SICKLEPOD 



Arabis canadensis L. 



May - June In spriiiu wlien iho wotxls still contain tlu' coinpiut. tlie 

 Deep woods coloiiul, or the lloweiiul ])liints, there grows a tall,, 

 ra<i<;ed-lookin<i stem of a plant which seems to lieiong 

 more to open roadsides in snmmer than to the shade of hilly woods. Now 

 in company with the llowers of l)liie])ells, the sponge-like growth of 

 morels, and the Hash of the scarlet tanager in the hmad new leaves of 

 the oaks, is siiklepod. one of the Mnstard family. 



The stem is px i,inii(l;il. I;ip( ring from a leafy hase, up, up, graduateil 

 to smaller leavt's as it goes, not branching for a long time, until the to]) 

 e.\])ands into many thin branches which all extend upward and ])roduce 

 small greenish yellow llowers. They are a rather disappointing result of 

 all that promising growth. I-'tdlow ing the llowers, the seeds rapidly de- 

 velop in long, thin, curved seed pods — these jire the sic-kle-shaped pods 

 which gave the plant its name. The stalk remains during most of the 

 sunimer, the seed sickles now thrt>(> inches long, curving, dry, releasing 

 the tiny seeds, so that next spring the same cycle of a tall stalk in the 

 damj) ravine will interrupt itselt in ,-mnll llowers and nuuv sickle-sha])ed 

 pods. 



Similar to the above although a .shorter ])lant is the smooth rock 

 cress {Arahis laevigata) which is found growing on the sides of rocky 

 ravines. It is emphatically a .<hade i)lant. In contrast with the last is 

 sand cress (.Im/Mv li/nila) one of th(> earliest spring llowers in the .sand 

 dunes and on rocky banks. The basal leaves are lyrate hut those on the 

 stems are linear. A (lose relative, the A^irginia rock cress (Arahis vir- 

 ginica) is found in rocky woods and in the fallow fields. The ])lants usual- 

 ly are prostrate and much branched at the hase with jjinnatifid leaves. 



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