_Cimicifuga racemosa_
_Flowers_--Foetid, feathery, white, in an elongated wand-like raceme, 6
in. to 2 ft. long, at the end of a stem 3 to 8 ft. high. Sepals
petal-like, falling early; 4 to 8 small stamen-like petals 2-cleft;
stamens very numerous, with long filaments; 1 or 2 sessile pistils with
broad stigmas. _Leaves:_ Alternate, on long petioles, thrice compounded
of oblong, deeply toothed or cleft leaflets, the end leaflet often again
compound. _Fruit:_ Dry oval pods, their seeds in 2 rows.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rich woods and woodland borders, hillsides.
_Flowering Season_--June-August.
_Distribution_--Maine to Georgia, and westward from Ontario to Missouri.
Tall white rockets, shooting upward from a mass of large handsome leaves
in some heavily shaded midsummer woodland border, cannot fail to impress
themselves through more than one sense, for their odor is as
disagreeable as the fleecy white blossoms are striking. Obviously such
flowers would be most attractive to the carrion and meat flies.
_Cimicifuga_, meaning to drive away bugs, and the old folk-name of
bugbane testify to a degree of offensiveness to other insects, where the
flies’ enjoyment begins. As these are the only insects one is likely to
see about the fleecy wands, doubtless they are their benefactors. The
countless stamens which feed them generously with pollen willingly left
for them alone must also dust them well as they crawl about before
flying to another foetid lunch.
The close kinship with the baneberries is detected at once on examining
one of these flowers. Were the vigorous plant less offensive to the
nostrils, many a garden would be proud to own so decorative an addition
to the shrubbery border.