Tag Archives: Mitella diphylla

National Wildflower Week 2023 – Day 5

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Lady Bird Johnson said wildflowers “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”

Always the first full week of May, National Wildflower Week commemorates the colorful blossoms that bring our landscapes to life.

To celebrate this week, I encourage you to visit one of our area nature preserves, parks or trails to view the wildflowers now in bloom locally. Each day of this week-long celebration, I’ll feature a local native wildflower that you may find in bloom at this time.

To continue this week’s focus on wildflowers and for your self-guided search today, I suggest that you go looking for Miterwort (Mitella diphylla). See below for my suggestions as to where locally you can find this native forb.

Click on image for easier reading.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Miterwort is an herbaceous perennial plant with an erect flowering stalk about 8-16″ tall. Toward the lower middle of this unbranched stalk, there is a single pair of opposite, coarsely-toothed leaves each with three shallow lobes.  These leaves are about 2″ long and 1¼” across.  The flowering stalk is slender, light green, and covered with fine hairs.  At the base of the plant, there are basal leaves on long stems.  Except for those long stems, they resemble the pair of opposite leaves.

Short-stalked flowers are widely spaced in a spike-like raceme up to 12 inches long at the tip of the stalk.  Individual flowers are about 1/8 inch across and have 5 white fringed petals that curve back, resembling a snowflake.

After the blooming period, each flower is replaced by a cup (sepals) that resembles the hats (known as miters) worn by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.  That resemblance is the basis for its other common name of Bishop’s Cap.

Each cup contains many small, shiny, black seeds.  When the seeds are mature, the stalks straighten to orient the cups upward.  With each subsequent rainfall, raindrops splash the seeds out of the cups and disperse them away from the plant.

Where Found:

This species is usually found in high quality woodlands. Habitats include upland woodlands, wooded slopes, rocky bluffs, and shady ravines.

Ecological Significance:

In botany, there is a scale called the “Coefficient of Conservatism.”  The scale represents how tolerant a plant is to human disturbances and how representative it is to a pre-settlement natural community of plants.  Coefficients of conservatism (“C” or CoC values) are increasingly being used to prioritize natural areas for conservation as well as for the monitoring of outcomes of habitat restoration projects. Miterwort has a CoC of 8.

SOURCE: Bried, Jason & Strout, Kerry & Portante, Theresa. (2012). Coefficients of conservatism for the vascular flora of New York and New England: inter-state comparisons and expert opinion bias. Northeastern Naturalist. 19. 101-114. 10.2307/41495840.

Miterwort flowers are pollinated by Syrphid flies and hoverflies as well as small short-tongued bees, including Halictid bees, Lasioglossum sweat bees, and Small Carpenter Bees.  These insects suck nectar from the flowers; the Syrphid flies also feed on the pollen, while the short-tongued bees collect pollen for their larvae.

How to Grow Your Own:

This plant is slow to establish and picky about its growing conditions. Propagate by seed or by division of its rhizomes. Fresh seeds sown at soil level germinate fairly well. A light mulch helps retain soil moisture. Set out runners or seedlings in spring or autumn at a spacing of 5-10″ apart. Seedlings will start to bloom the third year.

To learn more about this native wildflower, please view my prior post What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week? (May week 1), published on 5/1/2021.

Full Flower Moon

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SOURCE: https://www.almanac.com/full-moon-may
Full moon on the sky with silhouette flowers at night.
Photo Credit: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/moon-garden

As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers.  The full moon of May is known as the Flower Moon because many wildflowers bloom during this month.  Indeed, fully 25% of the wildflowers that I have inventoried on local nature preserves, parks, and trails begin blooming during the month of May.

For example, here is a sampling of some of our native species of wildflowers that begin blooming throughout May:

Early May –

Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)

Fringed Polygala (Polygaloides paucifolia)

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)

Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum)

Mid-May –

Bluets (Houstonia caerulea)

Common Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium montanum)

Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)

Early Azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum)

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Late May –

American Brooklime (Veronica americana)

Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)

Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia)

Tufted Loosestrife (Lysimachia thyrsiflora)

Wild Calla (Calla palustris)

Little wonder that American Indians were inspired to name this month’s full moon after the colorful displays created by these native blooming beauties.

The Full Flower Moon will rise on Friday at 1:34pm.

(Click on image below to enlarge.)

Mars best viewed in W sky at 42 degrees altitude and Venus in WNW sky at 25 degrees altitude
(NOTE: A star will rise in the east and set in the west and at any given time it will have some height about the horizon (e.g. ground) which corresponds to the angle between the star and the horizon. When the star is directly overhead at zenith, that angle is 90 degrees. This angle is called altitude.)
SOURCE: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/albany-ny

So, what else might one see looking skyward at night in May?  What asterisms do you know?

(Click on image below to enlarge.)

SOURCE: https://www.almanac.com/night-sky-map-may-asterisms

An asterism is an easily recognized star pattern that lies within a constellation.  Their names have come into popular usage because they are a convenience—an easy way to navigate the sky.  Take a closer look at the sky map above and see if you can discern any of the following in the night sky this month.

  • Keystone:  Look near the center of the image above for the Keystone, a compact pattern of four stars that lies within the constellation Hercules, the Hero.  Hercules is a sprawling constellation, the fifth largest in the sky.
  • The Kite:  Boötes is another of the largest constellations in the sky.  Its name comes from the Greek word Βοώτης, Boōtēs, which means ox driver, plowman, or herdsman.  This constellation is dominated by The Kite, a diamond-shaped asterism formed by its brightest stars with Arcturus, the brightest among them, anchoring the tail of The Kite.
  • Little Dipper:  Off to the left, look for the Little Dipper asterism, part of the constellation Ursa Minor, or the Lesser Bear.  At the end of the dipper’s handle is Polaris, the North Star.
  • Dragon’s Head:  Between the Little Dipper and The Kite is the body of Draco, the Dragon, which culminates in the Dragon’s Head, a four-sided asterism.
  • Parallelogram + Northern Cross = Summer Triangle:  Below the Dragon’s Head, look for two very bright stars.  The nearest one is Vega in the small constellation Lyra, the Lyre.  Beneath Vega is a small but symmetrical asterism, the Parallelogram.  A bit lower and farther to the left of Vega is Deneb, marking the tip of the Northern Cross, which lies on its side at this time of year.  These two stars, plus brilliant Altair, comprise the three corners of the large asterism known as the Summer Triangle.  The Summer Triangle will be prominent in the night sky from now well into autumn.

Happy viewing!

Happy Holidays!

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(Merry) Christmas Fern

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) – The common name refers to the practice of gathering the distinctive glossy green fronds that are still on display in the landscape during Christmas time as a holiday decoration. Collecting a few fronds to include in your holiday decorations won’t harm the plant since the older fronds will be replaced with new fronds in the spring.

O’ Tannenbaum!

O Tannenbaum – Princess Pine (Club Moss) adorned by Canada Mayflower berries

As delicate as a snowflake

Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)

What are your favorite winter solstice plants? Read more.

Season’s Greetings!

What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (May week 1)

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This week, I’m featuring Miterwort (Mitella diphylla) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

The single pair of leaves at mid-stem accounts for the species name.

Identification Tips:

Miterwort is an herbaceous perennial plant with an erect flowering stalk about 8-16″ tall.  Toward the lower middle of this unbranched stalk, there is a single pair of opposite, coarsely-toothed leaves each with three shallow lobes.  These leaves are about 2″ long and 1¼” across.  The flowering stalk is slender, light green, and covered with fine hairs.  At the base of the plant, there are basal leaves on long stems.  Except for those long stems, they resemble the pair of opposite leaves.

Short-stalked flowers are widely spaced in a spike-like raceme up to 12 inches long at the tip of the stalk.  Individual flowers are about 1/8 inch across and have 5 white fringed petals that curve back, resembling a snowflake.  The flower is a fantastic bit of geometry, especially evident when viewed with a hand lens.

After the blooming period, each flower is replaced by a cup (sepals) that resembles the hats (known as miters) worn by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.  That resemblance is the basis for its other common name of Bishop’s Cap.

Each cup contains many small, shiny, black seeds.  When the seeds are mature, the stalks straighten to orient the cups upward.  With each subsequent rainfall, raindrops splash the seeds out of the cups and disperse them away from the plant.

Folklore:

Miterwort was used to cancel bad luck.  To do so, the largest part of the root was burned and then the root’s charred remains were rubbed above and below the eyes.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

No known uses as food.

An infusion of this plant was used to treat fevers and also as eye-drops for sore eyes.

Wildlife Value:

The flowers are pollinated by Syrphid flies and hoverflies as well as small short-tongued bees, including Halictid bees, Lasioglossum sweat bees, and Small Carpenter Bees.  These insects suck nectar from the flowers; the Syrphid flies also feed on the pollen, while the short-tongued bees collect pollen for their larvae.

Where Found Locally: