Wild Flowers Part 26

Flowers - White, solitary, or 2 at end of a scape 2 to 5 in.

high. Calyx deeply, unevenly 5 or 6 parted, the larger divisions toothed; 5 petals falling early; numerous stamens; 5 to 10 carpels forming as many dry drupelets within the persistent calyx. Stem: Creeping, slender, no p.r.i.c.kles. Leaves: Long petioled, in tufts from the runner, almost round, heart-shaped at base, crenate-edged, both sides hairy.

Preferred habitat - Woods and wooded hillsides.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania, and westward to the Mississippi.

This delicate blossom, which one might mistake for a white violet among a low tuft of violet-like leaves, shows its rose kinship by its rule of five and its numerous stamens. Like the violet again, however, it bears curious little economical flowers near the ground - flowers which never open, and so save pollen. These, requiring no insects to fertilize them, waste no energy in putting forth petals to advertise for visitors. Nevertheless, to save the species from degeneracy from close inbreeding, this little plant needs must display a few showy blossoms to insure cross-fertilized seed; for the offspring of such defeats the offspring of self-fertilized plants in the struggle for existence.

VIRGINIA STRAWBERRY (Fragaria Virginiana) Rose family

Flowers - White, loosely cl.u.s.tered at summit of an erect hairy scape usually shorter than the leaves. Calyx persistent in fruit, deeply 5-cleft, with 5 bracts between the divisions; 5 petals; stamens and pistils numerous, the latter inserted on a cushion-like receptacle becoming fleshy in fruit. Staminate and pistillate flowers, from separate roots. Stem: Running, and forming new plants. Leaves: Tufted from the root, on hairy petioles 2 to 6 in. tall, compounded of 3 broadly oval, saw-edged leaflets. Fruit. An ovoid, glistening red berry, the minute achenes imbedded in pits on its surface. Ripe, June-July. (Latin, fragum = fragrant fruit, the strawberry.) Preferred Habitat - Dry fields, banks, roadsides, woodlands.

Flowering Season - April-June.

Distribution - New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to Dakota.

"Doubtless G.o.d could have made a better berry, but doubtless G.o.d never did." Whether one is kneeling in the fields, gathering the sun-kissed, fragrant, luscious, wet scarlet berries nodding among the gra.s.s, or eating the huge cultivated fruit smothered with sugar and cream, one fervently quotes Dr. Boteler with dear old lzaak Walton. Shakespeare says : "My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there." Is not this the first reference to the strawberry under cultivation?

Since the time of Henry V, what mult.i.tudes of garden varieties past the reckoning have been evolved from the smooth, conic EUROPEAN WOOD STRAWBERRY (F. vesca) now naturalized in our Eastern and Middle States, as well as from our own precious pitted native! Some authorities claim the berry received its name from the straw laid between garden rows to keep the fruit clean, but in earliest Anglo-Saxon it was called streowberie, and later straberry, from the peculiarity of its straying suckers lying as if strewn on the ground; and so, after making due allowance for the erratic, go-as-you-please spelling of early writers, it would seem that there might be two theories as to the origin of the name.

Since the different s.e.xes of these flowers frequently occur on separate plants, good reason have they to woo insect messengers with a showy corolla, a ring of nectar, and abundant pollen to be transferred while they are feasted. Lucky is the gardener who succeeds in keeping birds from pecking their share of the berries which, of course, were primarily intended for them. In English gardens one is almost certain to find a thrush or two imprisoned under the nets so futilely spread over strawberry beds, just as their American cousin, the robin, is caught here in June.

A young botanist may be interested to note the difference in the formation of the raspberry or blackberry and the strawberry: in the former it is the carpels (ovaries) that swell around the spongy receptacle into numerous little fruits (drupelets) united into one berry, whereas it is the cushion-like receptacle itself in the strawberry blossom that swells and reddens into fruit, carrying with it the tiny yellow pistils to the surface.

The NORTHERN WILD STRAWBERRY (F. Canadensis), with cl.u.s.ters of elongated, oblong little berries delightful to three senses, comes over the Canadian border no farther south than the Catskills. Nearly all strawberry plants show the useless but charming eccentricity of bursting into bloom again in autumn, the little white-petaled blossoms coming like unexpected flurries of snow.

No one will confuse our common, fruiting species with the small, yellow-flowered DRY or BARREN STRAWBERRY (Waldsteinia fragarioides), more nearly related to the cinquefoils. Tufts of its pretty trefoliate leaves, sent up from a creeping rootstock, carpet the woods and hillsides from New England and along the Alleghanies to Georgia, and westward a thousand miles or more.

Flowers in May and June.

WHITE AVENS (Geum Canadense; G. alb.u.m of Gray) Rose family

Flowers - White or pale greenish yellow, about 1/2 in. across, loosely scattered in small cl.u.s.ters on slender peduncles. Calyx persistent, 5-cleft, with little bracts between the reflexed divisions; 5 petals, equaling or shorter than the sepals; stamens and carpels numerous, the latter collected on a short, bristly-hairy receptacle; styles smooth below, hairy above, jointed. Stem: 2 1/2 ft. high or less, slender, branching above.

Leaves: Seated on stem or short petioled, of 3 to 5 divisions, or lobed, toothed small stipules; also irregularly divided large root-leaves on long petioles, 3-foliate, usually the terminal leaflet large, broadly ovate side leaflets much smaller, all more or less lobed and toothed. Fruit: A ball of achenes, each ending in an elongated, hooked style.

Preferred Habitat - Woodland borders, shady thickets and roadsides.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to Georgia, west to the Mississippi or beyond.

Small bees and flies attracted to sheltered, shady places by these loosely scattered flowers at the ends of zig-zagged stems, pay for the nectar they sip from the disk where the stamens are inserted, by carrying some of the pollen lunch on their heads from the older to the younger flowers, which mature stigmas first. But saucy b.u.mblebees, undutiful pilferers from the purple avens, rarely visit blossoms so inconspicuous. Insects failing these, they are well adapted to pollenize themselves. Most of us are all too familiar with the seeds, clinging by barbed styles to any garment pa.s.sing their way, in the hope that their stolen ride will eventually land them in good colonizing ground. Whoever spends an hour patiently picking off the various seed tramps from his clothes after a walk through the woods and fields in autumn, realizes that the by hook or by crook method of scattering offspring is one of Nature's favorites. Simpler plants than those with hooked achenia produce enormous numbers of spores so light and tiny that the wind and rain distribute them wholesale.

RED CHOKE-BERRY; DOGBERRY TREE (Aronia arbutifolia; Pyrus arbutifolia of Gray) Apple family

Flowers - White or magenta tinged, 1/2 in. across or less, in terminal, compound cymes, finally overtopped by young sterile shoots. Calyx 5-lobed, hairy; 5 concave, spreading petals; stamens numerous; 3 to 5 styles united at base; ovary woolly.

Stem: Shrubby, branching, usually low, rarely 12 ft. high.

Leaves: Alternate, petioled, oval to oblong, finely cut-edged, smooth above, matted with woolly hairs underneath. Fruit: Small, round or top-shaped, bright red berries.

Preferred Habitat - Swamps, low ground, wet thickets.

Flowering Season - March-May.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to Gulf of Mexico, westward to the Mississippi.

Another common species often found in the same haunts, the BLACK CHOKE-BERRY (A. nigra), with similar flowers, the berries very dark purple, was formerly confounded with the red choke-berry.

But because it sometimes elects to live in dry ground its leaves require no woolly mat on the underside to absorb vapors arising from wet retreats. No wonder that the insipid little berries.

related to apples, pears, and other luscious fruits, should share with a cousin, the mountain ash, or rowan, the reproachful name of dogberry.

JUNEBERRY; SERVICEBERRY; MAY-CHERRY (Amelanchier Canadensis) Apple family

Flowers - Pure white, over 1 in. across, on long, slender pedicels, in spreading or drooping racemes, with silky, reddish bracts, early falling, among them. Calyx persistent, 5-parted; 5 long, narrow, tapering petals, 3 or 4 times the length of calyx; numerous stamens inserted on calyx throat; 2 to 5 styles, hairy at base. Stem: A large shrub or tree, usually much less than 25 ft. high, rarely twice that height, wood very hard and heavy.

Leaves: Alternate, oval, tapering at tip, finely saw-edged, smooth (like the pear tree's), often hairy when young. Fruit.

Round, crimson, sweet, edible, seedy berries, ripe in June and July.

Preferred Habitat - Woodland borders, pasture thickets, dry soil.

Flowering Season - March-May.

Distribution - Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, westward over a thousand miles.

Silvery-white chandeliers, hanging from the edges of the woods, light Flora's path in earliest spring, before the trees and shrubbery about them have begun to put forth foliage, much less flowers. Little plants that hug the earth for protection while rude winds rush through the forest and across the hillsides, are already starring her way with fragile, dainty blossoms; but what other shrub, except the serviceberry's twin sister the shadbush, or perhaps the spicebush, has the temerity to burst into bloom while March gusts howl through the naked forests? Little female bees of the Andrena tribe, already at work collecting pollen and nectar for generations yet unborn, buzz their grat.i.tude about the beautiful feathery cl.u.s.ters that lean away from the crowded thicket with a wild, irregular grace. Nesting birds have abundant cause for grat.i.tude also, for the attractive, sweet berries, that ripen providentially early; but, of course, the bees which transfer pollen from flower to flower, and the birds which drop the seeds far and wide, are not the receivers of wholly disinterested favors.

The SHADBUSH or SWAMP SUGAR-PEAR (A. Botryapium), because it was formerly accounted a mere variety (oblongifolia) of the preceding species, still shares with it its popular names; but swamps, river banks, brook sides, and moist thickets are its habitat.

Consequently both its inflorescence and pale green, glossy foliage are covered with a sort of whitish cotton, absorbent when young, to prevent the pores from clogging with vapors arising from its damp retreats. Late in the season, when streams narrow or dry up altogether, and the air becomes drier, as the sun rises higher in the heavens, the foliage is usually quite smooth. It will be noticed that, lovely as the shadbush is, its smaller flowers have shorter pedicels than the serviceberry's; consequently its feathery sprays, which are flung outward to the sunshine in April and May, lack something of the grace for which its sister stands preeminent. Under cultivation both species a.s.sume conventional form, and lose the wild irregularities of growth that charm us in Nature's garden. Indians believed, what is an obvious fact, that when this bush whitens the swampy river banks, shad are swimming up the stream from the sea to sp.a.w.n.

Then, too, the nighthawk, returning from its winter visit south, booms forth its curious whirring, vibrating, jarring sound as it drops through the air at unseen heights, a dismal, weird noise which the red man thought proceeded from the shad spirits come to warn the schools of fish of their impending fate.

COMMON HAWTHORN: WHITE THORN; SCARLET-FRUITED THORN; RED HAW; MAYFLOWERS (Cratoegus coccinea) Apple family

Flowers - White, rarely pinkish, usually less than 1 in. across, numerous, in terminal corymbs. Calyx 5-lobed; 5 spreading petals inserted in its throat numerous stamens; styles 3 to 5. Stem: A shrub or small tree, rarely attaining 30 ft. in height (Kratos = strength, in reference to hardness and toughness of the wood); branches spreading, and beset with stout spines (thorns) nearly 2 in. long. Leaves: Alternate, petioled, 2 to 3 in. long, ovate, very sharply cut or lobed, the teeth glandular-tipped. Fruit: Coral red, round or oval; not edible.

Preferred Habitat - Thickets, fence-rows, woodland borders.

Flowering Season - May.

Distribution - Newfoundland and Manitoba southward to the Gulf of Mexico.

"The fair maid who, the first of May, Goes to the fields at break of day And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree Will ever after handsome be."

Here is a popular recipe omitted from that volume of heart-to-heart talks ent.i.tled "How to Be Pretty though Plain"!

The sombre-thoughted Scotchman, looking for trouble, tersely observes:

"Mony haws, Mony snaws."

But in delicious, blossoming May, when the joy of living fairly intoxicates one, and every bird's throat is swelling with happy music, who but a Calvinist would croak dismal prophecies? In Ireland, old crones tell marvelous tales about the hawthorns, and the banshees which have a predilection for them. So much for folklore.

As one might suspect from the rather disagreeable odor of these blossoms, they are most attractive to flies and beetles, which, carrying pollen from older flowers, leave some on the stigmas that are already mature in newly-opened ones. A concave nectar-secreting disk, not concealed by the filaments in this case, is eagerly pilfered by numerous little short-lipped insects which render no benefit in return; but many others a.s.sist in self-pollination after the anthers ripen. The splendid monarch b.u.t.terfly (Anosia plexippus), the banded purple (Basilarchia arthemis), whose caterpillar feeds on hawthorn foliage, and the light brown hunter's b.u.t.terfly [American painted lady] (Pyrameis huntera [Vanessa virginiensis]) are, among the visitors seen flitting about this exquisite little tree in early May, when it is fairly white with bloom.

The RED-FRUITED THORN (C. mollis), more hairy on its twigs, petioles, calices, and fruit than the preceding, but so like it in most respects it was formerly accounted a mere variety, is an earlier and even more prolific bloomer, the generous, large cl.u.s.ters of malodorous flowers coming with the leaves in April, and lasting until the common hawthorn starts into lively compet.i.tion with it for insect trade.

Numerous long, slender thorns, often measuring a finger-length, distinguish the c.o.c.kSPUR or NEWCASTLE THORN (C. Crus-Galli), whose abundant small flowers and shining, leathery leaves, dull underneath, are conspicuous in thickets from Quebec to the Gulf.

Immense numbers of little bees, among many other visitors, may be noted on a fine day in May and early June about this showy shrub or tree. Because it blooms later than its rival sisters, it has the insect wooers then abroad all to itself.

While most of our beautiful native hawthorns have been introduced to European gardens, it is the WHITE THORN or MAY (C. Oxyacantha) of Europe and Asia which is most commonly cultivated here. Truly a shrub, like a prophet, is not without honor save in its own country.

WHITE SWEET CLOVER; BOKHARA or TREE CLOVER; WHITE MELILOT; HONEY LOTUS (Melilotus alba) Pea family