I thought I would try to bring some sunshine into your day by blogging about Sunflowers in mid-December with 12 inches of snow on the ground. I added a bonus shot of Large Milkweed (Oncopeltus fasciatus) bugs having lunch – so scroll to the bottom of the page before you go.
This full-sun loving flower can grow up to 10 feet tall with Ray flowers up to 4″ across. You can find the flower under a tree in the parking lot located near the canoe livery, but I suspect it has been recently planted there. There is a small group of the flowers just north of the Western Trail to Mitchell Field and just before the trail enters the wooded area a hundred yards or so before the bridge.
The only herbal references I can find described it being used as “a poultice of used to treat burns,” This reference was listed in an obscure reference in the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Native American Ethnobotany – Smith, Huron H., 1928, Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:175-326, page 215. You have to love the Internet. Who said there aren’t any primary sources in the cyber world? A poultice, in case you are curious, is a wet cloth or bandage that has medicine or salve applied to it to apply as a compress to skin injuries.
Photo by Stewart Nelson, 2017, (c) some rights reserved
Photo by Stewart Nelson, 2017, (c) some rights reserved
Photo by Stewart Nelson, 2017, (c) some rights reserved
Large Milkweed bugs nymphs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) munching on Milkweed (Asclepias)
Photo by Stewart Nelson, 2017, (c) some rights reserved