Bibliography:
My main references are:
- Newcomb, Lawrence: Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. Boston,
MA: Little Brown & Co., 1977.
- Weishaupt, Clara: Vascular Plants of Ohio. Dubuque,
IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1971.
Newcomb's is much easier to use, and I'll generally start there
when making an identification, then turn to Weishaupt for a more
authoritative description. Clara also often has more detailed
information about variations specific to our area.
- Niering, William and Olmstead, Nancy: The Audubon Society
Field Guide to North American Wildflowers. New York, NY:
Alfred A Knopf. 1979.
- Peterson, Roger Tory and McKenny, Margaret: A Field Guide
to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America
(from the Peterson Field Guide Series). Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1968.
Both of these guides use flower color as their initial key in
identifying plants, which can be confusing (variations within
species, etc.). The Audubon book uses photographs for its illustrations,
and the pictures and written descriptions are in separate sections,
so you have to flip back and forth. Peterson's has very nice drawings,
which often include pointers to key distinguishing characteristics;
it is also more complete than the Audubon guide.
- Braun, Lucy: The Monocotyledoneae. Columbus OH: Ohio
State University Press, 1967.
- Fassett, Norman: A Manual of Aquatic Plants. Madison
WI, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1957.
A couple of scholarly books. Braun's is the first of a projected
four volumn set, and is exhaustive in coverage of Ohio flora.
Clara Weishaupt did the section on Gramineae (grasses). Cleveland
Public Libarary has the next 2 volumns, I don't know if the series
was ever completed.
- Core, Earl: Spring Wild Flowers. Charleston WV: West
Virginia Conservation Commission, 1948.
- Keeler, Harriet: The Wild Flowers of Early Spring.
A study of one hundred flowers growing in the suburbs of Cleveland
and throughout northern Ohio. Cleveland, OH: East End Signal
Print, 1894.
- Moldenke, Harold: American Wild Flowers. New York,
NY: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1949.
Historical books I've picked up on used bookstores. Always interesting
to see what's changed and what's remained the same. Keeler's book
includes a list of flowers collected on a particular day in the
spring of 1893 (see reprint below).
|
|
Introduction to The Wild Flowers of Early Spring
by Harriet Keeler, originally published in 1894.
In any study of a local flora it is important that the limits
of the floral region be clearly defined, and by the flora of the
suburbs of Cleveland is meant that of a territory which would
easily be enclosed by a circumference drawn with a radius of ten
miles, from the Court House as a center.
The soil about Cleveland varies from sand to clay, with here
an there a gravely loam and a bit of alluvial bottom land. The
hillsides consist of the former banks of the lake locally known
as the Ridge, together with the ravines made by the Cuyahoga,
Rocky River, Doan's Brook and other small streams in cutting their
way through the sand and shale to the lake
The flora of this region is also mainly that of Northern Ohio.
Like conditions produce like floras, and the soil and climate
of the entire lake region is very similar. However, where peat
beds occur, or whenever the limestone rocks crop out, different
species show themselves, but in the main the flora of Cuyahoga
county is the flora of Northern Ohio.
By Wild Flowers is meant herbaceous plants alone; and the list
includes only those that are habitually in bloom during the months
of March, April and May. Many of them of course are in bloom June,
but they are not the flowers of Early Spring unless found during
those three months.
The first flower of our Cleveland Spring is curious and interesting,
but it is little known and rarely seen, for its chosen home is
the swamp, ant its time of bloom the sunny days of February and
March. Its name, too, is against it. Skunk Cabbage is neither
euphonious nor pleasantly suggestive, and Simplocarpus foetidus
is long and cumbersome. As all the odds are on the other side
it will doubtless remain as it now is, practically unknown; nevertheless
its pre-eminence in point of time cannot be disputed.
The first spring flower that is generally know is the Hepatica,
which in early April carpets our ravines and open sunny woods
with a mass of color, pale blue and soft pink and white and tinted
lavender. It is one of our few spring flowers abundant enough
to produce color effects. Closely following the Hepatica and so
nearly together that no real precedence can be established among
them are The Harbinger of Spring, Dwarf Ginseng, Spring Beauty,
the Denturias, Adder's Tongue, Bloodroot, Marsh Marigold, Meadow
Rue, and Anemone.
It is popularly supposed that the character of the spring greatly
influences the opening of the flowers. Bur really, this influence
is much less than one would think it should be; the spring flowers
are very like the spring birds, they appear when they are due
with very little regard to the weather. They may not come so abundantly
but they come on time. By April twentieth the earliest flowers
are past their prime and the full flora is well under way. A record
found elsewhere gives a list of thirty-five plants in bloom on
the twenty-sixth of April, 1893, gathered by a party of young
ladies on an amateur botanizing expedition. And to this list should
be added at least five, Skunk Cabbage, Hepatica, Harbinger of
Spring, Marsh Marigold, and Dwarf Ginseng, all of which were in
bloom at the time; making the total of forty plants in bloom by
the last week in April, all within easy reach.
Counting three or four species that have disappeared from the
city limits within the last fifteen years, notably, the Painted
Cup, the Wild Garlic, and the Wild Hyacinth, with the few that
are rare, as the Lance-Leaved Violet and the Collinsia, in round
numbers one may say that our early spring flora numbers a hundred
flowers.
Most of them are native; not to exceed ten have come to us from
Europe. More than half are purely woodland blossoms, found nowhere
else. They developed in the unbroken forest of this country, and
although a few can adapt themselves to the new conditions of open
sunny fields many cannot, and when brought into contact with civilization
they disappear.
One-third of the number are white or but slightly tinted; one-forth
yellow of various degrees of paleness; the others are divided
mostly among the blues and pinks. A few greens, one red and four
red purples complete the list,--the colors are as one would expect
them to be--pale. As there are few brilliant colors, so is there
very little fragrance. The characteristic of our early flowers
is delicacy. They are as wild as the Indian and as shy as the
deer. They most of course die with our forests; but there is no
reason why they might not be coaxed back into our parks. If a
bit of woodland were left absolutely untouched, the leaves never
raked from under the trees, since it is that more than anything
else which kills the little beauties, there is no reason why they
should not grow and flourish even within the precincts of our
city. And every lover of nature would certainly rejoice to know
that our native flowers were protected and preserved from destruction.
In the botanical descriptions of the plants the last edition
of Gray's Manual of Botany has been authority in all cases of
doubt. A list of the books containing the plates referred to will
be found elsewhere. I also wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance
rendered me by Mr. Henry C. Beardslee, of University School, and
Mr. Edo. Claassen, in the determination of the local habitat of
several species; and to express my thanks to Miss Myrtie L. Jones
for the list of flowers mentioned above.
Easter-tide, 1894
Harriet L. Keeler
Flowers Gathered April 26th, 1893
- Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa)
- Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictoides)
- Meadow Rue (Thalictrum diocum)
- Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictoides)
- Blood Root (Sanguinaria canadensis)
- Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis)
- Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
- Cut-Leaf Dentaria (Dentaria laciniata)
- Two-Leaved Dentaria (Dentaria diphylla)
- Spring Cress (Cardamine rhomboidea)
- Common Blue Violet (Viola cucullata)
- Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)
- Long Spurred Violet (Viola rostrata)
- Cream Violet (Viola striata)
- Common Chickweed (Stellaria media)
- Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
- Wild Cranesbill (Geranium maculatum)
- Potentilla (Potentilla Canadensis)
- Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginica)
- Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)
- Tiarella [Foamflower] (Tiarella cordifolia)
- Mitella [Miterwort] (Mitella diphylla)
- Mitella [Nude Miterwort] (Mitella nuda)
- Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens)
- Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
- Plantain-Leaved Everlasting [Pussytoes] (Antennaria plantaginafolia)
- Phlox (Phlox divaricata)
- Wood Betony (Peidularis Canadensis)
- White Trilliam (Trillim grandiflorum)
- Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)
- Grape Hyacinth (Muscari botryoides)
- Perfoliate Bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata)
- Wild Ginger (Asarum Canadense)
- Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
- Equisetum [Horsetail] (Equisetum arvense)
|
