Several
varieties of these, having escaped from gardens in the East, are
locally common wild.
The LARGE-FLOWERED BEARD-TONGUE (P. grandiflorus), one of the
finest prairie species, whose lavender-blue, bell-shaped corolla
is abruptly dilated above the calyx, measures nearly two inches
long. Its sterile filament, curved over at the summit, is bearded
there only.
Handsomest of all is the COBEA BEARD-TONGUE, a native of the
Southwest, with a broadly rounded, bell-shaped corolla, hairy
without, like the leaves, but smooth within. The pale purple
blossom, delicately suffused with yellow, and pencilled with red
lines - pathfinders for the bees - has the base of its tube
creamy white. Few flowers hang from each stout clammy spike.
The more densely crowded spikes of the large SMOOTH BEARD-TONGUE
(P. glaber), a smaller blue or purple flowered, narrower-leaved
species, that shows an unusual preference for moist soil
throughout its range, is, like the other beard-tongues mentioned,
better known to the British gardener, perhaps, than to Americans,
who have yet to learn the value of many of their wild flowers
under cultivation.
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