nova Scotia’s cool woods. Botanists have discovered that the petals of bunchberries move at a speed of 22 feet per second when they open, releasing a flurry of pollen into the air.

In late summer however, it’s the red berries of this plant that dot the forest floor.  Their leaves are worn and streaked with burgundy, duller versions of the fresh green plants that brightened the ground back in June.

These bland tasting berries are edible but far less enjoyable to the palate than the blackberries available in the wild at this time of year.  Yet children often enjoy them and find them easy to pick.  Berries can be found on plants consisting of six leaves.  Also known as dwarf dogwood, the plant will acquire an overall burgundy color later in the fall.  Berries dry as the season progresses, providing food for deer, moose, grouse and songbirds.

With a preference for acidic woods, bunchberries often grow in partially shaded spots.  They are known to neutralize the effects of acid rain.

Known as Cornus canadensis in Latin, bunchberries are native to northern North America and have a history of being used medicinally for kidney ailments, to lower fevers and treat infant colic.  Leaves have been applied topically to stop bleeding and heal wounds.  Berries can be made into a poultice to treat burns or taken internally to help counteract the negative effects of ingesting poisonous plants.  Their use is being investigated for cancer treatment.  

High in pectin, berries can also be made into jellies and puddings. In the fall, they were gathered by native people by the bushel full and later either frozen or stored in bear fat for use in winter. The berries are thought to promote mental strength and clarity which is reason enough to give them a try.

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