Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Helpful Natives
As we in the US are getting ready to commemorate the Pilgrims' harvest (which they might not have had without help from the natives), another helpful native is brightening up the woods with its late flowers.
I started looking for the flowers of our native Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) beside a walking trail in our neighborhood in late October. The buds were showing color then, but none were open. When I went back last week, it was in full bloom.
An interesting book I acquired this year - The Book of Forest and Thicket by John Eastman - says the seed capsules produced the previous year burst open with a bang in the same season as the flowers bloom. The seeds are propelled some distance from the plant - 10 to 50 ft. depending on which source you believe. This, I'd like to see, but I suppose it would be out of the question to sit next to the path and wait.
Is Witch Hazel helpful in other ways? Water witching, for example, or medicinally? Well, I've never tried dowsing, but I dabbed what seemed like gallons of witch hazel extract on my teenage acne. I don't think it did a thing.
But back to The Book of Forest and Thicket. It picks up where field guides leave off - it's more of a guide to the plants' lifestyles than how to identify them. The author describes where each plant species likes to hang out and who with, who its friends and foes are, details of history or folklore regarding it, and/or the author's personal anecdotes. I've learned a lot from this book, and plan to read others in the same series.
8 Comments:
I'd love to see those seeds be propelled like that, too. I know other plants also do it. I remember a vining plant that if you touched the seed capsule on its tip, it would cause it to twist open and propel the seeds. Darned if I can remember what that vine was! I guess this is how witch hazel would spread through the woods, one seedling at a time!
I don't know what the vining plant is, but Katy ruellia does the pop-and-throw thing in Austin.
Witch hazel the plant looks quite lovely, Entangled. I never grew it, but we always had a bottle of witch hazel in the medicine cabinet - maybe scalp massage?? I don't remember now.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Carol: Oh, I'd like to see a seed capsule twist open - that would be really cool! I remember reading about some kind of spiny cucumber type thing that bursts open, but I think that one goes splat, not bang.
Annie: I keep reading about Ruellia, but I don't think I've ever seen one in person. Scalp massage? No wonder it didn't work on my zits if I was supposed to be putting it on my scalp ;-)
Hammamelis is a good tree to have in the garden. I live close by arboretum Kalmthout (Belgium)where they've grown several new varieties of this tree. I love it for its unusual flowers and its lovely scent and like to visit the arboretum when the hammamelis trees are in flower.
Yolanda Elizabet: It's interesting that you mentioned the scented flowers - so did the book I was reading, but I didn't notice the scent in person. I'll have to go back for more observation.
The arboretum near where you live must be beautiful. I just looked at their website and they have a special Hamamelis fest coming up.
Hamamelis grows wild in the woods here, but I don't have any in the yard--until this spring when I bought a hybrid, 'Diana', which I think is just marvelous. Once you've smelled a witchhazel in bloom, you'll never forget it, that's for sure!
Jodi: Now I really must go back and try to catch the fragrance. I was debating whether to plant the species or a named variety in the new garden in central Virginia, but I definitely want at least one because of the unusual flowering season. I don't think we have any growing wild in the woods there. Maybe I should plant both, and end the debate?
Neat how the flowers cling to the trunk, too...mine is done blooming, and not particularly fragrant that I can detect. (Thus far, as it IS small.) Jewelweed, as well as impatiens balfourii, have seed pods that twist and explode when you touch them...hmmm...sounds familiar...;-)
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