Fleur de l'Appalachia

Fleur de l’Appalachia

What great remedy     is the bright rue anemone

Now entering the court      is the spacey toothwort

A sweet medicine pill    is the lovely cranesbill

Along the steamside rocks     is the spreading phlox

No pleasanter sight I’m sure    than a hill of larkspur

No better a restless mind dispels    than a mass of blue bells

Blooming as if it was duty    is the everywhere spring beauty

Spring   A joy to pass through it   But better with you ye bluet

In swamp lands in spring be told    is the marsh marigold

With painted leaf and bottlebrush surge   is the Allegheny spurge

Ah to make a heart less sadder  Climb Jacob’s ladder

Patiently awaiting the long white shoot     of a hill of Snakeroot

Subtle and graceful and swell    is a smattering of golden bell

Rare but ready to heal    is the white topped red-berried golden seal

Rarer yet perhaps the med king      is the five leaved ginseng

Dangerous beauty but an exquisite prize    is the mystical dolls eyes

Of white and yellow but purple most yet    is the ubiquitous violet

A round pink cure for all woes    is the smiling dog rose

Most stunning I think    is a forest of Silene the red fire pink

Comparable in red fire power    is a swamp full of cardinal flower

In northwood wetlands vast but not silly    is the cheerful trout lily

As cheery as the lilium    is the red, painted, and bonnie white trillium

To examine it one can hardly help it    this oddball jack-in-the pulpit

A  sweet little gem ne’er to tire us     is the bonnie blue dwarf crested iris

Entrenched in swamp and sag     is the sunny yellow flag

So pleasant to behold        is a patch of green and gold

A subtle beaut with which to dally     is the wild lily of the valley

Another with wide appeal     is the formidable Solomon’s Seal

And no less graceful and no less real    is the False Solomon’s Seal

As well and with yellow bells above    is the downy false foxglove

In colors so deep words can scarce hail ya   is the showy and frilly azalea

And what rocky gap      is not enhanced by the deep blue scullcap?

In summery field indeed    is the deep bright butterfly weed

Also in June rough and calm   is the pink or red bee balm

Here’s one to reduce the sorrow    it’s the brighty white yarrow

Pink bells from tall stems hung     describes the stately beardtongue

Abundant but ne’er lazy    is the magickal ox-eye daisy

Soft and worth usin’     is our friend black-eyed Susan

So rare and so fine    is the bonnie bonnie columbine

What great wonder of the hort   is the three-petalled spider wort

In dirts black and stony    is the turtlehead chelone

In lowland roadside too    is the summer white meadow rue

Dainty and rare in glen with soft power    is the smart foam flower

Friendly and woodsy without weedy rage is the white saxifrage

With painted leaves and flowers to boot    is the shady alum root

High with blue bells in the midsummer bower    is the tall bellflower

A fine sight for the eye to catch    is the purple wood vetch

A nodding lily to fill the gap     is the tall and stately Turk’s Cap

In mountain woods there ain’t nothin’ hipper than the fine lady’s  slipper

Incredible passion flowers drop    from the viny maypop

Like a wand or blue cane   is the upright vervain

Rare with leaves green or red like wax    is the south mountain galax

In ravine deep and dark as if to strand ya    the wild hydrangea

Also there deep pink and merry   is that wonder the raspberry

A sight none better near lakes deep n’ shallow is the giant marsh mallow

No finer July beauty will face ya   than the dear pink Sabatia

Smiling yellow whenever its hot   is the joyful five-spot

Rising amongst the grass     is the Venus’s looking glass

Among summer growth ye both twine   with red gems ye trumpet and cross vine

And then quite late another vine makes tower   Ah the white virgin’s bower

In late summer valley flora-billia    stands the Great Blue Lobelia

So dainty and yet with sass   is that wonder  blue-eyed grass

None could cheer the autumn heart faster   than a field of blue aster

‘Cept maybe the same field shod    with the beauteous golden rod

At late summer guaranteed   are Joe Pye and iron weed

How nice it is to see ya        Pink plumes of the hardhack spirea

Better not to cheer or pout   but a quick mention since I’ve left them out

Some stunning - others fit for explaytives     these are the non-natives

Also gone though mightily fairly awesome are shrubs and trees of blossom

Though graceful, no flowers to be seen    gone too the shapely and green

Many more have I missed        That mine eyes have yet kissed

May I see them in their homes         on merry forest roams