Again, the flower of the milkweed draws in lots of visitors. Here is a bumble bee and a honey bee. If you look closely you'll see they're both bespeckled with pollen.

Protects against kidney stones, stimulates digestion (digestive tonic) and is a mild sedative. 

The state flower of Maryland. Don't know if there is an herbal use, but again, beauty is healing. My wild flower garden has a thousand Black-eyed Susans. 

I found this growing very late in the season. It is a wild iris. 

This is interesting. An insect lays its egg inside this weed, a tumor is formed around the egg. When the egg hatches, the larva eats it's way out.

Referred to as a noxious weed, chewing this plant is good for periodontal disease and fights plaque.

These attract hummingbirds and children who love to suck the sweet juices.

From underneath the flower, we see what bees see when they're searching for nectar. 

In nature, when you have a toxin growing, nearby is the antidote. Plantain is found near poison ivy and nettle. You can chew the plant and place the mass over the spot that itches. 

Hundreds of wildflowers.

Easiest garden to care for is a wild flower garden. If they grow, boy do they grow.

This grows tall along roadsides and looks like a peppermint plant. Break off a leaf, crush it and it smell like black licorice. 

This is a beautiful lily. I used the camera's idiosyncrasies to get this, focusing on the greenery behind the flower, but not enough light to capture the green, which turned out blue.

The blooms spread out a bit more and I had to get another picture of this amazing, healing herb.

This is an amazing plant with a very long history. Its roots are used for stomach problems, the leaves are smoked for bronchitis and the flowers (soaked in olive oil for 2 weeks) will take away the pain of an earache. 

The mullein is a biannual plant; the first year it spreads out over the soil and lays low. The second year, it grows a tall stalk and the flowers show up on the uppermost part of the stalk. It was imported from Europe and is very easy to spot (the leaves are soft and fuzzy). 

Here is a spider, the same color as the flower. 

The mullein was used by the Greeks and Romas for torches. They were dipped repeatedly in beef tallow, dried, and then lit. The flames lasted hours.

This little spider crawls inside the flower and pretends to be the inside parts of the flower. The first time I saw this I was filled with awe, but didn't have a camera. I will continue to hunt for this little guy inside the flower and post the picture here some day.

The leaves can be used for tea, oil from the leaves was used to treat respiratory ailments.

The plant has a very spicy odor. Insects love this plant. I took about ten pictures of this plant and had to shoot again because of all the insects buzzing about (none turned out clear). 

Many varieties of this exist. A tea made from the leaves was used for colds, and traditionally it has been used to stop blood flow. 

If cattle eat yarrow, their milk becomes tainted.

This is a domestic version. You don't really notice the flowers until you get up real close to the plant.

A member of the mint family, this plant was originally used as a sedative for heart palpitations. 

Today, it is still used to promote menstrual flow and during childbirth to promote contractions.

The world of insects is amazing. This is born in the water and lives half it's life swimming about. 

When ready to transform, it climbs out of the water, dries off and then climbs out of its exoskeleton. Then it lives off of mosquitoes!

Just something very pretty we see in our woods on our morning walks, but it seems the local Ojibwa smoked it till stupefaction. The straight sticks were used for arrows. 

This tall geek of a plant looks like a dandelion on stilts. Stands 3 to 5 feet tall and grows everywhere. 

The birds planted this one for me. Though you may use the entire plant, it is the root stock that is most potent. 

I just loved getting close up. 

This plant was once the only known cancer cure, as it boosts T-cell levels..

For more on Echinacea, click below:

Echinacea