ST. JOHN'S WORFT, THE CHINESE TREE LILAC AND THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES

ST. JOHN'S WORT

CHINESE TREE LILAC

Thursday,  8:00 AM.  70 degrees F, wind N, calm to very light.  the sky is partly cloudy with some towering white cumulous clouds.  there is fog and haze over Madeline Island.  The barometer is steady or  trending down at 29.96"and the humidity is very high at 95% after last night's rain shower, which was spotty but probably averaged about 1/2" around town.  

   St. John's wort is blooming now along the roadsides and in the fields.  There are too many similar species in the genus Hypericum for me to key out, but suffice it to say that this is a colorful group of herbaceous plants that can be found almost anywhere in the summer. St. John's wort (wort is simply an old English word for plant) has long been used in herbal medicine as a calmative, or sedative, and is still so used today.  I have no personal experience regarding its use to pass on.

   I wrote about the Japanese tree lilac, Syringia reticulata, in a recent blog.  I believe the above is the closely related Chinese tree lilac, S pekinensis.  It is a very impressive plant but is less tree-like than the Japanese species, and would be too wide and shrubby for street tree use.  Its flower panicles are larger and more yellowish in color than S. reticulata.

   The landscape job is going well but is still several days from being finished.  Fortunately, the weather seems to be cooling off some.  It has been a hot job, but a convertible ride after dinner yesterday evening cooled us off nicely.  It may be too wet to work on the landscape job this morning, however.
   I think the US Department of Justice should change its name to the Department of Fisheries, since fishing expeditions seem to be their new business.  They are now seeking evidence to indict George Zimmerman for hate crimes by requesting incriminating evidence from hundreds of millions of Americans  through emails.  I think they are casting the nets of justice a bit wide, and like that famous "fisherman" Captain Ahab, I think this great white whale Holder is trying to harpoon with may well drag  him down to Davey Jones Locker.