Golden Alexanders

5 June

Wild in the garden

The summer flowers in our native plant garden are starting to flower. One of the first being a couple of stands of Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) is a native plant in Canada and down the east as far as Florida that is related wild carrot etc. They are a host plant for Black Swallowtail Butterflies which I shared photographs of in yesterday’s newsletter. Its nectar is taken by many species of bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, and other insects. Like a number of of similar, related species the sap contains furanocoumarin which causes phytotoxicity when exposed to the sun on your skin, resulting in blistering … but much less so than some of its brethren. Be careful if you break the stem.