A blast from the past occurred yesterday as I walked in the woods by Lake Gregory. I came across some Silver Dollars. No, not real coins, but close.
When I was growing up on Long Island, these were a common plant in our clump of forest behind our home. Imagine my excitement and pleasure as I laid eyes on a childhood memory on a CA mountain trail.
Lunaria Annua or Money Plant was a frequent visitor in my ‘back east’ life. Growing like a weed, from mid to late summer, the Silver Dollar plant gives forth a fushia or purplish four petaled flower at the end of its two-three foot stem. As the flower turns into a pod, it is encased in a flat, silvery, paper thin disc in the fall. It is easy to see why the Pilgrims who brought it over on the Mayflower called it the Silver Dollar.A clump in its natural habitat.I found the Money Plant stash and lottery!!An extreme close up of a twig from a Silver Dollar plant that was broken and blown away, exactly like the seeds are sown.