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HARDHACK STEEPLE BUSH
(Spiraea tomentosa) Rose family
Flowers - Pink or magenta, rarely white, very small, in dense,
pyramidal clusters. Calyx of 5 sepals; corolla of 5 rounded
petals; stamens, 20 to 60; usually 5 pistils, downy. Stem: 2 to 3
ft. high, erect, shrubby, simple, downy. Leaves: Dark green
above, covered with whitish woolly hairs beneath; oval,
saw-edged, 1 to 2 in. long.
Preferred Habitat - Low moist ground, roadside ditches, swamps.
Flowering Season - July-September.
Distribution - Nova Scotia westward, and southward to Georgia and
Kansas.
These bright spires of pink bloom attract our attention no less
than the countless eyes of flies, beetles, and bees, ever on the
lookout for food to be eaten on the spot or stored up for future
progeny. Pollen-feeding insects such as these, delight in the
spireas, most of which secrete little or no nectar, but yield an
abundance of pollen, which they can gather from the crowded
panicles with little loss of time, transferring some of it to the
pistils, of course, as they move over the tiny blossoms. But most
spireas are also able to fertilize themselves, insects failing
them.
An instant's comparison shows the steeple bush to be closely
related to the fleecy, white meadow-sweet, often found growing
near. The pink spires, which bloom from the top downward, have
pale brown tips where the withered flowers are, toward the end of
summer.
Why is the under side of the leaves so woolly? Not as a
protection against wingless insects crawling upward, that is
certain; for such could only benefit these tiny clustered
flowers. Not against the sun's rays, for it is only the under
surface that is coated. When the upper leaf surface is hairy, we
know that the plant is protected in this way from perspiring too
freely. Doubtless these leaves of the steeple bush, like those of
other plants that choose a similar habitat, have woolly hairs
beneath as an absorbent to protect their pores from clogging with
the vapors that must rise from the damp ground where the plant
grows. If these pores were filled with moisture from without, how
could they possibly throw off the waste of the plant? All plants
are largely dependent upon free perspiration for health, but
especially those whose roots, struck in wet ground, are
constantly sending up moisture through the stem and leaves.
Next: PURPLEFLOWERING OR VIRGINIA RASPBERRY
Previous: PINK OR PALE CORYDALIS
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