VIRGINIA WATERLEAF 



Hydrophyllum virginianum L. 



May - June Late May and early June in the deep woods is a 



Deep woods, ravines time of conipnratively few flowers. The time of 



profuse flowering in the shaded places has passed 

 and bloom is at its best in the fields and uplands. Bright bloom, sturdy 

 plants at home in the hot summer sun, these belong to summer. But back 

 in the cool, damp woods the waterleaf is blossoming. It might be called 

 the last of the true spring flowers. Here is delicacy, a plant which wilts 

 quickly in open sun. 



The plant of Virginia waterleaf is stiff, with grooved stems which 

 hold erect the clusters of deeply pleated l)uds on their densely hairy little 

 stalks. The flowers are five-parted, narrow bells with long, protioiding 

 hairy stamens — their pollen reaches the incoming bee even before it gets 

 there. The color ranges from white to pale pink and greyed lavender. 

 The Virginia waterleaf is visited l)y la rge Ijees ; a j)parently the f onnation 

 of the flowers prevents other insects from taking nectar when they are 

 unfitted to transport waterleaf pollen to other waterleaf plants. 



The leaves are compound, deeply sharp-toothed, dark green and 

 veiny, and remain green in the shadowed woods all sununer long. The 

 fuzzy seeds form in early suimner and are scattered to the ground where, 

 if there have been rains enough to moisten the soil, the seeds begin 

 to grow. 



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