_Vernonia noveboracensis_
_Flower-head_--Composite of tubular florets only, intense reddish-purple
thistle-like heads, borne on short, branched peduncles and forming
broad, flat clusters; bracts of involucre, brownish purple, tipped with
awl-shaped bristles. _Stem:_ 3 to 9 ft. high, rough or hairy, branched.
_Leaves:_ Alternate, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, saw-edged, 3 to 10
in. long, rough.
_Preferred Habitat_--Moist soil, meadows, fields.
_Flowering Season_--July-September.
_Distribution_--Massachusetts to Georgia, and westward to the
Mississippi.
Emerson says a weed is a plant whose virtues we have not yet discovered;
but surely it is no small virtue in the iron-weed to brighten the
roadsides and low meadows throughout the summer with bright clusters of
bloom. When it is on the wane, the asters, for which it is sometimes
mistaken, begin to appear, but an instant’s comparison shows the
difference between the two flowers. After noting the yellow disk in the
centre of an aster, it is not likely the iron-weed’s thistle-like head
of ray florets only will ever again be confused with it. Another
rank-growing neighbor with which it has been comfounded by the novice is
the Joe-Pye Weed, a far paler, old-rose colored flower, as one who does
not meet them both afield may see on comparing the colored plates in
this book.
Joe-Pye Weed; Trumpet Weed; Purple Thoroughwort; Gravel or Kidney-root;
Tall or Purple Boneset
_Eupatorium purpureum_
_Flower-heads_--Pale or dull magenta or lavender pink, slightly
fragrant, of tubular florets only, very numerous, in large, terminal,
loose, compound clusters, generally elongated. Several series of pink
overlapping bracts form the oblong involucre from which the tubular
floret and its protruding fringe of style-branches arise. _Stem:_ 3 to
10 ft. high, green or purplish, leafy, usually branching toward top.
_Leaves:_ In whorls of 3 to 6 (usually 4), oval to lance-shaped,
saw-edged, petioled, thin, rough.
_Preferred Habitat_--Moist soil, meadows, woods, low ground.
_Flowering Season_--August-September.
_Distribution_--New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to
Manitoba and Texas.
Towering above the surrounding vegetation of low-lying meadows, this
vigorous composite spreads clusters of soft, fringy bloom that, however
deep or pale of tint, are ever conspicuous advertisements, even when the
golden-rods, sunflowers, and asters enter into close competition for
insect trade. Slight fragrance, which to the delicate perception of
butterflies is doubtless heavy enough, the florets’ color and slender
tubular form indicate an adaptation to them, and they are by far the
most abundant visitors, which is not to say that long-tongued bees and
flies never reach the nectar and transfer pollen, for they do. But an
excellent place for the butterfly collector to carry his net is to a
patch of Joe-Pye Weed in September. As the spreading style-branches that
fringe each tiny floret are furnished with hairs for three quarters of
their length, the pollen caught in them comes in contact with the
alighting visitor. Later, the lower portion of the style-branches, that
is covered with stigmatic papillae along the edge, emerges from the tube
to receive pollen carried from younger flowers when the visitor sips his
reward. If the hairs still contain pollen when the stigmatic part of the
style is exposed, insects self-fertilize the flower; and if in stormy
weather no insects are flying, the flower is nevertheless able to
fertilize itself, because the hairy fringe must often come in contact
with the stigmas of neighboring florets. It is only when we study
flowers with reference to their motives and methods that we understand
why one is abundant and another rare. Composites long ago utilized many
principles of success in life that the triumphant Anglo-Saxon carries
into larger affairs to-day.
Joe-Pye, an Indian medicine-man of New England, earned fame and
fortune by curing typhus fever and other horrors with decoctions made
from this plant.