PICKERELWEED 



Pontederia cotdata L. 



Summer P>ri<:lit l)hic in the morning sunshine which sparkles across 

 Swamps ihe dew -wet marsh, the ihiwcrs of tl^e ])ickorohvee(ls open to 

 tlicir fullest beauty. The llower is ahnost orchid-liko. yet is 

 related to the -water hj^cinch of Florida (Eichhornia). The petals are 

 bright lavender-bhic accented by two yellow sjwts near the opening of 

 the flower. Since l)lue a])]iarently is the color most attractive to bees, the 

 yellow spots must be guideposts to lead the bees to the neetar and, inci- 

 dentally, to the stamens and })istils. Pickerelweed flowers have three 

 types of stamens and pistils, long, medium, and short, each kind found 

 in difTerent ilowers scattered through the swam]i. It was ])roved by 

 Charles Darwin, through exhaustive e.\i)criments, that jHillen from long 

 stamens must fertilize long pistils, just as pollen from medium or short 

 stamens must fertilize medium or short ])istils. As the bee enters the 

 ilower of the ))ickerelw(>ed tbe poUen from eaeh type of stanu^n. whichever 

 ]nay be in that partiiular llower. (ouihes the heatl. chest, or abdomen of 

 the bee. As the i)ee enters other ilowers, the long, medium, or short pistils 

 touch whichever s])ot of pollen came from the long, medium, or short 

 stamens; in tills way the nii>st efticient ])rodueti(!n of healthy seeds is 

 made i)ossil)le. 



Pickerelweed Ilowers are at th<'ii- best eaily in the day. By after- 

 noon the delicate petals h.ave curled up and are i)urplish and dull, are 

 not blue and bright. The i)ickerelw(>ed stalks still have a look of blue- 

 ness but it has none of that sparkle of the morning blue, when the red- 

 wings and nuirsh wrens are all singing madly in the sunshine and the 

 white egrets, up from the south, tly on wings of unearthly white across 

 a morning sky. 



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