I love finding this beautiful blue spiderwort whenever I’m out on a picture walk! It’s quite small and you might not even notice it, but it’s definitely worth a second glance.
Spiderwort is a native perennial wildflower that is usually found growing along the edges of a forest or along the roadside. It has three petals that are blue to purple, but hybridized versions of the plant may be found in pink, white or red.
The origin of the spiderwort’s unusual name has several possibilities, all quite interesting. The name may have come from the way the flowers hang down from the stem like a spider or because it was once used to treat spider bites. When the stem of a spiderwort is broken, a sticky substance emerges that can be stretched out to resemble the strands of a cobweb—another possibility for the spiderwort name. Some think the name refers to the leaves twisted at the joints that resemble a spider’s legs.
Surprisingly, this pretty little wildflower is also known by several other unusual names including widow’s tears, bluejacket, Indian paint, Moses in the bulrushes, and cow slobber! I needed to know why these names evolved–especially cow slobber and Moses in the bulrushes!
The name widow’s tears is based on the fact that you can elicit a tear-like drop of liquid from the plant if you squeeze the bracts below the flower. The bluejacket name is a nod to the union soldiers of the Civil War, and the Indian paint name is a reference to the Lakota tribe that made blue paint from the spiderwort flowers to decorate their clothing. The unflattering name of cow slobber was inspired by the gooey sap that emerges when you break off a spiderwort leaf.
Moses in the bulrushes, though, struck me as the most unusual of names for this plant. The arrangement of little flowers at the top of the stem apparently reminded someone of the cradle that Moses was placed in before being set adrift among the reeds (or bulrushes) along the Nile. It’s a very creative story, I thought, but quite a stretch of the imagination!
Spiderwort is not only a beautiful plant to see and photograph, it’s totally edible as well as medicinal! The leaves can reportedly be used in soups, salads, and stews, or eaten raw. The stems can also be eaten raw, or cooked like asparagus. Some people have even added the little flowers to their salads as an edible embellishment.
Native American tribes, like the Cherokee, used spiderwort for both food and medicine. They would mash up the plant to make a type of salve and put it on insect bites to reduce itching, or they made a paste from the roots to treat cancer. The leaves of the plant were used for making a tea that acted as a laxative or as cure for stomach aches.
Some people consider spiderwort a weed or a nuisance plant due to its very aggressive nature! Well, it’s not going to attack you, but it might choke out some of your other plants. The roots go down about 2-3 inches, and are tightly packed, making it quite difficult to remove once it takes hold. These plants also self-seed prolifically and it’s important to remove each spent blossom before it can set seed. If you want to avoid all the extra work of keeping your spiderwort under control, you can just enjoy it as a house plant.
In Michigan, spiderwort blooms from May through September. Keep an eye out for these pretty blue flowers on your upcoming summer walks and you may have the added surprise of seeing a ruby throated hummingbird or a brightly colored butterfly enjoying the sweet, enticing nectar of this lovely little plant.
