WILD FLOWERS [122]
that even imperfect stamens sometimes serve useful ends, or they would doubtless have been abolished. A fly or bee mistaking, as he well may, the abortive anthers for beads of nectar on this flower, alights on one of the white petals, a convenient, spreading landing place; but finding his mistake, and guided by the greenish lines, the pathfinders to the true nectaries situated on the other side of the curious fringy structures, he must, because of their troublesome presence, climb over them into the center of the flower to suck its sweets from the point where he will dust himself with pollen in young blossoms. Of course he will carry some of their vitalizing powder to the late maturing stigmas of older ones. Without the fringe of imperfect stamens, that serves as a harmless trellis easily climbed over, the visitor might stand on the petals and sip nectar without rendering any assistance in cross-fertilizing his entertainers.
NINEBARK (Opulaster opulifolius; Spiraea opulifolia of Gray) Rose family
Flowers - White or pink, small, in numerous rounded terminal clusters to 2 in. broad. Calyx 5-lobed; 5 rounded petals inserted in its throat; 20 to 40 stamens; several pistils. Stem: Shrubby, 3 to 10 ft. high, with long, recurved branches, the loose bark peeling off annually in thin strips. Leaves: Simple, heart-shaped or rounded, 3-lobed, toothed. Fruit: 3 to 5 smooth, shining, reddish, inflated, pointed pods. Preferred Habitat - Rocky banks, riversides. Flowering Season - June. Distribution - Canada to Georgia, west to Kansas.
Whether the nurserymen agree with Dr. Gray or not when he says these balls of white flowers possess "no beauty," the fact remains that numbers of the shrubs are sold for ornament, especially a golden-leaved variety. But the charm certainly lies in their fruit. (Opulus = a wild cranberry tree.) When this is plentifully set at the ends of long branches that curve backward, and the bladder-like pods have taken on a rich purplish or reddish hue, the shrub is undeniably decorative. Even the old flowers, after they have had their pollen carried away by the small bees and flies, show a reddish tint on the ovaries which deepens as the fruit forms; and Ludwig states that this is not only to increase the conspicuousness of the shrubs, but to entice unbidden guests away from the younger flowers. Who will tell us why the old bark should loosen every year and the thin layers separate into not nine, but dozens of ragged strips?
MEADOW-SWEET; QUAKER LADY; QUEEN-OF-THE-MEADOW (Spiraea salicifolia) Rose family
Flowers - Small, white or flesh pink, clustered in dense pyramidal terminal panicles. Calyx 5 cleft; carolla of 5 rounded petals; stamens numerous; pistils 5 to 8. Stem: 2 to 4 ft. high, simple or bushy, smooth, usually reddish. Leaves: Alternate, oval or oblong, saw-edged. Preferred Habitat - Low meadows, swamps, fence-rows, ditches. Flowering Season - June-August. Distribution - Newfoundland to Georgia, west to Rocky Mountains. Europe and Asia.
Fleecy white plumes of meadow-sweet, the "spires of closely clustered bloom" sung by Dora Read Goodale, are surely not frequently found near dusty "waysides scorched with barren heat," even in her Berkshires; their preference is for moister soil, often in the same habitat with a first cousin, the pink steeple-bush. But plants, like humans, are capricious creatures. If the meadow-sweet always elected to grow in damp ground whose rising mists would clog the pores of its leaves, doubtless they would be protected with a woolly absorbent, as its cousins are.
Inasmuch as perfume serves as an attraction to the more highly specialized, aesthetic insects, not required by the spiraeas, our meadow-sweet has none, in spite of its misleading name. Small bees (especially Andrenidae), flies (Syrphidae), and beetles, among other visitors, come in great numbers, seeking the accessible pollen, and, in this case, nectar also, secreted in a conspicuous orange-colored disk. When a floret first opens, or even before, the already mature stigmas overtop the incurved,
NINEBARK (Opulaster opulifolius; Spiraea opulifolia of Gray) Rose family
Flowers - White or pink, small, in numerous rounded terminal clusters to 2 in. broad. Calyx 5-lobed; 5 rounded petals inserted in its throat; 20 to 40 stamens; several pistils. Stem: Shrubby, 3 to 10 ft. high, with long, recurved branches, the loose bark peeling off annually in thin strips. Leaves: Simple, heart-shaped or rounded, 3-lobed, toothed. Fruit: 3 to 5 smooth, shining, reddish, inflated, pointed pods. Preferred Habitat - Rocky banks, riversides. Flowering Season - June. Distribution - Canada to Georgia, west to Kansas.
Whether the nurserymen agree with Dr. Gray or not when he says these balls of white flowers possess "no beauty," the fact remains that numbers of the shrubs are sold for ornament, especially a golden-leaved variety. But the charm certainly lies in their fruit. (Opulus = a wild cranberry tree.) When this is plentifully set at the ends of long branches that curve backward, and the bladder-like pods have taken on a rich purplish or reddish hue, the shrub is undeniably decorative. Even the old flowers, after they have had their pollen carried away by the small bees and flies, show a reddish tint on the ovaries which deepens as the fruit forms; and Ludwig states that this is not only to increase the conspicuousness of the shrubs, but to entice unbidden guests away from the younger flowers. Who will tell us why the old bark should loosen every year and the thin layers separate into not nine, but dozens of ragged strips?
MEADOW-SWEET; QUAKER LADY; QUEEN-OF-THE-MEADOW (Spiraea salicifolia) Rose family
Flowers - Small, white or flesh pink, clustered in dense pyramidal terminal panicles. Calyx 5 cleft; carolla of 5 rounded petals; stamens numerous; pistils 5 to 8. Stem: 2 to 4 ft. high, simple or bushy, smooth, usually reddish. Leaves: Alternate, oval or oblong, saw-edged. Preferred Habitat - Low meadows, swamps, fence-rows, ditches. Flowering Season - June-August. Distribution - Newfoundland to Georgia, west to Rocky Mountains. Europe and Asia.
Fleecy white plumes of meadow-sweet, the "spires of closely clustered bloom" sung by Dora Read Goodale, are surely not frequently found near dusty "waysides scorched with barren heat," even in her Berkshires; their preference is for moister soil, often in the same habitat with a first cousin, the pink steeple-bush. But plants, like humans, are capricious creatures. If the meadow-sweet always elected to grow in damp ground whose rising mists would clog the pores of its leaves, doubtless they would be protected with a woolly absorbent, as its cousins are.
Inasmuch as perfume serves as an attraction to the more highly specialized, aesthetic insects, not required by the spiraeas, our meadow-sweet has none, in spite of its misleading name. Small bees (especially Andrenidae), flies (Syrphidae), and beetles, among other visitors, come in great numbers, seeking the accessible pollen, and, in this case, nectar also, secreted in a conspicuous orange-colored disk. When a floret first opens, or even before, the already mature stigmas overtop the incurved,