Syringa vulgaris: flowers

Syringa vulgaris, known in English as "common lilac" and in French as lilas commun or lilas français, is a deciduous shrub or small tree native to southeast Europe. Its fragrant flowers, usually mauve, are a well known event in spring. This huge lilac is in our neighbours' back yard.

Chelidonium majus: foliage and flowers

Chelidonium majus, known in English as "greater celandine" or "tetterwort" and in French as grande chélidoine or herbe aux verrues, is a perennial native to Europe which is sometimes found growing wild in Toronto forests. (It's not listed on SER Ontario's Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario (PDF).) Its large leaves are deeply lobed; the four-petalled yellow flowers appear in the spring. This plant was photographed in High Park south of the Black Oak Café.

Maianthemum stellatum: foliage and flowers

Maianthemum stellatum, known in English as "starry false Solomon's seal", "starry Solomon's plume", "starry smilac", or "spikenard", and in French as faux sceau de Salomon or maianthème étoilé, is a woodland perennial native to North America. As you can see, its gracefully bowed stem and its leaves are reminiscent of Solomon's seal (Polygonatum commutatum), but the flowers are completely different, being a cluster of small white flowers on the end of the stem rather than Solomon's seal's pairs of light greenish bells hanging along the underside of the stem.

Here is a slightly blurry attempt to get a closer look at the flowers (click photo to enlarge). They are quite similar to those of its little cousin, wild lily-of-the-valley (M. canadense).

I photographed this plant in High Park, a bit south of the Black Oak Café on the right side of the path.

Waldsteinia fragaroides: flowers

Waldsteinia fragaroides, known in English as "barren strawberry" and in French as waldsteinie faux-fraisier, is a low-growing perennial native to eastern North America. Its three-part leaves and five-petalled yellow flowers are reminiscent of strawberry leaves and flowers (Fragaria spp.), but the flowers are yellow and it does not bear edible fruit.

When I was growing up in eastern Ontario, barren strawberries carpeted the forest floor; i.e. they can make a good groundcover for shade in the right conditions. I bought this plant at the North American Native Plant Society plant sale last weekend.

Caltha palustris: flowers

Caltha palustris, known in English as "marsh marigold" or "kingcup", and in French as caltha de marais, souci d'eau, souci de marais, or populage de marais, is a perennial native to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.

It's been decades since I've seen marsh marigold in real life. I was thrilled to see these gorgeous flowers at Wilket Creek Park.

Podophyllum peltatum: foliage

Podophyllum peltatum, known in English as "mayapple", "hogapple", "umbrella plant", "wild lemon", "wild mandrake", "American mandrake" or "devil's apple", and in French as pomme de mai, is a perennial native to eastern North America. To me, the big umbrella-shaped leaves have an intriguing tropical look.

I photographed these plants in Wilket Creek Park.

Dicentra cucullaria: foliage and flowers

Dicentra cucullaria, known in English as "Dutchman's breeches" and in French as dicentre à capuchon, is a perennial woodland spring ephemeral native to parts of North America. It forms mounds of delicately fringed leaves and very nifty and reconizable flowers shaped like little white pants (hanging waist-down as though from a clothesline).

I had never seen this plant in real life, and was very pleased to discover it in a neighbour's garden.

Alliaria petiolata: foliage

This is an extremely invasive species in Toronto. Alliaria petiolata, known in English as "garlic mustard" and in French as alliaire officinale ou herbe à ail is a biennial native to Eurasia and northern Africa. It is one of the worst invasive plants in Toronto.

Garlic mustard was originally brought to Canada from Europe as a food plant. Unfortunately, it has flourished too well. Garlic mustard is not edible to Canadian wildlife, it emerges early in the spring before many native plants, it produces large numbers of seeds, and it harms mycorrhizal fungi that native plants need to grow properly. These factors give it an advantage over native plants, with the result that it can invade forests and outcompete them. There are areas of the forest in High Park that are completely overrun with garlic mustard, at the expense of native plants. Garlic mustard is invading the forest around the Ontario Science Centre as well, endangering their beautiful white trilliums. Because Canadian wildlife won't eat garlic mustard, replacing native plants with garlic mustard means less food for wild animals and therefore a loss of animal as well as plant biodiversity.

For these and other reasons it is important for Toronto gardeners to be able to recognize garlic mustard and remove it. In the first year, garlic mustard forms a low rosette of heart- or kidney-shaped leaves with a jagged edge. The leaves have a distinctive garlicky smell when crushed. In the second year, the plant produces a stem 30-60 cm tall with clusters of small, white, four-petalled flowers. The flowers are followed by skinny upright seed pods, but please don't let it get to that stage if you can help it. After setting seed, the plant dies, which is good news. (There are some good photos of garlic mustard leaves, flowers, and seed pods on this page by the Plant Conservation Alliance Alien Plant Working Group.)

To control garlic mustard, remove the entire plant in the first year, or remove at the very least the flowers in the second year (in erosion-prone sites you may want to leave the roots of second year plants in place, but cut the plants off close to the ground, otherwise more flowers can form in the leaf axils). Don't leave the flowers or unripe seedpods lying around as even if cut off from the root they can still ripen and produce viable seed. You can eat the plants if you like; here's a recipe for garlic mustard pesto (I haven't tried it myself yet).

Garlic mustard seed in the soil remains viable for years, so eradicating it is a long-term project. So let's make it a May tradition to enjoy a walk outside eradicating garlic mustard!

Liatris spicata (I think): new growth

Liatris spicata, known in English as "dense blazing star" or "prairie gayfeather" and in French as liatride à épis or plume de Kansas is a perennial prairie wildflower native to eastern North America. Its spikes of purple flowers are attractive to butterflies. Although Liatris spicata is a popular garden flower, it is threatened in the wild in Ontario.

I wasn't sure if my liatris was going to return this year, as it was weeded out by someone else, but it looks like enough bits were left behind to come back! I'm looking forward to its colourful blooms.

Acer rubrum: small sapling with new foliage

Acer rubrum, known in English as "red maple", "swamp maple", or "soft maple", and in French as érable rouge, érable de Virginie, érable de plaine, or érable du Canada, is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America.

We have a few small red maple saplings volunteering in the yard.

Ambrosia artemisiifolia: foliage

Note: this plant is considered a noxious weed under the Ontario Weed Control Act Ambrosia artemisiifolia, known in English as "common ragweed" or "short ragweed" and in French as petite herbe à poux or ambrosie à feuilles d'armoise is an annual native to North America, infamous for its highly allergenic pollen.

Last year when these pretty leaves started emerging in the spring, I was sure they were something "good". Imagine my disappointment when I realised they were in fact ragweed. Ragweed's flowers are tiny and green; they don't need to be showy to attract insects because they are wind-pollinated. I don't know if I'm allergic to ragweed myself (I'm stuffed up all year round due to my fibromyalgia), but a friend down the street suffered from ragweed allergies, and ragweed pollen can travel hundreds of miles on the wind.

Even though ragweed is a native plant, I think those of us in populated areas should pull it out of consideration for all the people sickened by ragweed pollen. The Ontario government has designated ragweed as a noxious weed.

Tussilago farfara: flowers

Caution: invasive Tussilago farafara, known in English as "coltsfoot" and in French as pas d'âne, is a perennial native to Eurasia. I had never seen it before and was intrigued by its apparent absence of leaves; apparently a rosette of broad leaves will emerge later on; their shape reminded whoever thought of the common names of a colt's foot or donkey's foot.

The Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario rates coltsfoot as Category 4 ("Exotic species that do not pose a serious threat to natural areas unless they are competing directly with more desirable vegetation.")

Coltsfoot has traditionally been used medicinally, but is toxic in large doses. Also, European Journal of Pediatrics reported a case of an infant who developed hepatic veno-occlusive disease after regular consumption of what his parents thought was coltsfoot, but was actually Adenostyles alliariae, which shows the importance of being cautious about gathering and self-treating with wild plants.

I photographed these plants at the University of Toronto downtown campus on St. George north of College.

Tulipa turkestanica: flowers

Tulipa turkestanica, known in English as "species tulips" and in French as tulipe botanique 'Turkestanica' is a flowering bulb native to Iran and Turkistan. It has 6 pointed petals, white with yellow at the base, and narrow wavy leaves.

This pretty clump is blooming in a talented neighbour's garden.

Geum triflorum: flowers

Walking around the block, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was a tiny bleeding heart plant (Dicentra sp.) already in bloom. A closer look showed it was prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)—the first time I've seen this in bloom in real life. I found out later that when my mom was growing up in Saskatchewan they actually did call this wildflower "bleeding heart". Unfortunately, my prairie smoke is nowhere near the blooming stage yet.

Hyacinthus orientalis in bloom

Hyacinthus orientalis, known in Englisha as common hyacinth, Dutch hyacinth, or garden hyacinth, and in French as jacinthe d'Orient is a flowering bulbous perennial native to southwest Asia. Its spikes of mauve, pink, white, purple, light blue, or light yellow flowers are extremely fragrant.

Well, most of the budding hyacinths I posted a few weeks ago were trampled, alas. This is the least mangled of the plants.

Eranthis hyemalis: unripe seed pods

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) has to be one of my favourite plants. Not only is its flower very pretty, it is also one of the very first flowers to emerge at winter's end, just when I'm feeling most desperate for blossoms.

Here are the developing seedpods. To me, this plant is beautiful at every stage of development.

Garden bloggers' Bloom Day April 2009

Once again, it is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Although I'm supposedly in the same zone as Carol, spring is coming more slowly here in Toronto though unlike last month, I do have a few blooms to post today.

The Siberian squill (Scilla siberica), which the landlords' kids and I rescued from a garden down the street last year, are in their glory now.

Unfortunately, I found out long after the kids and I rescued them that Siberian squill is an invasive species in southern Ontario according to Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario. I need to learn more about how the things spread; hopefully I can control them, since the landlords' eldest will be very unhappy if I rip out his squill.

Only one of my reticulated irises (Iris reticulata 'Cantab') is still in bloom. This picture came out badly but I didn't have time to take another because I had to catch a train—I'm posting this from my mom's apartment in eastern Ontario. Fortunately I got a prettier picture a couple of weeks ago.

This early stardrift, still in bud, (Puschkinia libanotica) is another rescue from the garden down the street. (Here's a photo of the gorgeous masses of early stardrift in that garden before the new owner attempted to replace it with sod. I say "attempted" because a number of puschkinia have popped up through the lawn this year despite his efforts.)

All of the flowers out today are blue, but we did have some bright yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis, see photo) which bloomed at the end of March, managing to avoid both the March and April Bloom Days. There are also hyacinths and tulips in bud, and lots of growth on the daffodills, columbines, and beebalm. Lots to look forward to!

I couldn't resist including the Easter decorations the landlords' kids put up, which add lots of gay colour even though they aren't technically blooms. I think that decorating Easter trees is a Czech tradition.

Iris danfordiae: bloom

Iris danfordiae, known in English as "dwarf iris" (a name it shares with Iris reticulata) is a small perennial native to Turkey. Its bright yellow flowers emerge early in spring, before its leaves (the leaves in this photo are tulip).

Intriguing mystery bulb

Last year, the landlords' kids and I rescued a bunch of bulbs, mostly of unknown species, from a garden down the street that was being replaced by sod by the new owner. We're looking forward to seeing what comes up this year. Today I noticed this beauty; I have no idea what it is. Anyone recognize it?

Dicentra spectabilis: emerging foliage

Dicentra spectabilis, known in English as "bleeding heart" and in French as cœur de Marie, cœur-de-Jeannette or cœur-saignant, is a perennial native to east Asia and well-known for its distinctive heart-shaped pink flowers. Not only is it very pretty, but it's easy to grow and shade tolerant. Bleeding heart blooms in late spring and the foliage goes dormant some time in the summer.

I just discovered this lovely bleeding heart foliage emerging this week—it was hidden under some windblown trash which is all too prevalent in this neighbourhood for some reason (drives me nuts). I just bought this plant last spring; it's good to see that it survived the winter.