(Sicyos angulatus) Gourd family
Flowers - Small, greenish-white, 5-parted, of 2 kinds: staminate
ones in a loose raceme on a very long peduncle; fertile ones
clustered in a little head on a short peduncle. Stem: A climbing
vine with branched tendrils; more or less sticky-hairy. Leaves:
Broad, 5-angled or 5-lobed, heart-shaped at base, rough,
sometimes enormous, on stout petioles. Fruit: From 3 to 10
bur-like, yellowish, prickly seed-vessels in a star-shaped
cluster, each containing one seed.
Preferred Habitat - Moist, shady waste ground; banks of streams.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Quebec to the Gulf States, and westward beyond the
Mississippi.
In a damp, shady, waste corner, perhaps the first weed to take
possession is the star cucumber, a poor relation of the musk and
water melons, the squash, cucumber, pumpkin, and gourd of the
garden. Its sole use yet discovered is to screen ugly fences and
rubbish heaps by climbing and trailing luxuriantly over
everything within reach. That it thinks more highly of its own
importance in the world than men do of it, is shown by the
precaution it takes to insure a continuance of its species. By
separating the sexes of its flowers, like Quakers at meeting, it
prevents self-fertilization, and compels its small-winged
visitors to carry the smooth-banded, rough pollen from the
staminate to the tiny pistillate group. By roughening its angled
stem and leaves, it discourages pilfering ants and other crawlers
from reaching the sweets reserved for legitimate benefactors. So
extremely sensitive are the tips of the tendrils that by rubbing
them with the finger they will coil up perceptibly; then
straighten out again if they find they have been deceived, and
that there is no stick for them to twine around. Give them a
stick, however, and the coils remain fixed.
RATTLESNAKE-ROOT; WHITE LETTUCE or CANKER-WEED; 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 flowerhead
only about 1/4 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.