Teacher, Teacher, my science report is ready! Last week I got an identification for my mystery plant. It is called houndstongue and was identified by the Michigan State University agricultural extension office. Thank you Dr. Elsner. Houndstongue is an introduced and invasive plant, first identified in the US in 1893. It grows as a biennial, much as mullein does with a rosette of leaves one year, followed by a flowering stalk the second year. The rosette looks like the first picture below (source: South Dakota State University sdstate.edu). The plants leaves were thought to resemble a hounds tongue in this state. In the second year, the plant grows a stalk up to four feet high with many flowers. The flowers are actually rather pretty and vary in color from fuchsia to magenta to purple. This link shows a good overall picture of the flower stalk. redbuttecanyon.net/introduced/c_officinale.html This one shows some of the variation in color of the flowers blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wy/programs/invasiveplants/Houndstongue.Par.94865.Image.-1.-1.1.gif And this one has some very nice pictures of the plant. Note the formation of the seeds, or nutlets, near the bottom in the photo labeled flowers 3. aphotomarine/marine_plant_cynoglossum_officinale_hounds_tongue.html It may be pretty, but from my earlier pictures you can tell that is cant be good for pets and livestock. I wonder how long it took to comb out the dog below.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 02:28:24 +0000
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