24 Mar 1999
Looks can be decieving! This bright green, interesting little vine is known in our area as POISON IVY. It's not a "wild flower" but it is a "wild thing" and people need to know what it looks like. I had not been able to find a picture of it so decided to scan a slip of it and put it here.It is abundant in our yard and climbs up our trees. We fight it as many people are VERY susceptible to its poisonous juices. It never bothered me untill about 8 years ago and then it made up for all the times I got by! I have learned to keep my distance. In order to get a scan of it I used a paper towel to wrap around the stem in order to break it off, then used tweezers to handle it. Washed my hands and the tweezers in household bleach to nuetralize the poison.

There is another vine that looks a lot like it, has nearly the same shape of leaf, but it seems to be a bit finer leaf, a bit shinier and crisper..GET NEW PAGE NUM .....see page 6. This one is more of a matt finish. If in doubt, don't touch until you know what it is. Also the trumpet vine leaves slightly resemble it. Just be careful!.

24 Mar 1999

On a brighter side, here is the fresh deep purple of a Commelinaceae blossom. It is a rather modest little plant, but this one is such a bright deep purple flowers that it is an important part of the spring show. They grow along roadsides and in sunny areas, bloom April to June. Perennial. There are several members of this family, some are called Day Flowers as well as several specie of Spiderworts. Colors range from blue to pink. This one is probably called Western Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis.) I don't know the exact specie as I can't find one just like it. At least two other specie's [Day Flowers] third petal is nearly white and looks like a small chin under two yellow eyes. The 'chin' is a lot smaller that the other two petals. On this specie the 'chin' petal is nearly as large as the other two, and more similar to the Spiderworts.

24 Mar 1999

Wild Onion In the spring slighty orchid crowns of petals adorn these little wild onions. The yard has more than an ample sprinkling of them as they are very proliferate. We can't seem to get rid of them . One spring they were so thick, that looking down on them from an upper window, it was like a softly swaying sea of white flower heads floating above the green grass. Today I pulled several clumps, shook the soil from them, and later in the kitchen, cleaned and minced them along with some celery a bit of parsley and some garlic, sauteed them lightly and added hashed potatoes for a quite satisfying dish. A word of warning, however; be sure they are wild onions as there is another plant that resembles them that is toxic.

24 Mar 1999

Dogwood is delightfully plentiful in East Texas as well in most states of the union. This was taken from one of a group of trees adorning the north side of my house. It is native to this area as we transplanted several tiny root pieces from a vacant lot by the lake some years back. These are about 20 feet tall now and sort of free form shape, like a bit of oriental art.

24 Mar 1999

SASSAFRAS TREE This plant is an herbaceous tree. The roots are used as a tonic, but seem to have been given the thumbs down by the powers that be as being somewhat toxic. I remember my Aunt boiling a huge kettle on the old wood stove to make a good hot tea. The roots were used in the making of root-beer. The SASSAFRASS Tree, in the wild, grows in clumps and is a bit invasive. Note that this tree is also unusual as it has three to four leaf shapes; single lobed, triple lobed and both left and right double lobed.The double lobed ones look like mittens and some have both left and right! The leaves of the Sassafras are dried, ground and called fely for use in fely gumbo,Cajon cooking... if I remember right. I ground some and use a bit of it in soups.

Y'all come back! Y'hear?

Last revised 11/11/2000
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©1998 by Leona Halley Henderson, Tvksi