Hyssop Spurge

Hyssop Spurge, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

A flowering weed;
Hearing its name,
I looked anew at it.~ Teiji

I have to say that I consider this plant to be a weedy nuisance. I see it everywhere it shouldn’t be: mostly in my flowerpots and growing in the patio and driveway cracks. It flowers, it seeds, I weed it, it sprouts again.

Just to be contradictory, I also like weeds. And I happen to like the sound of this one: SPURGE. If I have the identification correct, I can further enjoy rolling the words “Hyssop spurge” around my brain.

The Haiku above reflects my feelings after identifying and naming a plant – I suddenly look at it differently. Perhaps it’s a personal connection, or maybe I like things to have a place in the world, even if it’s in a human-created concept. I also feel a shared sense of wonder with plant explorers from the past who passionately learned all they could about each new discovery.

Hyssop spurge is indeed considered a weed by most everyone, especially on the Internet, which abounds with elimination techniques. The one positive source I found was in the Botanical Dermatology Database, which describes the milky sap as used to treat warts, calluses and ringworm.

When broken, the stem exudes a prodigious amount of opaque white sap, which is typical of Euphorbias, and probably just as bitter and caustic as other family members such as Poinsettia and Devil’s backbone .

Now that I’ve researched this spurge, I see this species and its relatives just about everywhere. Identification is NOT my strong point; there are many different kinds of weedy spurges and I feel lucky to have found a name for this one.

Next time you are in the garden or taking a walk, take a second look at the flowering weed under your hand or heel – you may happen to find yourself looking at it with new eyes!

You can click on the largest image to view it on my Flickr photostream.

29th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Two of us in Naples, Florida participated in the Worldwide Sketchcrawl Saturday! Started by artist Enrico Casarosa, the sketchcrawl is an international event involving artists from over 90 locations. Last Saturday, people from Tokyo to Oslo to Seattle grabbed their sketchbooks and portable media to draw and paint the world around them.

Jeanette Atkinson



Jeanette and I met at Freedom Park to ramble the walkways and boardwalks and sketch whatever came up. The clear blue skies, cool morning air, and golden sun captured my attention before I could settle down to drawing immediately.




Lake at Freedom Park

 

Anhinga

Luckily, we soon came across the perfect model – an Anhinga perched on the bridge rail. The wonderful thing about these water birds is that they sit rather still for long periods, making them much easier to sketch than the small warblers and finch-like birds we also observed. This one preened its feathers for a while before diving into the lake to fish, then later spreading its wings to dry in the sun.

Across the lake, I could see hints of autumn in the turning colors of the grasses along the shore, all pale golds and browns. Alligator flag was blooming right next to the lake bridge, giving me an opportunity to study and draw them more closely. Usually the large arrowhead-shaped leaves command attention instead of these delicately crinkled violet blooms on zig-zag stems.

Alligator flag

We visited the swampy side of the park for lunch and more sketching. A tricolor heron caught my eye, and I did several quick ink drawings while it fished in the shallow water. The water was covered in a green growth that I learned as duckweed in the Midwest – perhaps it’s the same here. I watched the heron spear shiners under the sea of green vegetation and pluck dragonflies out of the air.

I ended with a drawing of an old cypress tree, done in carbon pencil and watercolor washes, majestic in the mid-afternoon sun. I changed media after watching Jeanette draw some beautifully gnarled tree trunks with a water-soluble black pencil. I remembered some interesting drawings I’d done with charcoal, and pulled out the carbon pencil to see if it was similar.

The sketchcrawl was enjoyable on many levels. Jeanette is in the final phases of preparing her portfolio for a botanical illustrator’s certificate, and she’s very knowledgeable about flora, having been the past newsletter editor and writer for the Naples Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society. It was a wonderful opportunity to share what we knew about plants, birds, art materials, and techniques.

I felt that I learned a lot, and improved my field sketching – drawing beside another artist enhances the creative spark and inspires. We’re already planning the next sketchcrawl!

Visit my Flickr photostream to see these images as a slideshow, or visit the Sketchcrawl set to see the images larger.

Saw palmetto

Saw palmetto, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

Palmetto is a diminutive of the word palm (“little palm”), which describes saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) well. It’s a slow growing and long-lived member of the palm family, ranging in height from only 3 to 6 feet.

This sketch from my nature journal is of a manicured saw palmetto, left to grow by the developer of an upscale community. I can’t even guess at the age of these plants, as they live into the hundreds of years. I drew this one because I’m always intrigued at what goes on behind the normally bushy palm fronds.

The stems of palmetto often recline (hence the species name repens, from the Latin for creeping or spreading), and the pruned plants show the stem in a clear way.  The drawing below shows how the unpruned plant normally looks. 

These palmettos must have been the understory below live oak trees, as there are several tall oaks nearby. I’m more familiar with palmettos growing under pine trees in habitats called flatwoods, but it shows you how adaptable they are.

According to Wikipedia, they are the most common palm in North America.  There is an attractive variety that grows on Florida’s east coast with silver-gray to blue-green leaves, as opposed to the green and yellow-green leaves found in our area.

The genus name Serenoa honors Sereno Watson, an expedition botanist for Yale, who later took a position at Harvard.

A most useful plant, saw palmetto provides food, cover, and habitat for birds, mammals, and reptiles. Wikipedia reports that saw palmetto is the only larval food for Batrachedra decoctor,  a moth that seems to be elusive on the Internet, as I tried in vain to find a photo.

Native peoples historically used palmetto for food, medicine, shelter and cordage. Settlers used the buds like hearts of palm, and the berries as a survival food. I’ve read that palmetto berries are an acquired taste – which some people seem to enjoy, but others find horrible. Most Florida plant enthusiasts have heard the taste described as “rotten cheese steeped in tobacco” (the words of Quaker merchant Jonathan Dickinson, shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696).

Saw palmetto buds can be eaten like those of cabbage palms, but harvesting them kills the plant. Sometimes young cabbage palms are mistaken for saw palmettos. The saw palmetto has “saw teeth” on the petiole (leaf stem) of the palm frond, but the cabbage palm has a smooth stem. The leaf structure of the two is also different: the petiole of saw palmetto ends at the leaf base, while the cabbage palm has a sturdy midrib extending from the stem to the leaf tip.

Palmetto berries are used extensively in Europe and the US as an herbal remedy for prostate enlargement  and for various urinary ailments. At one time, the demand for berries threatened the reproduction of palmettos on private property and state parks. I remember news reports of poachers stripping bushes in the middle of the night and the occasional rattlesnake bite suffered by unwary gatherers.

There’s a lot more that can be written about this interesting and useful palm; I invite you to browse some of the links in this post to find out more yourself!

You can click on the top image to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.

For more reading:
Wikipedia
Floridata  (scroll down to see a picture of the silver-blue-gray type)
Smithsonian

Anhinga

Anhinga, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

A lot of viewers may not be familiar with the Anhinga, but it’s a common bird along the waterways of Florida.

Sometimes called the Snake Bird or Water Turkey, it can be seen diving, swimming or drying its feathers along our canals, bays, and lakes. Anhingas are called the Snake Bird because when they emerge from underwater and swim for shore, their long sinuous neck resembles a snake. They’re very distinctive in appearance; the males are black and white, while the females and juveniles are deep brown with a buff or light brown neck.

Often striking a pose on a perch near the water, they spread their wings wide to dry in the sun. Their wings in this position remind me of a black cape with epaulets and silvery white ribbons. Anhingas pose like this because they don’t secrete oil to waterproof their feathers (like ducks or geese do), and rely on air drying in order to fly. This lack of oil helps make them less buoyant, allowing them to dive more efficiently and stay underwater longer.

A member of the Darter family, you may have guessed that these birds are piscivores, or fish-eaters. For a quick overview of the Anhinga, visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology ; included are some short facts, a distribution map, and an audio record of their call. For a more in-depth read, visit the Wikipedia entry.

I found this Anhinga sitting on the bridge walkway over one of the lakes at Freedom Park, and took several reference photos for drawing later.  I've never had a chance to get this close to one of these beautiful birds before creating a flustered takeoff, and I'm happy I didn't cause this bird any apparent stress!

Clicking on the topmost image will take you to my Flickr photostream.

Parents and teachers, you can click HERE to download a free PDF coloring page of an Anhinga.