Field Book of Western Wild Flowers

Flowers of C. Bigelowii.

Coral-root – Corallorrhiza multiflora.

There are numerous kinds of Limnorchis; the lower leaves clasping or sheathing the stem; the flowers mostly in spikes or racemes; sepals nearly equal, petals mostly smaller than the sepals; lip spreading or drooping, not toothed or lobed, with a spur. The Latin name means "marsh-dweller."

Sierra Rein Orchis

Limnórchis leucostàchys

(Habenaria)

White

Summer

Cal., Oreg., Wash.

Often in some favorable corner of a marsh, near the woods, we may see a dozen of these lovely plants, their robust leafy stalks sometimes as much as four feet tall, rearing their delicate spires of bloom above the lush grass. The long narrow leaves are bright-green and smooth and the numerous, small, delicate blossoms, sprinkled thickly along the stem, are pure white, each with a very long spur like a little tail, each with a green bract at the base of its little pedicel, and deliciously fragrant. There are several similar kinds, mostly with green flowers; this is the handsomest and least rare.

There are many kinds of Cypripedium, with large, broad leaves and one or several, large, drooping flowers, with two fertile anthers, with short filaments, one on each side of the column below the stigma, and a conspicuous, petal-like, sterile anther, arching over the stigma. They are easily known by the curious lip, which is a large inflated sac, suggesting both the common names, Lady's Slipper and Indian Moccasin, and the Greek, meaning "foot of Venus."

Mountain Lady's Slipper

Cypripèdium montànum

Brown and white

Summer

Northwest

Beautiful and decorative, with a stout, hairy stem, one to two feet tall and a few handsome flowers, rich and harmonious though not brilliant in coloring, with a lip about an inch long, dull-white, veined with purple, and brownish or purplish sepals and petals, very long, narrow, and twisted. This grows in mountain woods and is found around Yosemite. There is a picture in Miss Parsons's Wild Flowers of California. C. Califórnicum is similar, but with more flowers, the sepals and petals greenish-yellow, the lip pinkish. C. parviflòrum has a yellow lip and purplish sepals and grows in northern woods, across the continent. None of these plants is common.

Sierra Rein Orchis – Limnorchis leucostachys.

LIZARD-TAIL. Saururaceae

A small family; ours are perennial astringent herbs, with alternate, toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks; flowers perfect, with bracts, in a dense, terminal spike, without calyx or corolla; stamens generally three or six; ovary with one to five stigmas; fruit a capsule or berry.

There are two kinds of Anemopsis.

Yerba Mansa

Anemópsis Califórnica

White

Spring

Cal., Ariz.

This plant bears several, large, cream-white flowers, which at the first glance appear to have from five to eight petals and a long, projecting knob in the center, but what appears to be a corolla is in reality an involucre, about an inch and a half across, and surrounding the base of a long, conical spike of numerous, small, greenish flowers. These are half-sunk in the fleshy substance of the spike and have no sepals or petals, but each has a small, white bract at its base, so that the spike appears to be covered with scales symmetrically arranged. The flower has from six to eight stamens on the base of the ovary and from three to four stigmas. The ovaries, which are superior, form small pods, opening at the top when ripe, so that in the end the spike is neatly pitted with holes. The rather thick, hollow, reddish stems are from six inches to two feet tall, covered with hair, and the smooth, light-green leaves, from two to ten inches long, are mostly from the root, with leaf-stalks which broaden at the base and partly sheathe the stem. The creeping rootstocks are peppery and acrid, used medicinally, and considered exceedingly valuable by Spanish-Californians. These pretty, odd-looking plants grow in alkaline or salty swamps in the south. The name is from the Greek meaning "anemone" and "appearance," but the flowers do not look very much like Anemones.

Yerba mansa – Anemopsis Californica.

SANDALWOOD FAMILY. Santalaceae

This is a very small family in this country, for they prefer the tropics, and in those regions some are trees. Ours are usually parasitic on the roots of their neighbors. They have toothless, mostly alternate leaves, mostly without leaf-stalks or stipules, and small flowers, with a four- or five-lobed calyx and no corolla. The four or five stamens are opposite the calyx lobes, at the edge of a fleshy disk, and the ovary is one-celled and inferior, with one style, developing into a one-seeded fruit.

There are four kinds of Comandra, one of them European; smooth, perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and flowers in clusters, without bracts. The calyx is more or less bell-shaped, usually with five lobes, its tube lined with a disk, the stamens inserted at base of the lobes and the anthers attached to the lobes by tufts of hairs.

Pale Comandra

Comándra pállida

Flesh-color, greenish, purplishSpring, summer

Northwest, Nev., Utah, Ariz.

This is a rather pretty plant, growing from a few inches to about a foot tall, branching and rather woody below, with pale-green, smooth, slightly thickish, rather stiff leaves, which are reduced to pinkish scales on the lower stem. The flowers are small, usually flesh-color, thickish in texture, with slender pedicels, and form terminal, rather flat-topped clusters. The fruit, which is about the size of a small pea, is crowned by the remains of the calyx, like a rose-hip. This is common on dry plains and hillsides and is noticeable because of its pale and somewhat peculiar coloring.

Pale Comandra – C. pallida.

BIRTHWORT FAMILY. Aristolochiaceae

A rather small family, chiefly of warm countries, but widely distributed; herbs or shrubs; the leaves alternate or from the root, with leaf-stalks, more or less heart-shaped, without stipules; the flowers perfect, mostly large, symmetrical or irregular in form, with or without a corolla; the calyx with three or six lobes, or irregular; the stamens six to many, inserted on the pistil; the ovary wholly or partly inferior; the fruit a mostly six-celled capsule, containing many seeds.

There are several kinds of Asarum.

Wild Ginger

Ásarum Hartwégi

Brown

Spring

Cal., Oreg.

The handsome leaves of this perennial are its conspicuous feature. They have long, hairy leaf-stalks and are heart-shaped and toothless, from three to five inches broad, dark rich green, prettily veined and often also beautifully mottled with white, smooth on the upper surface and hairy on the under. We notice them immediately in the damp, dark woods they live in, but unless we look carefully we miss the single, large, strange, purplish-brown flower, the color of dead leaves, which nestles close to the ground as if trying to hide itself. This has twelve stamens, with stout filaments, and six styles, united at the base. There are no petals, but the hairy calyx has three lobes, which are sometimes an inch and a half long, and have long points like tails. The seed-vessel is roundish, crowned by the withered calyx and stamens. The rootstock cannot be used as a substitute for ginger, but smells and tastes very aromatic and pungent. This resembles the Wild Ginger of the East, but is handsomer.

Wild Ginger – Asarum Hartwegi.

BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonaceae

A large family, widely distributed, mostly herbs or low shrubs, with toothless leaves, often with stipules sheathing the swollen joints of the stem. The small flowers have no petals, the calyx usually resembles a corolla and has from three to six divisions. There are from four to nine stamens and a superior, mostly triangular, ovary, with two or three styles or stigmas, becoming a dry, one-seeded fruit, generally brown or black. The kind from which flour is made is cultivated from northern Asia, and the name Buckwheat, from the German, means "beech-wheat," because the grain resembles minute beech-nuts. There are several common "weeds" belonging to this family, such as Dock, Sorrel, and Smartweed.

Chorizanthes are low herbs, with branching stems, without stipules, the leaves forming a rosette at the base and withering early. The small flowers have six sepals and are clustered in small heads, usually one flower in each papery involucre, which has from two to six teeth, with bristles at the tips; stamens usually nine, on the base of the perianth; styles three, with round-top stigmas.