HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



along roadsides from Maine to Florida and Texas ; not found 

 beyond the Alleghany Mountains. (See illustration, p. 190.) 



Frostweed 



Helianthemum canadense (name means "sunflower," so called 

 because the flowers open only in sunshine). — Family, Rockrose. 

 Color, yellow. Sepals, 5, 2 of them long, thin, bract-like, hairy 

 or whitish and downy. Petals, 5, sometimes none. Stamens, 

 3 to 10, or numerous. Pistil, 1, with a 3-lobed, sessile stigma. 

 Stem, very hoary, at first simple, then branched. Leaves, alter- 

 nate above, opposite below, simple, numerous, lance-shaped to 

 oblong, hoary underneath. Large petal-bearing flowers, bloom 

 June to August. 



This singular plant produces two kinds of blossoms, the 

 earlier in July, a large, 5-petaled flower, opening only in 

 sunshine, dropping its petals the next day, 1 inch across, 

 with many stamens lying flat against the petals. The pod 

 is i-celled, with numerous seeds. The blossom, resembling 

 an evening primrose, is solitary on the stem. Later in the 

 season — August and September — much smaller flowers cluster 

 in the axils of the leaves up and down the stem, with or with- 

 out petals, with 3 to 10 stamens and very small, roundish, few- 

 seeded pods, giving the plant an entirely different appearance. 



The plant gets its name from the curious ice-crystals 

 which form on the stem near the root in November on frosty 

 mornings. 



Mr. Gibson says of this frost flower (Sharp Eyes): "It is 

 a flower of ice-crystal of purest white, which shoots from 

 the stem, bursting the bark asunder, and fashioned into all 

 sorts of whimsical, feathery curls and flanges and ridges. 

 It (the crystal) is often quite small, but sometimes attains 

 three inches in height and an inch or more in width. It is 

 said to be a crystallization of the sap of the plant, but the 

 size of the crystal is often out of all proportion to the possible 

 amount of sap within the stem, and suggests the possibility 

 that the stem may draw extra moisture from the soil for this 

 especial occasion." In sandy soil, Maine to Minnesota and 

 southward. 



Hoary Frostweed 



H. mkjas. — Similar to the last, but more hoary in stem and 

 leaves. Flowers, pale yellow, clustered in corymbs at the end 

 of the stem. Secondary flowers very small, without petals, 



192 



