CULVER'SROOT CULVER'S PHYSIC
(Leptandra Virginica; Veronica Virginica of Gray) Figwort family
Flowers - Small, white or rarely bluish, crowded in dense
spike-like racemes 3 to 9 in. long, usually several spikes at top
of stem or from upper axils. Calyx 4-parted, very small; corolla
tubular, 4-lobed;
2 stamens protruding; pistil. Stem: Straight,
erect, usually unbranched, 2 to 7 ft. tall. Leaves: Whorled, from
3 to 9 in a cluster, lance-shaped or oblong, and long-tapering,
sharply saw-edged.
Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods, thickets, meadows.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Alabama, west to Nebraska.
Slender, erect white wands make conspicuous advertisements in
shady retreats at midsummer, when insect life is at its height
and floral competition for insect favors at its fiercest. Next of
kin to the tiny blue speedwell, these minute, pallid blossoms
could have little hope of winning wooers were they not living
examples of the adage, "In union there is strength.' Great
numbers crowded together on a single spike, and several spikes in
a cluster that towers above the woodland undergrowth, cannot well
be overlooked by the dullest insects, especially as nectar
rewards the search of those having midlength or long tongues.
Simply by crawling over the spikes, of which the terminal one
usually matures first, they fertilize the little flowers. The
pollen thrust far out of each tube in the early stage of bloom,
has usually all been brushed off on the underside of bees, wasps,
butterflies, flies, and beetles before the stigma matures;
nevertheless, when it becomes susceptible, the anthers spread
apart to keep out of its way lest any leftover pollen should
touch it.
"The leaves of the herbage at our feet," says Ruskin, "take all
kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them.
Star-shaped. heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted,
fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, in whorls, in tufts, in
wreaths, in spires, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic,
never the same from footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually
to tempt our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our
wonder." Doubtless light is the factor with the greatest effect
in determining the position of the leaves on the stem, if not
their shape. After plenty of light has been secured, any aid they
may render the flowers in increasing their attractiveness is
gladly rendered. Who shall deny that the brilliant foliage of the
sumacs, the dogwood, and the pokeweed in autumn does not greatly
help them in attracting the attention of migrating birds to their
fruit, whose seeds they wish distributed? Or that the clustered
leaves of the dwarf cornel and Culver's-root, among others, do
not set off to great advantage their white flowers which, when
seen by an insect flying overhead, are made doubly conspicuous by
the leafy background formed by the whorl?
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