Perennial. Moist open woods and fields. Ontario to Minnesota, south to Florida, Kansas, and Arkansas.

Abundant in northern Ohio. April, May.

Stem

Downy, erect or diffuse, with creeping prostrate or ascending leafy shoots.

Leaves

Of flowering stems opposite, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, mostly acute; the uppermost almost clasping.

Flowers

Pale lilac-purple, in loose, spreading clusters, faintly fragrant.

Calyx

Five-toothed; teeth slender and pointed.

Corolla

Salver-shaped, five-lobed with long tube; lobes obcordate or obovate and notched, convolute in bud.

Stamens

Five, unequal, inserted on the corolla-tube and alternate with its lobes, included.

Phlox. Phlox divaricata

Pistil

Ovary three-celled; style threadlike; stigmas three.

Fruit

Oblong-globose capsule.

This is one of the flowers so abundant both in April and May that one scarcely knows in which month to place it. In color it varies from pale lilac to nearly white. Like all the Phloxes, its corolla is salver-shaped, this word referring to the ancient salver whose handle was a tube extending below the tray, rather than to our modern form. It is very pretty in masses, but its color is not decided enough to be effective alone, and its loose clusters look a little ragged. The Phlox Drummondii of the gardens is a Texan species, which has been developed into numerous varieties.