294. ONAGRACEAE (EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY) 
slim petiole; when growing in mucky ground, they are smaller, 
nearly sessile, blunt-pointed, and reddish. Flowers axillary, sessile, 
solitary, scarcely a tenth of an inch broad; they have a top-shaped 
calyx with four pointed triangular lobes, and sometimes four small 
reddish petals, though these are often wanting, particularly in 
floating plants; stamens four and stigma four-parted; ovary 
four-celled. Capsule four-sided and four-celled, flat at the top, 
containing many very fine, wrinkled, brown seeds. 
Means of control 
Only by digging or hand-pulling can this obnoxious little plant 
be removed, and the work needs to be done early, before the first 
development of seed. 
GREAT WILLOW-HERB 
Epilobium angustifolium, L. 
(Chamenérion angustifolium, Scop.) 
Other English names: Fireweed, Spiked 
Willow-herb. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by séeds. 
Time of bloom: July to August. 
Seed-time: August to September. 
Range: Labrador to Alaska, southward to 
North Carolina and Kansas, in the Rocky 
Mountains to Arizona, and on the Pacific 
Coast to California. 
Habitat: Low grounds and thickets; land 
that has been newly cleared or burnt over. 
Stem two to six or more feet in height, 
somewhat woody, rather stout, erect, simple 
or branched from the base, usually reddish, 
smooth or sometimes finely hairy above. 
Leaves alternate, narrow lance-shaped, thin, 
entire or minutely toothed, pale beneath, 
with very short petioles and pinnate veins 
united in marginal loops. Flowers in large 
terminal racemes, purple, magenta, pink, or 
a a sometimes white, very showy ; petals four, 
Willow-herb (Epilobium Younded and entire, with twice as many sta- 
angustifolium). X%. mens and an elongated pink style with four- 
