Pink lady slipper
Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder,” the American writer E. B. White urges us. Wonder is easily found when in Virginia’s Northern Neck, home to an abundance of wildflowers. Some are in-your-face amazing with their brilliant displays of bold color. Others hang back, shyly hiding their muted glory in the forest’s dim shadows. Some species of wildflower announce their presence even before you catch sight of them, casting their strong fragrance on the breeze.
Webster’s dictionary defines wildflowers as any uncultivated variety of flower growing freely without human intervention. Many are native to this specific place, but you’ll also find migrants from elsewhere, those whose ancestral seeds arrived here to find the soil and climate hospitable. Heathsville resident and Master Naturalist Kyle Langford, a member of the Northern Neck Native Plant Society (NNNPS), has kindly winnowed down for us the long list of local wildflowers to some of the most well-known.
He is a retired information technology specialist who worked at the University of Maryland for 37 years and currently serves as his society’s webmaster. “I’m not a wildflower expert,” Langford says modestly, “but I have my favorites, such as skunk cabbage, which first blooms in early January in freshwater swamps. It looks a lot like some kind of alien creature poking its way through the earth,” he says. Its purple and green bulblike flower can power through snow with ease because this plant produces its own heat through a thermogenic process. This handy metabolic trick allows it to generate temperatures between 27 and 63 degrees higher than the surrounding air. Heat also helps spread the stink that gives the plant its Latin name (Symplocarpus foetidus) and attracts flies, stoneflies, and bees, its principal pollinators. “Eventually, it will leaf out with cabbage-like foliage which, when bruised, releases an unpleasant, skunky smell. Some even say the odor reminds them of long-dead carrion. It’s a really cool plant!” Langford says.
Warmer weather in March coaxes forth wildflowers such as bloodroot, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and spring beauty. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is another interesting plant, but this is one found in upland forests. Aside from its attractive white, starry-petaled flowers, the red juice squeezed from its fleshy rhizomes has been used by Native Americans for centuries, both for pigments and medicinal purposes. Today, bloodroot is sold by herbalists and used as a poultice to treat warts and some skin cancers, among other things.
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Jack-in-the-pulpit, like its cousin the skunk cabbage, is a member of the Arum family that has an unusual flower structure. Jack-in-the-pulpit can be found in upland forests as well as swampy areas. Its trifoliate blooms typically form a green or striped purple deep cup (the pulpit), whose hood partially hides an upright spike-like structure, “Jack.” All parts of the plant are poisonous without careful treatment, but it’s also called Indian turnip because its corms were traditionally boiled, peeled, and enjoyed as food by Native Americans. The slippery, oily interior of the pulpit entraps unsuspecting insects in its depths, but the male plants actually have an escape hatch in the bottom so pollen-covered bugs can wiggle free and continue on to female blooms to complete pollination.
Also found in upland forests, spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) blooms March through May. The flowers grow in clustered colonies, and a drift of these pink-veined white blossoms is truly a beautiful sight. Its strap-like leaves and corms can also be harvested early and eaten raw or cooked.
“Within the Northern Neck lies Hickory Hollow, which is a natural forest area,” Langford says. “Some of my favorite late spring flowers found there are wild orchids.” The elusive Kentucky lady’s-slipper is so rare that it’s seldom seen unless one knows exactly where to look within Lancaster County. More common are pink lady’s-slippers (Cypripedium acaule), which like acidic soil, partial shade, and well-drained slopes. They can be seen in large colonies, and their membership in the orchid family is apparent by their pendulous, deep pink pouches. Another major area where orchids grow is Chilton Woods, a small state forest which has a lovely swampy area.
Next up are the summer flowers, which start appearing in May and can stretch into fall. Look for butterfly weed (Asclepius tuberosa) in forests, fields, and along the roadside. The vibrant orange blossoms attract butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and bees that enjoy its copious nectar. It’s also a larval food source for the queen and monarch butterflies. Technically a milkweed, it lacks the milky, sticky sap of other family members. If you’d like to encourage the survival of butterflies, purchase some butterfly weed at a native plant sale and plant in your own garden. Both you and the butterflies will benefit.
An unusual variety of orchid is one of the last to bloom, the cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor). July and August, when the rain-soaked forests dry up in the summer sun, are the months you will find them blooming. But just any old patch of ground simply won’t do. Research indicates that this orchid requires rotting wood as a substrate. It is not so much the wood they require, but rather the organisms that are decomposing it. Up until bloom time, the leaves can be hard to spot until a lanky brown spike erupts from the ground. The flowers themselves are a bit odd, even by orchid standards. The multiple flowers are distinctly asymmetrical, scrunched up on either side of the stem. Cranefly orchids have co-opted nocturnal moths in the family Noctuidae for pollination. These moths find the flowers soon after they open and stick around only as long as the nectar present in the long nectar spurs holds out. In a gruesome-seeming adaptation to ensure survival, the structure of the bloom causes the pollinia to attach to one of the moth’s eyes, so its pollen is not wasted on other species.
Also making their debut in the hottest months are the seashore mallow (Kostelezkya pentacarpos, formerly virginica) blooms, which can be found easily in local marshes and brackish pond areas. Seashore mallow (sometimes inelegantly known as sweat weed) is a moderately salt-tolerant perennial herb that can grow up to four feet tall on strong stems with grayish, hairy leaves. Though common to our Northern Neck, it can also thrive in marshes all along the eastern seashore. The large, five-petaled flowers, in both pink and white distinct varieties, open for one brief day in the sun, but may continue blooming into October. It does well in gardens, too, and is popular with thirsty hummingbirds and butterflies.
Look in swamps, ditches and damp forest areas for cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), also in bloom in July through October. Its extremely showy spikes of scarlet blossoms as tall as five feet can be recognized at a considerable distance. Few native plants have flowers of such intense color. The Virginia Native Plant Society honored Cardinal Flower as Wildflower of the Year in 1991. It attracts hummingbirds, swallowtail butterflies and large bumblebees. Interestingly, some historic accounts have the plant being used to treat both syphilis and baldness. It also performs well in private gardens, and if it’s grown close to a seating area, hummingbirds will be irresistibly drawn to its blossoms for your enjoyment.
The last in the Master Naturalist’s selection of favorite Northern Neck wildflowers is seaside goldenrod (Solidago mexicana). These tall, yellow fronds will bloom August through November in tidal marshes, beaches, and even in abundance in damp ditches along highways. Its fleshy leaves have adapted beautifully to resist sea spray and the salt used to treat wintry roads. Individual flower heads of this member of the aster family are larger than those of the typical goldenrod. Although its effectiveness can’t be proven scientifically, this herb has been widely utilized for many years as a treatment for various urinary tract maladies, including kidney stones, UTIs, and gout.
As we have seen just within the confines of this short list, our abundant wildflowers are useful both to the body and soul. Like many others before us and those who’ll follow behind, if we look carefully, we find wonder in the wild jewels of the Northern Neck.
“How lavishly are the flowers scattered over the face of the earth! One of the most perfect and delightful works of the Creation, there is yet no other form of beauty so very common. Abounding in different climates, upon varying soils…not a few here to cheer the sad, a few there to reward the good, but countless in their throngs, infinite in their variety, the gift of measureless beneficence. Wherever man may live, there grow the flowers.” ~ Susan Fenimore Cooper