Dame's Rocket Traditional Cache

Dame's Rocket is another alien that is taking over our roadsides. It looks like phlox, but has 4 petals, like the mustards that it is related to, not 5 petals like the phlox. This one blooms in spring, the phlox in late summer.

Hesperis matronalis is a herbaceous plant species in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. It has numerous common names, including dame's rocket, damask violet, dame's-violet,^[1] dames-wort, dame's gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, queen's gilliflower, rogue's gilliflower, summer lilac, sweet rocket, mother-of-the-evening and winter gilliflower. Plants are biennials or short-lived perennials, native to Eurasia and cultivated in many other areas of the world for their attractive, spring-blooming flowers. In some of those areas, it has escaped cultivation and become a weed species. The genus name Hesperis is Greek for evening, and the name was probably given because the scent of the flowers becomes more conspicuous towards evening.

Some plants may bloom until August, but warm weather greatly shortens the duration on each flower's blooming.

In North America, Hesperis matronalis is often confused with native Phlox species that also have similar large, showy flower clusters. They can be distinguished from each other by foliage and flower differences: dame's rocket has alternately arranged leaves and four petals per flower, while phloxes have opposite leaves and five petals.

Dame's rocket was brought to North America in the 17th century and has since become naturalized there.

It is considered an invasive species in some areas; four U.S. states^[10] have set the following legal status for it:

• Colorado: noxious weed (on B-list), with plans for eradication or management varying by area and year

• Connecticut: invasive and banned, e.g. illegal to move, sell, purchase, transplant, cultivate, or distribute

• Massachusetts: prohibited

• Wisconsin: Restricted - an invasive species that is already established in the state and cause or have the potential to cause significant environmental or economic harm or harm to human health.

The cache is a "small" (big "micro"?) camoed pill bottle, the Push and Turn kind. It is tied in and only has a rolled log with rubber band, plus the little zip lock plastic bag to keep it all dry. No tweezers, please, they tend to kill the plastic. Rubber band on your finger will help keep track of it. Please BYOP.