Family

Evening primrose.

Colour

Magenta.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

New England southward and westward.

Time of Bloom

June-September.

Flowers: large; growing in a long terminal raceme which is slightly nodding. Calyx: deeply four-lobed. Corolla: of four petals with short claws, Stamens: eight. Pistil: one; stigma, four-lobed. Pods: long; narrow, the seeds having white, silky tufts. Leaves: alternate; lanceolate; almost linear; willowy. Stem: at most eight feet high; erect; leafy; smooth.

Dame Nature, with her wonderfully impartial heart, has provided this handsome plant to grow abundantly in soil that has been burned over and therefore made black and unsightly to the eye. It also strays into dry meadows and peeps out on the roadsides. It is a conspicuous plant with deep hued, delicate blossoms which show their kinship to the evening primrose.