PHRYMACEAE 



LOPSEED FAMILY 



LOPSEED 



Phryma Leptostachya L. 



The Lopseed has no relatives, it alone constituting the family. 

 However, it always has an abundance of neighbors for it mingles 

 with many other kinds of plants in forest communities. It is 

 found from New Brunswick to Manitoba, 

 south to Florida and Kansas, and also in 

 eastern and central Asia. 



It is a perennial herb with a slender, 

 branched, somewhat 4-sided stem that 

 grows 1-3 feet high. The leaves are very 

 thin, the upper often sessile but the lower 

 distinctly petioled. 



The purplish or rose flowers are pro- 

 duced in July and August in narrow spikes 

 3-6 inches long. The cylindrical calyx is 

 2-lipped, the upper lip being 2-cleft and 

 the lower much shorter and 3-toothed. The 

 corolla is also cylindrical and 2-lipped, the 

 upper lip erect, concave and nearly entire, 

 and the lower larger, spreading and 3-lobed. 

 The 4 stamens, in pairs, are included within 

 the corolla tube. The pistil consists of a i- 

 celled ovary, a slender style and a 2-lobed 

 stigma. As the fruit matures, the calyx 

 which encloses the 

 akene is reflexed 

 downward against 

 the stem. It is be- 

 cause of this char- 

 ac ter that the 

 plant is called 

 Lopseed. 



From shapeless roots and ugly bulbous things, 



What gorgeous beauty springs! 



Such infinite variety appears, 



A hundred artists in a hundred years 



Could never copy from a floral world 



The marvels that in leaf and bud lie curled. 



My Floicer Room — Ella Wheeler Wilcox 



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