Spring Garden at Point State Park

The Point State Park in Pittsburgh has a Spring Garden where you can see different kinds of interesting plants.  It's a relaxing part of the park adjacent to the   river side where bikers  and walkers go to.  I love when a park offers this kind of   feature because  I  for one,  enjoy learning about plants.  It's very educational for me.

Here are some of the plants that we  saw there. I have seen foamflower plant before but I have no clue what it was.  The foamy appearance on its bloom makes it a favorite   feature by butterflies and other  creatures that enjoy its pollen.

Did you know that the foamflower leaves  were used to make an astringent  was for mouth sores and other wounds?   I  also like that it is a perrenial.

Before I introduced you to the next plant, my son was fascinated by  this tree.  We saw an insect that looks like a hornet that keeps digging in and out of the tree.  It's amazing how much  he could do.  I mean look at the bottom of the tree, that dust  pile says a lot.

Another perennial plant  we saw is this wild blue phlox.  I love different kinds of phlox plants but I have never knew about this one.  

The phlox that I've had in my old house before  crawls into the ground but this one  is upright.  It's bloom is gorgeous too.

I have always wonder what an elderberry looks like because we bought a jelly one time at an Amish store but I didn't know what an elderberry is.  Did you know that the raw berries and other parts of this plant is toxic?  You can only use the purple berries, otherwise, it will make you sick if you  try to use the raw ones.  

Okay, I probably seen white snake root but I never knew what it was.  It said that this native herb poisons the meat  and milk of cows  that grace on its leaves and blooms.  That is  a dangerous plant  for farm owners.  As you can read in the photo, thousands of European-American settlers, including Abraham Lincoln's mother, died from this  "milk sickness".

So yes, aside from  the Fort Pitt Black House, this is one of my favorite part of our Memorial Day adventure in Point State Park.

We cooled down  to this area after  a hot sun exposure at  the fountain.   

I mean it was probably boring for my kids but I enjoyed  this stroll here in the Spring Garden.  

I think we will go back to this park next time because we did not get to see the museum but  that will give us an excuse to go back there.  I hope you learn a little bit from the featured plant on this post but you probably know  all of these already if you were born  in the US.  I am still learning a lot of stuff 13 years  after I migrated here in the land of the free.