Flowers & Plants On Our Homestead

Decided to take a walk around our property and photograph the awesome flowers and such that we have growing naturally around us.

Here are the photos with the plant names when possible…

The Homestead Guardians… Top to bottom…

Indy, Nim, Gnarls, & Echo… They protect our home from vicious rodents, rabbits and grasshoppers.

Below, Ryan “Doc” has me “Addie” naming the plants, which I’m doing from memory and so I may not have the exact name. I may not remember right, and I’m not doing any cross-checking, so basically, take what names I give things and use it for a starting point for your ID work, don’t go memorizing names based on this info by itself.

Above: raspberry, probably black raspberry, native I think.

Yellow and white flowers above: Daisy, I think Ox-Eye Daisy, I don’t think it’s native.

I think these are Birdsfoot Trefoil, which is invasive.

Butter-and-eggs, again, invasive I think.

Milkweed, I think common milkweed. Native, and important food source for multiple butterfly species, including Monarch.

Butterfly weed, native.

Clover, purple clover, not native I think, but sort of naturalized and integrated.

I looked these up last year, can’t remember if this turned out to be spiny lettuce, or Canada thistle. I’m pretty sure it’s Canada Thistle, and I think it was invasive somehow.

More of what I think is Canada Thistle.

Some fungus, a ‘mushroom’ , but I don’t know if it’s technically a ‘toad stool’ or not… as far as I know, toad stool is essentially any poisonous mushroom (not all fungi are mushrooms…but that’s another topic entirely!)

One of the many ways poison ivy looks. It’s a highly variably shaped plant, but this is one of the shapes I keep in my mind as obvious poison ivy.

Tree… dead tree… very dead tree. Probably an oak.

I have no clue what flower this is, I may have seen one around before, but never looked it up. It’s super pretty, and I think it might be some kind of lily, based on flower shape, or at least that’s where I’d start looking.

This is yarrow, the wild version. It’s native, and I think some people consider it medicinal, but I can’t remember for what or what parts are used… maybe a tea?

I think it’s a thistle, possibly a bull thistle. I’m pretty sure whatever it is, it’s invasive.

Holly, I think it’s an American Holly, not the ornamental kinds from other countries/continents. This individual identifies itself as a Holly-day Holly.

Feverfew. Not native, and I’m not sure if it’s considered ‘invasive’, but it’s medicinal and used against headaches I think. It is definitely an aggressive re-seeder if it gets the chance.

A kind of tomato. I don’t remember what kind it is, but I think I’d be safe to say it’s one of the ‘indeterminate’ kinds… which I think just means it doesn’t have a programmed ‘maximum’ length, it will just kind of keep growing from the tops until something else stops it. Ryan says it was a cherry tomato of some kind.

Some kind of pansy. I like how they kind of look like they’re under a black light in the sun. Ornamental.

A marigold, ornamental.

A geranium, ornamental.

Another geranium, ornamental.

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