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.
posted by Entangled at 9:36 PM ::: Permalink
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