Butterfly Garden - Pea Family Nitrogen-fixers

Land plants are believed to have co-evolved around 400 million years ago with a type of fungus that penetrates their roots and helps the plants to absorb phosphates and other nutrients in exchange for photosynthesis-derived sugar. However, more recently some plants have evolved a different symbiotic relationship which allows them easier access to nitrogen, an essential component of protein and other molecules necessary for plants to survive - this time with bacteria.

Although the air is 78% nitrogen, it is not in a form that plants can absorb. It must be fixed by special types of bacteria in the soil, many of which are free-living providers for plants. Others have evolved to provide an extra jolt to plants like legumes (pea/bean family plants) in exchange for carbon. In many of these you can dig up the roots and actually see the spherical "nodules" these bacteria call home. And then plant them again and hope they survive.

Three of the commonly planted prairie legumes are shown below. They are popular for use in prairie restoration because they increase nitrogen in the surrounding soil for other plants. And two of them are popular with grazing animals because of their high protein content.

From Butterfly Garden

Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea) is shown above and grows to about 1-3' tall. Native full sun prairie plants are hard to find this short and make nice border plants. The small purple flowers bloom from the bottom up along a 1-2" cylindrical spike. Be careful of rabbits - cages might help to get it established.

From Butterfly Garden

The White Wild Indigo (Baptisia leucantha) can grow very quickly in the Spring and can be 3-6 ft. tall by the time it blooms. The flower spikes can be up to 2 ft. long and although high in protein this one is actually poisonous to mammalian herbivores.

From Butterfly Garden

The Lead Plant (Amorpha canescens) is one of my favorites aesthetically. It blooms in early to mid-summer and grows from 1-3 ft. tall. It's very fine hairs on them stems and tiny compound leaflets make it look like it's dusted with white lead, hence the name. Rabbits love this one too but we haven't really had a problem in our garden.

Butterfly Garden - We're Back!

By: Samra Matin & Jiten Patel (class of 2011)

Due to overwhelming response from our first blog post, the witty and insightful piece about Fox Glove Beardtongue, we’re back to write another one. Yes, readers, the ME Butterfly Garden blog is quickly making its way up the most trafficked website list. Soon, it will reach the status of MySpace circa 2005. It won’t, most likely. But can FaceBook provide you with gentle commentary and unbiased reporting of butterfly gardens? I didn’t think so.

The three plants in the spotlight today are the Golden Alexander, Meadow Anemone, and Nodding Onion. Though Meadow Anemone and Golden Alexander are currently in bloom, Nodding onion is not.

The Golden Alexander can grow up to 2.5 feet and has hairless, shiny stems. The blooming period occurs from late spring to early summer, and lasts about 1 month. It grows best in full to partial sun, although light shade under trees is tolerated. The soil should be moist and loamy, and can contain some rocky material.

This plant is easy to grow and maintain. The golden-yellow flowers attract short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, and beetles. It’s a good, low-maintenance plant that can add color to your garden. At the Maine East butterfly garden, we have plenty of this plant. Ms. Childress wouldn’t mind if readers contacted her in order to dig some out and take home to plant.

The second plant, Meadow Anemone, is a short plant, growing only 12-18 inches. It has small white flowers that bloom in masses. It will grow well both sun and woodland shade but it grows and blooms faster in the sun. It can be considered invasive, as it takes over the ground rapidly. The plant is great as a ground cover and can be used to fill in bare spots between plants. We’d love it if readers wanted to dig up some of this plant and take it home, as well. All you need is a big space with partial sun. Planting it under a tree where you need lots of ground cover would be ideal.

In addition to being completely aggressive, the meadow anemone has quite a history. It was used medically by North American Indigenous peoples as an astringent and as a styptic for wounds, sores, nosebleeds, and as an eyewash. Also the root was respected by Plains tribes and used for many ailments.

And lastly, the Nodding Onion, is native to New York and grows up to 1.5 feet. The flowers are white, pink, and purple. The nodding onion is a late summer bloomer and blooms from July to August. The stem bends so the flower nods towards the ground-giving the flower its name. The nodding protects the nectar from being leached away in the rain. The plant also likes full to partial sun, and moist conditions. It doesn’t do well in hot, dry summer.

The nodding onion was used widely by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. Its juice was given to children to treat sore throats and hives. It was also applied externally for infections, sores, and swellings. The leaves of the plant, which have a strong onion flavor, can be put in salads. Additionally, the juice, applied to exposed skin, repels mosquitoes and other biting insects.

Butterfly Garden - Penstemon Digitalis (Not a pokemon)

By: Samra Matin & Jiten Patel (class of 2011)

No, this post isn’t about the Native American chief named Fox glove Beard Tongue. We actually don’t know if there ever was a chief named Foxglove Beard Tongue. It sounds plausible, but confirming it would require more research, and we’re second semester seniors. Fun fact: It took us a whole class period to come up with that witty intro.

Instead, we’re here to talk about penstemon digitalis, otherwise known as the Foxglove Beard Tongue, a gentle flower naturally occurring in meadows and prairies. It’s a very low maintenance plant that grows well during the spring months and needs a plentiful amount of sun exposure. The Foxglove plant is also self-seeding so under the right conditions, it’ll germinate in the fall and sprout back every spring. Foxglove Beard Tongue has spikes of white tubular flowers that bloom through May to July on 2 to 4 feet stems. The flowers have purple stripes to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, who visit the flowers for nectar.

The bad news? All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested. Maybe that’s why Plants for a Future, a site that reports on medicinal uses of specific plants, has no entry for penstemon digitalis. However, the plant is pretty easy to work with and the white flowers are quite picturesque. It’s easy to grow in average, dry to medium –wet, well drained soil and is considered to be a low maintenance plant that is drought tolerant. There aren’t many serious insect or disease problems, but the foxglove beard tongue doesn’t do well in heavy clay or wet, poorly drained soil.

Butterfly Garden - An Early Bloomer, Prairie Smoke

One of the few short, evergreen prairie plants that exist, Geum triflorum, also known as Old Man's Whiskers, Prairie Smoke, or Three-flowered Avens, presents us with a curious cluster of pink, bell-shaped flowers bobbing in the breeze during late April or early May. Standing only 6-18" tall, these plants serve as nice border plants. But their short stature and unaggressive nature means you need to keep weeds away from seedlings and prevent the big prairie monsters from towering over and excessively shading them. As early bloomers they serve as a much-needed food source for small insects emerging from hibernation.

Look at that color! I think it's my Spring favorite... haven't decided yet.

What will dumbfind you (!) even more than their flowers are their fruits. Once the pollinators have wedged their big bee-bodies into the blooms, a slow fertilization process allows the flowers to last for several more weeks. Eventually each bloom will lift its head and turn into a tufted fruit that looks like a plume of smoke. Each plume is actually the "style" of the flower (the tube between the sticky stigma and the ovary). These stylin' plumes elongate in order to create pinkish, whisker-like, functional art. Acting as wind-dispersal aids for the seeds, by the end of June, away they fly...

If you're interested in planting these, put them in dry, well-drained soil with maximum sunlight.