•^ 





QUEEN-OF-THE-PRAIRIE 



Filipendula rubra (Hill) Robins 



July Queen-of-tlu'-prairie is a rare wild spiraea which blossoms 



Swamps in July in certain chosen spots in northern Illinois. It is a 

 ])lant not of the western prairies ])ut of tliose extendinjr ^vest 

 of the Alleghenies from Pennsylvania across to Iowa and into Michirran, 

 and down even into Georgia where the true iirairie does not exist. The 

 specimen photogra])hed by .Mr. Voss was found in Tazewell County near 

 East Peoria. 



It grows in a. sunny iiog wlieiv the sunnnor sun heats down aiul the 

 marsh wrens clatter in the distant sedges. The plant is compact with 

 several broad, deej^ly lobed and toothed, veiny, bright green leaves, and 

 a slender, woody stem. At the top of the stem is a i)lume of ]ieach-l)lossom 

 ilowers which are irresistible to i)assing butterllies and are buzzed around 

 by bee."*. 



These tlowcrs not only are the c(»lor of peach blossoms, but are like 

 them in miniature, with n flulT of white stanu'us standing tall about each 

 ilower so that the blossom head ])r(\<ents a delicate and ethereal apj)ear- 

 auce. Five-petaled, rose-pink, fragrant, the small blossoms of queen-of- 

 the-prairie show their true kinship to the ro.se family Mhere they properly 

 belong. 



The young marsh wnuis leave the nests in the sedges. The blackbirds 

 are flocking. Now in the September mar.>;h the queen-of-the-prairie, its 

 leaves a rusty green and drooping a bit, holds a spike of glossy brown 

 seed pods to the warm late sun. 



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