PRAIRIE PINK; SKELETON WEED 



Lygodesmia juncea (Pursh) D. Don 

 CHICORY FAMILY 



This meagre plant is in striking contrast to the umbrageous 

 Cow Parsnip which we have just been considering. The one 

 suggests the dry plains of the South, the other, the moist valleys 

 of the North; the one suggests stern struggle against conditions 

 adverse to life, the other, easy enjoyment of all the good things 

 in the plant world. Yet I have seen them growing within a 

 few hundred yards of each other, one on a gravelly, sunny slope, 

 the other in the springy soil at the bottom. Each is a successful 

 and (if we share Wordsworth's faith "that every flower enjoys 

 the air it breathes") a happy plant. 



The Prairie Pink is successful because it has adapted itself 

 to hard conditions and ordered its life with frugality in all things. 

 The roots are thick, woody, and deep in the soil, hence are not 

 shrivelled up by drought. The leaves are reduced to narrow, 

 pointed bracts in order that the scanty supply of moisture may 

 not be lost by rapid transpiration. Even the flower-heads have 

 only five florets instead of the one hundred or more found in 

 many other members of the family the dandelion for instance. 

 The flowers, which open in bright weather and remain open but 

 a short time, are a pretty shade of pink. 



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