EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onagraceae. 



EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onagracece. 



Herbs, or sometimes shrubs. The perfect flowers 

 commonly with four petals and four sepals (rarely 2-6), 

 and with as many or twice as many stamens ; the 

 stigma with 2-4 lobes. Fertilized by moths, butterflies, 

 and bees. 



A nearly smooth herb with many 

 Ludwigia branches, and lance-shaped, toothless, op- 



alternifolia posite-growing leaves which taper to a 

 Yellow point at either end. The solitary light 



yellow, four-petaled flowers, about inch 

 broad, with sepals nearly as long as the 

 petals. The seed-capsule is four-sided and wing-mar- 

 gined, rounded at the base ; the seeds eventually become 

 loose and rattle about when the plant is shaken. 2-3 

 feet high. Common in swamps, from Mass., to north- 

 ern N. Y., south, and west to Mich, and Kan. 



A less showy species with very narrow 

 Ludwigia , . . 



polycarpa lance-shaped leaves, and tiny mconspicu- 



Qreen ous, stemless flowers whose rudimentary 



J "ly- petals are pale green. The flowers grow 



September a ^ ^e j unc tj on of leaf-stem with plant- 

 stem. The four-sided, top-shaped seed-capsule is fur- 

 nished at the base with linear or awl-shaped leaflets. 

 1-3 feet high. In swamps from Mass, southwest to Ky. , 

 and west to Minn, and E. Kan. 



A common uninteresting aquatic species 

 Purslane found in swamps and ditches. The tiny 



Ludwigia inconspicuous flowers without petals, or, 



palustris when the plant grows out of water, with 



Pale reddish ver y small ruddy ones. The lance-shaped, 

 September opposite-growing, slender-stemmed leaves 

 (with the flowers growing at their bases) 

 an inch long or less. The elongated capsule indistinctly 

 four-sided. Stems 4-12 inches long, creeping or float- 

 ing. Shallow marshes, and muddy ditches everywhere. 

 Named for C. G. Ludwig, a German, botanist. 



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