Papilio machaon

Papilio machaon, the Old World swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the common yellow swallowtail or simply the swallowtail. It is the type species of the genus Papilio. This widespread species is found in much of the Palearctic (it is the only swallowtail in most of Europe) and in North America. This species is named after Machaon, a figure in Greek mythology. Like all butterflies, Old World swallowtails undergo metamorphosis. Young caterpillars look like bird droppings which is a good camouflage. In the last two of the four instars they are green with black transversal bands carrying 6 rows of reddish spots. To defend themselves the larvae can protrude an orange, fleshy, smelling fork behind their heads called osmeterium.

Chelidonium majus

Chelidonium majus, the greater celandine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. One of two species in the genus Chelidonium, it is native to Europe and Asia and introduced widely in North America. Chelidonium majus is one of the many species described by the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in volume one of his Species Plantarum in 1753. Chelidonium majus has also been called great celandine, nipplewort, tetterwort, or simply celandine. It is a traditional folk remedy against warts.

Chamaenerion angustifolium

Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb. The plant is also traditionally known as Saint Anthony’s laurel. It is also known by the synonyms Chamerion angustifolium and Epilobium angustifolium. The generic name Chamaenerion means “dwarf-oleander” and the Latin specific epithet angustifolium translates as “narrow-leaved”. It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests. The common name fireweed derives from the species’ abundance as a colonizer on burnt sites after forest fires. In Russia, its leaves were traditionally used as a tea, before the introduction of tea from China starting in the 17th century, it was greatly valued and was exported in large quantities to Western Europe as Koporye tea, Russian tea or Ivan Chai. Fireweed has many uses in traditional medicine.

Bench

“There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands.” - O. Henry

Chrysanthemum zawadzkii

Chrysanthemum zawadzkii (or Dendranthema zawadzkii) is a species of short perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. Genus name comes from the Ancient Greek words chrysos meaning “gold” and anthemon meaning “flower”. Specific epithet was named after Alexander Zawadzki (1798-1868), Polish botanist and naturalist, by Franz Herbich (1791-1865) who discovered this plant growing in the Pieniny Mountains (Western Carpathians) in 1829 and subsequently first described it in 1831. In temperate Asia it is found in Mongolia, Northern China, Siberia, Korea and Japan. It flowers from July to September.

Vicia amoena

Vicia amoena, the lovely vetch, is a herbaceous perennial climbing plant in the genus Vicia. Vicia amoena is widely distributed in Northeast Asia. The habitat is thickets and meadows, as well as grasslands, hills, slopes and occasionally forests. The plant produces beautiful pinkish-purple flowers, which are grow in clusters. The much-branched stems scramble over the ground, climbing into the surrounding vegetation where they attach themselves by means of tendrils. In Korea, the leaves are used as food.

Aster alpinus

Aster alpinus, the alpine aster or blue alpine daisy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the mountains of Europe (including the Alps) and Asia. The genus Aster once contained nearly 600 species in Eurasia and North America, but after morphologic and molecular research on the genus during the 1990s, it was decided that the North American species are better treated in a series of other related genera. After this split there are roughly 180 species within the genus, all but one being confined to Eurasia. The name Aster comes from the Ancient Greek word aster meaning “star”, referring to the shape of the flower head. This herbaceous perennial has purple, pink, white or blue flowers in summer. The Latin specific epithet alpinus means alpine and from high mountains above the timber line.