Nature Notes: Jewelweed is a wildlife gem

• By MARLENE A. CONDON
• Aug 19, 2025

One of the first plants I cultivated alongside one of my little artificial ponds was the Touch-me-not or Jewelweed.

In nature, it’s found growing in shade by streams and in swamps, so I felt this annual native plant would be a perfect companion for my new pond.

Blooming from about the middle of July into September, Jewelweed produces many orange flowers that dangle like ladies’ earrings. Each flower is shaped like a miniature cornucopia, a receptacle that resembles a curved goat’s horn.

In times of old, a cornucopia was also known as a “horn of plenty”. Signifying abundance, it would be filled to overflowing with fruit and ears of grain. Appropriately enough, the Jewelweed flower blossom could also be known as a horn of plenty, as it contains an abundance of nectar.

Jewelweed blooms are great in the wildlife garden. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and numerous species of insects visit the orange “jewels” throughout the blooming season, making this a most valuable gem of a plant.

My Jewelweed was so content in its initial location that it bloomed well, attracting many pollinators (the birds and the bees, etc.). The animals fertilized the Jewelweed flowers, which then created an abundance of seeds.

The following year, new plants came up within several feet of the pond, the result of seed dispersal. I didn’t pull out the seeds that germinated (started to grow) in locations that had no competing plants. Some of the plants were in shady places, but many others were in full sun and received at least eight hours of sunlight a day.

When a friend stopped by and saw these Jewelweed seedlings in full sun, he commented with assurance that I might as well pull them out because there was no way that they would ever survive in that much light. Well, I am a natural-born scientist, and I almost always have to find things out for myself. There was no reason for me not to leave the plants alone to see what happened.

And by the way, this is the beauty of growing what so many folks call “weeds.” If you have not spent money on plants, you can afford to be less worried about their welfare. That’s an especially good thing if you are prone to using pesticides at the first sign of plant damage.

I kept an eye on the new Jewelweed plants, fully expecting that my friend was right and they would succumb to the hot sun beating down upon them. Indeed, every day the plants looked horrible as they drooped and sagged in the sunlight. Yet as soon as shade greeted the seedlings, the plants would perk right back up and look none the worse for wear!

This stressful scenario continued day after day, and still the seedlings grew and prospered, reaching their full height of about five feet. They flowered, the birds and the bees (etc.) visited right on schedule, and the following year the march of the Jewelweed across my yard continued.