The BLADDER CAMPION (S.vulgaris; S.inflata of Gray) to be recognized by its much inflated calyx, especially round in fruit, the two-cleft white petals; and its opposite leaves that are spatulate at the base of the plant, is a European immigrant now naturalized and locally very common from Illinois eastward to New Jersey and north to New Brunswick.Like the night-flowering catchfly this blossom has adapted itself to the night-flying moths; but when either remains open in the morning, bumblebees gladly take the leavings in the deep cup.To insure cross-fertilization, some of the bladder-campion flowers have stamens only, some have a pistil only; some have both organs maturing at different times.In all the night-flowering Silene, each flower, unless unusually disturbed, lasts three days and three nights.Late in the afternoon of the first day, when the petals begin to expand, the five stamens opposite the sepals lengthen in about two hours, and by sunset the anthers, which have matured at the same time, are covered with pollen.So they remain until the forenoon of the second day, and then the emptied anthers hang like shriveled bags, or drop off altogether.Late in the second afternoon, the second set of stamens repeat the actions of their predecessors, bend backward and shed their anthers the following, that is to say the third, morning.But on the third afternoon up rise the S-shaped, twisted stigmas, which until now had been hidden in the center of the flower.Moths, therefore, must transfer pollen from younger to older blossoms.
"With this lengthening and bending of the stamens and stigmas,"says Dr.Kerner, "goes hand in hand the opening and shutting of the corolla.With the approach of dusk, the bifid limbs of the petals spread out in a flat surface and fall back against the calyx.In this position they remain through the night, and not till the following morning do they begin (more quickly in sunshine and with a mild temperature, more slowly with a cloudy sky and in cold, wet weather) to curl themselves up in an in-curved spire, while at the same time they form longitudinal creases, and look as though they were gathered in, or wrinkled;...but no sooner does evening return than the wrinkles disappear, the petals become smooth, uncurl themselves, and fall back upon the calyx, and the corolla is again expanded."Curiously enough, these flowers, which by day we should certainly say were not fragrant, give forth a strong perfume at evening the better to guide moths to their feast.From eight in the evening until three in the morning the fragrance is especially strong.
The white blossoms, so conspicuous at night, have little attraction for color-loving butterflies and bees by day; then, as there is no pollen to be carried from the shriveled anther sacs, no visitor is welcome, and the petals close to protect the nectar for the flower's true benefactors.Indeed, few flowers show more thorough adaptation to the night-flying moths than these Silene.
POKEWEED; SCOKE; PIGEON-BERRY; INK-BERRY; GARGET(Phytolacca decandra) Pokeweed family Flowers - White, with a green centre, pink-tinted outside, about 1/4 in.across, in bracted racemes 2 to 8 in.long.Calyx of 4 or 5 rounded persistent sepals, simulating petals; no corolla; 10short stamens; 10-celled ovary, green, conspicuous; styles curved.Stem: Stout, pithy, erect, branching, reddening toward the end of summer, 4 to 10 ft.tall, from a large, perennial, poisonous root.Leaves: Alternate, petioled, oblong to lance-shaped, tapering at both ends, 8 to 12 in.long.Fruit:
Very juicy, dark purplish berries, hanging in long clusters from reddened footstalks; ripe, August-October.
Preferred Habitat - Roadsides, thickets, field borders, and waste soil, especially in burnt-over districts.
Flowering Season - June-October.
Distribution - Maine and Ontario to Florida and Texas.
When the pokeweed is "all on fire with ripeness," as Thoreau said; when the stout, vigorous stem (which he coveted for a cane), the large leaves, and even the footstalks, take on splendid tints of crimson lake, and the dark berries hang heavy with juice in the thickets, then the birds, with increased, hungry families, gather in flocks as a preliminary step to traveling southward.Has the brilliant, strong-scented plant no ulterior motive in thus attracting their attention at this particular time? Surely! Robins, flickers, and downy woodpeckers, chewinks and rose-breasted grosbeaks, among other feathered agents, may be detected in the act of gormandizing on the fruit, whose undigested seeds they will disperse far and wide.Their droppings form the best of fertilizers for young seedlings;therefore the plants which depend on birds to distribute seeds, as most berry bearers do, send their children abroad to found new colonies, well equipped for a vigorous start in life.What a hideous mockery to continue to call this fruit the pigeon-berry, when the exquisite bird whose favorite food it once was, has been annihilated from this land of liberty by the fowler's net! And yet flocks of wild pigeons, containing not thousands but millions of birds, nested here even thirty years ago.When the market became glutted with them, they were fed to hogs in the West!
Children, and some grown-ups, find the deep magenta juice of the ink-berry useful.Notwithstanding the poisonous properties of the root, in some sections the young shoots are boiled and eaten like asparagus, evidently with no disastrous consequences.For any service this plant may render to man and bird, they are under special obligation to the little Halictus bees, but to other short-tongued bees and flies as well.These small visitors, flying from such of the flowers as mature their anthers first, carry pollen to those in the female, or pistillate, stage.
