This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Family, Leadwort. Color, lavender. Parts of the flowers in fives. Ovary, 1-celled, containing a single seed. Petals, with long claws. Flowers, small, growing on one side of naked branches, in panicles, 1 to 3 flowers together, 1 to 2 feet high. The calyx dries and remains through the winter, making this a plant much sought after for dried, winter bouquets. Leaves, all from the root, thick, oblong, tapering into long petioles, tipped with a bristly point. July to October.
Salt marshes, along the coast, from Labrador to Texas. A familiar plant on Long Island.
Family, Gentian. Color, white or purple. (See White Flowers, p. 118.)
 
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