Jewelweeds

     Two species of jewelweeds, spotted and pale, are native to much of the eastern United States, including in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Both these closely related, annual plants sprout in moist, mostly shaded soil in April, including in damp woods and along shaded roadside ditches, and reach full size of up to five feet tall and shrub-like by mid-August.  They start blooming toward the end of August, reaching the peak of their blossoming early in September.
     These jewelweed species have  similar leaves in shape and shade of green.  But spotted jewelweeds have orange flowers, spotted with red.  Pale jewelweed blooms are pale yellow.  And the blossoms of both species hang like pendant jewelry and ear rings, hence their common name. 
     Spotted jewelweeds are more likely to grow and bloom in bushy stands where there is a good bit of sunlight each day, while pale jewelweeds most often flower in shaded areas.  However, I sometimes see mixed patches of these two species with their orange and yellow flowers forming wild bouquets of themselves in mostly shaded areas.      
     Migrating ruby throated hummingbirds, heading south to South and Central America to avoid the northern winter, poke their long beaks into jewelweed flowers to sip sugary nectar.  And worker bumble bees and a variety of other insects do so as well, pollinating the blooms in the process.  
     Both species of jewelweeds are also called "touch-me-nots", but that is a misnomer.  When the seeds in jewelweed pods are ripe by late autumn, the pods will snap open at the slightest touch, popping the seeds a few feet from the parent plants.  Obviously, it is to the plants' best interests to have their ripened pods touched to spread their seeds onto soil where jewelweeds are not yet growing.  People, as well as deer, foxes, birds and other creatures, moving through jewelweed thickets brush against the pods, which releases their seeds.  Mice and small birds eat some of those seeds through winter.  The surviving seeds sprout the next spring. 
     It's always an interesting experience to touch a jewelweed pod with a finger tip and watch it project its seeds.  A coiled bit of vegetation in each pod twists abruptly like a coiled spring snapping, tearing open the pod with great force for something so small.      
     Jewelweed stems ooze juice when injured.  That liquid, when applied to bare human skin, relieves the burning of stinging nettle chemicals, the irritation of poison ivy and the stings of bees.
     Jewelweeds have attractive flowers and practical purposes to wildlife and people.  Small wildlife consume their nectar or seeds, and we get relief from burning and itching on our skin.  Look for these bushy annuals, and their lovely flowers, in damp, shaded areas from now to about the middle of September.