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Clammy Cuphea. Wax-Weed

Cuphea viscosissima. Loosestrife Family.

Stem.--Sticky; hairy; branching. Leaves.--Usually opposite; rounded, lance-shaped. Flowers.--Deep purplish-pink; solitary or in racemes. Calyx.--Tubular; slightly spurred at the base on the upper side, six-toothed at the apex, usually with a slight projection between each tooth. Corolla.--Small; of six unequal petals. Stamens.--Eleven or twelve, of unequal sizes, in two sets. Pistil.--One, with a two-lobed stigma. In the dry fields and along the roadsides of late summer this plant is found in blossom. Its rather wrinkled purplish-pink petals and unequal stamens suggest the flowers of the spiked loosestrife, L. Salicaria, to which it is closely related.