BICYCLE BOTANY—

You folks who live in places like Harlingen, Yuma or Boca Raton can skip this one. But, if you live in a more temperate latitude where English remains the common language, read on!

I just completed another of those nifty programs by our Gorman Nature Center; this one involved identifying wildflowers commonly seen along our 18 mile bike trail. We did the event, naturally, on bicycles led by the center’s director and naturalist, Steve McKee.

He regaled us with identifications and stories of lots of plants like; Spearmint and Chickory and Rag Weed and Wingstem and Jewel Weeds. You remember that species as “Touch Me Nots”.

“We have over 1,000 species of wild plants in Richland County and many of them have interesting stories,” McKee smiled as he chomped on a bit of Yarrow while telling us how the Native Americans used the plant as a tissue deadening painkiller. Sure enough, moments later the side of his mouth was getting numb.

He went on to find and describe Wild Lettuce and White Snake Root and Tall Bell Flower and Bouncing Bet.

The snake root plant can be deadly. It creates a serious but delayed illness in cows which can be passed to humans in lethal doses before the animal shows any symptoms. “Pasteurization protects us from that kind of problem today,” he assured us.

“See this species”, he said. “It can make soap” and he went on to squish the leaves of a Bouncing Bet in some water in his hand and produced a green lather “...that served as soap” in days long before the neighborhood grocery store.

I wound up providing the entertainment for the outing when, during the program, I hopped on the bike and promptly got invisibly swatted flat onto the pavement. Naturally, the embarrassment far exceeded the injuries.

I was very tempted to ask Steve for another demonstration of the medicinal benefits of Yarrow.