Scarlet pimpernel – Anagallis arvensis (syn. Lysimachia arvensis) also known as poor man’s barometer, poor man’s weather-glass, shepherd’s weather glass or shepherd’s clock. It gets these weather related names from the fact that its flowers open only when the sun shines, and close in cloudy conditions. In folklore it’s know as a plant that when held, will help you see the Fae, and when carried on one’s person may be used as a ward against witchcraft.
—Habitat—The Scarlet Pimpernel grows on the roadside in waste places and on the dry sandy edges of corn and other fields; it is widely distributed, not only over Britain, but throughout the world, being found in all the temperate regions in both hemispheres.1
—Description— Its creeping, square stems, a foot in length at most, have their egg-shaped, stalkless leaves arranged in pairs. The edges of the leaves are entire (i.e. quite free from indentations of any sort), and in whatever direction the stem may run, either along the ground, or at an angle to it, the leaves always keep their faces turned to the light. The Pimpernel flowers from May until late into August. The flowers appear singly, each on longish, thin stalks, springing from the junction of each leaf with the stem. The little flower-stalks are erect during flowering, but curved backward when the seed is ripening. The corolla is made up of five petals, joined together at their base into a ring. A purple spot often appears in the center of the flower. The petals are very sensitive, the flowers closing at once if the sky becomes overcast and threatens rain. Even in bright weather, the flowers are only open for a comparatively short time – never opening until between eight and nine in the morning and shutting up before three o’clock in the afternoon. As the petals are only brilliantly colored on their upper faces, the flowers when closed disappear from view among the greenness of the leaves.2
Footnotes
- Cited from https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/pimper33.html
- Ibid.
Spirit of the Alleghenies 