Wildflower makes so-so fishing trip spectacular
The Guernsey County Fine Arts and Crappie Fishing Society gathered on the shores of Seneca Lake last weekend for its annual spring fish camp.
Although the fishing wasn’t fantastic, we did catch enough for a meal.
Besides the so-so fishing, though, the sunny days and spring wildflowers made the event spectacular.
One of those wildflowers that embellished the weekend is called dame’s rocket, which is about as showy as a wildflower can get.
It is not a native to the United States and some purists might look down their nose at it. I certainly don’t. I just know it looks beautiful in the sunshine.
Years ago, dame’s rocket was solely a garden plant in Eurasia, but they escaped into the wild and eventually were brought here.
It is a member of the mustard family of plants; its flowers stand on 2- to 3-foot-tall stems. The blooms are clusters of tiny pink, white and purple flowers that are very fragrant.
Jim McCormac, a wildlife biologist, told me that its old name was “mother of the evening.”
That’s probably because its fragrance is more intense in the evening. It probably does that to attract the moths that pollinate the plant, he said.
That’s pretty neat, isn’t it? It’s one of nature’s little miracles.
I asked McCormac if he disapproves of dame’s rocket because it is not a native plant. He said there are no signs that dame’s rocket is as invasive as garlic mustard or honeysuckle that crowd out native plants.
“They provide clouds of purple and white flowers and who can argue with that?” he said.
Robert L. Henn wrote in his wildflower guide, “Wildflowers of Ohio,” that dame’s rocket is a biennial plant, so some years they are plentiful and some years they are not.
Thank goodness they were plentiful this year. They made an unspectacular fishing trip spectacular!