8/03/11 A DWARF ICON, AND DON'T GET "NETTLED"

A SUNNY, WINDY DAY

DWARF CORNEL

:\"BUNCHBERRIES"

NETTLE FLOWERS

DON'T LET THESE "NETTLE" YOU

Wednesday, 7:30 AM.  70 degrees, wind SW, quite strong with greater gusts.  It will be a choppy day on the lake.  The sky is cloudless and the barometer is up.
    Cornus canadensis, in the dogwood family (Cornaceae) AKA dwarf cornel and bunch berry, fruit is now fully ripe. A true forest under story plant, I find it very charming since in flower, leaves and fruit it is a creeping miniature of the beautiful, iconic flowering dogwood of the South.
    Stinging nettles, Urtica dioica, in the nettle family (Urticaceae) are in bloom.  The young stems and leaves are covered with stinging hairs.  It is an Eurasian weed.  Young leaves are edible before the hairs stiffen, but I would have to be darned hungry.  If you get into these plants unawares, you will understand what it means to be “nettled.” Although I can't imaging being more "nettled" by these plants than I already am by the politicians in Washington and Madison.  It's as though both capitals have been overrun with noxious weeds.