Summer is so abundant! We're looking forward to a month of flowers and wild edibles. (Links are to last year's LOOK FOR posts):
Photo credit: The Natural Capital
is a beautiful, once-common roadside plant that is struggling in modern times. If you love monarch butterflies, you should show milkweed some love. Their lives depend on it: monarch larvae can only survive by eating milkweed leaves.
We're generally opposed to the Asian plants that have made it into our local woods, but the
wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) might be one exception. For several weeks in July, these relatives of our native raspberries are abundant and delicious. And, if we can get to the berries before the birds do, and keep the plants from spreading, all the better. Get out there and do your part!
Photo credit: The Natural Capital
is a pretty flower, a sparkly wonder, a trailside snack, and a soothing skin treatment. What's not to love?
Photo credit: The Natural Capital
I used to love
cardinal flower just because it's a gorgeous flower. It took a few years before I realized that if you sit quietly for long enough by a large patch, a hummingbird will come by. And that takes it to another level.
Chantarelles are a choice culinary mushroom prized by chefs around the world. And they grow in Washington, DC.
