Field Book of Western Wild Flowers. Armstrong Margaret

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Spring, summer

      California

      This is very common in southern California and forms quite large, low clumps of rather yellowish green, sticky and hairy foliage, sprinkled with numbers of bright little flowers, opening in the afternoon. The base is woody and the weak, hairy stems are supported on bushes, as if climbing over them. The leaves are rather thick, about an inch long, and the flowers are open bell-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch across, usually magenta, but often pink of various shades, sometimes quite pale in tint with long stamens drooping to one side, and the involucre is often purplish and very hairy and sticky. The effect at a distance is gay and attractive, though the plant is not quite so pretty close by.

      Hesperònia glutinòsa var. grácilis

      White, pinkish

      Spring

      Arizona

      This has a straggling, hairy, sticky stem, over a foot long, and thickish, dull-green leaves, hairy and sticky. The flowers are about half an inch long, white or tinged with pink, and are rather delicate and pretty, though the plant is not especially attractive. It blooms at night, the flowers gradually closing with the morning sun. This variety is common in the southern part of the state, in mountain canyons, and Hesperonia glutinosa is common in the north.

      There are several kinds of Abronia, all American, with branching, usually sticky-hairy stems, thick, toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks, in pairs and one of each pair somewhat larger than the other. The flowers are more or less salver-form, with five lobes, a threadlike style, and from three to five, unequal stamens, on the tube of the perianth and not protruding from it. They are numerous and in clusters, with involucres, on long flower-stalks, from the angles of the leaves. The fruit is winged. The name is from the Greek meaning graceful, but most of these plants are rather awkward in their manner of growth.

      

      Hesperonia glutinosa var. gracilis.

      California Four o'clock – H. Californica.

       Sand Puffs

      Abrònia sálsa

      White

      Spring, summer, Autumn

      Utah

      This plant is, as a whole, so delicately tinted and so decorative in form, that it is most attractive, particularly against the sandy soil where it grows, deserving the Greek name more than some of its slightly awkward sisters. It is about fourteen inches tall, with a stoutish, rather straggling, prostrate stem, which is pale, pinkish, sticky and fuzzy. The leaves have long leaf-stalks and are pale bluish-green, leathery and smooth, but fuzzy on the mid-vein of the under side, and the flowers are numerous, rather small, in handsome roundish clusters, which are about two inches across, with a papery, pinkish or yellowish involucre, of about five, separate, rounded bracts. The calyx is corolla-like and salver-form, with a long, yellowish or greenish tube and five lobes, prettily crinkled at the edges. The seed-vessel is very curious, resembling a round, yellowish sponge, with hooks sticking out of it, and the flowers are deliciously sweet-scented. This is sometimes called Snowball.

      Pink Sand-Verbena

      Abrònia villòsa

      Pinkish-lilac

      Summer

      Ariz., Cal., Utah

      The coloring of this plant, one of the prettiest of its kind, is striking and unusual, and makes it very conspicuous, growing in the sand near the sea or in the desert. The thickish leaves are light bluish-green and the thick stem, which straggles rather awkwardly over the ground, is a peculiar shade of pink and sticky and hairy, as are also the involucres. The small delicate flowers are an odd tint of pinkish-lilac, light but vivid, in striking contrast to the coloring of stems and foliage, and form very pretty clusters, with an involucre of five to fifteen papery bracts. They are very fragrant and look much like garden Verbenas, so the name is not so unhappy as some. A. umbellàta has slender stems and almost smooth leaves, sometimes with wavy margins, about an inch long, narrowed at base to a slender leaf-stalk, and deep-pink flowers. It is common all along the California coast and blooms in the summer and autumn. A. marítima is found from Santa Barbara to San Diego and is a very stout, coarse, sticky plant, with small, deep-magenta flowers.

      

      Sand Verbena – Abronia villosa.

      

      Sand Puffs – Abronia salsa.

       Yellow Sand-Verbena

      Abrònia latifòlia

      Yellow

      Spring, summer, autumn

      Wash., Oreg., Cal.

      Pretty at a distance, but rather coarse close by, a straggling plant, with long, thick, rubbery stems, lying on the ground, thickish leaves, and small yellow flowers, slightly fragrant and forming pretty clusters about an inch and a half across, with five bracts. This is common along the seashore, blooming more or less all through the year. It has a long, thick root, which is eaten by the Indians.

      There are a good many kinds of Allionia, one Asiatic, the rest American. The bell-shaped flowers have unequal stamens, usually three, on the receptacle. The peculiar, five-lobed involucre, which becomes large and papery after flowering, contains from three to five flowers. The fruit is ribbed and often hairy. The shape of the involucre probably suggested the common name Umbrella-wort.

      Narrow-leaved Umbrella-wort

      Alliònia lineàris

      Purple, pink, white

      Summer

      Utah, Ariz., etc.

      A pretty plant, one to four feet tall, with a slender stem and long, narrow, bluish-green leaves, with somewhat wavy margins, and almost no leaf-stalks. The flowers are fragile and pretty, of various shades of pink, the shape of small Morning-glories, half an inch across, the stamens and style protruding. There are from three to five in a cluster, in a purple and green involucre. This involucre is curious, for before the flowers come out it is closed around a bunch of buds, looking as if it were itself a pretty five-angled bud, and one would not suspect that there were other little buds inside it. When the flowers bloom and drop, which they do very soon, this involucre unfolds and expands until it becomes an exceedingly thin, papery, five-lobed disk, three-quarters of an inch across, veined with purple, very pretty and delicate, looking like an odd little flower without a heart. The smooth stem forks towards the top and the branches, which are slightly hairy, bear numerous clusters of involucres with flowers inside them. This grows in dry soil, is widely distributed and found as far east as Illinois.

      

      Involucre of Allionia linearis.

      Yellow СКАЧАТЬ