ACANTHACEAE ACANTHUS FAMILY 
WATER WILLOW 
Dianthera americana L. 
The family is chiefly tropical with only a few representatives 
in our state. The Water Willow is so called because its leaves 
resemble those of some Willows, but it is totally unrelated to 
the Salicaceae or Wil- 
low family. It could 
almost as appropri- 
ately be called Water 
Orchid because of the 
resemblance its flow- 
ers have to some 
Orchids. 
The plant. grows in 
the water of shallow 
slow-running streams from Quebec to 
Wisconsin and south to Georgia and 
Texas. It is a smooth perennial herb 
with a slender, usually branched stem 
that grows upright 1-3 feet or more, 
depending on the depth of the water. 
The opposite leaves vary considerably 
in size, but only slightly from their 
linear-lanceolate form. They are gradu- 
ally acuminate, entire, and are sessile or 
narrowed into short petioles. 
The flowers are produced from July 
to September in spikelike clusters at 
the ends of slender axillary peduncles. - 
The calyx is deeply 5-parted. The purplish corolla is very ‘ir- 
regular, with a slender tube and a distinctly 2-lipped limb. The 
upper lip is somewhat concave and notched at the tip, and the 
lower is 3-cleft and rough on the inner surface. The 2 stamens 
are inserted on the throat of the corolla. There is 1 pistil. The 
fruit is a capsule about one-half inch long, exceeding the calyx, 
its stalk about the length of the compressed body, which con- 
tains 4 flat seeds. u 
The larkspur lifts on high its azure spires, 
And up the arbor’s lattices are rolled 
The quaint nasturtium’s many-colored fires; 
The tall carnation’s breast of faded gold 
Is striped with many a faintly flushing streak, 
The Old-fashioned Garden—JOHN RUSSELL HAYES 
315 
