Wild Flowers Part 9

The lithe, graceful little BROOK LOBELIA (L. Kalmii), whose light-blue flowers, at the end of thread-like footstems, form a loose raceme, sways with a company of its fellows among the gra.s.s on wet banks, beside meadow runnels and brooks, particularly in limestone soil, from Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territory and southward to New Jersey. It bears an insignificant capsule, not inflated like the Indian tobacco's; and long, narrow, spoon-shaped leaves. Twenty inches is the greatest height this little plant may hope to attain.

Not only beside water, and in it, but often totally immersed, grows the WATER LOBELIA or GLADIOLE (L. Dortmanna). The slender, hollow, smooth stem rises from a submerged tuft of round, hollow, fleshy leaves longitudinally divided by a part.i.tion, and bears at the top a scattered array of pale-blue flowers from August to September.

INDIAN or WILD TOBACCO; GAG-ROOT; ASTHMA-WEED; BLADDER-POD LOBELIA (Lobelia inflata) Bellflower family

Flowers - Pale blue or violet, small, borne at short intervals in spike-like leafy racemes. Calyx 5-parted, its awl-shaped lobes 1/4 in. long, or as long as the tubular, 2-lipped, 5-cleft, corolla that opens to base of tube on upper side. Stamens, 5 united by their hairy anthers into a ring around the 2-lobed style. Stem: From 1 to 3 feet high, hairy, very acrid, much branched, leafy. Leaves: Alternate, oblong or ovate, toothed, the upper ones acute, seated on stem; lower ones obtuse, petioled, to 2 1/2 in. long. Fruit: A much inflated, rounded, ribbed, many seeded capsule.

Preferred Habitat - Dry fields and thickets; poor soil.

Flowering Season - July-November.

Distribution - Labrador westward to the Missouri River, south to Arkansas and Georgia.

The most stupid of the lower animals knows enough to let this poisonous, acrid plant alone; but not so man, who formerly made a quack medicine from it in the days when a drug that set one's internal organism on fire was supposed to be especially beneficial. One taste of the plant gives a realizing sense of its value as an emetic. How the red man enjoyed smoking and chewing the bitter leaves, except for the drowsiness that followed, is a mystery.

On account of the smallness of its flowers and their scantiness, the Indian tobacco is perhaps the least attractive of the lobelias, none of which has so inflated a seed vessel, the distinguishing characteristic of this common plant.

CHICORY; SUCCORY; BLUE SAILORS; BUNK (Cichorium Intybus) Chicory family

Flower-head - Bright, deep azure to gray blue, rarely pinkish or white, 1 to 1 1/2 in. broad, set close to stem, often in small cl.u.s.ters for nearly the entire length; each head a composite of ray flowers only, 5-toothed at upper edge, and set in a flat green receptacle. Stem: Rigid, branching, to 3 ft. high. Leaves: Lower ones spreading on ground, 3 to 6 in. long, spatulate, with deeply cut or irregular edges, narrowed into petioles, from a deep tap-root; upper leaves of stem and branches minute, bract-like.

Preferred Habitat - Roadsides, waste places, fields.

Flowering Season - July-October.

Distribuition - Common in Eastern United States and Canada, south to the Carolinas; also sparingly westward to Nebraska.

At least the dried and ground root of this European invader is known to hosts of people who buy it undisguised or not, according as they count it an improvement to their coffee or a disagreeable adulterant. So great is the demand for chicory that, notwithstanding its cheapness, it is often in its turn adulterated with roasted wheat, rye, acorns, and carrots. Forced and blanched in a warm, dark place, the bitter leaves find a ready market as a salad known as "barbe de Capucin" by the fanciful French. Endive and dandelion, the chicory's relatives, appear on the table too, in spring, where people have learned the possibilities of salads, as they certainly have in Europe.

>From the depth to which the tap-root penetrates, it is not unlikely the succory derived its name from the Latin succurrere = to run under. The Arabic name chicourey testifies to the almost universal influence of Arabian physicians and writers in Europe after the Conquest. As chicoree, achicoria, chicoria, cicorea, chicorie, cich.o.r.ei, cikorie, tsikorei, and cicorie the plant is known respectively to the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Russians, and Danes.

On cloudy days or in the morning only throughout midsummer the "peasant posy" opens its "dear blue eyes"

"Where tired feet Toil to and fro; Where flaunting Sin May see thy heavenly hue, Or weary Sorrow look from thee Toward a tenderer blue!"

- Margaret Deland.

In his "Humble Bee" Emerson, too, sees only beauty in the "Succory to match the sky;" but, mirabile dictu, Vergil, rarely caught in a prosaic, practical mood, wrote, "And spreading succ'ry chokes the rising field."

IRON-WEED; FLAT TOP (Vernonia Noveboracensis) Thistle family.

Flower-head - Composite of tubular florets only, intense reddish-purple thistle-like heads, borne on short, branched peduncles and forming broad, flat cl.u.s.ters; bracts of involucre, brownish purple, tipped with awl-shaped bristles. Stem: 3 to 9 ft. high, rough or hairy, branched. Leaves: Alternate, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, saw-edged, 3 to 10 in. long, rough.

Preferred Habitat - Moist soil, meadows, fields.

Flowering Season - July-September.

Distribution - Ma.s.sachusetts to Georgia, and westward to the Mississippi.

Emerson says a weed is a plant whose virtues we have not yet discovered; but surely it is no small virtue in the iron-weed to brighten the roadsides and low meadows throughout the summer with bright cl.u.s.ters of bloom. When it is on the wane, the asters, for which it is sometimes mistaken, begin to appear, but an instant's comparison shows the difference between the two flowers. After noting the yellow disk in the center of an aster, it is not likely the iron-weed's thistle-like head of ray florets only will ever again be confused with it. Another rank-growing neighbor with which it has been confounded by the novice is the Joe Pye weed, a far paler, pinkish flower.

To each tiny floret, secreting nectar in its tube, many insects, attracted by the bright color of the iron-weed standing high above surrounding vegetation, come to feast. Long-lipped bees and flies rest awhile for refreshment, but b.u.t.terflies of many beautiful kinds are by far the most abundant visitors. Pollen carried out by the long, hairy styles as they extend to maturity must attach itself to their tongues. The tiger swallow-tail b.u.t.terfly appears to have a special preference for this flower.

(See Self-Heal.)

COMMON or SCALY BLAZING STAR; COLIC-ROOT; RATTLESNAKE MASTER; b.u.t.tON SNAKEROOT (Lacinaria squarrosa; Liatris squarrosa of Gray) Thistle family

Flower-heads - Composite, about 1 in. long, bright purple or rose purple, of tubular florets only, from an involucre of overlapping, rigid, pointed bracts; each of the few flower-heads from the leaf axils along a slender stem in a wand-like raceme.

Stem: 1/2 to 2 ft. high. Leaves: Alternate, narrow, entire.

Preferred habitat - Dry, rich soil.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Nebraska.

Beginning at the top, the apparently fringed flower-heads open downward along the wand, whose length depends upon the richness of the soil. All of the flowers are perfect and attract long-tongued bees and flies (especially Exoprosopa fasciata) and b.u.t.terflies, which, as they sip from the corolla tube, receive the pollen carried out and exposed on the long divisions of the style. Some people have pretended to cure rattlesnake bites with applications of the globular tuber of this and the next species.

The LARGE b.u.t.tON SNAKEROOT, BLUE BLAZING STAR, or GAY FEATHER (L.

scariosa), may attain six feet, but usually not more than half that height; and its round flower-heads normally stand well away from the stout stem on foot-stems of their own. The bristling scales of the involucre, often tinged with purple at the tips, are a conspicuous feature. With much the same range and choice of habitat as the last species, this Blazing Star is a later bloomer, coming into flower in August, and helping the goldenrods and asters brighten the landscape throughout the early autumn.

The name of gay feather, miscellaneously applied to several blazing stars, is especially deserved by this showy beauty of the family.

Unlike others of its cla.s.s, the DENSE b.u.t.tON SNAKEROOT, DEVIL'S BIT, ROUGH or BACKACHE ROOT, PRAIRIE PINE or THROATWORT (L.

spicata), the commonest species we have, chooses moist soil, even salt marshes near the coast, and low meadows throughout a range nearly corresponding with that of the scaly blazing star.

Resembling its relatives in general manner of growth, we note that its oblong involucre, rounded at the base, has blunt, not sharply pointed, bracts; that the flower-heads are densely set close to the wand for from four to fifteen inches; that the five to thirteen bright rose-purple florets which compose each head occasionally come white; that its leaves are long and very narrow, and that October is not too late to find the plant in bloom.

BLUE and PURPLE ASTERS or STARWORTS Thistle family

Evolution teaches us that thistles, daisies, sunflowers, asters, and all the triumphant horde of composites were once very different flowers from what we see today. Through ages of natural selection of the fittest among their ancestral types, having finally arrived at the most successful adaptation of their various parts to their surroundings in the whole floral kingdom, they are now overrunning the earth. Doubtless the aster's remote ancestors were simple green leaves around the vital organs, and depended upon the wind, as the gra.s.ses do - a most extravagant method - to transfer their pollen. Then some rudimentary flower changed its outer row of stamens into petals, which gradually took on color to attract insects and insure a more economical method of transfer. Gardeners today take advantage of a blossom's natural tendency to change stamens into petals when they wish to produce double flowers. As flowers and insects developed side by side, and there came to be a better and better understanding between them of each other's requirements, mutual adaptation followed. The flower that offered the best advertis.e.m.e.nt, as the composites do, by its showy rays; that secreted nectar in tubular flowers where no useless insect could pilfer it; that fastened its stamens to the inside wall of the tube where they must dust with pollen the underside of every insect, unwittingly cross-fertilizing the blossom as he crawled over it; that ma.s.sed a great number of these tubular florets together where insects might readily discover them and feast with the least possible loss of time - this flower became the winner in life's race.

Small wonder that our June fields are white with daisies and the autumn landscape is glorified with goldenrod and asters!

Since North America boasts the greater part of the two hundred and fifty asters named by scientists, and as variations in many of our common species frequently occur, the tyro need expect no easy task in identifying every one he meets afield. However, the following are possible acquaintances to everyone:

In dry, shady places the LARGE or BROAD-LEAVED ASTER (A.

macrophyllus), so called from its three or four conspicuous, heart-shaped leaves on long petioles, in a clump next the ground, may be more easily identified by these than by the pale lavender or violet flower-heads of about sixteen rays each which crown its reddish angular stem in August and September. The disk turns reddish brown.

In prairie soil, especially about the edges of woods in western New York, southward and westward to Texas and Minnesota, the beautiful SKY-BLUE ASTER (A. azureus) blooms from August till after frost. Its slender, stiff, rough stem branches above to display the numerous bright blue flowers, whose ten to twenty rays measure only about a quarter of an inch in length. The upper leaves are reduced to small flat bracts; the next are linear; and the lower ones, which approach a heart shape, are rough on both sides, and may be five or six inches long.

Much more branched and bushy is the COMMON BLUE, BRANCHING, WOOD, or HEART-LEAVED ASTER (A. cordifolius), whose generous ma.s.ses of small, pale lavender flower-heads look like a mist hanging from one to five feet above the earth in and about the woods and shady roadsides from September even to December in favored places.

The WAVY or VARIOUS-LEAVED ASTER or SMALL FLEABANE (A. undulatus) has a stiff, rough, hairy, widely branching stalk, whose thick, rough lowest leaves are heart-shaped and set on long foot-stems; above these, the leaves have shorter stems, dilating where they clasp the stalk; the upper leaves, lacking stems, are seated on it, while those of the branches are shaped like tiny awls. The flowers, which measure less than an inch across, often grow along one side of an axis as well as in the usual raceme. Eight to fifteen pale blue to violet rays surround the disks which, yellow at first, become reddish brown in maturity. We find the plant in dry soil, blooming in September and October.

By no means tardy, the LATE PURPLE ASTER, so-called, or PURPLE DAISY (A. patens), begins to display its purplish-blue, daisy-like flower-heads early in August, and farther north may be found in dry, exposed places only until October. Rarely the solitary flowers, that are an inch across or more, are a deep, rich violet. The twenty to thirty rays which surround the disk, curling inward to dry, expose the vase-shaped, green, shingled cups that terminate each little branch. The thick, somewhat rigid, oblong leaves, tapering at the tip, broaden at the base to clasp the rough, slender stalk. Range similar to the next species.

Certainly from Ma.s.sachusetts, northern New York, and Minnesota southward to the Gulf of Mexico one may expect to find the NEW ENGLAND ASTER or STARWORT (A. Novae-Angliae) one of the most striking and widely distributed of the tribe, in spite of its local name. It is not unknown in Canada. The branching cl.u.s.ters of violet or magenta-purple flower-heads, from one to two inches across - composites containing as many as forty to fifty purple ray florets around a mult.i.tude of perfect five-lobed, tubular, yellow disk florets in a sticky cup - shine out with royal splendor above the swamps, moist fields, and roadsides from August to October. The stout, bristle-hairy stem bears a quant.i.ty of alternate lance-shaped leaves lobed at the base where they clasp it.

In even wetter ground we find the RED-STALKED, PURPLE-STEMMED, or EARLY PURPLE ASTER, COCASH, SWANWEED, or MEADOW SCABISH (A.

puniceus) blooming as early as July or as late as November. Its stout, rigid stem, bristling with rigid hairs, may reach a height of eight feet to display the branching cl.u.s.ters of pale violet or lavender flowers. The long, blade-like leaves, usually very rough above and hairy along the midrib beneath, are seated on the stem.

The lovely SMOOTH or BLUE ASTER (A. laevis), whose sky-blue or violet flower-heads, about one inch broad, are common through September and October in dry soil and open woods, has strongly clasping, oblong, tapering leaves, rough margined, but rarely with a saw-tooth, toward the top of the stem, while those low down on it gradually narrow into clasping wings.

In dry, sandy soil, mostly near the coast, from Ma.s.sachusetts to Delaware, grows one of the loveliest of all this beautiful clan, the LOW, SHOWY, or SEASIDE PURPLE ASTER (A. spectabilis). The stiff, usually unbranched stem does its best in attaining a height of two feet. Above, the leaves are blade-like or narrowly oblong, seated on the stem, whereas the tapering, oval basal leaves are furnished with long footstems, as is customary with most asters. The handsome, bright, violet-purple flower-heads, measuring about an inch and a half across, have from fifteen to thirty rays, or only about half as many as the familiar New England aster. Season August to November.

The low-growing BOG ASTER (A. nemoralis), not to be confused with the much taller Red-stalked species often found growing in the same swamp, and having, like it, flower-heads measuring about an inch and a half across, has rays that vary from light violet purple to rose pink. Its oblong to lance-shaped leaves, only two inches long at best, taper to a point at both ends, and are seated on the stem. We look for this aster in sandy bogs from New Jersey northward and westward during August and September.

The STIFF or SAVORY-LEAVED ASTER, SANDPAPER, or PINE STARWORT (Ionactis linariifolius), now separated from the other asters into a genus by itself, is a low, branching little plant with no basal leaves, but some that are very narrow and blade-like, rigid, entire and one-nerved, ascending the stiff stems. The leaves along the branches are minute and awl-shaped, like those on a branch of pine. Only from ten to fifteen violet ray flowers (pistillate) surround the perfect disk florets. From Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward beyond the Mississippi this prim little shrub grows in tufts on dry or rocky soil, and blooms from July to October.