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 Wild or American Senna Wild Indigo; Yellow or Indigo Broom; Horsefly-Weed Rattle-Box Yellow or Hop Clover Wild or Slender Yellow Flax Jewel-weed; Spotted Touch-me-not; Silver Cap; Wild Balsam ; Lady's Eardrops ; Snap Weed; Wild Lady's Slipper Velvet Leaf; Indian Mallow; American Jute St. Andrew's Cross Common St. John's-wort Long-branched Frost-weed ; Frost-flower; Frost-wort; Canadian Rock-rose Read More Articles On Flowers |
( Originally Published 1916 ) Rattle-Box (Crotalaria sagittalis) Pea family Flowers—Yellow, 1/2 in. long or less, usually only 2 or 3 on a long peduncle. Calyx 5-toothed, slightly 2-lipped ; corolla papilionaceous. Stem: 3 to to in. high, weak, hairy. Leaves: Alternate, simple, oval to lance-shaped ; stipules arrow-shaped above and running along stem. Fruit: An inflated oblong pod 1 in. long, blackish, seedy. Preferred Habitat—Dry, sandy, open situations. Flowering Season—June—September. Distribution—New England and Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. These insignificant little yellow flowers attract scant notice from human observers accustomed to associate their generic name with some particularly beautiful relatives from the West Indies grown in hothouses here. But did not small bees alight on the keel and depress it, as in the lupine, next of kin (see p. 22), there might be no seeds to rattle in the dark inflated pods that so delight children. (Krotalona castanet.) |