LIMNANTHACEAE 



FALSE MERMAID FAMILY 



FALSE MERMAID 



Floerkea proserpinacoides Willd. 



The single genus which represents this family in Illi- 

 nois was named in honor of Gustav Heinrich Flbrke, a 

 German botanist who lived from 1790 to 1835. Two 

 species compose the 

 genus; both are strictly 

 North American plants, 

 the False Mermaid 

 being eastern and the 

 other occuring only in 

 the west. This plant is 

 called False because 

 there is a true Mermaid 

 Weed, Proserpinaca, of 

 the Water Milfoil 

 family. 



This is a rather incon- 

 spicuous annual which 

 grows in marshes, moist 

 forests and along rivers 

 from Quebec to Delaware 

 and west to Wisconsin and 

 Missouri. Its slender stems, 

 4-15 inches long, are too 

 weak to stand upright and 

 so trail along the ground 

 instead, or lean upon other 

 plants. 



The minute flowers are 

 white and bloom from April 

 to June. The 3 green sepals 

 are united at the base and 

 remain attached to the fruit. The base of the calyx is filled by a 

 fleshy disk having 3 very small lobes. The 3 petals, shorter than 

 the sepals, are attached to the margin of the disk and alternate 

 with its lobes. There are 6 stamens, the 3 that alternate with the 

 petals a little the shorter. The pistil consists of 2 or 3 ovaries 

 united only at the base, and a style 2 or 3-lobed at the top. The 

 ovaries develop into somewhat fleshy and roughened akenes. 



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