SCARLET GAURA; BUTTERFLY WEED 



Gaura coccinea Nutt. 

 EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY 



The Scarlet Gaura, an interesting plant of the open prairie, 

 may often be found growing in gravelly soil from Manitoba to 

 the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 



The much-branched stems are usually decumbent (that 

 is, reclining at the base with their tips ascending) and vary in 

 height from four inches to a foot or more. The small and numer- 

 ous leaves are usually hoary by reason of their close coating of 

 short, gray hair. The drier the soil in which the plant grows 

 the heavier is this protective covering. 



But on the flowers our chief interest centres, for they have 

 the curious habit of expanding four pure white petals and shortly 

 afterward dyeing them scarlet. Hence, one may commonly 

 find flower-spikes with white flowers above and brilliant scarlet 

 ones beneath. This startling color scheme is rendered more 

 striking by reason of the fact that the eight prominent stamens 

 have white filaments and large brick-red anthers. Sometimes, 

 however, the petals remain white during the whole of a warm 

 sunshiny day. This was the case with the plants whose photo- 

 graph, reproduced on the opposite page, was taken by the roadside 

 at four o'clock of a day in early July. It will be noticed that the 

 petals are drooping somewhat from the ardent heat, yet no blush 

 of red has yet appeared. Some of these plants were taken home 

 and placed in a cool cellar overnight. Next morning the flowers 

 of the previous day were mostly withered, but five or six fresh, 

 widely-expanded flowers adorned each stem. A good photograph 

 of these plants with wide-awake blossoms was then made. 

 Subsequently, when shown to a well-known botanist, the early 

 morning photograph quite puzzled him, while the one taken in 

 the afternoon was declared at once to be a typical picture of 

 the Scarlet Gaura. 



Here it has been thought better to present the plant in its 

 drowsy aspect. 



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