Flowers - Beach or False Heather, Poverty Grass

( Originally Published 1916 )

Beach or False Heather; Poverty Grass

(Hudsonia tomentosa) Rock-rose family

Flowers—Bright yellow, small, about 1/4 in. across, numerous, closely ascending the upper part of the heath-like branches. Sepals 5, unequal; 5 petals; stamens, 9 to 18. Stem: 4 to 8 in. tall, tufted, densely branched and matted, hoary hairy, pale. Leaves: Overlapping like scales, very small.

Preferred Habitat—Sands of the seashore, pine barrens, beaches of rivers and lakes.

Flowering Season—May July.

Distribution—New--Brunswick to Maryland, west to Lake of the Woods.

Like the showy flowers of the frost-weed, these minute ones open in the sunshine only, and then but for a single day. Nevertheless, the hoary, heath-like little shrub, by growing in large colonies and keeping up a succession of bright bloom, tinges the sand dunes back of the beach with charming color that artists delight to paint in the foreground of their marine pictures.