Friday, May 02, 2008

Photos - What Is It?

I've never really sat down and figured out if these plants are Merry Bells or Wild Oats. I love the name Merry Bells, but i think they're Wild Oats. Maybe you can tell just from looking at them?
I'll get busy and look it up and let you know.



The low temperature- heavy frost 'burned' them pretty badly this year (along with the old fashioned bleeding hearts, some of the Euphorbias, and a Persicaria which didn't impress me as a tender kind of a plant). In other years the would have had some protection from the spruce that was growing over them.
I'll have to make a note to watch them for future transplant consideration.

1 comment:

Betsy said...

Today I looked it up in my Peterson Field Guide - Eastern Central / Medicinal Plants - the're Wild Oats, a native Bellwort of the Lily Family. The forked stem is the key to identification from other Bellworts. Latin name: Uvularia sessifolia.
American Indians used root tea of this perennial to treat diahrhea and as "blood purifier", a poltice for boils and broken bones. Folk medicine for sore throats and mouth sores.