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
The small FIELD BINDWEED (C. arvensis), a common immigrant from
Europe, which has taken up its abode from Nova Scotia and Ontario
southward to New Jersey, and westward to Kansas, trails over the
ground with a deathless persistency which fills farmers with
dismay. It is like a small edition of the hedge bind weed, only
its calyx lacks the leaf-like bracts at its base, its slender
stem rarely exceeds two feet in length, and the little pink and
white flowers often grow in pairs. Their habit of closing both in
the evening and in rainy weather indicates that they are adapted
for diurnal insects only; but if the bell hang down, or if the
corolla drop off, the pollen must fall on the stigma and effect
self-fertilization. Many more insects visit this flower than the
large bindweed, attracted by the peculiar fragrance, and led by
the white streaks to the orange-colored under surface of the
ovary, where the nectar lies concealed. Stigmas and anthers
mature at the same time; but as the former are slightly the
longer, they receive pollen brought from another flower before
the visitor gets freshly dusted.
GROUND OR MOSS PINK
(Phlox subulata) Phlox family
Flowers - Very numerous, small, deep purplish pink, lavender or
rose, varying to white, with a darker eye, growing in simple
cymes, or solitary in a Western variety. Calyx with 5 slender
teeth; corolla salver-form with 5 spreading lobes; 5 stamens
inserted on corolla tube; style 3-lobed. Stems: Rarely exceeding
6 in. in height, tufted like mats, much branched, plentifully set
with awl-shaped, evergreen leaves barely 1/2 in. long, growing in
tufts at joints of stem.
Preferred Habitat - Rocky ground, hillsides.
Flowering Season - April-June
Distribution - Southern New York to Florida, westward to Michigan
and Kentucky.
A charming little plant, growing in dense evergreen mats with
which Nature carpets dry, sandy, and rocky hillsides, is often
completely hidden beneath its wealth of flowers. Far beyond its
natural range, as well as within it, the moss pink glows in
gardens, cemeteries and parks, wherever there are rocks to
conceal or sterile wastes to beautify. Very slight encouragement
induces it to run wild. There are great rocks in Central Park,
New York, worth travelling miles to see in early May, when their
stern faces are flushed and smiling with these blossoms.
Another low ground species is the CRAWLING PHLOX (P. reptans). It
rarely exceeds six inches in height; nevertheless its larger
pink, purple, or white flowers, clustered after the manner of the
tall garden phloxes, are among the most showy to be found in the
spring woods. A number of sterile shoots with obovate leaves,
tapering toward the base, rise from the runners and set off the
brilliant blossoms among their neat foliage. From Pennsylvania
southward and westward is its range, especially in mountainous
regions; but this plant, too, was long ago transplanted from
Nature's gardens into man's.
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