Sunday, July 30, 2006


Everyone recognizes purple coneflower, AKA echinacea purpurea, right?



A Monarch butterfly enjoying some tansy.



Here are some sumac leaves to compare to the Tree of Heaven we saw previously. See how the edges are toothed? And wet, because we have a thunderstorm EVERY DAY this summer.

I don't know this one. Anybody?

[Ontario Wanderer, whose blog you should check out, has identified this as Bouncing Bet, AKA soapwort. Thanks, OW!]

5 comments:

Ontario Wanderer said...

There are several names for your last flower including Bouncing Bet and Soapwort. The leaves will suds in water, according to what I have read, so it was used for soap in earlier days. Bouncing Bet was probably short for Bouncing Betty as Betty rubbed clothing up and down the washboard. Latin name is Saponaria officinalis.

Ontario Wanderer said...

P.S. Have a look at my wild flower web site to see what is blooming down Hamilton way. You will find that Toronto is not too, too much different.

Marnie said...

Thanks, Ontario Wanderer! That's funny, I've looked at pictures of soapwort several times, but I just wasn't making the connection. Thanks for making the ID.

Donwatcher said...

Bouncing Bet (Saponaria officinalis) while pretty is (you guessed it) non-native. It is classified as a Category 3 invasive (moderately invasive but can become locally dominant given certain conditions). There's not much growing in Beechwood but there is some directly north of the site, so it is something to keep an eye on.

Donwatcher said...

By the way, my source for Ontario invasives is "Sustaining Biodiversity: a Strategic Plan for Managing Invasive Plants in Southern Ontario" by Donna Havinga. It can be viewed online at:

http://www.serontario.org/pdfs/sustain.pdf