Subject: Re: Two Wildflower id problems

From: Scott Ranger <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Aug 1995 23:53:15 GMT

On mystery plant number two, try looking up meadow beauties, in the genus 
Rhexia.  The S curve you describe is pretty diagnostic.

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From: [email-masked] (David Cox)
Date: 15 Aug 1995 14:37:31 GMT

I went on a nice wildflower hike last Wednesday on the banks of Motts
Run Reservoir, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. I was so proud of myself
for spotting a lone cranefly orchis (Tipularia discolor) in an unlikely
place, and also a slender ladies-tresses (Spiranthes gracilis, although
apparently the species name has changed since my edition of Newcomb's
Wildflower Guide). Both of these orchids were new to me, and I always
get a special treat from finding and identifying new ones. Since that
hike, I found another slender ladies-tresses along my jogging path.
It's funny how once you "meet" a species, you are more likely to pick
it out when not specifically looking for stuff.

  But there were two wildflowers that I could not identify on this hike,
and in both cases, the mystery plant apparently belonged to a known family
or genus of flowers, which should have led to their id, but didn't.

 The first was up on the edge of the parking lot, up the hill from the
reservoir. This looked to be a member of the Vervain (Verbena) family.
It had the tubular flowers, 5-lobed at the end, that closely resembled
the flowers of blue vervain (Verbena hastata) that I have seen before,
but rather than arranged in a slender spike or raceme, they were massed
in a head at the top of the plant. The leaves were opposite, 1 to 3 inches
long, only about 1/3 inch wide, and perfoliate. The plant was about 2
feet tall. This does not match any Verbena in any book I could find.
It sure has me puzzled. Any ideas?

  The other mystery looked like a 4-petaled Rose Pink (Sabatia angularis).
Which, of course, it couldn't be. There was a normal 5-petaled Rose Pink
nearby (50 feet away), so I was very familiar with what a Rose Pink is
supposed to look like, and this mystery looked just like one, except with
4 petals. It was not a case of the fifth petal being plucked off by some
human or insect or whatever agency. Where the 4 symmetrical petals were
joined was the same distinctive yellow interior of the Rose Pink. The
egg-shaped, opposite leaves were identical to the Rose Pink. Except that
this guy had 4 petals. The stigmata (if I am naming this part correctly)
formed a sort of "S", one curling one way, the other curling the opposite
way (can there be two stigmata in one flower? What else to call those
little pieces at the tip of the pistil?) This "S" did look somewhat
different from the Rose Pink, but that could surely be just individual
or maturity differences.

 Anyway, those are my two mysteries, I will be grateful if anyone has
any idea what they are.

-David Cox