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What's blooming in Bath, Highland
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Viper's bugloss brightens fields and roadsides in summer with bright blue to purple flowers. Close inspection of the flowers reveals bright red stamens adding a bit of color contrast to the showy tall stems of flowers. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - Warm summer sun and afternoon showers bring many colorful wildflowers to fields and roadsides in late June and early July.
Viper's bugloss, Echium vulgare, often grows in clumps of tall plants covered with blue to purple flowers. The colorful spikes of flowers are easily spotted along the road from a vehicle. Close inspection will reveal bright red stamens that add to the display.
As the name suggests, people once thought viper's bugloss could be used to treat or prevent snake bite. Some sources suggest the young leaves can be eaten. However, the plant is known to contain toxic alkaloids. Ingestion should be avoided.
Contact with the hairy stems and leaves can cause a reaction in some people similar to that caused by poison ivy but generally not as severe or long lasting.
Viper's bugloss is one of our common wildflowers that arrived here from Europe with early settlers. Two states, Washington and Tennessee, list it as a noxious weed and invasive.
Also worth watching for this week are the delicate yellow flowers of whorled loosestrife. The flowers radiate out from the base of the leaves in layers up the stem, four leaves and four flowers to each level.
Oxeye daisy, a favorite of many wildflower fans, began its summer flowering season in recent weeks. Flowers often persist in some locations until frost. Like viper's bugloss, the oxeye daisy was introduced to North America from Europe and Asia.
The first flowers of rosebay rhododendron began to appear in recent days. The last of the flowering laurels to bloom in the woodlands of the Highlands, this tall shrub forms dense thickets that are often loaded with flowers that range from white to pink.
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