SPIKED WILLOW-HERB; LONG PURPLES; SPIKED or PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE(Lythrum Salicaria) Loosestrife family Flowers - Bright magenta (royal purple) or pinkish purple, about 1/2 in.broad, crowded in whorls around long bracted spikes.
Calyx tubular, ribbed, 5 to 7 toothed, with small projections between.Corolla of 5 or 6 slightly wrinkled or twisted petals.
Stamens, in 2 whorls of 5 or 6 each, and 1 pistil, occurring in three different lengths.Stem: 2 to 3 ft.high, leafy, branched.
Leaves: Opposite, or sometimes in whorls of 3; lance-shaped, with heart-shaped base clasping stem.
Preferred Habitat - Wet meadows, watery places, ditches, and banks of streams.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - Eastern Canada to Delaware, and westward through Middle States; also in Europe.
Through Darwin's patient study of this trimorphic flower, it has assumed so important a place in his theory of the origin of species that its fertilization by insects deserves special attention.On page 5, the method by which the pickerel weed, another flower whose stamens and pistil occur in three different lengths, should be read to avoid much repetition.Now the loosestrife produces six different kinds of yellow and green pollen on its two sets of three stamens; and when this pollen is applied by insects to the stigmatic surface of three different lengths of pistil, it follows that there are eighteen ways in which it may be transferred.But Darwin proved that only pollen brought from the shortest stamens to the shortest pistil, from the middle-length stamens to the middle-length pistil, and from the long stamens to the long pistil effectually fertilizes the flower.And as all the flowers on any one plant are of the same kind, we have here a marvelous mechanism to secure cross-fertilization.His experiments with this loosestrife also demonstrated that "reproductive organs, when of different length, behave to one another like different species of the same genus in regard both to direct productiveness and the character of the offspring; and that consequently mutual barrenness, which was once thought conclusive proof of difference of species, is worthless as such, and the last barrier that was raised between species and varieties is broken down." (Muller.)Naturally the bright-hued, hospitable flower, which secretes abundant nectar at the base of its tube, attracts many insects, among others, bees of larger and middle size, and the butterflies for which it is especially adapted.They alight on the stamens and pistil on the upper side of the flower.Those with the longest tongues stand on one blossom to sip from the next one:
this is the butterfly's customary attitude.But nearly every visitor comes in contact with at least one set of organs.When Darwin first interpreted the trimorphism of the loosestrife, we can realize something of the enthusiasm such a man must have felt in writing to Gray: "I am almost stark, staring mad over lythrum....For the love of Heaven have a look at some of your species, and if you can get me some seed, do!"Long ago this beautiful plant reached our shores from Europe, and year by year is extending its triumphal march westward, brightening its course of empire through low meadows and marshes with torches that lengthen even as they glow.It is not a spring flower, even in England; and so when Shakespeare, whose knowledge of floral nature was second only to that of human nature, wrote of Ophelia, "With fantastic garlands did she come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,"is it probable he so combined flowers having different seasons of bloom? Dr.Prior suggests that the purple orchis (0.mascula)might have been the flower Ophelia wore; but, as long purples has been the folk name of this loosestrife from time immemorial in England, it seems likely that Shakespeare for once may have made a mistake.
BLUE WAX-WEED; CLAMMY CUPHEA; TAR-WEED
(Parsonia petiolata; Cuphea viscosissima of Gray) Loosestrife family Flowers - Purplish pink, about 1/4 in.across, on short peduncles from leaf axils, solitary or clustered.Calyx sticky, tubular, 12-ribbed, with 6 primary teeth, oblique at mouth, extending into a rounded swelling on upper side at base; 6 unequal, wrinkled petals, on short claws; 11 or 12 stamens inserted on calyx throat; pistil with 2-lobed stigma.Stem: 6 to 20 in.high, branched, very sticky-hairy.Leaves: Opposite, on slender petioles, lance-shaped, rounded at base, harsh to the touch.
Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, waste places, fields, roadsides.
Flowering Season - July-October.
Distribution - Rhode Island to Georgia, westward to Louisiana, Kansas, and Illinois.
A first cousin of the familiar Mexican cigar plant, or fire-cracker plant (Cuphea platycentra), whose abundant little vermilion tubes, with black-edged lower lip tipped with white, brighten the borders of so many Northern flower-beds.Kyphos, the Greek for curved, from which cuphea was derived, has reference to the peculiar, swollen little seedpod.From a slit on one side of the clammy cuphea's capsule the placenta, set with tiny flattened seeds, sticks out like a handle.Probably the flower has already fertilized itself in the bud, although, from the fact that the plant has taken such pains to punish crawling insect foes by coating itself with sticky hairs, one might imagine it was wholly dependent upon winged insects to transfer its pollen.What an unworthy relative of the purple loosestrife, whose elaborate scheme to insure cross-fertilization is one of the botanical wonders!
MEADOW-BEAUTY; DEER GRASS
(Rhexia Virginica) Meadow-beauty family Flowers - Purplish pink, 1 to 1 1/2 in.across, pedicelled, clustered at top of stem.Calyx 4-lobed, tubular or urn-shaped, narrowest at neck; 4 rounded, spreading petals, joined for half their length; 8 equal, prominent stamens in 2 rows; pistil.Stem: