h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've tried to notice the native plants that grow near my lot.

Earlier in the Spring, I saw Solomon's Seal with little white bell-like flowers growing on the other side of the fence across the street from me.
http://www.solomonsseal.net/abouttheplant.html

I also saw some violets gropwing in my lawn:
http://uswildflowers.com/images/full/dsc_2558-viola.jpg

Another type of violet is the Dog Tooth Violet, which I transplanted form my father's yard and put behind my house. It bloomed this Spring:
http://uswildflowers.com/images/full/dsc_0593.jpg

Not far from it were some blue flag irises.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_versicolor

Right now, beside my house, I see Evening primroses starting to bloom.
http://uswildflowers.com/images/full/pict1717.jpg

A precious native plant that is vital to the survival of butterflies is milkweed, which grows wild around here:
http://uswildflowers.com/images/full/dsc_6930.jpg

I'm getting "Error 403 - Forbidden" on most of those links.

Me too, all of the ones on USWildflowers.com. Presumably only available in America.

Deb

I visited a botanic gardens in Reykjavik, Iceland many years ago. They had a rather miserable specimen of a dandelion carefully labelled. In Ireland they are so vigorous that they are considered weeds.

Dandelions can be beautiful, just not in your own garden

Deb

Dandelions abound here, and though considered weeds, the bees and I like them. (The leaves are tasty too)

As to milkweed - I knew them well as a kid, and they grow well here too. When "Venus" visited us from Essex, UK, she thought they looked like something from a sci-fi movie - - - pod-people sort of thing.

This spring I learned that dandelions are the first flowers the bees can exploit around here and since the bees are having a rough time these years - and not only here but all around the - I was told to stop weeding them until other flowers had come into bloom.

My neighbour wasn't pleased but I told her it really didn't matter if "my" seeds flew into her backyard since that is carpet bombed with dandelion seeds anyway.

You can find dandelion seeds in the middle of Greenland, I told her.

But there is hardly any reason to weed them there, the inland ice is still 3000 meters thick

"I'm getting "Error 403 - Forbidden" on most of those links." [TC]

Sorry. I'm getting error messages now, too.

Let's try again with the links that failed, using different sites:

common violet

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/wild-violet.aspx

dog tooth violet

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=ERAM5

evening primrose

http://altnature.com/gallery/eveningprimrose.htm

milkweed

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/milkweed.aspx

Those links are not pictures of the exact flowers I have. They're stock photos of the type of flowers.