PARTRIDGE VINE TWINBERRY MITCHELLAVINE SQUAWBERRY

(Mitchella repens) Madder family



Flowers - Waxy, white (pink in bud), fragrant, growing in pairs

at ends of the branches. Calyx usually 4-lobed; corolla

funnel-form, about 1/2 in. long, the 4 spreading lobes bearded

within; 4 stamens inserted on corolla throat; style with 4

stigmas; the ovaries of the twin flowers united. (The style is

long when the stamens are short, or vice versa). Stem: Slender,

trailing, rooting at joints, 6 to 12 in. long, with numerous

erect branches. Leaves: Opposite, entire, short petioled, oval or

rounded, evergreen, dark, sometimes white veined. Fruit: A small,

red, edible, double berry-like drupe.

Preferred Habitat - Woods; usually, but not always, dry ones.

Flowering Season - April-June. Sometimes again in autumn.

Distribution - Nova Scotia to the Gulf States, westward to

Minnesota and Texas.



A carpet of these dark, shining, little evergreen leaves, spread

at the foot of forest trees, whether sprinkled over in June with

pairs of waxy, cream-white, pink-tipped, velvety, lilac-scented

flowers that suggest attenuated arbutus blossoms, or with

coral-red "berries" in autumn and winter, is surely one of the

loveliest sights in the woods. Transplanted to the home garden in

closely packed, generous clumps, with plenty of leaf-mould, or,

better still, chopped sphagnum, about them, they soon spread into

thick mats in the rockery, the hardy fernery, or about the roots

of rhododendrons and the taller shrubs that permit some sunlight

to reach them. No woodland creeper rewards our care with greater

luxuriance of growth. Growing near our homes, the partridge vine

offers an excellent opportunity for study.



The two flowers at the tip of a branch may grow distinct down to

their united ovaries, or their tubes may be partly united, like

Siamese twins - a union which in either case accounts for the odd

shape of the so-called berry, that shows further traces of

consolidation in its "two eyes," the remnants of eight calyx

teeth. Experiment proves that when only one of the twin flowers

is pollenized by insects (excluded from the other one by a net),

fruit is rarely set; but when both are, a healthy seeded berry

follows. To secure cross-fertilization, the partridge flower,

like the bluets (q.v.), occurs in two different forms on distinct

plants, seed from either producing after its kind. In one form

the style is low within the tube, and the stamens protrude; in

the other form the stamens are concealed, and the style, with its

four spreading stigmas, is exserted. No single flower matures

both its reproductive organs. Short-tongued small bees and flies

cannot reach the nectar reserved for the blossom's benefactors

because of the hairs inside the tube, which nearly close it; but

larger bees and butterflies coming to suck a flower with tall

stamens receive pollen on the precise spot on their long tongues

that will come in contact with the sticky stigmas of the

long-styled form visited later, and there rub the pollen off. The

lobes' velvety surface keeps insect feet from slipping.



What endless confusion arises through giving the same popular

folk names to different species! The Bob White, which is called

quail in New England or wherever the ruffed grouse is known as

partridge, is called partridge in the Middle and Southern States,

where the ruffed grouse is known as pheasant. But as both these

distributing agents, like most winter rovers, whether bird or

beast, are inordinately fond of this tasteless partridge berry,

as well as of the spicy fruit of quite another species, the

aromatic wintergreen (q.v.), which shares with it a number of

common names, every one may associate whatever bird and berry

that best suit him. The delicious little twin-flower, beloved of

Linnaeus, also comes in for a share of lost identity through

confusion with the partridge vine.