April 13
Toothwort (Dentaria
diphylla)
Smooth
Yellow Violet (Viola pensylvanica)
All winter I
could see new little basal Toothwort leaves peeking up from
the leaf mulch. They were waiting for their turn to perform
in the garden. Now in early April, right on cue, here comes
the stem of whitish flowers, from six to twelve inches
tall. Just below the flowers there are two almost opposite
leaves on the stem. Those leaves and the basal leaves are
deeply dissected into three parts.
Toothwort is a spring ephemeral plant; it disappears by
summer each year. In the painting, one leaf has already
started this disappearing act. But during the summer
dormancy, the rhizome will be alive and well at the moist
soil surface, under a mulch of leaves. The rhizomes will
spread and send slender white roots about five inches down
into the soil. Some people eat the rhizome as a radish.
Toothwort is in the mustard family and is a perennial,
coming back to bloom each year from the rhizomes. Seeds are
not reliable and take three to four years to bloom.
The Smooth Yellow Violet is one of over seventy-five violet
species in the United States. Despite the name, there are
many yellow “violets.” This one is a “stemmed” type because
there are leaves on the flower stalk. If the flowers and
leaves each rose on separate stalks it would be “stemless.”
Honestly! I didn’t make this up.
There used to be a popular song that started with “Please,
please! Don’t eat the daises.” Well, you
may eat the violets
(and the leaves if you’d like—which are very high in
vitamins A and C). The colorful flowers are there for us to
pick because the plant doesn’t rely on them for seed
production. Seeds are produced in summer and fall by
pod-like, self-pollinating flowers without petals.
The mushroom in the painting is Russula
emetica.
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larger image)
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