2019 January of the Month

BWSR Featured Plant Name: White turtlehead ( glabra) Plant family: Figwort () If you come upon A native perennial found in wetlands and white turtlehead, you’ve found not shorelines, white turtlehead’s white- or only an interesting wetland plant pink-tinged flowers feature an upper lip but also a link to that forms a hood over Greek mythology. According to legend, the other flower parts — Plant Stats after the nymph like a turtle’s shell. Some Chelone offended STATEWIDE the gods, she was think the flowers bear a WETLAND turned into a INDICATOR and forever made stronger resemblance to STATUS:OBL

to carry her house a fish or a snake, giving on her back. Photos PRIMARY Courtesy of Susan rise to the additional USES: Pollinator Nelson unless noted benefits, rain common names: cod garden and head, fish mouth, wetland plantings snakehead and snake mouth. Hummingbirds and bees collect nectar and pollen from the flowers; several insects feed on the and seeds.

Identification Range An upright or sprawling herb, White turtlehead white turtlehead grows 2 to flourishes in 3 feet tall. Its opposite, lance- wetlands and shaped leaves are either sessile on streambanks (with no petioles, AKA stalks) and lakeshores in or have petioles shorter than a North America’s quarter-inch long. Finely toothed eastern half. and smooth, typical leaves grow In Minnesota, 3 to 6 inches long; at least some the plant is of them are more than three- documented quarters of an inch wide. The mostly in smooth stems are either round eastern counties, or square. A terminal spike of although its white or pinkish flowers blooms The leaves of white turtlehead are range includes lance-shaped, sessile and smooth. Range map source: USDA NRCS in August and September. the peatlands Database. The flower’s upper lip forms a lip provides a landing place for and forests in the hood, while the lobed, lower insects. northwest.

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Planting Recommendations Uses Flowers open Because turtlehead White turtlehead provides a late- from the bottom is as an obligate season source of nectar and pollen of the spike up, for ruby-throated hummingbirds, growing up to wetland species, it 1.5 inches long needs wet or moist bumblebees and long-horned bees. with a wide, soils to survive. It It’s a larval host for the Baltimore flattened mouth. tolerates temporary checkerspot butterfly. Suitable Wooly hairs for planting in wetlands and rain cover flowers’ flooding. Plants lower interior. can be grown from gardens, it will enhance the benefit seed, containerized of swales constructed for stormwater plants, or division treatment. of clumps. Choose a planting with full or partial sun. The bitter leaves are unattractive to deer and other herbivores.

Similar Species Red turtlehead, , is considered native to Minnesota, but its range and abundance are not precisely known. It has red or pink flowers; its stalked leaves are more broadly lance-shaped than white turtlehead’s. Left: Red turtlehead is among the species similar to white turtlehead. Photo Credit: R. Both species require W. Smith, courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Digital Library, NPIN wet soils. Image ID 33695 Right: White turtlehead blooms.

References USDA Plants Database: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=chgl2 Illinois Wildflowers: https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/wh_turtlehead.htm Wetland Plants of Minnesota, by Steve. W. Chadde. Second edition, 2012 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Sir William Smith, ed. 1867. Page 693 Pollinators of Native Plants, by Heather Holm. Pollination Press, LLC, 2014 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center:www.wildflower.org

Developed by Susan Nelson

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