The plant version of bubble wrap

Blog update: My apologies for not posting as regularly during the month of December as I usually do. I have been running close to the end of the photos I took on my last plant photography bonanza in September, and couldn't come up with an idea for where to go to take pictures of plants to blog about during the winter months that would look like more than just sticks. Then the idea hit me. The greenhouse on campus! Starting tomorrow I have a whole bunch of tropical species to blog about, courtesy of the UWO greenhouses. Very few if any of them will be native species, but some of them are incredibly interesting and unusual (I've been doing my homework!) so I think you'll all enjoy learning about them. I will also be running a series of blog posts about "How to Identify Sticks" once the winter really sets in, so stay tuned for how to identify woody plants during the winter months.

Species name: Impatiens glandulifera

Common name: Himalayan balsam

Location: Ontario

The Himalayan balsam, as the name suggests, is originally from the Himalayan region in Asia. The plant is a temperate plant, growing very happily on mountain sides up to the tree line, but preferring areas closer to the base of the mountains. Unfortunately, it is one of the most dangerously invasive plants in North America and Europe, where its introduction (sometimes purposely as an ornamental and/or medicinal plant, other times by accident) has completely destroyed the understory of many forests previously dominated by native species. This plant can grow so large so fast that even garlic mustard (which you can read all about HERE) has a rough time competing with it. The stems of this plant are incredibly unusual; they are hollow between the nodes and completely filled with fluid. More on this later...

Another unfortunate characteristic of this plant is the seed dispersal mechanism contained in the ripe fruit. There's a good reason why this plant is called the "touch-me-not," and it has nothing to do with it being toxic on the skin. The fruits have a ballistic mechanism that forcibly discharges the seeds when touched (and when the fruit is ripe). This isn't an unfortunate characteristic for the plant itself; it actually ensures for incredibly successful seed dispersal. This is an unfortunate characteristic for environmental health in areas where the plant is not native. Have you ever had the opportunity to play with the fruits and get them to release their seeds?! If not, it's quite the experience. You touch it and it feels like something just exploded in your hand and seeds go flying everywhere! It's fantastic! And that's the exact reason why it's so unfortunate: in populated areas, the main reason for successful seed dispersal is due to...children! It's just as entertaining for kids (and some adults. Guilty as charged) to force the plant to release the seeds as it is to give them a sheet of bubble wrap and watch them occupy themselves for hours.

Once established, this plant is incredibly difficult to eradicate but there's a company in Germany that just might have found the secret to getting rid of it. They are busy developing a wide array of products made from the flowers of the plant, in hopes that the picking of the plant for profit will eventually contribute a financial means for its eradication. A brilliant idea, and I hope it works out for them. We could definitely use something like that in southern Ontario!

Apparently all parts of this plant (including the flowers, which are incredibly attractive) are edible. I've never tried it, but I have seen flowers of this species adorning wedding cakes. I haven't actually seen anyone try to eat them, usually they're picked off and left on the plate as a non-edible decoration. I have, however, greatly enjoyed the medicinal use of this plant on many occasions. The liquid contained in the stems is incredibly effective at soothing itchy, dry skin due to any cause. It will take away the itch associated with a poison ivy rash almost instantly (which even calamine lotion can't do!), relieve the itch of mosquito bites, take away the sting from bee and wasp stings, moisturize dry skin, and soothe the itchy pain of sunburns. Because the plant is non-toxic, it's even safe to use on your face, but make sure you don't get it in your eyes. Just because it's safe for your digestive tract doesn't mean it won't irritate the sensitive tissues of your eyeballs! And, like with all plants, before you consume or otherwise use this plant in any way, make sure you are absolutely certain of the correct identification. The leaves look slightly like stinging nettle leaves; you would NOT want to confuse the two in an attempt to soothe a poison ivy rash!

The creepy, sneaky bellflower

Species name: Campanula rapunculoides

Common name: Creeping bellflower

Location: Ontario

The creeping bellflower is a species of herbaceous plant native to Europe and western Siberia. It was introduced to North America about a century ago, and it has become highly invasive since then. It is a ground cover plant (or growing upwards to a maximum height of about 12 inches) until it encounters something upright (either living or an inanimate object, although it prefers other plants), and then it climbs upwards to grow on top of the surface of the other plant (or up a fencepost, etc.). The leaves and flowers can become so dense that it will completely strangle out the next nearest plant, so is a huge threat in prairie ecosystems. The plant spreads during the growing season via underground rhizomes, and overwinters just under the soil surface. Any piece of the underground stems and roots can grow into new plants, so it becomes incredibly difficult to eradicate; if you have it in your garden, as soon as you till the ground in the spring you make hundreds of potential plants from one former rootstock.

This species was probably accidentally introduced to North America due to confusion with one of its very close relatives, and the species from which the creeping bellflower gets its name, Campanula rapunculus. This second species has been used for many centuries as a food source in Europe, as the leaves can be used in much the same way as spinach. They taste roughly the same, and cook down to a wilted leaf in much the same way as well. To my knowledge, the creeping flower is not edible.

A mustard for all seasons

Species name: Alliaria petiolata

Common name: garlic mustard, Jack-by-the-hedge, garlic root, hedge garlic

Location: Ontario

Garlic mustard is an invasive plant in Ontario, originally from Europe, and central and western Asia (it was brought to Canada with European settlers in the 1860s for culinary purposes). It is a biennial plant, meaning it takes two years to complete its life cycle. The first year it spends growing large, round leaves (like in the photo above) as well as storing resources underground in its storage taproot (like a carrot). The next year a new stem grows, elongating as flowers mature. The fruit it produces are long seed pods, which are somewhat elastic and release seeds through an explosive mechanism when they are mature.

In its native habitat, garlic mustard almost exclusively grows near hedgerows and in ditches (and is not invasive), hence it's British common name of "Jack-by-the-hedge". When young, the leaves smell quite intensely of garlic when crushed and so that's the origin of it's common name (and it's in the mustard family). A traditional use of garlic mustard when young is as an "exotic" salad green, but make sure you use it sparingly--it does have quite a strong taste. In the second year of growth the leaves are much smaller and so not as easily picked to eat. The taste also changes quite a bit from year one to year two, and I haven't heard of any instances of people picking leaves from the second year of growth for culinary uses. It was once used medicinally in Europe to disinfect wounds (which probably worked to some degree; any plant that has a very strong odor likely has at least some antimicrobial capacity) and as a diuretic (if this is also true, another good reason not to eat a lot of it in one sitting!).

An invasive species in Biology is a species (usually a "foreign" species, but not always) that can out-compete native species for resources and completely takes over a habitat. Garlic mustard is an excellent example of that: very rarely do you see a plant growing by itself, and where you have dense garlic mustard growth you have very little of any other kind of ground cover. The unfortunate part of this scenario is that it has almost completely eliminated suitable native habitat for the White Trillium, the provincial flower of Ontario. This flower is becoming more and more rare as time goes on, only existing in great numbers in small pockets in Ontario and elsewhere. To confound this, deer also preferentially eat trillium when given a choice between that and garlic mustard, so they're not only assisting in the removal of trilliums in Ontario forests, but also helping the garlic mustard "live long and prosper," as Trekies would say.

So how to control garlic mustard? Well, the short answer is you can't. Because it's a biennial plant (and the growth forms between the first and second year look so different), if you don't pull it out in the first year it WILL come back the second year. Once it flowers, the seeds are so successful in the environment that the population explodes on a localized scale, meaning the population can grow exponentially every year. There are no chemical methods that can be used on these plants, as anything that kills garlic mustard will also likely kill all of the native wildflower species and new shrub or tree growth. The only real solution until we come up with something better is to pull them out by hand. If you choose to take part (or start) in a garlic mustard eradication program (which you should!), make sure you're pulling as much of the root system out of the ground as you can, and if the plant has fruit make sure you do not disturb them and disperse seeds. I have seen people walk around with kitchen shears and three garbage bags inside each other to cut the flower heads or seed heads off the plant first, then pull it out of the ground. Perhaps a bit of an over-kill, but better to be safe then sorry!