Home › Contents › Twisted Stalk
Twisted Stalk
Streptopus roseus. Lily Family.
Stems.--Rather stout and zigzag; forking and diverging. Leaves.--Taper-pointed; slightly clasping. Flowers.--Dull purplish-pink; hanging on thread-like flower-stalks from the axils of the leaves. Perianth.--Some-what bell-shaped; of six distinct sepals. Stamens.--Six. Pistil.--One, with a three-cleft stigma. Fruit.--Red; roundish; late summer. This plant presents a graceful group of forking branches and pointed leaves. No blossom is seen from above, but on picking a branch one finds beneath each of its outspread leaves one or two slender, bent stalks from which hang the pink, bell-like flowers. In general aspect the plant somewhat resembles its relation, the Solomon's seal, with which it is found blossoming in the woods of May or June. The English title is a translation of the generic name, Streptopus.
In August one finds the curved leafy stems hung with bright red berries. Rhododendron Rhodora. Heath Family.
A shrub from one to two feet high. Leaves.--Oblong; pale. Flowers.--Purplish-pink. Calyx.--Small. Corolla.--Two-lipped; almost without any tube. Stamens.--Ten, not protruding. Pistil.--One, not protruding. "In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, To please the desert and the sluggish brook. The purple petals, fallen in the pool, Made the black water with their beauty gay; Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, And court the flower that cheapens his array. Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being; Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! I never thought to ask, I never knew; But in my simple ignorance, suppose The self-same Power that brought me there, brought you."(Emerson).
WILD PINK. (Although from their English names the Wild Pink and the Moss Pink would seem to be allied, a reference to their generic and family titles shows them to belong to quite different groups of plants). Silene Pennsylvanica. Pink Family.
Stems.--Four to eight inches high. Leaves.--Those from the root narrowly wedge-shaped; those on the stem lance-shaped, opposite. Flowers.--Bright pink; clustered. Calyx.--Five-toothed. Corolla.--Of five petals. Stamens.--Ten. Pistil.--One, with three styles.
When a vivid cluster of wild pinks gleams from some rocky opening in the May woods, it is difficult to restrain one's eagerness, for there is something peculiarly enticing in these fresh, vigorous-looking flowers. They are quite unlike most of their fragile contemporaries, for already they seem imbued with the glowing warmth of summer, and to have no memory of that snowy past which appears to leave its imprint on so many blossoms of the early year. In waste places, from June until September or later, we find the small clustered pink flowers, which open transiently in the sunshine, of the sleepy catchfly, S. antirrhina.
MOSS PINK. (Although from their English names the Wild Pink and the Moss Pink would seem to be allied, a reference to their generic and family titles shows them to belong to quite different groups of plants). GROUND PINK. (Although from their English names the Wild Pink and the Moss Pink would seem to be allied, a reference to their generic and family titles shows them to belong to quite different groups of plants).
Phlox subulata. Polemonium Family.
Stems.--Creeping; tufted. Leaves.--Evergreen; awl-shaped; crowded; small. Flowers.--Bright purple-pink; with a darker, or sometimes with a white centre. Calyx.--With five awl-shaped teeth. Corolla.--Five-lobed. Stamens.--Five; unequally inserted in the tube of the corolla. Pistil.--One; with a three-lobed style.
Every spring this little evergreen plant clothes the dry hillsides with a glowing mantle of purple-pink. Southern New York is probably its most northerly range in our Eastern States.
Great masses of moss-pinks may be seen covering the rocks in Central Park early in May.