Flowering Weeds Attract Bees and Butterflies

This photo is of a jimson weed in bloom.

Jimsonweed is part of the potato / nightshade family and is poisonous. It's also called Jamestown weed, thorn apple, downy thornapple, devil's trumpet, angel's trumpet, locoweed, mad apple and stinkweed. Jimsonweed can grow up to 5 feet tall.

Once I identified the jimson weed plant, I researched and found no beneficial use, but did read that the seeds and leaves are sometimes used as a hallucinogen.

The name jimson weed was derived from Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were supposed to suppress Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. However, the soldiers were seen acting strangely. One military man was described in historical accounts as "kissing his comrades, another running after feathers, and a third sitting naked, grinning like a monkey". No one knows whether they were sabotaged or had eaten the herb accidentally,

Browsing animals rarely eat jimsonweed because of its odor and taste, but will eat it if there's nothing else available. Sometimes children will eat partially ripe seeds because of their sweet taste.

Jimson weed seed pod

THERE ARE MANY BENEFITS TO GROWING CLOVER:

~~ Clover in your lawn stays green even during dry spells.

~~ Clover helps fertilize your lawn by fixing nitrogen.

~~ Clover helps support more wildlife. The nectar in their blooms attracts bees, which pollinate fruit trees and vegetables. Butterflies also are attracted to clover, and in turn, pollinate other blooming flowers.

~~ Clover attracts beneficial parasitoid wasps, which help control populations of agricultural pests. (Parasitoid wasps are not the same wasps that build nests in doorways or under eaves).

~~ A lawn full of clover smells better than a lawn that's been treated with fertilizer or herbicides.

Pokeweed is easy to identify in late summer once it has grown tall and produces bright purple berries. These berries are poisonous to humans and animals. Birds love the berries and are not affected by the toxin because the seeds have a hard outer shell that is not digested and so are eliminated whole. This is also the way most pokeweed plants are spread.

Out in the country, you can usually find pokeweed growing in the fence rows and along the edges of woods. In towns, pokeweed sometimes grows wild in alleyways and vacant lots.

Pokeweed leaves can be eaten if you're CAREFUL. Only pick the leaves when the plant is young, before there is any hint of pink in the leaf stems.

Once you pick the young leaves, you must cook them in three changes of water, which gets rid of the toxins. If you've never picked poke before, go with someone who's familiar with the plant and knows how to cook it.

Never use the leaves to make a fresh "salad". RAW POKEWEED LEAVES ARE POISONOUS.

Mature poke plants are also toxic to animals. Animals might eat poke plants early in the spring when grass is short. In the summer, they'll usually avoid the tops and berries unless other food is scarce.

You can make a red ink or dye from pokeweed berries. This dye was once used by Native Indians to decorate their horses. The United States Declaration of Independence was written in fermented pokeberry juice (also called inkberry) and American Civil War soldiers wrote letters home with pokeberry ink.

Many people are surprised to discover chicory is a tall weed with pale blue flowers. Chicory blooms in the morning and bees and butterflies are attracted to the flowers. The blossoms close up around mid-morning and they don't open on cloudy days.

Chicory is also known as blue sailors, coffee weed, and succory. The USDA considers chicory a noxious weed, but it's often classified as an herb by other groups.

Chicory roots are used as a coffee substitute or additive, especially in the southern part of the U.S.. The leaves can be eaten raw as a salad, and some beer brewers use chicory to add flavor to their stouts.

As an herb, it's used as a tonic and appetite stimulant, and used for sinus problems, cuts and bruises, and a treatment for gallstones.

In Europe, chicory is used in livestock feed; as it is effective in ridding animals of intestinal worms

Queen Anne's Lace looks so pretty when it blooms in fields and along roadsides. Sometimes you see individual plants growing among other weeds and in some areas you see it growing in large patches. Queen Anne's Lace grows up to four feet tall. Its leaves are fern-like, and the tiny, white flowers bloom in little flat-topped clusters.

Livestock rarely eat this plant, but birds eat the seeds, and small songbirds use the waving flower as a song perch. Queen Anne's Lace attracts close to sixty kinds of insects, including beneficial insects. Many people plant Queen Anne's Lace in their gardens to attract insect predators. This plant blooms from May to October and is a biennial plant. It spends its first year growing and then blooms the second year.

Queen Anne's Lace is a wild carrot; a member of the carrot (parsley) family. The leaves look like the domestic carrot and the plant also smells like carrot. People can eat the taproot, although it won't be as sweet as a domestic carrot. The leaves of the plant, though, are toxic, and sometimes irritate the skin.

BE SURE OF YOUR IDENTIFICATION. There is a similar-looking plant called Water Hemlock, which is deadly to eat. Don't eat Queen Anne's Lace unless you have a positive identification from an expert.

Bull thistle is also called common thistle and spear thistle. It's native to Europe and believed to have been brought to the eastern United States in colonial times. It's now found in all 50 states.

Bees and butterflies are attracted to this plant. Bees make honey from the blooms and butterflies use it as a food source.

Thistle is drought-tolerant and you can use it in xeriscaping. If you don't want it in your yard, you can plant it in a pot.

Bull thistle is an invasive plant and grows in any type of disturbed area. It can grow densely and take over other vegetation. The spiny leaves make it unpalatable to wildlife and livestock won't eat it because of its prickly leaves.

Prevention is the best way to eliminate bull thistle. After any type of ground disturbance, quickly seed with grass or other plants you desire so bull thistle can't find a place to grow.

If you already have thistle growing, mow the plants at ground level before the flower heads turn purple and produces seed.

Once you have purple flower heads, cut them off and bag them so seeds can't mature and blow free.

Goldenrod is often blamed when people have hay fever symptoms because it also grows at the same time as ragweed. Goldenrod is bright yellow and quite visible, but ragweed is green and blends in with other green grasses.

Ragweed is pollinated by the wind. Because it isn't pollinated by insects, ragweed doesn't need a brightly colored flower.

Goldenrod's pollen grains are heavier than air, because they are designed to be carried off by insects or birds. Goldenrod won't cause allergy problems unless you sniff right into the flowers, or unless you worked with it a lot, perhaps in flower arranging or crafting.

Goldenrod has been used as a medicinal herb for centuries, in the Americas and in Europe. It's been used for bladder and kidney stones, and as a diuretic to help flush out urinary infections.

Goldenrod is used as a remedy for sore throat, colds, and laryngitis, and made into a tea to relieve fatigue. It's also used topically for wound healing, eczema, arthritis, and rheumatism.

Ironweed (or Veronia) blooms with dark purple flowers in late summer. This weed is a member of the Aster family. In the U.S. it grows between 3 and 7 feet tall.

Ironweed is a good source of nectar for butterflies and bees when not many other flowering plants are available at this time of year. Small birds like finches and swallows like to eat ironweed seeds.

Ironweed is not recommended for home gardens unless you deadhead (cut the flowers off before they seed). A single plant can produce between 6,000 to 19,000 seeds , which can cause the plants to take over your garden. But ironweed is great for meadows, fields, or where you want to fill in bare areas.