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 opposite, petioled leaves, broadly oval at the base,
taper-pointed, coarsely toothed, three-nerved, and veiny, are
thin and easily skeletonized by the insects that enjoy the leaves
of all this clan of plants. From one to four feet high, the White
Snakeroot grows in the United States and Canada as far west as
Nebraska.
Closely allied to the eupatoriums, and with similar
inflorescence, is the CLIMBING BONESET or HEMPWEED (Willughbaeaa
scandens; Mikania scandens of Gray.) Straggling over bushes in
swamps, by the brookside thicket, or in moist, shady roadsides,
the vine reveals its kinship to the boneset instantly it comes
into bloom in midsummer, although its flower clusters are
occasionally pinkish. The opposite, petioled leaves are quite
different from the boneset's, however, being heart-shaped at the
base, and taper-pointed, somewhat triangular, two to four inches
long, and one or two inches wide. From Massachusetts and the
Middle States even to South America and the West Indies is its
range.
WHITE ASTERS or STARWORTS
(Aster = a star) Thistle family
In dry, open woodlands, thickets, and roadsides, from August to
October, we find the dainty WHITE WOOD ASTER (A. divaricatus; A.
corymbosus of Gray) its brittle zig-zag stem two feet high or
less, branching at the top, and repeatedly forked where loose
clusters of flower-heads spread in a broad, rather flat corymb.
Only a few white rays - usually from six to nine - surround the
yellow disk, whose forets soon turn brown. Range from Canada
southward to Tennessee.
First to bloom among the white species, beginning in July, is the
UPLAND WHITE ASTER (A. ptarmicoides), which elects to grow in the
rocky or dry soil of high ground in the northern United States
westward to Colorado. The leaves, which resemble grayish-green
shining grass-blades, arranged alternately up the rigid stem, and
diminishing in size near the top until they become mere bracts
among the flowers, enable us to name the plant. The heads, in a
branching cluster, are not numerous; each measures barely an inch
across its ten to twenty snow-white rays; the center is of a pale
yellow-green, turning a light brown in maturity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account