Snow On The Mountain

wasp

Snow On the Mountain

As we headed toward the white clumps in the pasture behind our house, I just knew we were going to have great success with this week's outdoor challenge: Queen Anne's Lace.  However, upon our arrival, I was briefly disappointed to discover that the clumps were not Queen Anne's Lace.  I quickly recovered my excitement observing the beauty of what we HAD found, and decided it would make a fine substitute.

<><>

<>

<><>

Butterfly

Bee?

At home, we discovered our plant to be Bishop's Weed, or as we prefer, Snow On The Mountain.  Apparently, it is a highly sought after ground cover for flower gardens.  Just think, people pay good money for this stuff and we have thousands growing wild as weeds in our pasture!  I noticed them in the spring.  The variegated leaves are much more impressive than the tiny white flowers.  Together, they are quite a sight.  Especially covering an otherwise barren hillside as this picture shows.

bee

We could detect no scent from the flowers.  We observed three different kinds of bees and a wasp frequenting the blossoms.  The stem feels smooth, but is covered with tiny fine hairs.  The thick leaves point upwards alternating as they climb towards the end of the stem.  The topmost leaves have the "snow." 

Our arrangement

We read that these make excellent cut flowers for arrangements, and will last a long time if the stems are dipped in boiling water.  So, we tried it.  We discovered that white milk bleeds out when the stem is cut or the leaves are removed.  It is a little sticky.

Claire's watercolor painting
of Bishop's Weed

Most of the plants we saw were about 2 feet tall.  They grew mostly along the edges of the field near the fence row.  As there were hundreds of them, we didn't feel the least bit guilty clipping all we could carry.