Page A-12
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Winding Trails:
Thursday, April 28, 1966 – Illinois
Valley News, Cave Junction, OR
4 Flowers
Primrose is one of the most
pleasant-sounding words in our long
list of ower names, and suggests
neatness and daintiness as well as
a comparison with one of our most
beloved and beautiful blossoms, the
rose. Actually, however, the name
is simply a variation or alteration of
Primula, which is the type genus of
the primrose family, Primulaceae, and
derives from a Latin word meaning
first, in allusion to title plant’s early
blooming habits. Like our highly-
bred garden roses, which at one time
were typically red, the domestic prim-
roses now come in a large variety of
color combinations. The rose part of
the name of course refers to the color
red, which usually exists to some ex-
tent in even the yellow primroses.
Flowers of the wild members
of the primrose family, although not
by Al Hobart
so large and gaudy as their cultivat-
ed cousins, are nevertheless always
showy and beautiful, and far more
rugged than their civilized relatives.
Some of the shooting-stars (Dode-
catheon), prefer swampy meadows at
high altitudes, others ourish at lower
levels in sterile soil that can hardly
support a healthy blade of grass. The
dainty, lovely little star- owers (Tri-
entalis) brighten the shady forest un-
derstory as well as sunny waysides in
the valley and hills; the storied scar-
let pimpernel (Anagallis) adds its gay
color to damp places beside country
roads and the shady, damp edges
of meadows; the rare – in our area
moneywart, or creeping loosestrife
(Lysimachia), which has the habit
and general form of pimpernel, loves
the damp shade in the open pondside
woods.
These four
shooting-star,
star- ower, pimpernel and money-
wart – are the only members of the
primrose family found growing wild
in our area. We have three species of
shooting-stars, the alpine, tall moun-
tain, and broadleaf respectively. The
first two are found mostly at higher
altitudes and grow in wet swampy
places the broadleaf, or Henderson’s,
shooting-star is the one found com-
monly about the Valley. It has broad
roundish leaves, wereas the leaves
of the other two species are long and
narrow. The leaves are always basal,
and the owers grow in a several-
owered cluster, or scape.
Flowers of the shooting-stars
are strikingly different in form from
those of other primroses and are very
attractive. The five purple, narrow
petals are sharply re exed and have
black and yellow bands at base. The
conspicuous beak-like projection at
the ower’s center is composed of the
pistil tightly surrounded and encased
by the five long-anthered stamens.
This peculiar structure accounts for
the owers sometimes being called
birdbills.
Star- owers have regu-
lar open half-inch owers with five
white or pinkish petals. These are
borne singly on small slender stems
that rise above the whorl of five or six a fanciful resemblance to coins. The
ith almost ex
leaves topping the main plant stem. blossoms of moneywart are large and
common
name
to
the
fact
that
its
broad,
opposit
The elliptic leaves are two or three in. showy, 3 4 in. across, and a conspicu-
long, pointed at both ends. The plant ous bright yellow. The only place I
ywar
is four to eight in. high. It is one of know of this attractive plant growing
our daintiest and prettiest wild- ow- wild is in the damp shade beside a
ers.
pond at old Waldo.
The owers of scarlet pim-
Of all the wildplant fami-
pernel, although small (1 2 in. broad lies represented in our area none can
or less), are extremely beautiful. The produce a lovelier foursome than our
Ͳ
petals are not separate but form broad little group of wild primroses.
lobes on the corolla tube, which is a
more reddish or violet hue at base.
The plant is mostly a creeper with
several erect stems several inches
high bearing short broad leaves in
opposite pairs, with the short ower
stems stringing from their axils. At
night and on dark days when stormy
weather is imminent the owers of
pimpernel remain tightly closed.
The plant is often called poor-man’s-
weatherglass.
Moneywart is also a creeper
with almost exactly the same habit
of pimpernel. It owes its common
Moneywort
name to the fact that its broad, op-
posite leaves are nearly round, with
Ͳ
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