#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
What splendor and abundance of wild beauty in the meadow this morning! Impossible to choose a favorite to feature - I love them all, in all their color and texture, scent, shape and spirit, blooming wild and luxuriously in the bright sunshine of August.
“Apios americana, sometimes called the potato bean, hopniss, Indian potato, hodoimo, America-hodoimo, American groundnut,or groundnut (but not to be confused with other plants sometimes known by the name groundnut) is a perennial vine that bears edible beans and large edible tubers.[1] Its vine can grow to 1–6 m long, with pinnate leaves 8–15 cm long with 5–7 leaflets.[1] The flowers are usually pink, purple, or red-brown, and are produced in dense racemes 7.5–13 cm in length.[1] The fruit is a legume (pod) 5–13 cm long.[1] Botanically speaking, the tubers are rhizomatous stems, not roots.”
On the way to the road I crossed to get to the second meadow of the morning, I passed the ground nut without seeing its blossoms. On the way back, I almost missed it - and doubled back - what? What is this beautiful flowering vine, I wondered. I hadn't seen it before and didn't know its name until I returned home and searched my guides to identify it. Every weed and flower I encountered is one whose presence sweetened and inspired every moment of my day:
Ground Nut (Apios americana)
tiger lily on the edge of the sun drenched trail
cardinal flower lighting the shade of the freshwater brook
button bush in the milkweed
wild blackberries, ripe, under a cloudless sky
evening primrose, wide open, in the morning
chicory in leaning bunches over the grassy path
an entire field of blooming lace
and the first glimpse of the bold-bright red sumac
All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017