Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceæ)
(A) Common or Great Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus) (European). This well-known plant is one of the most common sights along roadsides and in dry fields. Its long stalk rises from 2 to 7 feet above ground.
Mullein leaves are very soft, with fine white downy hairs; they have given to the plant a name very often applied—“Flannel Plant.” The ones on the tall stalk are smaller and diminish in size to bracts as they reach the bottom of the long flower spike. From June until September these flowers open a few at a time and last but a day. The light-yellow corolla has five uneven, concaved lobes and five protruding stamens.
(B) Moth Mullein (Verbascum Blattaria) (European) has a tall, very slender stalk at the summit of which is a loose raceme. The flowers are large, have five petals, very prominent stamens, and orange anthers. The upper leaves are lance-shaped, the lower ones have the margins deeply cut, toothed, and notched. It is common from Me. to Ontario and southward.
(A) Blue Toadflax (Linaria canadensis). This is a very slender and dainty species, the stem attaining heights of 5 to 30 inches.
The little tubular flowers are violet-blue in color; the corolla is two-lipped, the upper one having two lobes and the lower one three; the latter is pouch-shaped and extends backward into a very slender spur. Blue Toadflax is commonly found in dry, sandy fields throughout the United States and southern Canada.
(B) Toadflax; Butter-and-eggs (Linaria vulgaris), although an immigrant, has extended its range from the Atlantic to the Pacific and southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The stem is simple and from 6 to 30 inches high. The narrow alternating leaves are grayish-green, covered with a whitish bloom.
The tubular yellow flowers have two-lipped corollas, the upper ones of two lobes and the lower of three, the centre of one which extends into a large sac-like spur and has a protruding, pouting, orange palate that closes the throat of the blossom. This arrangement is designed for the bumblebee, whose weight on the lower lip opens the flower so he can get at the nectar, while it is tightly closed to pilfering ants.
(A) Turtle-head (Chelone glabra). This is a moisture-loving plant found in swamps.
The stem is stout, smooth, and erect, from 1 to 3 feet tall. The leaves are lance-shaped, stemmed, pointed, and toothed. The flowers are clustered in a short spike at the summit of the stem, the corolla is tubular, about an inch in length, and is white, tinged with pink. The upper lip is broad, arched, creased and notched in the middle; the lower lip is three-lobed and wooly-bearded in the throat. Turtle-head blooms from July until September and ranges from Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward.
(B) Pentstemon; Beard-tongue (Pentstemon hirsutus) has a straight, slender wooly stem that grows from 1 to 3 feet high. The leaves are light-green, lance-shaped, rough-edged, or minutely toothed, the upper ones seated oppositely on the stem and the lower ones with short petioles. The small magenta-white flowers are in panicled racemes. The trumpet-shaped corolla has two lobes to the upper lip and three on the lower, the throat nearly closed by a hairy palate on the lower lip. Me. to Wisconsin and southward.
Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens) is a perennial with a smooth, square, hollow stem growing from 1 to 3 feet in height and branching considerably. The leaves, seated oppositely on the stem, are lance-shaped, pointed, and slightly toothed. The flowers are few in number and are on long, slender pedicels from the axils of the upper leaves. They open one or two at a time. The pale-purple flowers have two large lips, the upper divided into two lobes and the lower one into three, all broad and wavy. Four white stamens and a pistil nearly fill the throat, at the mouth of which are two bright orange-yellow spots.
A small store of nectar is secreted in the base of the flower tube. The double-yellow palate serves to close the entrance to the tube so that small useless insects may not be allowed to partake of the sweets within. When, however, the burly bumblebee alights upon the lower lip, his weight causes it to droop and allow easy access to its meagre supply of nectar. Monkey Flower is found in wet places from N. B. to Manitoba and southward.
(A) American Brooklime (Veronica americana), the prettiest of the Speedwells or Veronicas, is a very frail plant.
The stem is stout, smooth, hollow, and quite weak; the lower part spreads over the ground and frequently takes root at the angles of the lower leaves. At intervals, branches rise to heights of 6 to 15 inches, bearing from the axils of the upper leaves small four-parted blue flowers in loose racemes. The light-blue petals have purple stripes and a white spot at the base.
Brooklime has a long season of bloom, being found in flower from May until September. It is common in moist ditches and along brooks or in swamps, from Newfoundland to Alaska and south to Va. and Mo.
(B) Common Speedwell (Veronica officinalis) is a popular little plant. The prostrate wooly stem is erect at the end and terminates in a raceme of pale-lavender, four-petalled flowers, the lower petal of which is conspicuously smaller than the other three, a common trait of this genus. Speedwell is quite common through the United States and southern Canada.
(A) Purple Gerardia (Gerardia purpurea) is a pretty little species that decorates low, moist, sandy fields and meadows with its beautiful purple-pink blossoms. The slender stem is quite branchy and averages about a foot in height, though it occasionally attains heights of 2 feet. From three to eight flowers, opening one at a time, grow along the ends of each branch. The corolla is broad and about 1 in. long, bright purplish pink, the mouth of the funnel spreading into five rounded lobes, spotted or downy within.
All the Gerardias and Foxgloves are quite parasitic, attaching their roots to those of other plants and getting part of their sustenance from them. This species is found chiefly along the coasts of the Atlantic, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. It blooms from August to October.
(B) Smooth False Foxglove (Gerardia virginica) has a smooth, branching stem from 2 to 6 feet high. The large, lemon-yellow flowers measure nearly 2 inches long by an inch broad. The plant grows from Me. to Minn. and southward and blooms during August and Sept.
Scarlet Painted-cup; Indian Paint Brush (Castilleja coccinea). This singular species is a parasite-that is, it fastens its roots upon those of other plants and takes their nourishment from them.
The slender, hollow, reddish, angular, and hairy stem grows from a tuft of smooth-edged, oblong leaves. The stem leaves are rather small and, the upper ones especially, have the ends three-lobed; those near and surrounding the flowers have their ends scarlet, as though they had been dipped in a pot of red paint. The flower’s corolla is almost concealed in the two-lobed cylindrical calyx, the end of which is usually a brilliant scarlet. The corolla is irregular, greenish yellow, with a narrow upper lip and a three-lobed lower one. They have, set in the upper lip, four unequal stamens and a long pistil.
The Scarlet Painted-cup is found in low, sandy ground from Mass. to Manitoba and southward.
Wood Betony; Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis) is a peculiar plant that we find in dry woods and thickets and often along roadsides.
The flowering stems are stout, hairy, and leafy; they rise to heights of 6 to 18 inches. The leaves are all fernlike in form; many of them rise on long, hairy stems from the roots and smaller ones alternate up the flower stalk. The flower spike is short and densely flowered and contains many small bract-like leaves among the tubular flowers. The corolla is composed of two lips, the upper one being arched and strongly curved or hooked at the tip. The upper lip varies from a yellowish green in freshly opened flowers to a dull reddish on the mature blossoms, this latter being the beefsteak color alluded to in one of its common names.
Wood Betony is found from Nova Scotia to Manitoba and southward. It is quite abundant throughout its range and its flowers may be found from early May into the latter part of July.