ONAGRACEAE EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY 
GREAT WILLOW HERB. FIREWEED 
Epilobium angustifolium L. 
The Great Willow Herb or Fireweed is common in open 
places across the continent from North Carolina, Kansas and 
California to Greenland and Alaska. It also occurs in Europe 
and Asia. It is especially abundant in 
recently cleared and burned forest 
areas, coming up thickly in such places 
as though in protest against the reckless 
destruction of woods. The young 
tender shoots are sometimes used as 
“greens.” 
This is a showy perennial herb with 
a rather stout, simple or branched stem 
that grows 2-8 feet high. The lanceolate 
leaves are pinnately veined and almost 
entire. The pedicels of the young buds 
are turned downward but they become 
erect before the flower opens. 
The limb of the brownish calyx 
is 4-divided to the top of the 
ovary, and the 4 large petals are 
narrow, entire and violet-purple. 
There are 8 stamens and 1 style 
with a stigma having 4 long lobes. 
Usually as the flower opens, the stamens and 
style are turned down. After the stamens have 
straightened up and the anthers opened suc- 
cessively, the style straightens and the stigma 
opens. The fruits are slender 4-angled capsules 
containing numerous small seeds, each with 
a coma. 
The Northern Willow Herb, Epilobium coloratum Muhl., 1s 
common in low grounds in Illinois, It is a bushy species 1-3 feet 
high, distinguished by its lance-shaped, toothed leaves which are 
conspicuously red-purple veined. They may grow to lengths of 5-6 
inches with corresponding widths of one-half to three-quarters of 
an inch. The flowers are much like those in the above species, and 
the coma when mature is cinnamon color. The plant occurs south- 
westward from Maine to Nebraska, and blooms from July to 
September. 
209 
