SKELETON FLOWER 



Lygodesmia juncea (Pursh) Don 



This is a strange-looking plant, a foot tall, with pale pink, starlike 

 flowers that close in the afternoon, or very soon after being gathered. 

 Unconsciously, the observer is likely to notice only the flowers, for 

 the rushlike stems and scalelike foliage are sage-green and inconspic- 

 uous. The plant belongs to the subdivision of the Aster Family that 

 includes the dandelion, wild lettuce, and hawkweed, and is character- 

 ized by having all the flowers of the head furnished with petallike 

 rays, and by a bitter milky juice. 



The skeletonflower is found from Nevada and New Mexico north 

 to Minnesota and Alberta. 



We found it growing on a dry bank, high above the Kootenai 

 River, near the junction of this stream with the Columbia River in 

 British Columbia, at an altitude of x,8oo feet, and marveled that it 

 could thrive in dusty soil, which remains damp only a short time 

 after the mountain showers cease. 



PLATE 9 



