neighbourhood botany lesson

{pineapple weed -- matricaria discoidea}

{larkspur -- delphinium}

After it rained last night, I went traipsing about the neighbourhood with my camera... I noticed how that while suburbia has one uniform smell after the rain -- that of slightly sweet grassy peppermint -- Edmonton, or at least the Belgravia neighbourhood, smells like a complex blend of that same mint, with notes of ripe compost, pot, campfire smoke, & bus exhaust. When I arrived home, Bryna said I sounded like a dog recounting all the scents... "& then I smelled this! & a bit of this! & then some of this, & then & then..." So yes. My olfactory memory is expanding...

I also took pictures of plants -- the top one seen here is pineapple weed, & is a relation to yarrow & ragweed. I remember it from my childhood -- it grew along my grandma's garden path, just like it does on my street, cracking through the pavement like a furry green backbone... We used to pick the small buds & mash them between our fingers to release the sweet, tropical scent. I had previously thought it was an introduced weed, but it's indigenous to North America & has been used for thousands of years for many purposes: a insect repellent when mixed with fir & sweetgrass, mixed in salads, or brewed a chamomile-like tea to aid menstrual cramps, heartburn & indigestion, & fevers. Again, another nutritious weed rendered inedible by urban pollutants...

The second picture is of larkspur, or delphinium. It grows everywhere here, lining the gravelly alleys & the sides of houses, all elegant & sentinel-like. Traditionally in the Carpathians it was sacred to the feast of Ivana Kupala (John the Baptist), & was used to repel lightning & vampires. However, its gorgeousness is deceptive. In Ukrainian it is called sokyrky, or 'little hatchets' -- it is also related to the adjective sokyrkuvatyj, which means bitter, malignant, & caustic, which is very apt considering that all parts of the plant contain the extremely poisonous, paralytic alkaloid delphinidin. Thus, as lovely as it is, its terrible purple vertebrae make me uneasy. Even the sap of the plant burns, so I give it a wide berth on my way to fetch my bike in the mornings...

(Up next: Russian Sage, Asters, & other good things)