FIGWORT FAMILY 



SCROPHULARIACEAE 



SLENDER GERARDIA 



Gerardia tenuifolia Vahl 



This is our commonest species of Gerardia and it grows in 

 both moist and dry places, in woods that are not too dense or in 

 open areas. It is found from Quebec to Georgia and west to 



western Ontario, Kansas and 

 Texas. It is a smooth annual 

 whose slender, much branched 

 stem grows 6-24 inches high. 

 The Slender Gerardia 

 blooms from August to Octo- 

 ber. The calyx is bell shaped 

 and its 5 teeth are very short 

 and pointed. The irregular 

 corolla is light purple and some- 

 what spotted, or rarely white,^ 

 and slightly 2-lipped. There 

 are 4 stamens, in pairs, which 

 do not extend beyond the 

 corolla tube. The filaments are 

 somewhat hairy. The style is 

 long and slender. The fruit is a 

 spherical capsule which con- 

 tains a very large number of 

 somewhat angled seeds. 



The Purple Gerar- 

 dia, Gerardia purpurea 

 L,, is another species 

 found in moist fields 

 and meadows. The veg- 

 etative parts of the 

 plant are very much like those of the Slender Gerardia except that 

 the leaves are a little longer. The blooming season is the same but the 

 flowers of this species are larger and somewhat different. They are 

 about I inch long and equally broad. The calyx teeth are triangular 

 and nearly half as long as the tube. The corolla is purple, very much 

 expanded above and covered outside with short hairs. 



The Auricled or Eared Gerardia, Gerardia auriculata Michx., is a 

 rare annual, particularly of the northwest portion. Its slender, hairy 

 stems are 1-2 feet high and simple or branched above. The abundant 

 sessile leaves arfe ovate-hmceolate, acuminate, and mostly rounded 

 and 2-lobed at the base. Purple flowers are solitary in the upper 

 axils and the i-inch corollas are smooth within but exceedingly downy 

 outside. Anthers of the short stamens are the smaller. 



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