Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CXLIV · Topic 22: Weeds and wayside plants
144. The pearly everlasting
Goal: Your child finds pearly everlasting in a dry pasture, explains why it keeps its shape when dried, and tells its two kinds of flower-heads apart.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A few stems to dry
What's in the book
A Teacher's Story with a drawing of the staminate flower-head, and the lesson: Leading thought, Method and five questions.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Pearly everlasting blooms in late summer, about August and September, in clumps on poor, dry soil: pastures, hillsides and roadsides. The whole plant looks whitish and woolly.
The leading thought
There are often found growing on the poor soil in dry pastures, clumps of soft, whitish plants which are never eaten by cattle. There is so little juice in them that they retain their form when dried and thus have won their name.
The plant
Where does the pearly everlasting grow? Do cattle eat it? Why is this? What is the general color of the plant? What is the stem covered with?
What is the shape of the leaves? How are they veined? With what are they covered?
Two kinds of clumps
Comstock's method says the pollen flowers and the seed flowers grow on separate plants, in separate clumps.
Do you see some plants which have egg-shaped blossoms, each with a yellow knob at the tip?
Do you see other flowers that look like little white birds' nests filled with yellow eggs?
Relatives
What do you know of the edelweiss of the Alps? How does it resemble the pearly everlasting? Do you know another common kind of everlasting called pussy's toes?
Nature notebook
Draw one flower-head of each kind. Bring home a few stems, hang them upside down to dry, and see whether they keep their shape.