Wild Flowers Worth Knowing

Tansy; Bitter-buttons
Tanacetum vulgare

“In the spring time, are made with the leaves hereof newly sprung up, and with eggs, cakes or Tansies which be pleasant in taste and goode for the Stomache,” wrote quaint old Gerarde. That these were popular dainties in the seventeenth century we further know through Pepys who made a “pretty dinner” for some guests, to wit: “A brace of stewed carps, six roasted chickens, and a jowl of salmon, hot, for the first course; a tansy, and two neat’s tongues, and cheese, the second.” Cole’s “Art of Simpling,” published in 1656, assures maidens that tansy leaves laid to soak in buttermilk for nine days “maketh the complexion very fair.” Tansy tea, in short, cured every ill that flesh is heir to, according to the simple faith of medieval herbalists—a faith surviving in some old women even to this day. The name is said to be a corruption of athanasia, derived from two Greek words meaning immortality. When some monks in reading Lucian came across the passage where Jove, speaking of Ganymede to Mercury, says, “Take him hence, and when he has tasted immortality let him return to us,” their literal minds inferred that this plant must have been what Ganymede tasted, hence they named it athanasia! So great credence having been given to its medicinal powers in Europe, it is not strange the colonists felt they could not live in the New World without tansy. Strong-scented pungent tufts topped with bright yellow buttons—runaways from old gardens—are a conspicuous feature along many a roadside leading to colonial homesteads.

Common or Plumed Thistle
Cirsium

Is land fulfilling the primal curse because it brings forth thistles? So thinks the farmer, no doubt, but not the goldfinches which daintily feed among the fluffy seeds, nor the bees, nor the “painted lady,” which may be seen in all parts of the world where thistles grow, hovering about the beautiful rose-purple flowers. In the prickly cradle of leaves, the caterpillar of this thistle butterfly weaves a web around its main food store.

When the Danes invaded Scotland, they stole a silent night march upon the Scottish camp by marching barefoot; but a Dane inadvertently stepped on a thistle, and his sudden, sharp cry, arousing the sleeping Scots, saved them and their country; hence the Scotch emblem.

From July to November blooms the Common, Burr, Spear, Plume, Bank, Horse, Bull, Blue, Button, Bell, or Roadside Thistle (C. lanceolatum or Carduus lanceolatus), a native of Europe and Asia, now a most thoroughly naturalized American from Newfoundland to Georgia, westward to Nebraska. Its violet flower-heads, about an inch and a half across, and as high as wide, are mostly solitary at the ends of formidable branches, up which few crawling creatures venture. But in the deep tube of each floret there is nectar secreted for the flying visitor who can properly transfer pollen from flower to flower. Such a one suffers no inconvenience from the prickles, but, on the contrary, finds a larger feast saved for him because of them. Dense, matted, wool-like hairs, that cover the bristling stems of most thistles, make climbing mighty unpleasant for ants, which ever delight in pilfering sweets. Perhaps one has the temerity to start upward.

might be the ant’s passionate outburst to the thistle, and the thistle’s reply, instead of a Sir Walter and Queen Elizabeth couplet. Long, lance-shaped, deeply cleft, sharply pointed, and prickly dark green leaves make the ascent almost unendurable; nevertheless, the ant bravely mounts to where the bristle-pointed, overlapping scales of the deep green cup hold the luscious flowers. Now his feet becoming entangled in the cottony fibres wound about the scaly armor, and a bristling bodyguard thrusting spears at him in his struggles to escape, death happily releases him. All this tragedy to insure the thistle’s cross-fertilized seed that, seated on the autumn winds, shall be blown far and wide in quest of happy conditions for the offspring!

Sometimes the Pasture or Fragrant Thistle (C. pumilum or Carduus odoratus) still further protects its beautiful, odorous purple or whitish flower-head, that often measures three inches across, with a formidable array of prickly small leaves just below it. In case a would-be pilferer breaks through these lines, however, there is a slight glutinous strip on the outside of the bracts that compose the cup wherein the nectar-filled florets are packed; and here, in sight of Mecca, he meets his death, just as a bird is caught on limed twigs. The Pasture Thistle, whose range is only from Maine to Delaware, blooms from July to September.

Chicory; Succory; Blue Sailors; Bunk
Cichorium Intybus

At least the dried and ground root of this European invader is known to hosts of people who buy it undisguised or not, according as they count it an improvement to their coffee or a disagreeable adulterant. So great is the demand for chicory that, notwithstanding its cheapness, it is often in its turn adulterated with roasted wheat, rye, acorns, and carrots. Forced and blanched in a warm, dark place, the bitter leaves find a ready market as a salad known as “barbe de Capucin” by the fanciful French. Endive and dandelion, the chicory’s relatives, appear on the table, too in spring, where people have learned the possibilities of salads, as they certainly have in Europe.

From the depth to which the tap-root penetrates, it is not unlikely the succory derived its name from the Latin succurrere = to run under. The Arabic name chicourey testifies to the almost universal influence of Arabian physicians and writers in Europe after the Conquest. As chicorée, achicoria, chicoria, cicorea, chicorie, cichorei, cikorie, tsikorei, and cicorie the plant is known respectively to the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Russians, and Danes.

On cloudy days or in the morning only throughout midsummer the “peasant posy” opens its “dear blue eyes”

In his “Humble Bee” Emerson, too, sees only beauty in the

but, mirabile dictu, Vergil, rarely caught in a prosaic, practical mood, wrote,

Common Dandelion; Blowball; Lion’s-tooth; Peasant’s Clock
Taraxacum officinale (T. Dens-leonis)

Let the triumphant Anglo-Saxon with dreams of expansion that include the round earth, the student of sociology who wishes an insight into cooperative methods as opposed to individualism, the young man anxious to learn how to get on, parents with children to be equipped for the struggle for existence, business men and employers of labor, all sit down beside the dandelion and take its lesson to heart. How has it managed without navies and armies—for it is no imperialist—to land its peaceful legions on every part of the civilized world and take possession of the soil? How can this neglected wayside composite weed triumph over the most gorgeous hothouse individual on which the horticulturist expends all the science at his command; to flourish where others give up the struggle defeated; to send its vigorous offspring abroad prepared for similar conquest of adverse conditions wherever met; to attract myriads of customers to its department store, and by consummate executive ability to make every visitor unwittingly contribute to its success? Any one who doubts the dandelion’s fitness to survive should humble himself by spending days and weeks on his knees, trying to eradicate the plant from even one small lawn with a knife, only to find the turf starred with golden blossoms, or, worse still from his point of view, hoary with seed balloons the following spring.

Deep, very deep, the stocky bitter root penetrates where heat and drought affect it not, nor nibbling rabbits, moles, grubs of insects, and other burrowers break through and steal. Cut off the upper portion only with your knife, and not one, but several, plants will likely sprout from what remains; and, however late in the season, will economize stem and leaf to produce flowers and seeds, cuddled close within the tuft, that set all your pains at naught. “Never say die” is the dandelion’s motto. An exceedingly bitter medicine is extracted from the root of this dandelion. Likewise are the leaves bitter. Although they appear so early in the spring, they must be especially tempting to grazing cattle and predaceous insects, the rosettes remain untouched, while other succulent, agreeable plants are devoured wholesale. Only Italians and other thrifty Old World immigrants, who go about then with sack and knife collecting the fresh young tufts, give the plants pause; but even they leave the roots intact. When boiled like spinach or eaten with French salad dressing, the bitter juices are extracted from the leaves or disguised—mean tactics by an enemy outside the dandelion’s calculation. All nations know the plant by some equivalent for the name dent de lion = lion’s tooth, which the jagged edges of the leaves suggest.

After flowering, it again looks like a bud, lowering its head to mature seed unobserved. Presently rising on a gradually lengthened scape to elevate it where there is no interruption for the passing breeze from surrounding rivals, the transformed head, now globular, white, airy, is even more exquisite, set as it is with scores of tiny parachutes ready to sail away. A child’s breath puffing out the time of day, a vireo plucking at the fluffy ball for lining to put in its nest, the summer breeze, the scythe, rake, and mowing machines, sudden gusts of winds sweeping the country before thunderstorms—these are among the agents that set the flying vagabonds free. In the hay used for packing they travel to foreign lands in ships, and, once landed, readily adapt themselves to conditions as they find them. After soaking in the briny ocean for twenty-eight days—long enough for a current to carry them a thousand miles along the coast—they are still able to germinate.

Tall or Wild Lettuce; Wild Opium; Horse-weed
Lactuca canadensis

Few gardeners allow the table lettuce (sativa) to go to seed; but as it is next of kin to this common wayside weed, it bears a strong likeness to it in the loose, narrow panicles of cream-colored flowers, followed by more charming, bright, white little pompons. Where the garden varieties originated, or what they were, nobody knows. Herodotus says lettuce was eaten as a salad in 550 B.C.; in Pliny’s time it was cultivated, and even blanched, so as to be had at all seasons of the year by the Romans. Among the privy-purse expenses of Henry VIII is a reward to a certain gardener for bringing “lettuze” and cherries to Hampton Court. Quaint old Parkinson, enumerating “the vertues of the lettice,” says, “They all cool a hot and fainting stomache.” When the milky juice has been thickened (lactucarium), it is sometimes used as a substitute for opium by regular practitioners—a fluid employed by the plants themselves, it is thought, to discourage creatures from feasting at their expense. Certain caterpillars, however, eat the leaves readily; but offer lettuce or poppy foliage to grazing cattle, and they will go without food rather than touch it.

Rabbits, for example, have been fed on the deadly nightshade for a week without injury.

Orange or Tawny Hawkweed; Golden Mouse-ear Hawkweed; Devil’s Paint-brush
Hieracium aurantiacum

A popular title in England, from whence the plant originally came, is Grimm the Collier. All the plants in this genus take their name from hierax—a hawk, because people in the old country once thought that birds of prey swooped earthward to sharpen their eyesight with leaves of the hawkweed, hawkbit, or speerhawk, as they are variously called. Transplanted into the garden, the orange hawkweed forms a spreading mass of unusual, splendid color.

The Rattlesnake-weed, Early or Vein-leaf Hawkweed, Snake or Poor Robin’s Plantain (H. venosum), with flower-heads only about half an inch across, sends up a smooth, slender stem, paniculately branched above, to display the numerous dandelion-yellow disks as early as May, although October is not too late to find this generous bloomer in pine woodlands, dry thickets, and sandy soil. Purplish-veined oval leaves, more or less hairy, that spread in a tuft next the ground, are probably as efficacious in curing shake bites as those of the Rattlesnake Plantain. When a credulous generation believed that the Creator had indicated with some sign on each plant the special use for which each was intended, many leaves were found to have veinings suggesting the marks on a snake’s body; therefore, by simple reasoning, they must extract venom. How delightful is faith cure!

COLOR KEY

BLUE TO PURPLE FLOWERS

• Asters, Blue and Purple
• Beard-tongues
• Bittersweet (Nightshade)
• Bluets
• Brooklime, American
• Chicory
• Day-flowers
• Eye-bright
• Flags, Blue
• Fluellin
• Forget-me-nots
• Gentians
• Harebell
• Iron-weed
• Liverwort
• Monkey-flower
• Orchids, Purple-fringed
• Peanut, Hog
• Pickerel-weed
• Plantain, Robin’s
• Self-heal
• Skullcaps
• Speedwells
• Tare, Blue
• Thistles
• Toadflax, Blue
• Venus’ Looking Glass
• Vervain, Blue
• Violets, Blue and Purple
• Viper’s Bugloss

MAGENTA TO PINK

• Arbutus, Trailing
• Arethusa
• Bergamot, Wild
• Bindweed, Hedge
• Bitter-bloom
• Calopogon
• Campion, Corn
• Catch-flies
• Clovers
• Dogbanes
• Geraniums, Wild
• Gerardias
• Hardhack
• Herb-Robert
• Honeysuckle, Wild
• Joe-Pye weed
• Knotwood, Pink
• Laurels
• Lobelias, Blue
• Lupine, Wild
• Milkworts
• Moccasin Flower, Pink
• Motherwort
• Orchid, Showy
• Persicaria, Common
• Pink, Moss
• Pipsissewa
• Polygala, Fringed
• Raspberry, Purple-flowering
• Rhododendron, American
• Rose, Mallow
• Roses, Wild
• Snake-head
• Soapwort
• Willow-herb, Spiked
• Wood-sorrel, Violet
• Wood-sorrel, White

WHITE AND GREENISH

• Anemone, Wood
• Arrow-head, Broad-leaved
• Aster, White
• Baneberries
• Blackberries
• Bloodroot
• Button-Bush
• Camomile
• Campion, Starry
• Carrot, Wild
• Chickweed, Common
• Clover, White Sweet
• Cohosh, Black
• Coolwort
• Culver’s Root
• Dodder, Gronovius’
• Dogwoods
• Dutchman’s Breeches
• Everlastings
• Gold-thread
• Grass of Parnaoeas
• Hawthorn, Common
• Hellebore, White
• Indian Pipe
• Jamestown weed
• Ladies’ Tresses
• May Apple
• Meadow-rues
• Meadow-sweets
• Mitrewort, False
• New Jersey Tea
• Orchids, White-fringed
• Partridge Vine
• Pokeweed
• Saxifrage, Early
• Shepherd’s Purse
• Solomon’s Seals
• Spikenard, American
• Spikenard, Wild
• Spring Beauty
• Squirrel Corn
• Star-flower
• Star-grass
• Sundews
• Violets, White
• Virgin’s Bower
• Wake-Robin, Early
• Water-lily, White
• Wintergreen, Creeping
• Yarrow

YELLOW AND ORANGE

• Adder’s Tongue, Yellow
• Aster, Golden
• Barberry, American
• Black-eyed Susan
• Butter-and-eggs
• Buttercups
• Butterfly-weed
• Carrion-flower
• Celandine, Greater
• Clintonia, Yellow
• Dandelions
• Devil’s Paint-brush
• Elecampane
• Evening Primrose
• Five-finger
• Foxgloves, False
• Golden-rods
• Hawkweeds
• Indigo, Wild
• Jewel-weed
• Lettuce, Wild
• Lily, Blackberry
• Lily, Wild Yellow
• Marigold, Marsh
• Meadow-gowan
• Moccasin-flower, Yellow
• Mullein, Great
• Mullein, Moth
• Mustards
• Orchis, Yellow-fringed
• Parsnips, Wild
• Rockrose, Canadian
• St. John’s-wort
• Senna, Wild
• Sneezeweed
• Star-grass
• Tansy
• Violets, Yellow
• Water-lily, Yellow
• Witch-hazel

RED AND INDEFINITES

• Betony, Wood
• Cardinal Flower
• Columbine, Wild
• Ground-nut
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit
• Lily, Red, Wood
• Oswego Tea
• Painted Cups, Scarlet
• Pine Sap
• Pitcher-plant
• Skunk Cabbage

GENERAL INDEX OF NAMES

• Aaron’s rod
• Achillea Millefolium
• Actaea alba
• Adder’s tongue
• Agrostemma Githago
• Agueweed
• Alismaceae
• Alleluia
• Alsine media
• Althaea officinalis
• Alum-root
• Amaryllidaceae
• Amaryllis family
• American brooklime
• American cowslip
• American laurel
• American rhododendron
• American senna
• American white hellebore
• Amphicarpa monoica
• Anagallis arvensis
• Anaphalis margarilacea
• Anemone, Star
• Anemone, Wood
• Anemonella thalictroides
• Angel’s hair
• Anthemis Cotula
• Apios
• Apocynaceae
• Apocynum androsaemifolium
• Apple, May or Hog
• Apple, Thorn
• Aquilegia canadensis
• Araceae
• Aralia
• Araliaceae
• Arbutus, Trailing
• Arethusa
• Arisaema triphyllum
• Arrow-head, Broad-leaved
• Arum family
• Asclepiadaceae
• Asclepias
• Asters, Blue and Purple
• Aster, Golden
• Asters, White
• Azalea, Clammy
• Azalea, Pink, Purple, or Wild
• Azalea, White
• Balm, Bee or Fragrant
• Balmony
• Balsam, Wild
• Balsaminaceae
• Baneberry, White
• Bank thistle
• Baptisia tinctoria
• Barberry
• Barberry family
• Bay
• Beard-tongue, Hairy
• Bee balm
• Beech-drops
• Beech-drops, False
• Beefsteak plant
• Belamcanda chinensis
• Bell-bind
• Bellflower, Clasping
• Bell thistle
• Berberidaceae
• Berberis vulgaris
• Bergamot, Wild
• Berry, Scarlet or Snake
• Betony, Paul’s
• Betony, Wood
• Bindweed, Blue
• Bindweed, Hedge or Great
• Bird’s-foot violet
• Bird’s-nest
• Bird’s-nest, Yellow
• Birth-root
• Bishop’s cap
• Bitter-bloom
• Bitter-buttons
• Bitter-root
• Bittersweet
• Bitterweed
• Blackberry, Highbush
• Blackberry lily
• Black-eyed Susan
• Blind gentian
• Blister-flower
• Bloodroot
• Blowball
• Blue bells of Scotland
• Blue Curls
• Blue-devil
• Blue-eyed grass, Pointed
• Blue Mountain tea
• Blue-sailors
• Blue star
• Blue-stemmed golden-rod
• Blue-thistle
• Blue-weed
• Bluebell family
• Bluets
• Bokhara clover
• Boneset
• Boneset, Tall or Purple
• Borage family
• Boraginaceae
• Bottle gentian
• Bouncing Bet
• Boxberry
• Bramble
• Branching aster
• Brassica
• Brideweed
• Broad-leaved golden-rod
• Broad-leaved aster
• Broad-leaved kalmia
• Brooklime, American
• Broom, Yellow or Indigo
• Broom-rape family
• Bruisewort
• Brunella
• Buckthorn family
• Buckwheat family
• Bugbane, Tall
• Bulbous buttercup
• Bull thistle
• Bunchberry
• Bunk
• Burnet rose
• Burr thistle
• Butter-and-eggs
• Buttercups
• Butter-flower
• Butterfly-weed
• Button-ball shrub
• Button-bush
• Button thistle
• Calf-kill
• Calico bush
• Calmoun
• Calopogon
• Caltha palustris
• Camomile, Dog’s or Foetid
• Campanula rotundifolia
• Campanulaceae
• Campion, Corn or Red
• Campion, Starry
• Canada golden-rod
• Canada lily
• Canadian rockrose
• Canker-root
• Capsella Bursa-pastoris
• Cardinal flower
• Cardinal flower, Blue
• Carduus
• Carpenter weed
• Carrion-flower
• Carrot, Wild
• Caryophyllaceae
• Cassia marylandica
• Castalia odorata
• Castilleja coccinea
• Catchfly
• Ceanothus americanus
• Celandine, Greater
• Centaury, Rosy
• Cephalanthus occidentalis
• Chamaenerion angustifolium
• Charlock
• Checker-berry
• Chelidonium majus
• Chelone glabra
• Cherokee rose
• Chickweed, Common
• Chickweed, Red
• Chickweed wintergreen
• Chicory
• Chimaphila
• Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum
• Chrysopsis
• Cichorium Intybus
• Cimicifuga racemosa
• Cinquefoil, Common
• Cirsium
• Cistaceae
• Clammy Azalea
• Clasping bell-flower
• Claytonia
• Clematis, Virginia
• Clintonia
• Closed gentian
• Clover, Common red, Purple, Meadow or Honeysuckle
• Clover, White or Dutch
• Clover, White sweet, Bokhara, or Tree
• Cocash
• Cockle, Corn
• Cod-head
• Cohosh
• Cohosh, Black
• Columbine, Wild
• Commelina virginica
• Commelinaceae
• Compositae
• Composite family
• Cone-flower, Purple
• Convolvulaceae
• Convolvulus family
• Coolwort
• Coptis trifolia
• Corn campion
• Corn cockle, rose or campion
• Corn mustard
• Corn, Squirrel
• Cornaceae
• Cornel, Low or Dwarf
• Cornel, Silky
• Cornus
• Corpse-plant
• Cottonweed
• Cow lily
• Cow vetch
• Cowslip, American
• Crane’s-bill
• Crataegus coccinea
• Creeping wintergreen
• Crosswort
• Crowfoot family
• Crowfoot, Tall
• Crown-of-the-field
• Cruciferae
• Cuckoo flower
• Culver’s root or physic
• Curls, Blue
• Cuscuta gronovii
• Cypripedium acaule
• Cypripedium pubescens or hirsutum
• Daisy, Blue spring
• Daisy, Common
• Daisy fleabane
• Daisy-leaved fleabane
• Daisy, Michaelmas
• Daisy, Ox-eye
• Daisy, Pig-sty
• Daisy, Purple
• Daisy, White or Ox-eye
• Daisy, Yellow or Ox-eye
• Dandelion, Common
• Dasystoma flava
• Daucus carota
• Day-flower
• Deer berry
• Dense-flowered aster
• Devil’s paint-brush
• Devil’s trumpet
• Dew-plant
• Dicentra canadensis
• Dicentra Cucuilaria
• Dillweed
• Dock, Mullein
• Dodder, Gronovius’ or Common
• Dodecathon Meadia
• Dog-fennel
• Dog-tooth “violet”
• Dogbane family
• Dogbane, Spreading or Fly-trap
• Dog’s Camomile
• Dogwood family
• Dogwood, Flowering
• Dogwood, Swamp
• Downy false foxglove
• Downy yellow violet
• Dragon’s blood
• Droseraceae
• Dutch clover
• Dutchman’s breeches
• Dwarf cornel
• Dwarf wake-robin
• Dyer’s weed
• Ear-drops
• Early hawkweed
• Early purple aster
• Early saxifrage
• Eggs-and-bacon
• Elecampane
• English violet
• Epifagus virginiana
• Epigaea repens
• Epilobium angustifolium
• Ericaceae
• Erigeron
• Erythronium americanum
• Eupatorium
• Evening primrose
• Evening primrose family
• Everlasting, Pearly or Large-flowered
• Eye-bright
• Falcata comosa
• False beech-drops
• False foxglove, Downy
• False miterwort
• False sarsaparilla
• False Solomon’s seal
• Farewell summer
• Felonwort
• Field golden-rod
• Field lily
• Field milkwort
• Field mustard or kale
• Field parsnip
• Figwort family
• Fire-weed
• Five-finger
• Flag, Larger blue
• Flame lily
• Flannel plant
• Flat top
• Flaxweed
• Fleabane, Daisy
• Fleabane, Daisy-leaved
• Fleabane, Salt-marsh
• Fleur-de-lis
• Flower-de-luce
• Flowering dogwood
• Flowering wintergreen
• Fluellin
• Fly-trap dogbane
• Foam-flower
• Foetid camomile
• Forget-me-not
• Four-leaved loosestrife
• Foxglove, Downy false
• Fragrant balm
• Fragrant thistle
• Fringed gentian
• Fringed milkwort
• Frost-flower or Frost-wort
• Frost-weed
• Frost-weed, Hoary
• Frost-weed, Long-branched
• Fuller’s herb
• Fumariaceae
• Fumitory family
• Garget
• Gaultheria procumbens
• Gay orchis
• Gay wings
• Gentian, Closed, Blind, or Bottle
• Gentian family
• Gentian, Fringed
• Gentiana
• Gentianaceae
• Geraniaceae
• Geranium family
• Geranium Robertianum
• Geranium, Wild or Spotted
• Gerardia
• Gerardia, Large purple
• Ghost-flower
• Giant St. John’s-wort
• Giant sunflower
• Ginseng family
• Globe-flower
• Gold-thread
• Goldcups
• Golden Jerusalem
• Golden mouse-ear hawkweed
• Golden-rods
• Grass of Parnassus
• Grass pink
• Gravel-root
• Great bindweed
• Great laurel
• Great lobelia
• Great mullein
• Great rhododendron
• Great St. John’s-wort
• Great willow-herb
• Greater celandine
• Gronovius’ dodder
• Ground laurel
• Ground-nut
• Ground pink
• Groundhele
• Gulf orchis
• Habenaria blephariglottisHabenaria ciliaris
• Habenaria fimbriata or grandiflora
• Habenaria flava
• Hairbell
• Hairy beard-tongue
• Hairy golden aster
• Hamamelidaceae
• Hardhack
• Harebell
• Haw, Red
• Hawkweed, Early or Vein leaf
• Hawkweed, Golden mouse-ear
• Hawkweed, Orange or Tawny
• Hawthorn
• Heal-all
• Heal-all, High
• Heart-leaved aster
• Heart-of-the-earth
• Hearts, White
• Heath aster, White
• Heath family
• Hedge bindweed
• Hedge mustard
• Hedge pink
• Helenium autumnale
• Helianthemum
• Helianthus giganteus
• Hellebore
• Helmet-flower
• Hepatica
• Herb Robert
• Hibiscus Moscheutos
• Hieracium
• Highbush blackberry
• High heal-all
• Hoary frost-weed
• Hog apple
• Hog peanut
• Honey-balls
• Honey-bloom
• Honey lotus
• Honeysuckle clover
• Honeysuckle, Swamp
• Honeysuckle, Wild
• Hooded blue violet
• Hoodwort
• Horse thistle
• Horse-weed
• Horsefly-weed
• Horseheal
• Houstonia
• Huntsman’s cup
• Hypericaceae
• Hypericum
• Hypoxis hirsuta or erecta
• Hyssop, Wild
• Ice-plant
• Ill-scented wake-robin
• Immortelle
• Impatiens aurea or pallida
• Impatiens biflora or fulva
• Indian dipper
• Indian paint
• Indian paint-brush
• Indian pink
• Indian pipe
• Indian poke
• Indian root
• Indian sage
• Indian turnip
• Indian’s plume
• Indigo broom
• Indigo, Wild
• Ink-berry
• Innocence
• Inula Helenium
• Iridaceae
• Iris, Blue
• Iris family
• Iris versicolor
• Iron-weed
• Itch-weed
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• Jamestown weed
• Jewel-weed
• Jimson weed
• Joe-Pye weed
• Jointweed, Pink
• Kalmia
• Kalmia, Broad-leaved
• Kidney liver-leaf
• Kidney-root
• Kingcup
• Kinnikinnick
• Knotweed, Pink
• Labiatae
• Lactuca canadensis
• Lady’s eardrops
• Lady’s nightcap
• Lady’s slippers
• Lady’s thimble
• Lady’s tresses or traces, Nodding
• Lamb-kill
• Lance-leaved violet
• Large aster
• Larger blue flag
• Large-flowered everlasting
• Large-flowered wake-robin
• Large purple gerardia
• Large yellow lady’s slipper
• Large yellow pond or water lily
• Late purple aster
• Laurel, Great
• Laurel, Ground
• Laurel, Mountain or American
• Laurel, Narrow-leaved
• Legouzia perfoliata
• Leguminosae
• Lemon, Wild
• Leonurus Cardiaca
• Leptandra virginica
• Lettuce, Tall or Wild
• Liliaceae
• Lilium canadense
• Lilium philadelphicum
• Lilium superbum
• Lily, Cow
• Lily family
• Lily, Large yellow pond or water
• Lily, Pond
• Lily, Sweet-scented white water
• Limodorum tuberosum
• Linaria
• Lion’s Tooth
• Liver-leaf
• Liverwort
• Lobelia family
• Lobelia, Great
• Lobelia, Red
• Lobeliaceae
• Long-branched frost-weed
• Loosestrife, Four-leaved or Whorled
• Lotus, Honey
• Lousewort
• Love-me, love-me-not
• Love me
• Love vine
• Low cornel
• Low purple aster
• Lupine, Wild
• Lupinus perennis
• Lysimachia quadrifolia
• Mad-dog skullcap
• Madder family
• Madnep
• Madweed
• Mallow family
• Mallow, Marsh
• Mallow rose
• Malvaceae
• Mandrake
• March violet
• Marguerite
• Marigold, Marsh
• Marsh buttercup
• Marsh mallow
• Marsh marigold
• Marsh pink
• Maruta Cotula
• May apple
• May weed
• Mayflower
• Meadow buttercup, Common
• Meadow clover
• Meadow-gowan
• Meadow lily
• Meadow rose
• Meadow-rues
• Meadow scabish
• Meadow-sweet
• Meadow violet
• Melilot, White
• Melilotus alba
• Michaelmas daisy
• Milfoil
• Milkweed, Common
• Milkweed family
• Milkweed, Orange
• Milkweed, Purple
• Milkwort, Common, Field, or Purple
• Milkwort family
• Milkwort, Fringed
• Mimulus ringens
• Mint family
• Mitchella vine
• Miterwort
• Miterwort, False
• Mitella diphylla
• Moccasin flowers
• Monarda
• Monkey-flower
• Monotropa Hypopitis
• Monotropa uniflora
• Moonshine
• Morning-glory, Wild
• Moss pink
• Moth mullein
• Mother’s heart
• Motherwort
• Mountain laurel
• Mountain mint
• Mountain tea
• Mouse-ear
• Mouse-ear hawkweed, Golden
• Mullein dock
• Mullein, Great
• Mullein, Moth
• Mustard family
• Mustards
• Myosotis scorpioides or palustris
• Nancy-over-the-ground
• Narrow-leaved laurel
• New England aster
• New Jersey tea
• Nigger-head
• Night willow-herb
• Nightshade
• Nightshade family
• Noble liverwort
• Nodding ladies’ tresses or traces
• Nodding wake-robin
• None-so-pretty
• Nosebleed
• Nuphar advena
• Nymphaea advena
• Nymphaea odorata
• Nymphaeaceae
• Oenothera biennis
• Old maid’s bonnets
• Old maid’s pink
• Old man’s beard
• Old man’s pepper
• Onagraceae
• Opium, Wild
• Orange-root
• Orchidaceae
• Orchis family
• Orchis, Gulf, Tubercled, or Small pale green
• Orchis, Large or Early purple-fringed
• Orchis spectabilis
• Orchis, White-fringed
• Orchis, Yellow-fringed
• Orobanchaceae
• Oswego tea
• Ox-eye daisy
• Oxalidaceae
• Oxalis acetosella
• Oxalis violacea
• Paint-brush, Devil’s
• Paint-brush, Indian
• Paint, Indian
• Painted cup, Scarlet
• Painted trillium
• Pale touch-me-not
• Papaveraceae
• Pardanthus chinensis
• Parnassia
• Parnassus, Grass of
• Partridge-berry
• Partridge vine
• Parsley family
• Parsnip, Wild or Field
• Pastinaca sativa
• Pasture thistle
• Paul’s betony
• Pea, Wild
• Peanut, Wild or Hog
• Pearly everlasting
• Peasant’s clock
• Pedicularis canadensis
• Pentstemon hirsutus or pubescens
• Pepperidge-bush
• Persicaria, Common
• Philadelphia lily
• Phlox subulata
• Physic, Culver’s
• Phytolaccaceae
• Pickerel-weed
• Pig-sty daisy
• Pigeon-berry
• Pimpernel, Scarlet
• Pine, Prince’s
• Pine sap
• Pink family
• Pink, Grass
• Pink, Ground or Moss
• Pink, Hedge or Old maid’s
• Pink, Indian
• Pink, Sea or Marsh
• Pink, Swamp
• Pink, Wild
• Pinxter flower
• Pipe, Indian
• Pipsissewa
• Pipsissewa, Spotted
• Pitcher-plant
• Pitcher-plant family
• Plantain, Snake or Poor Robin’s
• Pleurisy-root
• Plume golden-rod
• Plume thistle
• Plumed thistle
• Podophyllum peltatum
• Pointed blue-eyed grass
• Poison-flower
• Pokeweed family
• Polemoniaceae
• Polemonium family
• Polygala, Fringed
• Polygala, Purple
• Polygala sanguinea or viridescens
• Polygalaceae
• Polygonaceae
• Polygonatum biflorum
• Polygonum pennsylvanicum
• Pond lily
• Pontederia cordata
• Poor man’s weatherglass
• Poor Robin’s plantain
• Poppy family
• Portulacaceae
• Potentilla canadensis
• Pride of Ohio
• Primrose, Evening
• Primrose family
• Primrose-leaved violet
• Primulaceae
• Prince’s pine
• Prunella vulgaris
• Puccoon, Red
• Pulse family
• Purple-flowering raspberry
• Purple-fringed orchis, Large or Early
• Purple-stemmed aster
• Purslane family
• Quaker bonnets
• Quaker ladies
• Quaker lady
• Queen Anne’s lace
• Queen-of-the-meadow
• Ranunculaceae
• Ranunculus acris
• Raspberry, Purple-flowering or Virginia
• Rattlesnake-weed
• Red-root
• Red-stalked aster
• Rhamnaceae
• Rhododendron, American or Great
• Rhododendron maximum
• Rhododendron nudiflorum
• Rhododendron viscosum
• River-bush
• Roadside thistle
• Robert, Herb
• Robert’s plantain
• Robin, Red
• Robin’s plantain
• Rockrose, Canadian
• Rockrose family
• Root, Indian
• Rosa
• Rosaceae
• Rose, Burnet
• Rose, Corn
• Rose family
• Rose, Mallow
• Rose mallow, Swamp
• Rose of Plymouth
• Rose-pink
• Rose-tree
• Rose, Wild
• Rosemary, White
• Rosy centaury
• Round-leaved sundew
• Round-lobed liver-leaf
• Rubiaceae
• Rubus odoratus
• Rubus villosus
• Rudbeckia hirta
• Rue anemone
• Rutland beauty
• Sabbatia
• Sabbatia, Square-stemmed
• Sagittaria latifolia
• Sagittaria variabilis
• Sailors, Blue
• St. John’s-wort family
• St. John’s-worts
• Salt-marsh fleabane
• Sanguinaria canadensis
• Saponaria officinalis
• Sarracenaceae
• Sarsaparilla, Wild or False
• Saxifragaceae
• Saxifrage family
• Scabious, Sweet
• Scabish, Meadow
• Scoke
• Scorpion grass
• Scrophularaceae
• Scutellaria laterifolia
• Sea pink
• Seaside purple aster
• Self-heal
• Senna, Wild or American
• Sessile-flowered wake-robin
• Shanks, Red
• Sharp-toothed golden-rod
• Sheep-laurel
• Sheep-poison
• Shellflower
• Shepherd’s purse
• Shepherd’s weatherglass or clock
• Shooting star
• Showy orchis
• Showy purple aster
• Shrubby St. John’s-wort
• Side-saddle flower
• Silene pennsylvanica or caroliniana
• Silene stellata
• Silkweed
• Silky cornel
• Silver cap
• Silver leaf
• Simpler’s joy
• Sisymbrium officinale
• Sisyrinchium angustifolium
• Skullcap, Mad-dog
• Skunk cabbage
• Small pale green orchis
• Smartweed
• Smilacina racemosa
• Smilax herbacea
• Smooth aster
• Smooth yellow violet
• Smoother rose
• Snake berry
• Snake-flower
• Snake grass
• Snake-head
• Snake plantain
• Snakeroot, Black
• Snap weed
• Sneezeweed
• Snowball, Wild
• Soapwort
• Solanaceae
• Soldier’s cap
• Solidago
• Solomon’s seal
• Solomon’s seal, False
• Solomon’s zig-zag
• Spatterdock
• Spear thistle
• Specularia perfoliata
• Speedwell, Common
• Spice berry
• Spiderwort family
• Spignet
• Spiked willow-herb
• Spikenard
• Spikenard, Wild
• Spiraea salicifolia
• Spiraea tomentosa
• Spiranthes cernua
• Spoonwood
• Spotted geranium
• Spotted touch-me-not
• Spotted wintergreen or pipsissewa
• Spreading dogbane
• Spring beauty
• Spring daisy, Blue
• Spring orchis
• Square-stemmed sabbatia
• Squaw-berry
• Squirrel corn
• Squirrel cup
• Star anemone
• Star, Blue
• Star-flower
• Star-grass, Yellow
• Star, Shooting
• Starry aster
• Starry campion
• Starwort
• Starwort, Yellow
• Starworts
• Starworts, Blue and Purple
• Steeple bush
• Stellaria media
• Stemless lady’s slipper
• Stramonium
• Strangle-weed
• Succory
• Sundew family
• Sundial
• Sunflower, Swamp
• Sunflower, Tall or Giant
• Swallow-wort
• Swamp buttercup
• Swamp cabbage
• Swamp dogwood
• Swamp pink or honeysuckle
• Swamp rose
• Swamp rose-mallow
• Swamp sunflower
• Swanweed
• Sweet clover, White
• Sweet golden-rod
• Sweet scabious
• Sweet-scented white water-lily
• Sweet violet
• Sweet white violet
• Sweetbrier
• Symplocarpus foetidus
• Syndesmon thalictroides
• Tall boneset
• Tall bugbane
• Tall crowfoot
• Tall hairy golden-rod
• Tall lettuce
• Tall meadow-rue
• Tall sunflower
• Tanacetum vulgare
• Tank
• Tansy
• Tare, Blue, Tufted, or Cow
• Tawny hawkweed
• Tea, Mountain or Ground
• Tea, Oswego
• Thalictrum
• Thistle, Burr, Spear, Plume, Bank, Common, Horse, Bull, Blue, Button, Bell, or Roadside
• Thistle, Common or Plumed
• Thistle, Pasture or Fragrant
• Thorn apple
• Thorn, White or Scarlet fruited
• Thoroughwort, Common
• Thoroughwort, Purple
• Tiarella cordifolia
• Tinegrass
• Toadflax, Blue or Wild
• Toadflax, Yellow
• Touch-me-not family
• Trailing arbutus
• Traveller’s joy
• Tree clover
• Trientalis americana
• Trifolium pratense
• Trifolium repens
• Trilliums
• Trout lily
• True wood-sorrel
• Trumpet-leaf
• Trumpet weed
• Tubercled orchis
• Tufted buttercup
• Tufted vetch
• Turban lily
• Turk’s cap
• Turtle-head
• Twin-berry
• Umbelliferae
• Vein-leaf hawkweed
• Velvet plant
• Venus’ lady’s slipper
• Venus’ looking-glass
• Venus’ pride
• Veratrum viride
• Verbascum
• Verbenaceae
• Vernonia noveboracensis
• Veronica
• Vervain, Blue
• Vervain family
• Vetch, Blue, Tufted, or Cow
• Vicia Cracea
• Viola
• Violaceae
• Violet, Bird’s-foot
• Violet, Common purole, Meadow, or Hooded blue
• “Violet,” Dog-tooth
• Violet, Downy yellow
• Violet, English, March or Sweet
• Violet family
• Violet, Lance-leaved
• Violet, Primrose-leaved
• Violet, Smooth yellow
• Violet, Sweet white
• Violet wood-sorrel
• Viper’s bugloss
• Viper’s herb or grass
• Virginia clematis
• Virginia day-flower
• Virginia raspberry
• Virgin’s bower
• Wake-robin
• Water cabbage
• Water-lily family
• Water nymph
• Water-plantain family
• Weatherglass, Poor Man’s or Shepherd’s
• Whippoorwill’s shoe
• White-fringed orchis
• White-weed
• White-wreathed aster
• Whorled loosestrife
• Wicky
• Wild azalea
• Wild balsam
• Wild bergamot
• Wild carrot
• Wild columbine
• Wild geranium
• Wild honeysuckle
• Wild hyssop
• Wild indigo
• Wild lady’s slipper
• Wild lemon
• Wild lettuce
• Wild lupine
• Wild morning-glory
• Wild opium
• Wild parsnip
• Wild pea
• Wild peanut
• Wild pink
• Wild rose
• Wild sarsaparilla
• Wild senna
• Wild snowball
• Wild toadflax
• Wild yellow lily
• Willow-herb, Creator Spiked
• Willow-herb, Night
• Wind-flower
• Wintergreen, Chickweed
• Wintergreen, Creeping
• Wintergreen, Flowering
• Wintergreen, Spotted
• Witch-hazel family
• Wood anemone
• Wood aster
• Wood aster, White
• Wood betony
• Wood lily
• Wood lily, White
• Woodland golden-rod
• Wood-sorrel family
• Wood-sorrel, Violet
• Wood-sorrel, White or True
• Woody nightshade
• Wreath golden-rod
• Wrinkle-leaved golden-rod
• Yarrow
• Yellow-fringed orchis
• Yellow-top
• Yellow-weed
• Zig-zag golden-rod