From Blue to Purple 



Pickerel Weed 



{Pontederia cordata) Pickerel-weed family 



Flowers — Bright purplish blue, including filaments, anthers, and 

 style ; crowded in a dense spike ; quickly fading ; unpleas- 

 antly odorous. Perianth tubular, 2-lipped, parted into 6 irreg- 

 ular lobes, free from ovary ; middle lobe of upper lip with 2 

 yellow spots at base within. Stamens 6, placed at unequal 

 distances on tube, 3 opposite each lip. Pistil i, the stigma 

 minutely toothed. Stem : Erect, stout, fleshy, i to 4 ft. tall, 

 not often over 2 ft. above water line. Leaves : Several bract- 

 like, sheathing stem at base ; i leaf only, midway on flower- 

 stalk, thick, polished, triangular, or arrow-shaped^ 4 to 8 in.^ 

 long, 2 to 6 m. across base; (Illustration, facing p. 20.) 



Preferred Habitat — Shallow water of ponds and streams. 



Flowering Season — June — October. 



Distribution — Eastern half of United States and Canada. 



Grace of habit and the bright beauty of its long blue spikes 

 of ragged flowers above rich, glossy leaves give a charm to this 

 vigorous wader. Backwoodsmen will tell you that pickerels lay 

 their eggs among the leaves; but so they do among the sedges, 

 arums, wild rice, and various aquatic plants, like many another 

 fish. Bees and flies, that congregate about the blossoms to feed, 

 may sometimes fly too low, and so give a plausible reason for the 

 pickerel's choice of haunt. Each blossom lasts but a single day ; 

 the upper portion, withering, leaves the base of the perianth to 

 harden about the ovary and protect the solitary seed. But as 

 the gradually lengthened spike keeps up an uninterrupted suc- 

 cession of bloom for months, more than ample provision is 

 made for the perpetuation of the race — a necessity to any plant 

 that refuses to thrive unless it stands in water. Ponds and 

 streams have an unpleasant habit of drying up in summer, and 

 often the pickerel weed looks as brown as a bullrush where it is 

 stranded in the baked mud in August. When seed falls on such 

 ground, if indeed it germinates at all, the young plant naturally 

 withers away. 



In the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Mr. W. H. Leg- 

 gett, who made a careful study of the flower, tells that three 

 forms occur, not on the same, but on difl'erent plants, being even 

 more distinctly trimorphic than the purple Loosestrife, As these 

 flowers set no seed without insects' aid, the provisions made to 

 secure the greatest benefit from their visits are marvellous. Of the 

 three kinds of blossoms, one raises its stigma on a long style 

 reaching to the top of the flower; a second form lifts its stigma 

 only half-way up, and the third keeps its stigma in the bottom of 



