Posts Tagged ‘Coltsfoot’
a spring drive
My husband and I love to go exploring the New Brunswick countryside. We have been on most roads in southern New Brunswick. Mud is no barrier, because we have a Toyota Tacoma as transportation.
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Our purposes for these drives are many. Time together is the main goal. I am interested in waterways and botany. My husband is interested in woodlands, exercise, and collecting recyclable bottles and cans from the ditches.
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Our drive last week was on Highway 625 from Cross Creek (near Stanley) to Boisetown. This is a rough gravelled road, marked as ‘Closed to Through Traffic’ this time of year, due to water and mud on the road.
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The road is through woods, mostly hardwood, and features the now abandoned community of Mavis Mills.
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Among the various hardwood species present are yellow and white birch, red and sugar maple, ash, and poplar. The poplar were flowering and hanging with catkins, much to the dismay of my nasal passages (I am allergic to certain plant pollens).
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The road crosses a few large streams and the Taxis River.
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The community of Mavis Mills once included a lumber mill and camp, a post office and a train stop. The community was named by a lumberman for his daughter, Mavis Mobbs. The community had a post office from 1922 to 1928. The 1921 Census shows a boarder and miller, John Mobbs, in Stanley Parish and below his name a mill camp with 31 men. Every evidence of the community is now gone, except a two-track road and remnants of a one-time flower garden. We visited there in the summer of 2020 when I was working on my poetry collection about abandoned communities and the remains of their flower gardens. The garden we found here has a healthy population of golden Alexanders, Zizia aurea, and other flowers. For a glimpse of the other garden plants and more of Mavis Mills’ history, see my post by searching the term ‘Mavis Mills.’
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On our April drive I only photographed one herbaceous flowering plant, coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara. It fills some roadside ditches in early spring and many people confuse it with dandelion. Unlike dandelion, coltsfoot blooms before its leaves appear and has scaly, leafless stems. For more about coltsfoot and my poem about the plant, see https://janetims.com/?s=coltsfoot
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The best part of our drive was our picnic beside a small stream. We had cheddar cheese, smoked turkey sandwiches, and ginger snaps. The sound of water over stones was our dinner music.
Hope you go on some explorations of your own this spring and summer.
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All my best,
Jane
three yellows
On Sunday, we went for a drive along New Brunswick Route 615, eventually travelling from Mactaquac to Nackawic. A pleasant drive, climbing into the hills of this part of New Brunswick.
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Early into our drive, a theme suggested itself … the yellow flowers of spring. These included the daffodil and the blazing Forsythia (Forsythia sp.) … a deciduous shrub with copious yellow blooms.
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Another yellow flower crowding the edges of almost every ditch, was Tussilago farfara or Coltsfoot. The flowers have been in bloom a couple of weeks and will soon set their white fluffy seed. After the flowers have faded, the leaves will appear, big green ears seemingly unrelated to the yellow flowers of spring.
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At the foot of a farmer’s field, we saw another yellow flower, usually found in wooded wet areas or in hardwoods. The mottled green and purple leaves are the first identifying feature. Close-up, the nodding yellow flower with its recurved petals and drooping stamens show this is the Dog’s Tooth Violet, or Yellow Trout-lily (Erythronium americanum).
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Today, my yellow tulips are blooming, yet another addition to the yellow flowers of this season.
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All my best,
Jane
Coltsfoot – first flower of spring
Although other flowers quickly follow, the first flower to bloom along our New Brunswick roads is Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara L.). Its bright yellow flowers are often mistaken for Dandelion, but Coltsfoot is recognised by a quick check for the leaves … Coltsfoot blooms before its leaves appear.
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The yellow blooms of Tussilago form large patches in waste areas, beside brooks and roads, and on damp hillsides. Its dandelion-like flowers are borne on scaly, leafless stems. Later, the large, woolly leaves appear. Other names for the plant are Son-before-the-Father, which refers to the appearance of flowers before the leaves, and pas-d’âne (literally donkey-steps). The scientific names are from the Latin tussis, meaning a cough and referring to the European use of the plant as a remedy for such ailments, and the Latin word for coltsfoot, farfarus. The plant was named by Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who established the present day system of naming plants.
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Coltsfoot
Tussilago Farfara L.
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Gold-
splashed beside the road
like prints
of a frisky colt’s feet
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at first glance-
an early dandelion!
but-
too early
stem scaly
no leaves below the bloom
no perfume.
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Coltsfoot,
Son-before-the-Father
(flowers before the leaves).
Introduced from
far away.
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Old wives say
boiled greens
will ease
a cough.
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Long ago
Tussilago
sprang from where
a burro trod
among the palms
(pas-d’ane).
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Poem published as: ‘Coltsfoot’, Winter 1993, The Antigonish Review 92:76-77.
Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara L.)
Although it has been snowing sporadically this month, our recent days of very, very warm weather tell me spring has arrived. As a result, I am watching the roadsides for the first flowers of spring. Even before the snow is out of the woods, it begins to melt along the roadsides as they warm in the lengthening hours of sun. And the cycle of bloom begins again.
Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara L.) is one of the first plants seen in early spring. It forms large patches in waste areas, beside brooks and roads, and on damp hillsides. People often mistake Tussilago for Dandelion, but it is quite different. Its yellow flowers are borne on scaly, leafless stems. The large, woolly leaves don’t appear until later in the season. In spite of its early appearance in spring, Tussilago actually has late flowers. The flower buds are formed in autumn at the base of the plant, and pass winter underground, flowering in the first spring sunlight.
Other names for the plant are Son-before-the-Father, which refers to the appearance of flowers before the leaves, and pas-d’âne (literally donkey-steps). The scientific names are from the Latin tussis, meaning a cough, referring to the use of the plant as a remedy for such ailments, and the Latin word for coltsfoot, farfarus. The plant was named by Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who established the present day system of naming plants.
Although the plant was used by pioneers for its medicinal effects, it is now known that Tussilago contains harmful alkaloids. Tea made from Coltsfoot has caused health problems in infants and pregnant women, so its use as a cough remedy is not recommended. In some States, Coltsfoot is considered a noxious weed.
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Coltsfoot
Tussilago Farfara L.
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Gold-
splashed beside the road
like prints
of a frisky colt’s feet
~
at first glance-
an early dandelion!
but-
too early
stem scaly
no leaves below the bloom
no perfume.
~
Coltsfoot,
Son-before-the-Father
(flowers before the leaves).
Introduced from
far, far away.
Old wives say
boiled greens
will ease
a cough.
~
Long ago
Tussilago
sprang from where
a burro trod
among the palms
(pas-d’ane)
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Published as: ‘Coltsfoot’, Winter 1993, The Antigonish Review 92:76-77.
Revised
© Jane Tims 1993
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