Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Pull a single bloom apart and its six {stamens} form an odd committee, four standing tall around the ovary and two kept short below them. Once the petals drop, each flower stretches into a slim {silique} 2 to 5.5 inches (5 to 14 cm) long, faintly pinched between the seeds like a drawn-out string of beads. Every small blossom, barely 0.75 inch (2 cm) across, opens four clawed petals set in a flat, even cross. The genus name borrows the old Greek word for evening, a nod to blooms that save their sweetest perfume for the hours after sunset. That dusk-timed fragrance is pitched at night-flying moths, which drift in to work the pale flowers once the day's bees have quit. The species epithet salutes the married women, or matrons, of ancient custom. It keeps a strict two-year schedule: a flat {rosette} of lance-shaped, softly hairy leaves the first year, then a bolt to 2 to 4 feet (60 to 120 cm) and bloom the next, after which it dies. Blossoms range from white through pink to deep lavender, carried in loose tapering {racemes} that can scent a whole garden on a still evening. Carried from old European cottage gardens to North America, its self-sown seedlings now flood moist woodland edges and roadsides, crowding out native spring wildflowers. So often mistaken for a five-petaled summer phlox that wildflower seed blends still slip it in under that guise, this fragrant biennial gives itself away by opening just four petals per flower.

Accepted Answer

Hesperis matronalis

Name That Plant #056