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rivers and valleys in china

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Naomi Campbell, Thierry Mugler Spring/Summer 1991.

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https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube.com+Twisted+Nerve

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Strange Bird Sounds

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What are Ramps? (Allium tricoccum)

Ramp season in the Appalachian hills is just around the corner. Both a culinary delicacy and a cultural icon, ramp has long been a part of traditional Appalachian cuisine. But now that trendy urban restaurants are putting these pungent wild onions on the menu, increasing demand has seriously depleted wild stocks throughout much of the plant’s range. But there is a way to responsibly manage ramps as a sustainable food crop, as this video demonstrates.

Note: Helpful article here on distinguishing ramps (tricoccum) from ramson (ursinum).

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Processing some ramps for later in the year. Dried leaves, lacto fermented bulbs, and pesto for freezing.

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Three species of wild leeks from Clifton Gorge

Allium ampeloprasum, Asiatic wild leek

Allium tricoccum, red petioled broad leaf ramps

Allium burdickii, Narrow leaf white petiole ramp

While the top one is introduced to the area, and has naturalized, it tells a story about the homesteading that once occurred in the valley in Ohio’s early European settlement. A few remnants of foundation houses are located in this valley along Clifton Gorge that predate the mills that were placed along each section of the old carriage road that is now the main trail. 

The other two species are native and one(broad leaved) is more common than the other, or so it appears. The theory is that narrow requires more strict mesic woods habitat than that of broad, with habitat destruction from mainly invasive and cookie cutter housing projects, along with over harvesting during foraging, narrow leaved ramps are seldom found outside of park property.  

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Ctrl+F 042. Ramps (Allium tricoccum ... 036. Creeping Oregon Grape (Mahonia repens VIA tumblr.com/tagged/Allium%20tricoccum

My Garden Flowers Part 2

All photos mine. The narrow-leaved sundrops photo is edited for colour since the camera apparently can't reproduce that intense of a yellow. Neither can any Photopea editing, but at least it's closer. It's the bright of highlighter yellow but more golden.

In order of appearance:

031. Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) A welcome "weed" I couldn't find available at any of the native plant places in Ontario (one in Manitoba carried it but it wasn't available) but she planted herself.

032. Canadian Lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) Another welcome "weed" that sadly didn't manage to reseed, but maybe one will turn up again.

033-034. Jack-in-the-Pulpit male and female flowers (Arisaema triphyllum) The male has one leaf set while the female has two. The babies only have a leafset and no flowers for the first couple years of their lives. Then they reach sexual maturity as males, the next year they'll be female and switch back and forth until the end of their lives.

035. Early Meadow Rue (Thalictrum dioicum) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. She's new. Hopefully next year.

036. Creeping Oregon Grape (Mahonia repens) First they gave me a non-native cinquefoil but thankfully rectified it by giving me two of these when I'd only ordered one. They've flowered before, but never so profusely as they both have this spring, and there are a number of berries ripening! They also made a baby from previous years, or else one of them suckered.

037. Three-Leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba) So...I planted her. She died. I swear she died, like root and all, she did not make the winter. Didn't come up in the spring. But now she is in several places! Managed to reseed herself? Perhaps. I don't recall that she flowered the year I planted her. Had dormant seeds in her pot with her? Coincidental present from squirrels? Either way, she's roughly in the spot I wanted her and is flowering well. Who cares how she got there?

038. Witherod Viburnum (Viburnum nudum cassinoides) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. Hopefully next year!

039. Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. She's a new milkweed species for me! If she makes it through the summer and then the winter I should have more flowers to post in a year or two. :)

040. Rosy Pussytoes (Antennaria rosea) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. Surviving, though, which is saying something because not even weeds grow there. It's a very dry spot and I've been kind of neutred from watering. But I read that she likes dry and that spot is dry. So good luck to her.

041. Prairie Alumroot (Heuchera richardsonii) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. Also surviving in said very dry area.

042. Ramps (Allium tricoccum) I really hope her seeds made baby ramps! They only flower after reaching maturity at seven years, which is why it's bad when people come and uproot the lot of them. And I mean, they taste nice but not where I understand why people do that.

043. Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) My native allspice substitute! Her berries are currently developing and will be red in the fall. Still hoping to attract spicebush swallowtails one day.

044. Bigleaf Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) Was supposed to be sundial lupine but definitely isn't. There is disagreement between VASCAN and the USDA over whether there is a single variant of one subspecies of L. polyphyllus that's native to Ontario. This one stays in my garden until that's settled. Anyway, she's a gorgeous plant but the reason to avoid intentionally planting it in Ontario is that it easily hybridizes with sundial lupine. The hairstreak caterpillar can only eat true sundial lupine leaves. I don't know if the variant that the USDA says is native is a misidentified hybrid (bad, but also doesn't seem like it because the variant listed by the USDA is Lupinus polyphyllus ssp. polyphyllus var. polyphyllus) or just a well-behaved variant (fine, just like there's a native subspecies of Phragmites australis). But again, I'll be leaving mine in until I learn for sure, and I won't be planting sundial lupine there to avoid hybridization.

045. Sweet Joe-Pyeweed (Eupatorium purpureum) Fuzzy flowers! She can get very tall. I'm also finding out she's a slow spreader as there is an individual nearby that I didn't plant.

046. Tall Bluebells (Mertensia paniculata) She survived several years and seemed to do well, but she didn't come up this spring. I'll need to get another one and try a spot that's not quite so tough.

047. Poke Milkweed (Asclepias exaltata) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. But this is her second year, so to judge by some of my other species she should do it next year!

048. Narrow-Leaved Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) No flowers I've seen are as intensely yellow as those in this genus, and narrow-leaved sundrops and evening primrose in particular seem to just glow.

049. Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) The coolest part of this plant is in the name: the bases of her leaf stalks wrap around the flower stalk to make cups at the joints. Water settles there and birds come to drink. I haven't seen this happen yet, but I'm waiting. The flowers, however, are quite sizable, very pretty, and attract lots of bees. She gets tall like some common sunflower cultivars.

050. Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) She barely came back this year after doing well for several. I think it was just a dry winter, but the point is for them to be able to survive all seasons any year, so I'm going to try somewhere else.

051. Stinging Nettle (Urtica gracilis) I'm assuming, anyway. She planted herself in my garden at my former apartment and I potted and took her with me when I moved. She's been doing okay. And bitey. She's very bitey.

052. Zigzag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) I didn't plant that, so free native plant for me! She's also made babies.

053. Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) Finally flowering this year!

054. Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) Not pictured as I haven't got pictures yet.

055. Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) A cultivar, though I can't remember which. I try to avoid cultivars and get the wild type if I can, but it's not always possible and not all cultivars are bad.

056. Lance Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris lanceolata) Selfheal is a common garden weed but unobtrusive and makes cute purple flowers. Not to mention edible and medicinal uses! This one is the subspecies native to Ontario proper, whereas her close cousin is common up here but apparently only native to the northeastern United States bordering southern Ontario.

057. Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata) She's fuzzy. She's magenta purple. Bees love her. She's perfect.

058. Fairy Candle (Actaea racemosa) She's related to the baneberries and is herself poisonous but she does have some limited edible uses. And her delicate white flowerheads are lovely.

059. Star-Flowered Onion (Allium stellata) So glad I was able to get her before the place that sold her stopped shipping to my province. No one in my province carries this! But she is native, I have her, and she is an ever green plant that simply resumes growth as soon as the snow melts.

060. Wood Violet (Viola sororia) Other than V. odorata, which is invasive in North America, if you see the classic blue, purple, and white violets growing everywhere in the spring in North America it's probably this species. Yes, violets can actually be blue! Not the sky blue of forgetmenots, dayflowers, or bluebells, or the deep blue of lobelias, but blue.

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I'll start by saying I don't dig ramps out of the wild, because in some places, they're becoming very scarce. I typically admire them when I find them and move on. But a friend of mine gifted me with a passel of the garlicky wild onions this week, so I had to put them to good use. I bought a carton of eggs on sale at the store yesterday and made an asparagus and wild ramp frittata this morning. Be kind - it's my first frittata. :-) As soon as Blake walked in the door, he warned me he's keeping his distance from me for several days at least.

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From @travelingbarbados on IG

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Comenius University Botanical Garden, Bratislava

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