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 Flowers And Plants - Natures Garden: Jamestown Weed; Thorn Apple; Stramonium ; Jimson Weed; Devil's Trumpet Culver's-root; Culver's Physic Button-bush ; Honey-balls; Globe-flower ; Button-ball Shrub; River-bush Partridge Vine ; Twin-berry ; Mitchella-vine ; Squaw-berry Cleavers; Goose-grass ; Bedstraw Common Elder; Black-berried, American, or Sweet Elder ; Elderberry Hobble-bush ; American Wayfaring Tree One-seeded, Star Cucumber; Nimble Kate Rattlesnake-root; White Lettuce, or Cankerweed ; Lion's-foot Boneset; Common Thoroughwort; Agueweed ; Indian Sage Read More Articles On Flowers |
( Originally Published 1916 ) Rattlesnake-root; White Lettuce, or Cankerweed ; Lion's-foot (Nabalus albus) Chickory family Flower-heads—Composite, numerous, greenish or cream white, or tinged with lilac, fragrant, nodding; borne in loose, open, narrow terminal, and axillary clusters. Each bell-like flower head only about 1/2 in. across, composed of 8 to 15 ray flowers, drooping from a cup-like involucre consisting of 8 principal, colored bracts. Stem : 2 to 5 ft. high, smooth, green or dark purplish red, leafy, from a tuberous, bitter root. Leaves : Alternate, variable, sometimes very large, broad, hastate, ovate, or heart-shaped, wavy-toothed, lobed, or palmately cleft ; upper leaves smaller, lance-shaped, entire. Preferred Habitat—Woods ; rich, moist borders; roadsides. Flowering Season—August—September. Distribution—Southern Canada to Georgia and Kentucky. Nodding in graceful, open clusters from the top of a shining colored stalk, the inconspicuous little bell-like flowers of this common plant spread their rays to release the branching styles for contact with pollen-laden visitors. These styles presently become a bunch of cinnamon-colored hairs, a seed-tassel resembling a sable paint brush—the principal feature that distinguishes this species from the smaller-flowered Tall White Lettuce (N. altissimus), whose pappus is a light straw color. Both these plants are most easily recognized when their fluffy, plumed seeds are waiting for a stiff breeze to waft them to fresh colonizing ground. |
