24 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



investigating visitors. As they empty, the style 

 grows erect, with its stigma a gray bulb on the top. 

 When the anthers are quite withered, the style 

 pushes quickly beyond them, and the stigma opens 

 into four whitish lobes sensitive to any pollen that 

 may touch them. The seed pods swell quickly; and 

 their long, slender lines, tinged with magenta, make 

 the plant still beautiful after the flowers have 

 passed. 



When the seeds are mature, the pod splits open 

 at the top, curving back into four sections. In each 

 section is a row of fleece-crowned seeds, all eager to 

 sail off in the unknown air. The pod curves back 

 gradually, so that all the seeds are not exposed at 

 once. When the top ones are carried away by a 

 breeze or scattered by some animal stirring against 

 the lower branches of the plant, the pod curves fur- 

 ther back, allowing a new set to be freed. The 

 snowy silky hairs are about a half inch long, and the 

 tips of the hairs are slightly glued to the walls of the 

 pod, some to one side, some to the other, so that the 

 seed hangs between. The seeds are so light that it 

 is estimated that it would take 30,000, hairs and all, 

 to weigh as much as a white bean. With so little 

 weight to carry, it is not surprising that the para- 

 chutes cover long distances from the mother plant. 



It is this habit of the seeds that has given Willow- 

 Herb her other common name, Fireweed. When a 



