coleperry's Favorites

This interesting carrot relative was growing in a weedy flower bed down by the pond at the Lakeside Commons Educational Gardens (by the Campbell County Cooperative Extension offices). It isn't Queen Anne's Lace or Poison Hemlock, which are the species I see most commonly, so I was intrigued. Many of these plants formed a near monoculture at one end of the bed. They were 2-3 feet tall and sparsely hairy, with pinkish buds followed by snowy white flowers.

Torillis arvensis has no or very few bracts under its compound umbel. Torillis japonica has 4 or more (usually one for each ray leading out to an umbelulle). Both species have bracteoles. See last photo for labels.

There are several species of knotweeds in my area, and I saw at least two along the overgrown edges of the roadside in Talyor Mill's Tower Park. I was trying to get photographs of pollinators visiting this one, and was impressed by the red glands visible on the flowering stalk and outsides of the flowers.
This is Pensylvania Smartweed. The glands are a key trait, but the ocrea (sheaths at the nodes) without hairs along their upper edges, the three or more racemes of flowers forming at the stem tip, the erect habit, and the dry habitat all also fit. This was a young plant but already about 2 feet tall.