The Language of Flowers--Birdsfoot Trefoil

Birdsfoot Trefoil is native to Asia, Europe, and northern Africa. It's considered invasive in North America.

It's sometimes called bacon and eggs or butter and eggs. It's coloring Indiana roadsides yellow this time of year.

In the language of flowers it gets no respect; maybe because it is poisonous to humans it denotes revenge.  

White Campion

White Campion's charm continues long after the flowers have bloomed out. This plant goes to seed by making a tiny pot to enclose its seed. I love going through an autumn field and finding the tiny pots still hanging on the stem.

The plant is not natural to the Americas; it was imported from other areas of the world; native to Europe, Asia, and Africa. It grows anywhere the ground has been disturbed.

Yarrow

Delicious is the lay that sings The haunts of happy lovers, The path that leads them to the grove, The leafy grove that covers: And pity sanctifies the verse That paints, by strength of sorrow, The unconquerable strength of love;— Bear witness, rueful Yarrow!--W. Wordsworth

Yarrow was transplanted from across the ocean to the Americas. Sweet smelling and thought to have medicinal properties for everything from nose bleeds to melancholy, it is a favored flower of poets.

Crown Vetch

Crown Vetch gets a crown for being an invasive plant. It also gives off quite an odor that is permeating the air in Indiana of late. The smell is a little bit like nutmeg unless you get too big of a whiff then it's just down right putrid.

It is beautiful though, coloring roadsides, ditches, and hills a lavendar pink.

Hairy Vetch

Such an ugly name for such a pretty wildflower. Hairy Vetch is a non-native wildflower that likes prairie type conditions. It is a member of the pea family, a family blooming all over, including gardens, during June.

The plant's stems are quite hairy and peas bind (vetch) nitrogen to soil, providing a natural fertilizer in soil enhancement; thus the ugly name for such a beautiful flower.

Oxeye Daisy

There weren't many Oxeye Daisies the last couple of years, perhaps because of the wet conditions. This year they are back to being abundant.

The Oxeye is an introduced species from Europe.   

Yellow Goatsbeard

The first time I identified Goatsbeard by referencing this tall yellow wildflower in my guidebook I wondered how this flower got it's name. It didn't resemble a goats beard to me!

Then I walked by the same flower a couple of weeks later and figured it out when I saw how the flower goes to seed.  The seed head is a complete sphere and is at least as big as fist. It is quite beautiful.

This flower was introduced to Indiana from Europe long ago and is edible. The roots supposedly taste like oysters. Don't go looking for the flowers much past noon though, since the flowers shut down about that time. You can find these blooming right now in Indiana in open areas and fields.