Comments

  1. voyager says

    So many shades of green! The delicate blues and pale pinks of the flowers really stand out.

  2. dakotagreasemonkey says

    Photo 4, The “No Idea” plant is Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula L.). It is #5 on North Dakota’s list of Noxious Weeds.

  3. Ice Swimmer says

    Concurring with rq.

    So that’s what licorice looks like. One thing that has come to me as a surprise is how much British and American young people seem to hate the taste of black licorice candy, even the sweet stuff. It’s easy to understand that salty licorice or salmiakki is divisive, as it’s definitely an acquired taste.

  4. rq says

    I was just going to say finally I see what yucca looks like. Everything looks so fresh, yes, even the noxious weeds -- green flowers are a rarity, but from what I’ve seen, they’re usually bright green, like this.

  6. dakotagreasemonkey says

    Ice Swimmer,
    The licorice is really a beautiful, delicate looking plant in the spring. This one hasn’t flowered yet, and they are very pretty once they flower.
    When they go to seed, they are a night(and Day)mare to any lifeform that passes them. They stick to everything!
    The inventor of Velcro studied Licorice Seed Pods to figure out just how it was so sticky, and SO STRONGLY STICKY!
    Velcro is only about 80% as sticky as real licorice seed pods.
    I’ve had dogs run through them, and start yelping because they’re fur is so bound up by seed pods, they don’t want to move anymore.
    Late summer, early fall, gotta carry scissors, just to cut them out, and get the dogs home. Then you have to cut all the seed pods off your jeans, socks, bootlaces, and shirts. Crazy nasty stuff!
    Licorice flavor is from the root, extracted by boil, I think. These are a wild licorice, and their root has only a mild licorice taste, yet it very recognizable.
    Cultivated licorice is probably very different. Years ago, I did buy Licorice root slices from an Herbal Medicine Company, and they were very big, flavorful slices of root that were sliced at harvest, then dried.
    Big Black Licorice Flavor, over 2 inches across in cross section.
    This wild licorice root is maximum 7/16ths of an inch diameter, cross section, most around 1/4 inch.
    Enough of this. Does anybody remember another old candy flavor Horehound?

  7. says

    Aargh, horehound. I hate that stuff. Remember that one time I actually made the medicinal horehound? You get credit for eating the stuff. Better you than me.

    Oh, I do remember taking Cachet & Mahto down to desert, we’d be picking licorice burrs off of them the whole week after. Damn things are a menace.

  8. rq says

    Horehound? Isn’t that just a type of mint…? I feel like I’m missing something vital, here…

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