Flower for the Day Dames Rocket 4-30-26

Dames rocket (Hesperis matronalis) is blooming nicely on several of the meadow edges. In the family Brassicaceae it has many names including damask violet, night-scented gilliflower, sweet rocket and mother-of-the-evening. It grows on upright hairy stems on which grow alternate lanceolate shaped leaves.  There are multiple large fragrant flowers each of which has four petals. Dames rocket is often confused with native phlox species and are distinguished from each other by foliage and flower differences. Dame's rocket which arrives earlier has alternately arranged leaves and four petals per flower, while phloxes have opposite leaves and five petals.  Dame's Rocket Rising straight as canes around the older farms, the hairy leaves little arms, the seed for jays, the fragrance a marriage of lilac and rose. They say it came with the early whites before escaping, as ornaments may, the farmyards and gardens for what’s left of the prairie, congregating sometimes in ditches, or among century hedgerows, outliving towns called Empire and Cicero. Jesse Nathan <https://yalereview.org/author/jesse-nathan>