The following are PLANTS you may find in and around Lake Garfield. Plants that are are invasive and not native to Massachusetts are indicated with a red border around the photo. To learn more visit the New England Wildlife Society website GoBotony or The Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States
WITCH HAZEL Hamamelis virginiana
Witch hazel is described by many folks as a “shrub.” This is one of those categories with a lot of leeway. One person’s bush may be another’s shrub, tree, or thicket. Besides this, there are many kinds of witch hazels, from the wild type to the kind you buy at the nursery. The cultivars from the nursery are mostly ones that bloom in the spring, but the wild ones here are the latest blooming thing there is.…
FALSE HELLABORE Veratrum viride
There is a mighty plant rocketing upwards in the wet places, one called “False Hellebore.” This is not its only name. Over the centuries here it has also been called Bear-Corn, Big bane, Big Hellebore, Crow-Poison, Devil’s Bite, Itchweed, Rattlesnake-Root, and quite a few more.
RED MAPLE TREE Acer rubrum
The red maple, also known as swamp, water or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest service recognizes it as the most abundant native tree in eastern North America. The red maple ranges from southeastern Manitoba around the Lake of the Woods on the border with Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, and southwest to eastern Texas. At maturity, it often attains a height of around 30 m (100 ft). Its flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn.
COLTSFOOT Tussilago farfara
In earlier times, when we all walked, coltsfoot was well-known and treasured. Later in the spring, when the flower has gone to seed and is all fluffy (like a dandelion), the big green leaves appear, and they look like their name. They have the shape of the foot of a colt, or the bottom surface of such a foot. Old-timers knew the leaf because it was so valued as a medicine.
WATER LILY Nymphea odorata
When the morning sun reaches the big white buds of this floating blossom, the petals open and anyone nearby will recognize the remarkable sweet scent of the sunny morning. Writing in 1852, Thoreau called these lilies “our lotus, queen of the waters, a superb flower.”
SKUNK CABBAGE Symplocarpus foetidus
The species name, foetidus, shares its root with the word “fetid,” which means "stinking." And if you don’t mind getting down on your hands and knees in the skunk cabbage’s soggy habitat to sniff this plant you’ll discover it has what most would consider an unpleasant odor. Even its common name implies a scent less than desirable, although some suggest that the odor reminds them of garlic. The odor and color of the spathe fits into the skunk cabbage’s reproductive strategy of attracting pollinating flies--that prefer rotting flesh or dung--which then carry pollen to the next plant.
EASTERN WHITE PINE Pinus strobus
These trees have been called “the redwoods of the east” because they just keep on growing upwards. Look out at any wooded ridge or hill crest and you will see dark green giants reaching above the rest. This is not to say that we don’t all “keep on growing” as long as we live, and maybe longer, it’s just that we may not go right on up and up like the redwoods and the white pines.
STRIPED MAPLE or MOOSEWOOD MAPLE Acer pensylvanicum
A beautiful small flowering tree for shady landscapes, providing food and habitat to birds and pollinators. Native to the forest understory of eastern North America, favoring cool, moist ravines and slopes; requires moisture and full to partial shade in gardens.
POKEWEED Phytolacca decandra
Pokeweed is a North American native. It pops up in the spring as strong green shoots, a bit pale right by the ground, with furled leaves ready to spread out and catch the sun. Some folks know about gathering these early wild shoots and call them “poke sallet” or “polk salad.” The Algonquin name is puccon or pocan or pakon and this may be where the word “poke” comes from.
JEWELWEED Impatiens capensis
Jewelweed is an herbaceous plant that grows 3–5 ft tall and blooms from late spring to early fall. The flowers are orange (sometimes blood orange or rarely yellow) with a three-lobed corolla; one of the calyx lobes is colored similarly to the corolla and forms a hooked conical spur at the back of the flower. Plants may also produce non-showy cleistogamous flowers, which do not require cross-pollination.