(A) Shooting Star; American Cowslip (Dodecatheon Meadia) is a western species that grows in open woodlands and on prairies from Pa. to Md. to Manitoba and southward through the Mississippi Valley.
The leaves are all in a tuft radiating from the base; they are oblong, bluntly pointed, and taper into trough-like stems. From the centre of this cluster of leaves rises a bare flower stalk, 8 to 20 inches tall, branching at the summit into several slender, curving peduncles, each supporting a single nodding flower.
The stamens project from the throat of the flower, the five golden anthers forming a conspicuous cone. Shooting Star blooms in April and May.
(B) Moneywort; Myrtle (Lysimachia Nummularia) (European) is a very dainty and beautiful trailing or creeping vine, often spreading over large surfaces of ground. It is a most beautiful plant for rockeries and does well in the house in hanging pots. The leaves, that grow oppositely all along the stem, are almost round; it is from their shape and the fact that they are about the size of the English twopence that they originally received the name of Moneywort.
Fringed Loosestrife (Steironema ciliatum). Fringed Loosestrife is a very branching herb not at all like the other varieties. The smooth stem rises to heights of from 12 to 24 inches. The species receives its specific name Fringed (ciliatum) because of the fine hairs on the upper side of the leaf stems, the rest of the plant being smooth.
The smooth light-green leaves are lance-shaped and pointed on short petioles or stems growing oppositely on the plant stem. The flowers grow on slender pedicles from the axils of the terminal leaves; the golden-yellow corolla is divided into five ovate lobes, each terminating in a sharp, twisted, or mucronate point; round the centre of the corolla is a reddish-brown ring, formed by the small spots at the bases of the five lobes. The pale-green pistil in the centre is surrounded by ten stamens, five being fertile and the other alternating ones being abortive.
Fringed Loosestrife is common in low ground and thickets from Newfoundland to British Columbia southward to the Gulf of Mexico.
(A) Star Flower (Trientalis americana) is a very dainty little plant often called the “Star Anemone.”