78 CROWFOOT FAMILY 



PURSLANE FAMILY {Portulacaceae) 



A small portulaca of low, matted growth, Portulaca 

 pilosa, is common in sandy cultivated land, and other 

 dry places. The rose-pink, five-petaled flowers, barely 

 half an inch across, and with many stamens, are set 

 close to the stem in the Iiairy axils of the short, narrow, 

 fleshy leaves. 



The yellow-flowered purslane, P. oleracea, that is so 

 common a weed in other states, is less often seen in 

 the peninsula. 



CROWFOOT FAMILY (Ranunculaceae) 



Flowers purphsh, solitary, nodding, of 4 petal-like sepals. 

 Petals none. Stamens many. Fruit an achene with feathery 

 tail. 



Dwarf Clematis and Leather Flower (Genus Yiorna 



{Clematis) ) 



The crowfoot family is less common in Florida than 

 in northern states, where it is abundantly represented 

 by buttercups, anemones, hepaticas, and other plants. Its 

 most noticeable members here are species of clematis, 

 whose flowers are followed by exaggeratedly plumy seed- 

 heads. The corolla is lacking, but the calyx is colored 

 and petal-like, though usually thick in texture. Many 

 stamens and pistils fill the interior of the flower, but, 

 instead of uniting to form a seedpod, each pistil ripens 

 by itself, enclosing a solitary seed in its base, and in- 

 creasing in length until it becomes a feathery gray plume, 

 one to four inches long, and marvelously adapted for 

 carrying the seed on an aerial voyage to new fields. 



The dwarf clematis, V. Baldwinii, is an attractive win- 

 ter flower of pinelands, and continues to bloom more or 



