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SPRING BEAUTY CLAYTONIA
(Claytonia Virginica) Purslane family.
Flowers - White veined with pink, or all pink, the veinings of
deeper shade, on curving, slender pedicels, several borne in a
terminal loose raceme, the flowers mostly turned one way
(secund). Calyx of 2 ovate sepals; corolla of 5 petals slightly
united by their bases; 5 stamens, 1 inserted on base of each
petal; the style 3-cleft. Stem: Weak, 6 to 12 in. long, from a
deep, tuberous root. Leaves: Opposite above, linear to
lance-shaped, shorter than basal ones, which are 3 to 7 in. long;
breadth variable.
Preferred Habitat - Moist woods, open groves, low meadows.
Flowering Season - March-May.
Distribution - Nova Scotia and far westward, south to Georgia and
Texas.
Dainty clusters of these delicate, starry blossoms, mostly turned
in one direction, expand in the sunshine only, like their gaudy
cousin the portulaca and the insignificant little yellow flowers
of another relative, the ubiquitous, invincible "pussley"
immortalized in "My Summer in a Garden." At night and during
cloudy, stormy weather, when their benefactors are not flying,
the claytonias economically close their petals to protect nectar
and pollen from rain and pilferers. Pick them, the whole plant
droops, and the blossoms close with indignation; nor will any
coaxing but a combination of hot water and sunshine induce them
to open again. Theirs is a long beauty sleep. They are
supersensitive exquisites, however hardy.
Very early in the spring a race is run with the hepatica,
arbutus, adder's tongue, blood-root, squirrel corn, and anemone
for the honor of being the earliest wild flower; and although
John Burroughs and Dr. Abbott have had the exceptional experience
of finding the claytonia even before the hepatica - certainly the
earliest spring blossom worthy the name in the Middle and New
England States - of course the rank skunk-cabbage, whose name is
snobbishly excluded from the list of fair competitors, has
quietly opened dozens of minute florets in its incurved horn
before the others have even started.
Whether the petals of the spring beauty are white or pink, they
are always exquisitely marked with pink lines converging near the
base and ending in a yellow blotch to serve as pathfinders for
the female bumblebees and the little brown bombylius, among other
pollen carriers. A newly opened flower, with its stamens
surrounding the pistil, must be in peril of self-fertilization
one would think who did not notice that when the pollen is in
condition for removal by the bees and flies, the stigmatic
surfaces of the three-cleft style are tightly pressed together
that not a grain may touch them. But when the anthers have shed
their pollen, and the filaments have spread outward and away from
the pistil, the three stigmatic arms branch out to receive the
fertilizing dust carried from younger flowers by their busy
friends.
Next: STARRY CAMPION
Previous: LIZARD'S TAIL [LIZARD'STAIL, WATERDRAGON]
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