Spring is here and flowers are starting to pop through to beautify the earth. Some flowers are even herbs that you can use to cure with and eat. There are even flowers that have a very close look alike. It is a good idea to do research on a flower to make sure you do not get the look alike, if it does have one, because it may be harmful.
Blue Phlox
This beautiful flower is common in Midwestern fields and woods. It is also known as Wild Sweet William and is a edible that taste spicy. The fully grown plants in eastern parts have notched petals but the plants in the western parts do not have notched petals. The stem is a decumbent stem which means it lays along the ground curving upward. Clusters of beautiful lavender or pink flowers are located at the top of the stem. The stem is somewhat sticky.
The leaves are one to two inches long and are half a inch wide. The leaves are rounded at the base and pointed at the tip. The leaves are slightly hairy on top with tiny hairs on the edges.
Blue Phlox is in the Polemoniaceae family, it is a perennial, it blooms April through June, and grows eight to ten inches tall. They grow in partial shade to full shade and grow in medium to dry soil. Blue Phlox spreads but spreads slowly but is invasive. Rabbits love to eat Blue Phlox.
Dame’s Rocket
Dame’s rocket is another spring beauty, its very showy, edible and they are a evergreen, meaning they will stay green year round. It is a shortlived perennial that is in the Mustard family. Dame’s rocket invades road sides and produces tons of seeds. New plants also called first year plants stay ground level and stay green year round. The flowers start to bloom in early spring. They will soon grow a two to four foot tall stem with flowers all over it.
The leaves are rosette leaves which is a circular arrangement of leaves that can grow up to 6 inches long. Dame’s rocket leave are lance shaped about two to six inches long. They are wider at the base.
Fifth leaf on second row is lance shaped
The leaves become smaller as they get closer to the top of the plant. The leaves at the lower part of the plant have short stems coming off the plant while the leaves at the top grow right off the stalk. The edges of the leaves have teeth that are spaced apart widely. The stems and leaves are covered with tiny fine hairs.
Each flower has four petals while Blue Phlox has five petals. The flowers on Dame’s Rocket range from purple, pink to white. The flowers are about one inch wide and grow in clusters. Each flower turns into a little seedpod called, “Silique.” Flowers bloom from May through June, if the flowering part gets cut off, it will bloom again.
Dame’s rocket prefers to grow in partial shade and grow in moist, fertile and loose soil. You will never find this plant in acidic soil, they avoid areas that are acidic. They grow in lowland forests, moist meadows, woodland edges, woodland openings, open woods, thickets, shady fence rows and banks of ditches and roadsides.
According to Mother Earth Living:
Dame’s rocket has been used medicinally to induce sweating, promote urination, and loosen a cough, but no scientific evidence confirms its effectiveness. The leaves, which are rich in vitamin C, have also been used to treat or prevent scurvy; however, in A Modern Herbal (1931), Maud Grieve notes that “a strong dose will cause vomiting” and suggests the leaves as a substitute for the emetic ipecac. According to Hilda Leyel, editor of A Modern Herbal and author of Herbal Delights, the seeds were “said to be a most efficacious cure for stings and bites of serpents and they were sometimes mixed with vinegar to cure freckles.”
Sources:
http://www.motherearthliving.com/
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