Musk-Flower's (Mimulus moschatus)   common name is a reminder of a botanical mystery. Called Musk-flower, or sometimes simply Musk, it was imported to Europe from Western North America as an ornamental plant and  grown for its perfumed flowers and foliage.  So common was its cultivation in Victorian England that the scent of Musk-flower pervaded towns in the evening.  Then in the early 1900's the species suddenly became scentless- both in Europe and in North America.  Searching for scented forms has failed to find one.  The cause of this peculiar phenomenon has never been explained.
Our Musk(less)-flower is dervied from a cutting I took from a plant growing in a ditch along the Galloping Goose Trail.  We planted it in the gravel beds alongside the stream we built in the garden.  This clearly is a spot to its liking since it has spread aggresively by long underground runners and would take over the entire stream if it wasn't for the several wheelbarrow loads we take to the compost heap each summer.  Seedlings pop up around the edge of the pond often, and usually I weed them out - but not before I sniff to see if one of them has re-found the ability to produce the famous musk scent.

Oxeye Daisy is a widespread, common introduced plant,found in meadows, fields, and disturbed areas. Formerly this was considered to be a species of Chrysanthemum.  That genus has been split into several genera and this is now called Leucanthemum vulgare, which is greek for "white flower".  It is a short-lived perennial with very long lasting flowers.  Because the species is so widespread it has a multitude of common names besides the one we are using here, includingMoon-Daisy, Moon Daisy, Marguerite, Oxeye Daisy, Dog-daisy,  and Dog Daisy.  It is seldom eaten by cows and since it can become quite common in hay fields and pastures it is regarded as an important  agricultural weed.  

Now I've never tried these, but I'm curious, I see that the buds are being picked and pickled and sold as Ox-eye Daisy Capers   http://www.wildfoods.ca/products-vegetables-ox-eyedaisycapers.html).

This is another of the perennial herbs that arise from a bulb like corm and are found in the driest of spots in western North America. The purple-blue flowers of Brodiaea coronaria are atop a smooth stalk about 10-30cm tall. There are much shorter species of Brodiaea and those are what we named our first corgi after for their short and stocky "legs". 


 



  


The fact sheet from the Garry Oak ecosystems restoration team:
http://www.goert.ca/propagation_guidelines/forbs/brodiaea_coronaria

June 9-15 was BC Invasive Species Week, so we decided to  highlight a few more of the non-native invasive species found here at Leaning Oaks.  Hairy Cat's-ear ( Hypochaeris radicata ) is a yellow flowered perennial with a more or less flat basal rosette with a   leafless, branched flowering stem.  Flowers are superficially Dandelion-like (see 91), hence another common name of False Dandelion.  Unlike Dandelion, the stems are solid and not hollow.  It is a common weed of lawns, cracks in pavement and disturbed areas.  Like dandelions the seeds are spread by the wind.    The leaves are supposed to be hairy like the hair on a cat's ear.  I clearly have not looked at enough cat's ears to see the resemblance. 

And, just in; "the flowers of this weed are an important spring food for black bears on Vancouver Island". Thanks Helen! Maybe we'll get bears....

Yarrow is very complex taxonomically, but seems to be generally recognized as a single highly variable species. It is widespread through the Northern Hemisphere and found in dry locations from sea level to mountains.  Achillea millefolium is used in plantings where a drought tolerant plant with a long bloom season is desired. Butterflies love it! 

The genus name, Achillea is derived from Achilles, the hero of Homer's Illiad in Greek mythology.  He had been a student of Chiron, a centaur that was apparently renowned for his knowledge of medicinal herbs. Or it may have been that Achilles needed to use yarrow often on his wounded soldiers as they fought thier bloody battles.  The list of medicinal uses for this plant is very long just locally; from the Ditidaht and Makah using it as childbirth medication, the Saanich using it in a poultice, the Nuu-chah-nulth for colds and coughs and the Cowichan as a blood-purifier, just to name a few.  

The species portion of the name, millefolium,  means "thousand leaves" , referring to the finally segmented fern like leaves.  You count and see if there are a thousand and let us know. 

Addendum: I thought I was done, but just found this lovely gem from http://www.arkive.org/yarrow/achillea-millefolium/. 

• "In East Anglia, this property of the plant was employed in order to divine future love; a leaf was placed inside the nose and the following rhyme was recited: ‘Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow, if my love love me, my nose will bleed now’" 
  

Nice. 

This time it really is an onion (as opposed to the Fool's Onion #121). If you step on or crush Allium acuminatum  the pungent smell will leave you no doubt. The very small bulbs are occasionally eaten, but due to the restricted range it is better to stick to those locally grown Saanich Peninsula onions!  There can be up to 25 flowers on a stalk, each with the tepals that turn at the tips (a distinguishing feature of A. acuminatum). Another English name I saw was "Taper-tip Onion" ; aptly descriptive. However Hooker has the honours here. 

Joseph Dalton Hooker was an incredibly active botanist in the 19th century, was a close friend of Darwin's, was the director of the Kew Gardens and had the best eyebrows ever. http://www.jdhooker.org.uk/

I kept calling this an onion, and then felt somewhat vindicated when I saw that one of the English names was "False Onion". It is presently Triteleia hyacinthina  but is has been in the Brodiaea genus. It has no onion scent or flavour, but does grow from a bulb-like corm. It is yet another of the plants that grow in the meadow or forest edge that are adapted to the dry summers and moist winters. 

Sedum spathulifolium  brightens the rock out crops, bare patches, the top of the living roof on the woodshed and does so for a long bloom period. The species name refers to the succulent leaves that form a basal rosette and that are shaped liked the tip of a thumb. 

It has been taken up by the horticultural trade in Europe as a rock garden plant, with good reason!

There are a couple of tidbits of folklore around Midsummer's Eve (coming soon) and the longevity of the picked stalks. A stalk placed on the windowsill will turn during the night towards the direction from which your lover is to come. Another tale is that a young woman would pick two stalks; one representing herself, the other, her lover. The length of time "he" lasted was an indication of his fidelity.

Beautiful, tall, the bees love them...and they are exotic. This is one of those alien European species that we let live where it grows in somewhat disturbed areas. Digitalis purpurea is a source of digitoxin, a glycoside that has been used as a heart stimulant since 1785; HOWEVER it is toxic and self medication is definitely a no no. The medical uses and early research are outlined here: http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/digitalis-purpurea-common-foxglove   

Common foxgloves show up regularly in folk tales as well, providing clothing for the faeries and gloves for foxes so they can creep into the chicken coop.

 
The Miracle of the Bees and the Foxgloves
BY ANNE STEVENSON
Because hairs on their speckled daybeds baffle the little bees,
foxgloves come out to advertise for rich bumbling hummers,
who crawl into their tunnels-of-delight with drunken ease
(see Darwin’s chapters on his foxglove summers)
plunging over heckles caked with sex-appealing stuff
to sip from every hooker its intoxicating liquor
and stop it propagating in a corner with itself.

And this is how the foxflower keeps its sex life in order.
Two anthers—adolescent, in a hurry to dehisce--
let fly too soon, so pollen lies in drifts around the floor.  
Along swims bumbler bee and makes an undercoat of this,
reverses, exits, lets it fall by accident next door.  
So ripeness climbs the bells of Digitalis, flower by flower,
undistracted by a Mind, or a Design, or by desire.

Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)  is an aggressive introduced species that spreads by both runners and seed.  At Leaning Oaks it is more or less confined to the cultivated portions of the garden (despite my efforts) and to the lawn and other disturbed areas.  Fortunately, most of our meadow is too dry for Creeping Buttercup to do very well.  Contact with the sap of this species can cause skin blisters, so weeding this out wearing gloves is a good idea.  There is a cultivar with a yellow variegated leaf called "Buttered Popcorn" - however, it is just as invasive as the wild type and worth avoiding.