Mild water-pepper

Mild water-pepper, a type of smartweed, plants which are in the buckwheat family.  This one gave us some trouble in identifying it, but we think it is probably mild water-pepper because the flowers are distributed so sparsely along the stem.

Growing by a path below 116th street in the center of Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Poor-man's-pepper

Poor-man's-pepper.  The little white flowers are not much to speak of, but the seeds in the flat, round seedpods are edible and do, in fact, taste spicy like pepper.

Growing behind a chain-link fence in an empty lot in Harlem.

Prickly lettuce

Prickly lettuce.  What this picture doesn't quite convey is how very tall these guys are - at least four feet, maybe five.  The flowers look a bit like dandelion, but lots of them branch off of each long stalk.

This plant has a couple similar-looking relatives, but we think it is probably prickly lettuce because of the very spiky serrated edges of the leaves.

Growing near the northwest exit from the Ramble, via the bridge over the upper lobe of the Lake, Central Park.

Indian strawberry

This yellow flower is closed up in the picture, but notice the little pedestal it's on, with three-lobed leaves underneath and extending beyond the sepals.  This is indian strawberry.  Whence the name, you ask?

Amazing!  But sadly, unlike cultivated strawberry, they are not edible.

Growing in the middle of the Ramble, Central Park.

Gill-over-the-ground

This plant, which may be familiar to you, goes by many names: gill-over-the-ground, ground ivy, catsfoot, creeping charlie, etc.  It has very recognizable round, neatly scalloped leaves, and tubular lavender flowers.  Like many other members of the mint family, it spreads like a weed.

Growing near some creeping buttercups, on the western margin of the Lake, Central Park.

Creeping buttercup

Creeping buttercup.  There are many types of buttercups in our area, but this one is easily distinguished because of the light spots dappling its leaves.  You can see this on the leaf in the bottom center of the picture (it looks a bit like a carrot leaf).  This flower sprouts up from a vine that grows horizontally along the ground, thus the "creeping" in its name.

Growing in the marshy ground at the margin of the west side of the Lake, Central Park.

Foxglove beardtongue

Foxglove beardtongue.  This white relative of hairy beardtongue and fellow member of the snapdragon family has three equal petals below, and two differently-shaped petals on top.  Its lance-shaped leaves grow opposite from one another up the stalk.

Technically I'm not certain it is "foxglove" beardtongue - there are several white beardtongues in our area, but they are so close to one another that they can only be distinguished on extremely technical characteristics.

Growing on the west side of the Lake, Central Park.

Daisy fleabane

Daisy fleabane, a white flower.  Its pink relative is common fleabane.  (The pink puffballs in the background of this picture are red clover.)

Growing in an empty lot in Harlem.

Yellow goatsbeard

Yellow goatsbeard.  I was excited when I looked this plant up because it is one type of a familiar edible plant:  salsify.  Salsify root is sold in the greenmarkets, and it's said to taste a little like oysters, thus another name for these flowers - oyster plant.  The cultivated edible salsify has pink flowers, but otherwise looks similar to this one, and the two kinds often hybridize when growing in waste places like this.

It's unique-looking because the green sepals grow all the way past the flower, making them look spidery.  The leaves are long and grassy-looking.  These flowers also have the amusing habit of opening up for the morning sun but closing by the afternoon.

Growing behind a chain-link fence in a gravelled lot on Adam Clayton Powell in Harlem.

Hedge bindweed

Such an ugly name for such a large, pretty flower.  This is the vine hedge bindweed - obviously a relative of the morning glory.  Both flowers can have this white and pink color: you can tell it is a hedge bindweed because of its arrowhead-shaped leaves, whereas morning glories have heart-shaped leaves.

arrowhead-shaped leaves

Growing in a bush set back from the west side of the staircase up to the 116th street exit on the west side of Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Field sow-thistle

Field sow-thistle.  Consider me schooled: I thought that everything that looked vaguely like a dandelion must be a dandelion.  Not so.  There are not only several kinds of dandelions other than the common one, but there are also some other flowers that look similar.  Sow-thistles have dandelion-like flowers, but have extremely jagged leaves that look very different:

Dandelion for comparison: notice how the leaves' serrations point back toward the plant.

This is a field sow-thistle, not a common sow-thistle, because rather than being smooth the stem is covered with tiny prickly hairs.

Growing out of the stones comprising the south staircase up to the western 116th street exit from Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Virginia dayflower

Virginia dayflower.  When I saw this flower, I thought I would probably look it up and find out it was an Asiatic dayflower, this plant's non-native, invasive relative which is apparently pretty common around New York.  But it turns out that I am pretty sure this is our native Virginia dayflower: as you can see in the picture, the lower petal is blue.  Asiatic dayflowers have a white lower petal.  Both have two pretty light-to-indigo blue upper petals that look a little like Mickey Mouse ears when the flower is unfolded. 

Growing alongside a stairway down the west-side path below 116th street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Japanese honeysuckle

Japanese honeysuckle, a climbing vine.  These flowers are unmistakeable with their long, curved stamens and their pretty fluted shape.  They can be buttery-yellow to white, depending on their age.  Honeysuckle is invasive and hard to eradicate, (it is even completely banned in New Hampshire despite being used as a garden plant elsewhere,) but I'm still fond of it because it attracts so many butterflies and hummingbirds, and has a pleasant sweet smell.

this little black bug liked the flowers too

Growing on the shrubs on the east side of the highest, westmost path around 117th street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Garlic mustard

Garlic mustard.  I find it hilarious that I didn't recognize this plant at first, because I have bought it from the greenmarket so many times.  At first all I saw were the funny upright skeletal-looking seedpods, which did not look familiar.

The jagged, triangular-shaped leaves at bottom right belong to the garlic mustard plant.  They are the tasty part: they can be cooked like cultivated mustard greens, of which they are indeed a relative, and they have an additional aroma of garlic - thus the name.  The flowers are cross-shaped and white.  Sadly, garlic mustard is invasive in many states.  It releases chemicals from its roots which inhibit the growth of nearby native species, and it rapidly colonizes new areas because it can self-pollinate (it's advantageous for a plant to clone itself if it's in an area it is already well-adapted to).

Growing in the bushes alongside the central path around 116th street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Common mallow

Common mallow.  These plants have cute dark leaves shaped like lily-pads and they like to grow right up on the border of sidewalks, on land that has been disturbed.  They are relatives of the European "marsh mallow" plant which - yes - was originally used to make real marshmallows.  You can use this plant to make them too, apparently, by boiling the leaves or seed pods in water until it is thick, mixing in sugar, then whipping the mixture up until it has a foamy texture and allowing spoonfuls of it to dry.  The leaves and wheel-shaped seedpods are also edible on their own.  Okra is in the mallow family, so it's unsurprising that both that vegetable and this plant have a mucilaginous texture when cooked.

The flowers can be white, or light pink-purple, or streaked with both colors, like this one.

Growing alongside the lower-level, east side path at about 122nd street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Poison hemlock

If you see a plant that looks vaguely like this, DON'T TOUCH IT.  We are pretty sure this is the super-toxic poison hemlock.  It has many relatives that look similar, some of which are not poisonous, but they're very hard to distinguish from one another, and it is not worth taking any chances.  Ingestion of a very small quantity of any part of this plant can cause paralysis which ascends from your feet up to your head and can easily cause death by suffocation.  There is no antidote for the poison - the only way to save someone poisoned by hemlock is to put them on artificial ventilation for a couple days until the paralysis wears off.

Terrifying, right??  And it looks so innocent!

You can tell this is poison hemlock, and not its nontoxic relative Queen Anne's lace, because of the way you can see each cluster of flowers come up from a seprate little stalk.  The clouds of flowers on Queen Anne's lace look flatter and not like a bunch of separate little flower spheres.  The leaves are huge and feathery like a fern, and overall triangular-shaped.  It is an imposingly large plant: this one was about as tall as me, and they can grow up to eight feet tall!

Found growing directly next to the stairway around 120th street up to the higher west-side path in Morningside Park, Manhattan. 

Rough bedstraw

This mysterious-looking shadowy plant is rough bedstraw.  Its leaves grow radially at regular intervals along the branch, and in rough bedstraw each bunch has more or less six leaves in it - this plant has relatives which look very similar, but have fewer or more leaves per bunch.  It also has a relative called fragrant bedstraw which is quite similar but doesn't have a hairy/prickly texture.  This guy prickled the strap on my camera so I am pretty sure it's the rough variety.

you can kinda see the prickles

The tiny white four-petaled flowers are currently giving way to a multitude of small spherical burrs.

Growing in a large mat on the higher, west-side path at about 120th street in Morningside Park, Manhattan.

Yellow sweet clover

Yellow sweet clover.  This is a big, beautiful plant with lots of spikes of yellow flowers and little three-part leaves.  It looks like it could be a cultivated flower.

Growing in an empty lot in Harlem.

Shepherd's purse

Shepherd's purse: it has tiny little white flowers which are barely noticeable.  The heart-shaped seed pods are the more prominent part, and at the base of the plant is a little rosette of toothed leaves.  Those leaves are apparently edible. 

Growing by the sidewalk in an empty lot in Harlem.

Field mustard

Field mustard.  This pretty relative of the cultivated mustards is actually edible, too, and is sometimes sold at the greenmarket.

Growing near the 72nd Street entrance on the west side of Central Park.

Trumpet honeysuckle

Trumpet honeysuckle.  These bizarre, almost tropical-looking bunches of flowers grow on a climbing vine.

Growing up a bush near a stone arch in the middle of the Ramble, Central Park.

Canada violet

Canada violet - a white type of violet, with just a few purple streaks on the bottom petal. 

Deep in the woods of the Ramble, Central Park.

Foamflower

Foamflower.  Lots of wildflower names are appropriate, but this one seems especially so.  Up close, it looks more like a weird undersea creature than a flower.

From further away, it looks more like its namesake:

Growing near the north entrance to the Ramble, Central Park.

Red clover

Red clover.  They're bigger and usually grow taller than their white clover relatives, but otherwise look similar.  These flowers are edible.

West side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Forking catchfly

We are pretty sure this is a forking catchfly, though not completely sure.  The split petals make it very distinctive.

Northwest side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Star-of-bethlehem

Star-of-bethlehem.  The picture is a little deceptive, because those heart-shaped leaves don't belong to this flower - star-of-bethlehem has long, skinny leaves which are hidden beneath the foliage.

North side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Hairy beardtongue

Hairy beardtongue - it's easy to see that these guys are relatives of snapdragons.  They have little white open mouths.

North side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Columbine

Columbine.  They look like little paper lanterns.

In the shrubs on the north side of the Reservoir, Central Park.

Yellow wood sorrel

Yellow wood sorrel.  It looks a little bit like clover, but with those cute unmarked, heart-shaped leaves.  The blooms here are closed.  There is also a variety with purple flowers, which has leaves with violet undersides.  Both kinds are edible and taste sour, like the sorrel vegetable (which they are not, however, related to).

Alongside the Reservoir, Central Park.

Addendum: here is an example of an open flower.

Bittersweet nightshade

Bittersweet nightshade.  If you see this plant, leave it alone - like many nightshade relatives, it's very poisonous.  But very unique looking, with its weird curled-back petals:

Alongside a path just south of the North Woods in Central Park.