Wild Flowers Part 31

WILD POTATO-VINE; MAN-OF-THE-EARTH; MECHA-MECK (Ipomoea pandurata) Morning-glory family

Flowers - Funnel form, wide-spread, 2 to 3 in. long, pure white or pinkish purple inside the throat; the peduncles 1 to 5 flowered. Stem: Trailing over the ground or weakly twining, 2 to 12 ft. long. Leaves: Heart, fiddle, or halbert shaped (rarely 3-lobed), on slender petioles. Root: Enormous, fleshy.

Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, sandy or gravelly fields or hills.

Flowering Season - May-September.

Distribution - Ontario, Michigan, and Texas, east to the Atlantic Ocean.

No one need be told that this flaring, trumpet-shaped flower is next of kin to the morning-glory that clambers over the trellises of countless kitchen porches, and escapes back to Nature's garden whenever it can. When the ancestors of these blossoms welded their five petals into a solid deep bell, which still shows on its edges the trace of five once separate parts, they did much to protect their precious contents from rain; but some additional protection was surely needed against the little interlopers not adapted to fertilize the flower, which could so easily crawl down its tube. Doubtless the hairs on the base of the filaments, between which certain b.u.mblebees and other long-tongued benefactors can easily penetrate to suck the nectar secreted in a fleshy disk below, act as a stockade to little would-be pilferers. The color in the throat serves as a pathfinder to the deep-hidden sweets. How pleasant the way is made for such insects as a flower must needs encourage! For these the perennial wild potato vine keeps open house far later in the day than its annual relatives. Professor Robertson says it is dependent mainly upon two bees, Entechnia taurea and Xenoglossa ipomoeae, the latter its namesake.

One has to dig deep to find the huge, fleshy, potato-like root from which the vine derived its name of man-of-the-earth. Such a storehouse of juices is surely necessary in the dry soil where the wild potato lives.

Happily, the COMMON MORNING-GLORY (I. purpurea) - the Convolvulus major of seedsmen's catalogues - has so commonly escaped from cultivation in the eastern half of the United States and Canada as now to deserve counting among our wild flowers, albeit South America is its true home. Surely no description of this commonest of all garden climbers is needed; everyone has an opportunity to watch how the bees cross-fertilize it.

The vine has a special interest because of Darwin's illuminating experiments upon it when he planted six self-fertilized seeds and six seeds fertilized with the pollen brought from flowers on a different vine, on opposite sides of the same pot. Vines produced by the former reached an average height of five feet four inches, whereas the cross-pollenized seed sent its stems up two feet higher, and produced very many more flowers. If so marked a benefit from imported pollen may be observed in a single generation, is it any wonder that ambitious plants employ every sort of ingenious device to compel insects to bring them pollen from distant flowers of the same species? How punctually the MOON-FLOWER (I. grandiflora), next of kin to the morning-glory, opens its immense, pure white, sweet-scented flowers at night to attract night-flying moths, because their long tongues, which only can drain the nectar, may not be withdrawn until they are dusted with vitalizing powder for export to some waiting sister.

GRONOVIUS' or COMMON DODDER; STRANGLE-WEED; LOVE VINE; ANGEL'S HAIR (Cuscuta gronovii) Dodder family

Flowers - Dull white, minute, numerous, in dense cl.u.s.ters. Calyx inferior, greenish white, 5-parted; corolla bell-shaped, the 5 lobes spreading, 5 fringed scales within; 5 stamens, each inserted on corolla throat above a scale; 2 slender styles. Stem: Bright orange yellow, thread-like, twining high, leafless.

Preferred Habitat - Moist soil, meadows, ditches, beside streams.

Flowering Season - July-September.

Distribution - Nova Scotia and Manitoba, south to the Gulf States.

Like tangled yellow yarn wound spirally about the herbage and shrubbery in moist thickets, the dodder grows, its beautiful bright threads plentifully studded with small flowers tightly bunched. Try to loosen its hold on the support it is climbing up, and the secret of its guilt is out at once; for no honest vine is this, but a parasite, a degenerate of the lowest type, with numerous sharp suckers (haustoria) penetrating the bark of its victim, and spreading in the softer tissues beneath to steal all their nourishment. So firmly are these suckers attached, that the golden thread-like stem will break before they can be torn from their hold.

Not a leaf now remains on the vine to tell of virtue in its remote ancestors; the absence of green matter (chlorophyll) testifies to dishonest methods of gaining a living (see Indian pipe); not even a root is left after the seedling is old enough to twine about its hard-working, respectable neighbors. Starting out in life with apparently the best intentions, suddenly the tender young twiner develops an appet.i.te for strong drink and murder combined, such as would terrify any budding criminal in Five Points or Seven Dials! No sooner has it laid hold of its victim and tapped it, than the now useless root and lower portion wither away, leaving the dodder in mid-air, without any connection with the soil below, but abundantly nourished with juices already stored up, and even a.s.similated, at its host's expense. By rapidly lengthening the cells on the outer side of its stem more than on the inner side, the former becomes convex, the latter concave; that is to say, a section of spiral is formed by the new shoot, which, twining upward, devitalizes its benefactor as it goes. Abundant, globular seed vessels, which develop rapidly, while the blossoming continues unabated, soon sink into the soft soil to begin their piratical careers close beside the criminals which bore them; or better still, from their point of view, float downstream to found new colonies afar. When the beautiful jewelweed - a conspicuous sufferer - is hung about with dodder, one must be grateful for at least such symphony of yellows.

VIRGINIA WATERLEAF (Hydrophyllum Virginic.u.m) Waterleaf family

Flowers - White or purplish tinged, in a single or forking cl.u.s.ter on a long peduncle. Calyx deeply 5-parted, the spreading segments very narrow, bristly hairy. Corolla erect, bell-shaped, deeply 5-lobed; 5 protruding stamens, with soft hairs about their middle; 2 styles united to almost the summit. Stem: Slender, rather weak, to 3 ft. long, leafy, sparingly branched, from a scaly rootstock. Leaves: Alternate, lower ones on long petioles, 6 to 10 in. long, pinnately divided into 5 to 7 oblong, sharply toothed, acute leaflets or segments; upper leaves similar, but smaller, and with fewer divisions.

Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods.

Flowering season - May-August.

Distribution - Quebec to South Carolina, west to Kansas and Washington.

So very many flowers especially adapted to the b.u.mblebee are in bloom when the cymes of the waterleaf uncoil, like the borages, from their immature roll, that some special inducement to attract this benefactor were surely needed. In high alt.i.tudes the cl.u.s.ters became deeper hued; but much as the more specialized bees love color, food appeals to them far more. Accordingly the five lobes of each little flower stand erect to increase the difficulty a short-tongued insect would have to drain its precious stores; the stamens are provided with hairs for the same reason; and even the calyx is bristly, to discourage crawling ants, the worst pilferers out. By these precautions against theft, plenty of nectar remains for the large bees. To prevent self-fertilization, pollen is shed on visitors, which remove it from a newly opened flower before the stigmas become receptive to any; but in any case these are elevated in maturity above the anthers, well out of harm's way.

Early in spring the large lower leaves are calculated to hold the drip from the trees overhead, hence the plant's scientific and popular names.

JIMSONWEED; JAMESTOWN WEED; THORN APPLE; STRAMONIUM; DEVIL'S TRUMPET (Datura stramonium) Potato family

Flowers - Showy, large, about 4 in. high, solitary, erect, growing from the forks of branches. Calyx tubular, nearly half as long as the corolla, 5-toothed, prismatic; corolla funnel-form, deep-throated, the spreading limb 2 in. across or less, plaited, 5-pointed; stamens 5; 1 pistil. Stem: Stout, branching, smooth, 1 to 5 ft. high. Leaves: Alternate, large, rather thin, petioled, egg-shaped in outline, the edges irregularly wavy-toothed or angled, rank-scented. Fruit: A densely p.r.i.c.kly, egg-shaped capsule, the lower p.r.i.c.kles smallest. The seeds and stems contain a powerful narcotic poison.

Preferred Habitat - Light soil, fields, waste land near dwellings, rubbish heaps.

Flowering Season - June-September.

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

When we consider that there are over five million Gypsies wandering about the globe, and that the narcotic seeds of the thorn apple, which apparently heal, as well as poison, have been a favorite medicine of theirs for ages, we can understand at least one means of the weed reaching these sh.o.r.es from tropical Asia. (Hindoo, dhatura). Our Indians, who call it "white man's plant," a.s.sociate it with the Jamestown settlement - a plausible connection, for Raleigh's colonists would have been likely to carry with them to the New World the seeds of an herb yielding an alkaloid more esteemed in the England of their day than the alkaloid of opium known as morphine. Daturina, the narcotic, and another product, known in medicine as stramonium, smoked by asthmatics, are by no means despised by up-to-date pract.i.tioners.

Were it not for the rank odor of its leaves, the vigorous weed, coa.r.s.e as it is, would be welcome in men's gardens. Indeed, many of its similar relatives adorn them. The fragrant petunia and tobacco plants of the flower beds, the potato, tomato, and egg-plant in the kitchen garden, call it cousin.

Late in the afternoon the plaited corolla of this long trumpet-shaped flower expands to welcome the sphinx moths. So deep a tube implies their tongues; not that these are the benefactors to which the blossom originally adapted itself - they were doubtless left behind in Asia - but apparently our moths make excellent subst.i.tutes, for there is no abatement of the weed's vigor here, as there surely would be did it habitually fertilize itself. Any time after four o'clock in the afternoon, according to the light, the sphinx moth, a creature of the gloaming, begins its rounds, to be mistaken for a hummingbird seven times out of ten. Hovering about its chosen white or yellow flowers, that open for it at the approach of twilight, it remains poised above one a second, as if motionless - although the faint hum of its wings, while sucking, indicates that no magic suspends it - then darts swift as thought to another deep tube to feast again, of course transferring pollen as it goes. But what if the Jamestown weed miscalculate the hour of her lover's call and open too soon? Mischievous bees, quick to seize so golden an opportunity, squeeze into the flower when it begins to unfold (flies and beetles following them), to steal pollen, which will sometimes be entirely removed before the moth's arrival.

The THORN-APPLE [now PURPLE THORN-APPLE, considered a variant of JIMSONWEED]; PURPLE STRAMONIUM (D. tatula), a similar species, usually with darker leaves, and pale lavender or violet flowers, or with its long, slender tube white, has become at home in so many fields and waste lands east of Minnesota and Texas that no one thinks of it as belonging to tropical America.

Only sphinx moths can reach its deep well of nectar, from which bees are literally barred out by an inward turn of the stamens toward the center of the tube. Caterpillars of our commonest member of the sphinx tribe conceal themselves on the tomato vine by a mimicry of its color so faultless that a bright eye only may detect their presence. In the South the caterpillar of another of these moths (Sphinx Carolina) does fearful havoc under its appropriate alias of "tobacco worm."

CULVER'S-ROOT; CULVER'S PHYSIC (Leptandra Virginica; Veronica Virginica of Gray) Figwort family

Flowers - Small, white or rarely bluish, crowded in dense spike-like racemes 3 to 9 in. long, usually several spikes at top of stem or from upper axils. Calyx 4-parted, very small; corolla tubular, 4-lobed; 2 stamens protruding; pistil. Stem: Straight, erect, usually unbranched, 2 to 7 ft. tall. Leaves: Whorled, from 3 to 9 in a cl.u.s.ter, lance-shaped or oblong, and long-tapering, sharply saw-edged.

Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods, thickets, meadows.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to Alabama, west to Nebraska.

Slender, erect white wands make conspicuous advertis.e.m.e.nts in shady retreats at midsummer, when insect life is at its height and floral compet.i.tion for insect favors at its fiercest. Next of kin to the tiny blue speedwell, these minute, pallid blossoms could have little hope of winning wooers were they not living examples of the adage, "In union there is strength.' Great numbers crowded together on a single spike, and several spikes in a cl.u.s.ter that towers above the woodland undergrowth, cannot well be overlooked by the dullest insects, especially as nectar rewards the search of those having midlength or long tongues.

Simply by crawling over the spikes, of which the terminal one usually matures first, they fertilize the little flowers. The pollen thrust far out of each tube in the early stage of bloom, has usually all been brushed off on the underside of bees, wasps, b.u.t.terflies, flies, and beetles before the stigma matures; nevertheless, when it becomes susceptible, the anthers spread apart to keep out of its way lest any leftover pollen should touch it.

"The leaves of the herbage at our feet," says Ruskin, "take all kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them.

Star-shaped. heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, in whorls, in tufts, in wreaths, in spires, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our wonder." Doubtless light is the factor with the greatest effect in determining the position of the leaves on the stem, if not their shape. After plenty of light has been secured, any aid they may render the flowers in increasing their attractiveness is gladly rendered. Who shall deny that the brilliant foliage of the sumacs, the dogwood, and the pokeweed in autumn does not greatly help them in attracting the attention of migrating birds to their fruit, whose seeds they wish distributed? Or that the cl.u.s.tered leaves of the dwarf cornel and Culver's-root, among others, do not set off to great advantage their white flowers which, when seen by an insect flying overhead, are made doubly conspicuous by the leafy background formed by the whorl?

b.u.t.tONBUSH; HONEY-b.a.l.l.s; GLOBE-FLOWER; b.u.t.tON-BALL SHRUB; RIVER-BUSH (Cephalanthus occidentalis) Madder family

Flowers - Fragrant, white, small, tubular, hairy within, 4-parted, the long, yellow-tipped style far protruding; the florets cl.u.s.tered on a fleshy receptacle, in round heads (about 1 in. across), elevated on long peduncles from leaf-axils or ends of branches. Stem: A shrub 3 to 12 ft. high. Leaves: Opposite or in small whorls, petioled, oval, tapering at the tip, entire.

Preferred Habitat - Beside streams and ponds; swamps, low ground.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - New Brunswick to Florida and Cuba, westward to Arizona and California.

Delicious fragrance, faintly suggesting jasmine, leads one over marshy ground to where the b.u.t.tonbush displays dense, creamy-white globes of bloom, heads that Miss Lounsberry aptly likens to "little cushions full of pins." Not far away the sweet breath of the white-spiked clethra comes at the same season, and one cannot but wonder why these two bushes, which are so beautiful when most garden shrubbery is out of flower, should be left to waste their sweetness, if not on desert air exactly, on air that blows far from the homes of men. Partially shaded and sheltered positions near a house, if possible, suit these water lovers admirably. Cultivation only increases their charms. We have not so many fragrant wild flowers that any can be neglected.

John Burroughs, who included the blossoms of several trees in his list of fragrant ones, found only thirty-odd species in New England and New York.

Examine a well-developed ball of bloom on the b.u.t.ton-bush under a magnifying gla.s.s to appreciate its perfection of detail. After counting two hundred and fifty minute florets, tightly cl.u.s.tered, one's tired eyes give out. A honey-ball, with a well of nectar in each of these narrow tubes, invites hosts of insects to its hospitable feast; but only visitors long and slender of tongue can drain the last drop, therefore the vicinity of this bush is an excellent place for a b.u.t.terfly collector to carry his net.

b.u.t.terflies are by far the most abundant visitors; honey-bees also abound, b.u.mblebees, carpenter and mining bees, wasps, a horde of flies, and some destructive beetles; but the short tongues can reach little nectar. Why do the pistils of the florets protrude so far? Even before each minute bud opened, all its pollen had been shed on the tip of the style, to be in a position to be removed by the first visitor alighting on the ball of bloom. After the removal of the pollen from the still immature stigma, it becomes sticky, to receive the importation from other blossoms. Did not the floret pa.s.s through two distinct stages, first male, then female, self-fertilization, not cross-fertilization, would be the inevitable result. The dull red and green seed-b.a.l.l.s, which take on brown and bronze tints after frost, make beautiful additions to an autumn bouquet. The bush is next of kin to the coffee.

PARTRIDGE VINE; TWIN-BERRY; MITCh.e.l.lA-VINE; SQUAW-BERRY (Mitch.e.l.la repens) Madder family

Flowers - Waxy, white (pink in bud), fragrant, growing in pairs at ends of the branches. Calyx usually 4-lobed; corolla funnel-form, about 1/2 in. long, the 4 spreading lobes bearded within; 4 stamens inserted on corolla throat; style with 4 stigmas; the ovaries of the twin flowers united. (The style is long when the stamens are short, or vice versa). Stem: Slender, trailing, rooting at joints, 6 to 12 in. long, with numerous erect branches. Leaves: Opposite, entire, short petioled, oval or rounded, evergreen, dark, sometimes white veined. Fruit: A small, red, edible, double berry-like drupe.

Preferred Habitat - Woods; usually, but not always, dry ones.

Flowering Season - April-June. Sometimes again in autumn.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to the Gulf States, westward to Minnesota and Texas.

A carpet of these dark, shining, little evergreen leaves, spread at the foot of forest trees, whether sprinkled over in June with pairs of waxy, cream-white, pink-tipped, velvety, lilac-scented flowers that suggest attenuated arbutus blossoms, or with coral-red "berries" in autumn and winter, is surely one of the loveliest sights in the woods. Transplanted to the home garden in closely packed, generous clumps, with plenty of leaf-mould, or, better still, chopped sphagnum, about them, they soon spread into thick mats in the rockery, the hardy fernery, or about the roots of rhododendrons and the taller shrubs that permit some sunlight to reach them. No woodland creeper rewards our care with greater luxuriance of growth. Growing near our homes, the partridge vine offers an excellent opportunity for study.

The two flowers at the tip of a branch may grow distinct down to their united ovaries, or their tubes may be partly united, like Siamese twins - a union which in either case accounts for the odd shape of the so-called berry, that shows further traces of consolidation in its "two eyes," the remnants of eight calyx teeth. Experiment proves that when only one of the twin flowers is pollenized by insects (excluded from the other one by a net), fruit is rarely set; but when both are, a healthy seeded berry follows. To secure cross-fertilization, the partridge flower, like the bluets (q.v.), occurs in two different forms on distinct plants, seed from either producing after its kind. In one form the style is low within the tube, and the stamens protrude; in the other form the stamens are concealed, and the style, with its four spreading stigmas, is exserted. No single flower matures both its reproductive organs. Short-tongued small bees and flies cannot reach the nectar reserved for the blossom's benefactors because of the hairs inside the tube, which nearly close it; but larger bees and b.u.t.terflies coming to suck a flower with tall stamens receive pollen on the precise spot on their long tongues that will come in contact with the sticky stigmas of the long-styled form visited later, and there rub the pollen off. The lobes' velvety surface keeps insect feet from slipping.

What endless confusion arises through giving the same popular folk names to different species! The Bob White, which is called quail in New England or wherever the ruffed grouse is known as partridge, is called partridge in the Middle and Southern States, where the ruffed grouse is known as pheasant. But as both these distributing agents, like most winter rovers, whether bird or beast, are inordinately fond of this tasteless partridge berry, as well as of the spicy fruit of quite another species, the aromatic wintergreen (q.v.), which shares with it a number of common names, every one may a.s.sociate whatever bird and berry that best suit him. The delicious little twin-flower, beloved of Linnaeus, also comes in for a share of lost ident.i.ty through confusion with the partridge vine.

CLEAVERS; GOOSE-GRa.s.s; BEDSTRAW (Galium Aparine) Madder family