know your camp plants!

This summer you’ll be hiking and boating in the midst of beautiful mountain views, but don’t forget to take in the world beneath you too! Unique flowers and plants abound with their own unique traits, purposes, and abilities just like you! Here are just a few you’ll be able to spot around camp…

SPOTTED TOUCH-ME-NOT These orange, spotted flowers grow near water, and their name comes from the seed pods, which explode when they’re fully mature! The Spotted Touch-Me-Not is the flower of the Jewelweed, a plant whose leaves are “hydrophobic” meaning they can’t get wet. Test it by picking a leaf and holding it under water. While it’s underwater, the leaf looks silver! When you pull it out, the water drips off immediately. This plant is also sometimes used as a treatment to poison ivy.

RED CLOVER This flower is found all over camp! You can be extra sure you’ve found it because of its distinctive clover leaves, which always have three leaflets. Look for it particularly in fields and meadows.

TRUE FORGET-ME-NOT

Another flower found all over the place! These flowers grow in long clusters along a thin stalk, each with five blue petals and a yellow center. You can find this flower anywhere it’s damp. Check along the edge of the lake!

CLIMBING NIGHTSHADE You’ll find this flower growing on vines around the edges of camp. It grows in down-hanging clusters of purple blossoms with a yellow center. They look a bit like shooting stars. Although Climbing Nightshade is in the same family as deadly nightshade, it is not as poisonous. The mature berries and leaves do have a low level of toxins, but not enough to do harm to people. Still, please don’t eat them!

HEAL-ALL This flower is sometimes considered a weed, since it can and does grow almost anywhere. Its name comes from its use as an herbal medicine. Look for its mouth-like blossoms and its square stem (roll it between your fingers to check!). Keep an eye out in any freshly-mown field.