Flowers And Plants In Eastern North America - Part I

I woke up thinking this morning about poet John Burroughs, who was also an important American naturalist and essayist. He played a key role in the development of the United State's own conservationist movement. It was his words about the lovely Arethusa, or Indian Pink that used to be a common sight in his day that stuck in my early morning mind:

"Arethusa was one of the nymphs who attended Diana, and was by that goddess turned into a fountain that she might escape the god of the river Alpheus, who became desperately in love with her on seeing her at the bath."

Our flower, the Arethusa -- is one of the prettiest of native orchids, and has been pursued through many a marsh and quaking-bog by her lovers. The flower is rose-purple and large, with a bearded lip. She is a bright pink-purple flower, an inch or more long, with the odor of sweet violets.

I think John Burroughs would be disappointed if he were alive today, because this beautiful native jewel is now extremely rare, having been over-hunted for collection and our once many bogs and marshes all destroyed in the name of progress.

Many people living here in the U.S. don't realize that orchids are among some of our most beautiful wildflowers, particularly in the Eastern part of our country. Several orchids are found in northern woods of our Eastern states.

Before Exploring Eastern Wildflowers, Here Are Three Orchids:

Another common native plant in John Burroughs day, was the Sweet Pogonia, a rare but beautiful orchid. It was even rare in his day to find them. It has a rosy blossom and a perfume that suggests ripe red raspberries.

The stem is about eight inches high and bears a single ovate or lance-shaped leaf near the middle and a solitary flower at the summer.

This is another native orchid, with a loose raceme of four to twelve delicate pink flowers in a loose cluster at the top of a scape six to twelve inches high.

The flowers seem to be upside down, as the tip is at the top.

A single grass-like leaf sheathes the stem near its base, as it rises from a solid bulb.

This exquisite flower raises its graceful head only in deep, wet swamps and bogs, where it can be reached only with some effort and difficulty.

The Purple Fringed Orchid is found in wet meadows in early June. A smaller species appears in July. The lower leaves are oval or oblong, passing into lance-shaped bracts above.

The flowers are purple, rather large, and grow in a spike. Each flower has a fan-shaped three-parted lip with fringed divisions, and a long curving spur.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote in his diary:

"Find the great fringed orchid out apparently two or three days -- a large spike of peculiarly delicate, pale purple flowers growing in the luxuriant and shady swamp -- the village belle never sees this more delicate belle of the swamp -- only the skunk or owl or other inhabitants of the swamp behold it."

 Eastern Wildflowers - Looking Beyond Showy Native Orchids

". . . . Beneath dim aisles, in odorous beds, The slight Linnaea hangs its twin-born heads."

The Twin-flower (Linnaea) belongs to the Honeysuckle plant family. It has a slender, creeping and trailing stem, and rounded evergreen leaves. The delicate pink fragrant flowers grow in pairs, nodding on thread-like upright flower-stems.

The calyx is five-toothed, and the corolla bell-shaped and five-lobed, and hairy within.

The delicious perfume of the nodding pink flowers fills the air and draws one to their home in the cool moss of the woods. This flower was selected as a monument to the great Linnaeus and named Linnaea borealis. It's common name is the American Twin-flower and it has some controversy attached to it, as some botanists consider it a separate species.

Another flower of June woods is the Bunch-berry (aka Dwarf Cornel). It has a stem from five to seven inches high, and ovate pointed leaves, which are crowded into a whorl of from four to six.

At first sight, the flowers appear like a single white blossom, but on closer inspection it is found that what appeared like white round petals are really the white leaves of the involucre, which surrounds a cluster or head of small greenish flowers.

The fruit is bright red and berry-like and lends beauty to the woods and swamps in late summer. They are edible, and form part of the winder food of denizens of the nothern woods of Canada.

The Large Blue Flag, or Fleur-de-lis, is beautiful in form and color. Not too many flowers are known today as the flower of chivalry, yet the Large Blue Flag (or Fleur-de-lis) was chosen by Louis VII as his badge, as the White Iris, which is even more regal and beautiful than the blue species.

The latter species has a solitary flower from a green spathe, at the end of a long stem. The flower is large and showy, violet-blue, variegated with green, yellow or white, and purple-veined.

The perianth consists of three outer recurved divisions, and three inner smaller and erect parts. The three stamens are covered by the three overarching petal-like divisions of style.

The foliage leaves are flat and sword-shaped, green, and are folded into flat clusters at the base.

The stem is one to three feet high, stout, angled on one side, and leafy. It abounds in wet meadows and ditches, and the flowers appear in June.

The Blue Flag flower posses a special interest to the botanists, because it is an example of a flower which has guarded itself against self-fertilization.

The divisions of the style over arch the stamens, and this arrangement effectually prevents self-pollination. Bees carry pollen from one flower to another. It is said the bees prefer blue flowers. The insects lights on one of the re-curving sepals and, guided by the conspicuous veins, thrusts his head and back beneath a branch of the style and sips the honey at the base of the stamens. The pollen is sifted on his back. In withdrawing he leaves the stigma of that flower untouched, but the projecting lip of the stigma of the next flower visited scrapeds his back and thus secures the needed pollen.

The Fringed Polygala is a delicate and lovely flower blossoming in early June. It prefers a sandy soil in rich woods and is found in eastern and middle Canada.

The stem is three or four inches high, from long prostrate or underground stems.

The upper leaves are green, ovate and crowded at the summit. The lower leaves are scattered and scale-like.

The whole plant has a fresh and tender aspect. It has large showy purplish flowers, rarely white, with corollas which are conspicuously fringed and crested.

In addition to these showy blossoms, the plant bears small hidden flowers on its underground stems.

"One playful flower for the world, another for serious use and posterity." --

I only have to look back to my French Canadian ancestors to remember one of the most beautiful of all wildflowers on the North American continent -- the Cardinal-flower. In the north-east, especially in Canada, the blossom in spring, or early summer, seems the most attractive all to me.

"As if some wounded eagle's breast,

Slow throbbing o'er the plain, Had left its airy path impressed

With scarlet rain."

The early French Canadians were so impressed with the beauty of the Cardinal-flower that they sent the plant to France as a specimen of what the wilds of the New World could produce.

In late summer its brilliant red gleams from marshes and moist ground along brooks from Nova Scotia to Manitoba, and extend far down into the United States.

The stem is from two to four feet high, and hollow.

The leaves are alternate, narrowly oblong or lance-shaped, and closely set to the stem.

The showy spike is loosely set with bright red flowers. The corolla is somewhat two-lipped, the upper lip of two erect lobes, the lower lip spreading and three-cleft.

The flowers are frequently visited by and chiefly pollinated by the ruby-throated humming-bird. The English name likens it to the gorgeously attired dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church.

During the late summer or early fall, if one comes upon a brook or a marsh glowing with this gorgeous flame, they will never forget the sight. No flower of the greenhouse or the garden can surpass these proud plants which swing in the breezes like moving flames among the green.