Wild Flowers: An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect VisitorsBlanchan, Neltje
Science
Wild Flowers: An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors
Blanchan, Neltje
Wild flowers -- North America
Fragrant colonies of this little plant cuddled close to the moss
of cool, northern peat bogs draw forth our admiration when we go
orchid hunting in early summer. A similar species, the LIVER-LEAF
WINTERGREEN (P. asarifolia), with shining, not dull, leaves and
rose-colored flowers, not to mention minor differences, is
likewise found in swamps and wet woods. These two wintergreens,
formerly counted mere varieties of the white-flowered
rotundifolia, a lover of dry woods, have now been given specific
individuality by later-day systematists. Short-lipped bees and
flies may be detected in the act of applying their mouths to the
orifices of the anthers through which pollen is shed, and some
must be carried to the stigma of another flower.
PIPSISSEWA; PRINCE'S PINE
(Chimaphila umbellata) Wintergreen family
Flowers - Flesh-colored, or pinkish, fragrant, waxy, usually with
deep pink ring around center, and the anthers colored; about 1/2
in. across; several flowers in loose, terminal cluster. Calyx
5-cleft; corolla of 5 concave, rounded, spreading petals; 10
stamens, the filaments hairy style short, conical, with a round
stigma. Stem: Trailing far along ground, creeping, or partly
subterranean, sending up sterile and flowering branches 3 to 10
in. high. Leaves: Opposite or in whorls, evergreen, bright,
shining, spatulate to lance-shaped, sharply saw-edged.
Preferred Habitat - Dry woods, sandy leaf-mould.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - British Possessions and the United States north of
Georgia from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Also Mexico, Europe,
and Asia.
A lover of winter indeed (cheima = winter and phileo = to love)
is the prince's pine, whose beautiful dark leaves keep their
color and gloss in spite of snow and intense cold. A few yards of
the trailing stem, easily ripped from the light soil of its
woodland home, make a charming indoor decoration, especially when
the little brown seed-cases remain. Few flowers are more
suggestive of the woods than these shy, dainty, deliciously
fragrant little blossoms.
The SPOTTED WINTERGREEN, or PIPSISSEWA (C. maculata), closely
resembles the prince's pine, except that its slightly larger
white or pinkish flowers lack the deep pink ring; and the
lance-shaped leaves, with rather distant saw-teeth, are
beautifully mottled with white along the veins. When we see
short-lipped bees and flies about these flowers, we may be sure
their pollen-covered mouths come in contact with the moist stigma
on the summit of the little top-shaped style, and so effect
cross-fertilization.
WILD HONEYSUCKLE; PINK, PURPLE, or WILD AZALEA; PINXTER-FLOWER
(Azalea nudiflora) Heath family
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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