Just about the purest blue in the floral kingdom, and indeed the flowers make a prized blue dye in Japan. These flowers are common weeds in city yards and vacant lots, but old Pa Pitt loves them and loves to photograph them. These were part of a big patch blooming in Beechview in the morning. By the middle of the afternoon, the flowers are withered, so you must look for them early in the day.
For a description of the species, see the Commelina communis reference page.
Delicate dandelion-like flowers that prefer open shade. These were growing by the hundreds along the trains in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon.
These delicate little flowers can easily pass unnoticed, but there may be thousands of them along a woodland trail. These plants were growing in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon. Whether the plant is properly Circaea lutetiana or Circaea canadensis is a question we leave to botanists; in many classifications the species are separate, but the USDA PLANTS database recognizes only Circaea lutetiana.
For a description of the species, see the Circaea lutetiana reference page.
Every time he sees these odd flower heads, Father Pitt thinks they look like something invented by a set designer for an alien planet in a 1960s science-fiction movie. This plant was blooming by a parking lot in Banksville.
For a description of the species, see the Plantago lanceolata reference page.
The shocking magenta color made this plant a cottage-garden favorite, in spite of its tiny flowers. Having come over to our country because settlers wanted to brighten up the place, it has made itself at home, often in otherwise unpromising environments—such as here, at the edge of a parking lot in Banksville.
For a description of the species, see the Dianthus armeria reference page.
