Wild Flowers Part 43

The ANNUAL SOW-THISTLE or HARE'S LETTUCE (S. oleraceus), its smaller, pale yellow flower-heads, with smooth involucres more closely grouped, now occupies our fields and waste places with the a.s.surance of a native. Honeybees chiefly, but many other bees, wasps, brilliant little flower-flies (Syrphidae), and b.u.t.terflies among other winged visitors which alight on the flowers, from May to November, are responsible for the copious, soft, fine, white-plumed seeds that the winds waft away to fresh colonizing ground. The leaves clasp the stem by deep ear-like or arrow-shaped lobes, or the large lower ones are on petioles, lyrate-pinnatifid, the terminal division commonly large and triangular; the margins all toothed. Frugal European peasants use them as a potherb or salad. One of the plant's common folk-names in the Old World is hare's palace. According to the "Grete Herbale," if "the hare come under it, he is sure no beast can touch hym!' That was the spot Brer Rabbit was looking for when Brer Fox lay low! Another early writer declares that "when hares are overcome with heat they eat of an herb called hare's-lettuce, hare's-house, hare's-palace; and there is no disease in this beast the cure whereof she does not seek for in this herb." Who has detected our cottontails nibbling the succulent leaves?

TALL or WILD LETTUCE; WILD OPIUM (Lactuca Canadensis) Chicory family

Flower-heads - Numerous small, about 1/4 in. across, involucre cylindric, rays pale yellow; followed by abundant, soft, bright white pappus; the heads growing in loose, branching, terminal cl.u.s.ters. Stem: Smooth, 3 to 10 ft. high, leafy up to the flower panicle; juice milky. Leaves: Upper ones lance shaped; lower ones often 1 ft. long, wavy-lobed, often pinnatifid, taper pointed, narrowed into flat petioles.

Preferred Habitat - Moist, open ground; roadsides.

Flowering Season - June-November.

Distribution - Georgia, westward to Arkansas, north to the British Possessions.

Few gardeners allow the table lettuce (sativa) to go to seed but as it is next of kin to this common wayside weed, it bears a strong likeness to it in the loose, narrow panicles of cream-colored flowers, followed by more charming, bright white little pompons. Where the garden varieties originated, or what they were, n.o.body knows. Herodotus says lettuce was eaten as a salad in 550 B.C.; in Pliny's time it was cultivated, and even blanched, so as to be had at all seasons of the year by the Romans. Among the privy-purse expenses of Henry VIII is a reward to a certain gardener for bringing "lettuze" and cherries to Hampton Court. Quaint old Parkinson, enumerating "the vertues of the lettice," says, "They all cool a hot and fainting stomache."

When the milky juice has been thickened (lactucarium), it is sometimes used as a subst.i.tute for opium by regular pract.i.tioners - a fluid employed by the plants themselves, it is thought, to discourage creatures from feasting at their expense (see milkweed). Certain caterpillars, however, eat the leaves readily; but offer lettuce or poppy foliage to grazing cattle, and they will go without food rather than touch it.

"What's one man's poison, Signor, Is another's meat or drink."

Rabbits, for example, have been fed on the deadly nightshade for a week without injury.

The HAIRY or RED WILD LETTUCE (L. hirsuta), similar to the preceding, but often with dark reddish stem, peduncles, and tiny flower-cups, the ray florets varying from yellow to pale reddish or purplish, has longer leaves, deeply cut or lobed almost to the wide midrib. After what we learned when studying the barberry and the p.r.i.c.kly pear cactus, for example, about plants that choose to live in dry soil, it is not surprising to find that this is a lower, less leafy, and more hairy plant than the moisture-loving tall lettuce.

An European immigrant, naturalized here but recently, the p.r.i.c.kLY LETTUCE (L. Scariola) has nevertheless made itself so very much at home in a short time that it has already become a troublesome weed from New England to Pennsylvania, westward to Minnesota and Missouri. But when we calculate that every plant produces over eight thousand fluffy white-winged seeds on its narrow panicle, ready to sail away on the first breeze, no wonder so well endowed and prolific an invader marches triumphantly across continents.

The long, pale green, spiny-margined, milky leaves, with stiff p.r.i.c.kles on the midrib beneath, are doubly protected against insect borers and grazing cattle.

"Look at this delicate plant that lifts its head from the meadow; See how its leaves all point to the North as true as the magnet."

While Longfellow must have had the coa.r.s.e-growing, yellow-flowered, daisy-like PRAIRIE ROSIN-WEED (Silphium laciniatum) in mind when he wrote this stanza of "Evangeline,"

his lines apply with more exactness to the delicate p.r.i.c.kly lettuce, our eastern compa.s.s plant. Not until 1895 did Professor J. C. Arthur discover that when the garden lettuce is allowed to flower, its stem leaves also exhibit polarity. The great lower leaves of the rosin-weed, which stand nearly vertical, with their faces to the east and west, and their edges to the north and south, have directed many a traveler, not from Acadia only, across the prairie until it has earned the t.i.tles pilot-weed, compa.s.s or polar plant. Various theories have been advanced to account for the curious phenomenon, some claiming that the leaves contained sufficient iron to reader them magnetic - a theory promptly exploded by chemical a.n.a.lysis. Others supposed that the resinous character of the leaves made them susceptible to magnetic influence; but as rosin is a non-conductor of electricity, of course this hypothesis likewise proved untenable.

At last Dr. Asa Gray brought forward the only sensible explanation: inasmuch as both surfaces of the rosin-weed leaf are essentially alike, there being very nearly as many stomata on the upper side as on the under, both surfaces are equally sensitive to sunlight; therefore the leaf twists on its petiole until both sides share it as equally as is possible. While the polarity of the p.r.i.c.kly lettuce leaves is by no means so marked, Dr. Gray's theory about the rosin-weed may be applied to them as well.

ORANGE or TAWNY HAWKWEED; GOLDEN MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED; DEVIL'S PAINT-BRUSH (Hieracium aurantiac.u.m) Chicory family

Flower-beads - Reddish orange; 1 in. across or less, the 5-toothed rays overlapping in several series; several heads on short peduncles in a terminal cl.u.s.ter. Stem: Usually leafless, or with 1 to 2 small sessile leaves; 6 to 20 in. high, slender, hairy, from a tuft of hairy, spatulate, or oblong leaves at the base.

Preferred Habitat - Fields, woods, roadsides, dry places.

Flowering Season - June-September.

Distribution - Pennsylvania and Middle States northward into British Possessions.

Peculiar reddish-orange disks, similar in shade to the b.u.t.terfly weed's umbels, attract our eyes no less than those of the bees, flies, and b.u.t.terflies for whom such splendor was designed. After cross-fertilization has been effected, chiefly through the agency of the smaller bees, a single row of slender, brownish, persistent bristles attached to the seeds transforms the head into the "devil's paint-brush." Another popular t.i.tle in England, from whence the plant originally came, is Grimm the Collier. All the plants in this genus take their name from hierax = a hawk, because people in the old country once thought that birds of prey swooped earthward to sharpen their eyesight with leaves of the hawkweed, hawkbit, or speerhawk, as they are variously called.

Transplanted into the garden, the orange hawkweed forms a spreading ma.s.s of unusual, splendid color.

The RATTLESNAKE-WEED, EARLY or VEIN-LEAF HAWKWEED, SNAKE or POOR ROBIN'S PLANTAIN (H. venosum), with flower-heads only about half an inch across, sends up a smooth, slender stem, paniculately branched above, to display the numerous dandelion-yellow disks as early as May, although October is not too late to find this generous bloomer in pine woodlands, dry thickets, and sandy soil.

Purplish-veined oval leaves, more or less hairy, that spread in a tuft next the ground, are probably as efficacious in curing snakebites as those of the rattlesnake plantain (q.v.). When a credulous generation believed that the Creator had indicated with some sign on each plant the special use for which each was intended, many leaves were found to have veinings suggesting the marks on a snake's body; therefore, by simple reasoning, they must extract venom. How delightful is faith cure!

Unlike the preceding, the CANADA HAWKWEED (H. Canadense), lacks a basal tuft at flowering time, but its firm stem, that may be any height from one to five feet, is amply furnished with oblong to lance-shaped leaves seated on it, their midrib prominent, the margins sparingly but sharply toothed. In dry, open woods and thickets, and along shady roadsides, its loosely cl.u.s.tered heads of clear yellow, about one inch across, are displayed from July to September; and later the copious brown bristles remain for sparrows to peck at.

The ROUGH HAWKWEED (H. scabrum), with a stout, stiff stem crowned with a narrow branching cl.u.s.ter of small yellow flower-heads on dark bristly peduncles, also lacks a basal tuft at flowering time. Its hairy oblong leaves are seated on the rigid stem. In dry, open places, clearings, and woodlands from Nova Scotia to Georgia, and westward to Nebraska, it blooms from July to September.

More slender and sprightly is the HAIRY HAWKWEED (H. Gronovii), common in sterile soil from Ma.s.sachusetts and Illinois to the Gulf States. The basal leaves and lower part of the stiff stem, especially, are hairy, not to allow too free transpiration of precious moisture.

GOLDEN ASTER (Chrysopsis Mariana) Thistle family

Plower-heads - Composite, yellow, 1 in. wide or less, a few corymbed flowers on glandular stalks; each composed of perfect tubular disk florets surrounded by pistillate ray florets the involucre campanulate, its narrow bracts overlapping in several series. Stem: Stout, silky-hairy when young, nearly smooth later, 1 to 2 1/2 ft. tall. Leaves: Alternate, oblong to spatulate, entire.

Preferred Habitat - Dry soil, or sandy, not far inland.

Flowering Season - August-September.

Distribution - Long Island and Pennsylvania to the Gulf States.

Whoever comes upon clumps of these handsome flowers by the dusty roadside cannot but be impressed with the appropriateness of their generic name (Chrysos = gold; opsis = aspect). Farther westward, north and south. it is the HAIRY GOLDEN ASTER (C.

villosa), a pale, h.o.a.ry-haired plant with similar flowers borne at midsummer, that is the common species.

GOLDENRODS (Solidago) Thistle family

When these flowers transform whole acres into "fields of the cloth-of-gold," the slender wands swaying by every roadside, and purple asters add the final touch of imperial splendor to the autumn landscape, already glorious with gold and crimson, is any parterre of Nature's garden the world around more gorgeous than that portion of it we are pleased to call ours? Within its limits eighty-five species of goldenrod flourish, while a few have strayed into Mexico and South America, and only two or three belong to Europe, where many of ours are tenderly cultivated in gardens, as they should be here, had not Nature been so lavish.

To name all these species, or the asters, the sparrows, and the warblers at sight is a feat probably no one living can perform; nevertheless, certain of the commoner goldenrods have well-defined peculiarities that a little field practice soon fixes in the novice's mind.

Along shady roadsides, and in moist woods and thickets, from August to October, the BLUE-STEMMED, WREATH or WOODLAND GOLDENROD (S. caesia) sways an unbranched stem with a bluish bloom on it.

It is studded with pale golden cl.u.s.ters of tiny florets in the axils of lance-shaped, feather-veined leaves for nearly its entire length. Range from Maine, Ontario, and Minnesota to the Gulf States. None is prettier, more dainty, than this common species.

In rich woodlands and thicket borders we find the ZIG-ZAG or BROAD-LEAVED GOLDENROD (S. flexicaulis; S. latifolia of Gray) its prolonged, angled stem that grows as if waveringly uncertain of the proper direction to take, strung with small cl.u.s.ters of yellow florets, somewhat after the manner of the preceding species. But its saw-edged leaves are ovate, sharply tapering to a point, and narrowed at the base into petioles. It blooms from July to September. Range from New Brunswick to Georgia, and westward beyond the Mississippi.

During the same blooming period, and through a similar range, our only albino, with an Irish-bull name, the WHITE GOLDENROD, or more properly SILVER-ROD (S. bicolor), cannot be mistaken. Its cream-white florets also grow in little cl.u.s.ters from the upper axils of a usually simple and hairy gray stem six inches to four feet high. Most of the heads are crowded in a narrow, terminal pyramidal cl.u.s.ter. This plant approaches more nearly the idea of a rod than its relatives. The leaves; which are broadly oblong toward the base of the stem, and narrowed into long margined petioles, are frequently quite hairy, for the silver-rod elects to live in dry soil, and its juices must be protected from heat and too rapid transpiration.

In swamps and peat bogs the BOG GOLDENROD (S. uliginosa) sends up two to four feet high a densely flowered, oblong, terminal spire; its short branches so appressed that this stem also has a wand-like effect. The leaves, which are lance-shaped or oblong, gradually increase in size and length of petiole until the lowest often measure nine inches long. Season, July to September. Range, from Newfoundland to Pennsylvania and westward beyond the Mississippi.

Now we leave the narrow, unbranched, wand goldenrods strung with cl.u.s.ters of minute florets, which, however slender and charming, are certainly far less effective in the landscape than the following members of their clan which have their mult.i.tudes of florets arranged in large, compound, more or less widely branching, terminal, pyramidal cl.u.s.ters. On this latter plan the SHOWY or n.o.bLE GOLDENROD (S. speciosa) displays its splendid, dense, ascending branches of bloom from August to October.

European gardeners object to planting goldenrods, complaining that they so quickly impoverish a rich bed that neighboring plants starve. This n.o.ble species becomes ign.o.ble indeed, unless grown in rich soil, when it spreads in thrifty circular tufts.

The stout stem, which often a.s.sumes reddish tints, rises from three to seven feet high, and the smooth, firm, broadly oval, saw-toothed lower leaves are long-petioled. Range, from Nova Scotia to the Carolinas, westward to Nebraska.

When crushed in the hand, the dotted, bright green, lance-shaped, entire leaves of the SWEET GOLDENROD or BLUE MOUNTAIN TEA (S.

odora) cannot be mistaken, for they give forth a pleasant anise scent. The slender, simple, smooth stem is crowned with a graceful panicle, whose branches have the florets seated all on one side. Dry soil. New England to the Gulf States, July to September.

The WRINKLE-LEAVED or TALL, HAIRY GOLDENROD or BITTERWEED (S.

rugosa), a perversely variable species, its hairy stem perhaps only a foot high, or, maybe, over seven feet, its rough leaves broadly oval to lance-shaped, sharply saw-edged, few if any furnished with footstems, lifts a large, compound, and gracefully curved panicle, whose florets are seated on one side of its spreading branches. Sometimes the stem branches at the summit.

One usually finds it blooming in dry soil from July to November, throughout a range extending from Newfoundland and Ontario to the Gulf States.

Usually the ELM-LEAVED GOLDENROD (S. ulmifolia) sends up several slender, narrow spires of deep yellow bloom from about the same point at the summit of the smooth stem, like long, tapering fingers. Small, oblong, entire leaves are seated on these elongated sprays, while below the inflorescence the large leaves taper to a sharp point, and are coa.r.s.ely and sharply toothed. In woods and copses from Maine and Minnesota to Georgia and Texas this common goldenrod blooms from July to September.

The unusually beautiful, spreading, recurved, branching panicle of bloom borne by the EARLY, PLUME, or SHARP-TOOTHED GOLDENROD or YELLOW-TOP (S. juncea), so often dried for winter decoration, may wave four feet high, but usually not over two, at the summit of a smooth, rigid stem. Toward the top, narrow, elliptical, uncut leaves are seated on the stalk; below, much larger leaves, their sharp teeth slanting forward, taper into a broad petiole, whose edges may be cut like fringe. In dry, rocky soil this is, perhaps, the first and last goldenrod to bloom, having been found as early as June, and sometimes lasting into November. Range, from North Carolina and Missouri very far north.

West of the Mississippi how beautiful are the dry prairies in autumn with the MISSOURI GOLDENROD (S. Missouriensis), its short, broad, spreading panicle waving at the summit of a smooth, slender stem from two to five feet tall. Its firm, rather thick leaves are lance-shaped, triple-nerved, entire, very rough-margined, or perhaps the lowest ones with a few scattered teeth.

Perhaps the commonest of all the lovely clan east of the Mississippi, or throughout a range extending from Arizona and Florida northward to British Columbia and New Brunswick, is the CANADA GOLDENROD or YELLOW-WEED (S. Canadensis). Surely everyone must be familiar with the large, spreading, dense-flowered panicle, with recurved sprays, that crowns a rough, hairy stem sometimes eight feet tall, or again only two feet. Its lance-shaped, acutely pointed, triple-nerved leaves are rough, and the lower ones saw-edged. From August to November one cannot fail to find it blooming in dry soil.

Most brilliantly colored of its tribe is the low-growing GRAY or FIELD GOLDENROD or DYER'S WEED (S. nemoralis). The rich, deep yellow of its little spreading, recurved, and usually one-sided panicles is admirably set off by the ashy gray, or often cottony, stem, and the h.o.a.ry, grayish-green leaves in the open, sterile places where they arise from July to November. Quebec and the Northwest Territory to the Gulf States.

No longer cla.s.sed as a true Solidago, but the type of a distinct genus, the LANCE-LEAVED, BUSHY, or FRAGRANT GOLDENROD (Euthamia graminifolia; formerly S. lanceolata) lifts its flat-topped, tansy-like, fragrant cl.u.s.ters of flower-heads from two to four feet above moist ground. From July to September it transforms whole riverbanks, low fields, and roadsides into a veritable El Dorado. Its numerous leaves are very narrow, lance-shaped, triple or five nerved, uncut, sometimes with a few resinous dots. Range, from New Brunswick to the Gulf, and westward to Nebraska.

"Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought, Heavy with suns.h.i.+ne droops the goldenrod."

Bewildered by the mult.i.tude of species, and wondering at the enormous number of representatives of many of them, we cannot but inquire into the cause of such triumphal conquest of a continent by a single genus. Much is explained simply in the statement that goldenrods belong to the vast order of Compositae, flowers in reality made up sometimes of hundreds of minute florets united into a far-advanced socialistic community having for its motto, "In union there is strength." (See Daisy) In the first place, such an a.s.sociation of florets makes a far more conspicuous advertis.e.m.e.nt than a single flower, one that can be seen by insects at a great distance; for most of the composite plants live in large colonies, each plant, as well as each floret, helping the others in attracting their benefactors' attention.