Part 12

The stems are usually trailing and branched at the base, sometimes forming clumps two or more feet broad. The leaves are quite variable in shape but are generally oblong and narrowed at the base, with margins ranging from entire to deeply lobed and divided.

The group name honors Emanuel Hartmann of Louisiana; “tetraptera” is from the Greek meaning “four-winged” and refers to the shape of the seed-capsule. The plants in this group are sometimes placed with the yellow evening-primroses of the Œnothera group, but characteristics other than color separate them.

Showy Primrose (Hartmannia speciosa) is a large-flowered white primrose found on plains and prairies from North Texas to Missouri. The seed-capsules are narrowed at the base but are not stalked, and the calyx tube is longer than the capsule.

Rose Primrose (Hartmannia rosea) is a small-flowered primrose found in Southern and Southwestern Texas and Mexico. The flowers are small, an inch or more broad, with rounded deep-pink petals. The calyx tube is much shorter than the long-stalked capsule.

Missouri Primrose. Flutter-Mill. Broad-Winged Evening-Primrose (Megapterium missouriense) clings to the side of a gravelly cliff or grows on rocky limestone hillsides from Missouri to Colorado and Texas. The flowers bloom in Texas in April and May, opening in the afternoon and closing the next morning. The plants grow in low clumps about a foot high. Numerous flowers are borne on the stem along with the slender leaves. Four broad yellow petals make up the cup-shaped portion of the flower above the slender calyx-tube, which is 4-6 in. long. The seed-capsules at the base of the flower develop four broad papery wings and reach at maturity a width of 3 in. These broad wings are responsible for the scientific name of the plant. The capsules are easily blown about by the wind, and the seeds are widely scattered.

The evening-primroses usually produce large, thready masses of pollen. Every child is initiated into a buttercup fraternity at some period in his life by being invited to smell of the flower and having his nose smeared with the profuse pollen.

Square-Bud Primrose. Day Primrose. Creamcups (Meriolix spinulosa) has yellow cup-shaped flowers which last only twenty-four hours but which are open during the day. It may readily be distinguished from other evening-primroses by the slender woody stems which soon become reddish or straw-colored. The stems grow 1-1½ ft. high with clusters of flowers at the top. The flowers are nearly two inches broad and have four petals. The short, broad sepals are winged on the back and make the buds appear square and pointed.

Another distinguishing feature is the disk-shaped stigma which is sometimes yellow and sometimes black or dark brown. In the evening-primroses previously mentioned, the stigma is divided into four narrow lobes. The plants grow on gravelly hillsides from Arkansas to Mexico. The slender capsules are over an inch long. Several other day primroses are found in the state. They are all sometimes grouped with the œnotheras.

Large-Flowered or Lindheimer’s Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) is, like other members of this group, called kisses and wild honeysuckle because of its sweet fragrance. Most of them produce an abundance of nectar and make excellent honey plants. This is the handsomest member of the group in Texas and is known in cultivation as a hardy plant. It is native to the prairies of Southeast Texas and Louisiana and blooms from March to May.

The four white petals have the group characteristic of turning fan-wise toward the upper side of the flower, and the 8 long stamens and the long style hang toward the lower part. Only a few flowers open at one time around the spike, but numerous buds are densely crowded above the open flowers. This plant has erect-ascending branches and grows 2-5 feet high.

Prairie Gaura. Wild Honeysuckle (Gaura brachycarpa) sometimes grows 2-3 feet high, but is usually much lower. With favorable rains, the flowering spikes grow quite long. This gaura may be recognized by its stalkless 4-angled seed capsules. It blooms on Texas prairies in April and May. Many other gauras are found in the state.

DOGWOOD FAMILY (Cornaceae)

Leaves usually opposite; sepals usually 4, calyx tube joined to the ovary; petals usually 4, or absent; stamens 4, alternate with the petals; ovary inferior; fruit a drupe.

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) grows from Massachusetts to Ontario, Texas, and Mexico, but few people realize that it grows very luxuriantly and is widespread in the woods of East Texas. The beauty of the dogwood is not in the flowers, as one might expect, but in the four broad white floral leaves (bracts) which surround the flower-cluster. These bracts are a creamy white but are often tinged with pink. The minute greenish-white flowers have four petals and bloom in March before the leaves appear. The oblong scarlet fruits, about half an inch long, ripen in the fall.

It is said that dogwood gets its name from the fact that the bark of an English dogwood was used to treat mangy dogs. Another source for the name is given in a recent magazine which shows a photograph of a section of wood from a dogwood tree. By means of the growth rings of the tree, the section depicted the head of a swimming dog. Among the useful substances obtained from the tree are quinine from all parts, scarlet dye from the bark, and wood for tools. Enough quinine is obtained by chewing the twigs to ward off malarial fever.

Rough-Leaved Cornel. Small-Flowered Dogwood (Cornus asperifolia) is hardly recognized as a dogwood because it does not have showy floral bracts. The rough leaves become very lovely in the fall as the veins take on a reddish-purple color. It is a very common shrub in thickets along streams or in moist ground from Texas to Southern Ontario. The flowers bloom in Texas from April to June, and the white fruits mature in the fall. The fruits are about ¼ inch in diameter and contain 2 seeds with a stony coat which is covered by a thin pulp.

The dogwood family includes several other trees and shrubs which are common in Texas. Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) has 2-3 blue oval fruits about half an inch long in a cluster. It is one of the first trees in East Texas whose foliage takes on an autumnal coloring. Lindheimer’s garrya (Garrya lindheimeri), an evergreen shrub with thick leathery leaves, is very abundant in the hills of Central and West Texas. It bears dense clusters of small blue berries less than ¼ inch in diameter.

CARROT FAMILY (Umbelliferae)

Furrowed stems; leaves usually much divided, sheathing at the base; sepals 5, calyx tube joined to ovary; petals 5; stamens 5; ovary inferior; fruit 2-celled, prominently ribbed and often with resin canals.

Prairie Lace. Dwarf Queen Anne’s Lace (Bifora americana) is the pride of the North Texas prairie in late April and May. It is also found in Oklahoma and Arkansas. In favorable seasons it grows in great masses with the Indian blankets and the false coreopsis. The umbrella-clusters of white flowers are very showy. The plants do not have oil tubes, as do most members of the carrot family, and so lack the strong scent common to many.

It usually grows about a foot high and is widely branched at the top. The leaves are finely divided with numerous thread-like divisions. The flowers are one-fourth inch broad and have five notched petals which are broader than long. The fruits have two ball-shaped divisions, each about one-eighth inch in diameter and faintly ridged.

False Purple Thistle. Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) is not a true thistle, but it is popularly known as one. The ancient Greeks had the same idea, for the name “Eryngium” is their name for a kind of thistle. Correctly speaking it is a purple carrot, as it belongs to a large group of the carrot family, some of which are widely cultivated abroad for their striking purple foliage. The flowers are clustered in an oblong head, quite different from the dainty flower clusters of Queen Anne’s lace. Other common names of this group include sea-holly, rattlesnake master, and button snake-root, the two latter from their accredited property of curing snake-bites. Candelabrum plant is a name sometimes given which is very appropriate because of its branching habit of growth.

The plants grow one to three feet high, usually in dense masses along roadsides and fields and on prairies from Central Texas to Kansas. In August the gray-green foliage of the plants is quite conspicuous against darker greens, but it gradually takes on a royal purple hue. Few plants can rival it for beauty in late August and September. The dense heads of purple flowers with their long, slender dark-blue stamens add to the vividness. The dried plants are often kept for winter decoration, but the purple does not remain so intense.

The stems are branched at the top, the flower heads growing on short stalks in the forks of the branches. The deeply lobed leaves clasp the stem, the leaf segments bearing many spiny-teeth. A tuft of small, rigid, spiny leaves grows out of the top of the flower head.

Several eryngoes are found in the state. The yucca-leaved eryngo (Eryngium aquaticum) grows in the summer in sandy areas or low grounds from Texas to Minnesota and Connecticut. It bears little resemblance in habit of growth or coloring to the purple thistle. Most of the long leaves are clustered at the base, and a stout flower stalk bears at the top several head-like clusters of white flowers.

The carrot family is a large group of plants, most of which have lacy, fern-like leaves and dainty umbrella-clusters of small flowers and fruit which separates into two ribbed 1-seeded divisions. The plants are usually rich in oil tubes, and some contain deadly poisons.

Beggar’s Ticks. Seed-Ticks. Bird’s Nest Carrot (Daucus pusillus) is probably more familiar in fruit than in flower. The clusters of seeds resemble a bird’s nest. The fact that the seeds are covered with several rows of barbed prickles makes them very difficult to remove from clothing. Their presence in wool renders it inferior in quality. It is very abundant throughout the state from April to June and occurs in most of the Southern and Western States.

The small white flowers grow in a dense, lace-like cluster at the top of slender stems 1-2 ft. high. The leaves are finely divided. The flower cluster is long-stalked and is surrounded by a circle of the green leaves; thus the flowers as well as the seeds have a nest-like appearance.