RE: I'll take even the smallest victories
Oh, and thanks for the reed canary grass tribute - LOL!
This next shot is for @carolkean. This whole field is canary grass! The goats like it, but that doesn't make it any less invasive!
Your orchid-like little yellow flower looks like jewelweed to me. Mine is orange though.
Jewelweed occurs in moist, semi-shady areas throughout northern and eastern North America. It often forms dense, pure stands in floodplain forests and around the forested edges of marshes and bogs. Jewelweed also colonizes disturbed habitats such as ditches and road cuts. - https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/impatiens_capensis.shtml
Aha! That's because there are several varieties!
Yellow jewelweed -- Impatiens pallida is a flowering plant native to Canada and the United States. It grows in moist to wet soils, generally alongside the closely related Impatiens capensis, producing flowers from midsummer through fall. Wikipedia
Our resident herbalists,
@owasco, @crescendoofpeace, and who else, know this:
...a compound called lawsone in its leaves is proven to have anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory properties.
Crushed leaves in poultice form are a traditional and well-known remedy for poison ivy. Leaf tea is a folk remedy in preventing poison ivy. Ice cubes made from tea are also rubbed topically on rashes. Juice from the stem before flowering also used topically on poison ivy rash. http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/medicinal_plants/pages/Jewelweed.htm
That's great information! I knew it was a native plant, but not what its medicinal properties are. We don't have poison ivy in this part of the country, but we do have a little poison oak. And since I am allergic to grass, I might have to try a poultice or a tea when the grass is going crazy next year. Thanks for the education!
Jewel weed can also be made into a really effective salve for poison ivy/oak, and any other kind of skin rashes.
We have tons of poison ivy around here, and no jewel weed that I've found, so I'll have to break down and get some seeds.
Thanks, @carolkean, for alerting me to this post, which I'd missed the first time.
The death star and strafing references cracked me up, and I can completely relate . . . last year we had a nest of yellow jackets on our front porch, of all places, and I was about ready to just lock it up and move out.
We were finally able to take care of the little bastards once we had a couple of good freezes, and I felt a particular satisfaction when we finally built a roaring fire, and burnt the box they'd nested in.
I really miss our goats.
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I could send you a bucket of seeds, although the flowers are fading now so I imagine the window is closing quickly on that.
This year hasn't been as bad with the stinging menaces, but it's still a little stressful to be out chopping blackberries and wondering when I will be attacked. Last year was wretched. They were everywhere! We've had rain off and on all summer. Maybe that helps keep the population down. Congratulations on making your porch safe for humans!
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