From Blue to Purple 



Iron-weed ; Flat Top 



{Fernom'a Noveboracensis) Thistle family. 



Flower-head — Composite of tubular florets only, intense reddish^ 

 purple thistle-like heads, borne on short, branched peduncles 

 and forming broad, flat clusters ; bracts of involucre, brown- 

 ish purple, tipped with awl-shaped bristles. Stem : 3 to 9 ft. 

 high, rough or hairy, branched. Leaves : Alternate, narrowly 

 oblong or lanceolate, saw-edged, 3 to 10 in. long, rough. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist soil, meadows, fields. 



Flowering Season — July — September. 



Distribution — Massachusetts to Georgia, and westward to the 

 Mississippi. 



Emerson says a weed is a plant whose virtues we have not 

 yet discovered ; but surely it is no small virtue in the iron-weed 

 to brighten the roadsides and low meadows throughout the sum- 

 mer with bright clusters of bloom. When it is on the wane, the 

 asters, for which it is sometimes mistaken, begin to appear, but 

 an instant's comparison shows the difference between the two 

 flowers. After noting the yellow disk in the centre of an aster, 

 it is not likely the iron-weed's thistle-like head of ray florets only 

 will ever again be confused with it. Another rank-growing 

 neighbor with which it has been confounded by the novice is the 

 Joe Pye weed, a far paler, pinkish flower, as one who does not' 

 meet them both afield may see on comparing the colored plates 

 in this book. 



To each tiny floret, secreting nectar in its tube, many insects, 

 attracted by the bright color of the iron-weed standing high 

 above surrounding vegetation, come to feast. Long-lipped bees 

 and flies rest awhile for refreshment, but butterflies of many 

 beautiful kinds are by far the most abundant visitors. Pollen car- 

 ried out by the long, hairy styles as they extend to maturity must 

 attach itself to their tongues. The tiger swallow-tail butterfly 

 appears to have a special preference for this flower. (See p. 46.) 



Common or Scaly Blazing Star; Colic-root; 

 Rattlesnake Master; Button Snakeroot 



(Lacinaria squarrosa) Thistle family 

 {Liatris squarrosa of Gray) 



Flower-heads — Composite, about i in. long, bright purple or rose 

 purple, of tubular florets only, from an involucre of over- 

 lapping, rigid, pointed bracts ; each of the few flower-heads 



71 



