CHICKWEED BURNET ROSE SHEPHERD'S CLOCK
(Anagallis arvensis) Primrose family
Flower - Variable, scarlet, deep salmon, copper red, flesh
colored, or rarely white; usually darker in the center; about 1/4
in. across; wheel-shaped; 5-parted; solitary, on thread-like
peduncles from the leaf-axils. Stem: Delicate; 4-sided, 4 to 12
in. long, much
branched, the sprays weak and long. Leaves: Oval,
opposite, sessile, black dotted beneath.
Preferred Habitat - Waste places, dry fields and roadsides, sandy
soil.
Flowering Season - May-August.
Distribution - Newfoundland to Florida, westward to Minnesota and
Mexico.
Tiny pimpernel flowers of a reddish copper or terra cotta color
have only to be seen to be named, for no other blossoms on our
continent are of the same peculiar shade. Thrifty patches of the
delicate little annuals have spread themselves around the
civilized globe; dying down every autumn, and depending on seeds
alone to keep the foothold once gained here, in Mexico and South
America, Europe, Egypt, Abyssinia, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius,
New Holland, Nepal, Persia, and China. What amazing travelers
plants are! The blue-flowered plants are now believed to be a
distinct species (A. coerulea).
Notwithstanding the fact that many birds delight to feast on the
seeds, or perhaps because of it, for many must be dropped
undigested, the scarlet pimpernel is one of the most widely
distributed species known.
Before a storm, when the sun goes under a cloud, or on a dull
day, each little weather prophet closes. A score of pretty folk
names given it in every land it adopts testifies to its
sensitiveness as a barometer. Under bright skies the flower may
be said to open out flat at about nine in the morning and to
begin to close at three in the afternoon. No nectar is secreted
unless there may be some in the colored hairs which clothe the
filaments. As if it knew perfectly well that however.desirable
insect visitors are - and it has an excellent device for
compelling them to transfer pollen - it is likewise independent
of them, it takes no risk in exposing the precious vitalizing
dust to wind and rain, but closes up tight, thereby bringing its
pollen-laden stamens in contact with its stigma. Manifestly, it
is better for a plant having aspirations to colonize the globe to
set even self-fertilized seed than none at all.
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