Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

    Wherever people feed birds, sunflowers are likely to sprout up. The big seeds easily wash downhill in a heavy rain and catch in the first crevice; this plant grew from a broad crack in the sidewalk in Beechview, where it was blooming in late June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HELIANTHUS L. SUNFLOWER
    Heads many-flowered; rays several or many, neutral. Involucre imbricated, herbaceous or foliaceous. Receptacle flat or convex; the persistent chaff embracing the 4-sided and laterally compressed smooth achenes, which are neither winged nor margined. Pappus very deciduous, of 2 thin chaffy scales on the principal angles, and sometimes 2 or more small intermediate scales. Coarse and stout herbs, with solitary or corymbed heads, and yellow rays; flowering toward autumn. (Named from helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower.)

    H. annuus L. (COMMON SUNFLOWER.) Tall, rough; leaves triple-ribbed ovate or the lower cordate, serrate; involucral bracts broadly ovate to oblong, long-pointed, ciliate; disk usually 2.5 cm. broad or more. Rich soil, Minn, to Tex., and westw.; long cultivated, and occasionally found in waste grounds eastw.

  • Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium)

    Also called Wild Morning Glory. Hedge Bindweeds do indeed love hedges, but they really come into their own on a chain-link fence. Most often the flowers are white, but sometimes we see a glorious bicolor like this one, which in size and color rivals the cultivated Morning Glory. This plant wove itself through a chain-link fence in Beechview, where it was blooming in late June.

    Gray makes Calystegia a division of the genus Convolvulus. He describes the genus, division, and species:

    CONVOLVULUS [Tourn.] L. BINDWEED
    Corolla funnel-form to campanulate. Stamens included. Capsule globose, 2-celled, or imperfectly 4-celled by spurious partitions between the 2 seeds, or by abortion 1-celled, mostly 2-4-valved. Herbs or somewhat shrubby plants, twining, erect, or prostrate. (Name from convolvere, to entwine.)

    CALYSTEGIA (R. Br.) Gray. Stigmas oval to oblong; calyx inclosed in
    2 broad leafy bracts.

    C. sepium L. (HEDGE B.) Glabrous or essentially so; stem high-twining or sometimes trailing extensively; leaves triangular-halberd-shaped, acute or pointed, the basal lobes obliquely truncate and often somewhat toothed or sinuate-lobed or merely rounded ; peduncles chiefly elongated, 4-angled; bracts rounded to sharp-acuminate at tip ; corolla white or rose-color, 3-5 cm. long. (Including var. americanus Sims.) Moist alluvial soil or along streams. June-Sept. (Eurasia.)

  • Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)

    These beautiful flowers, close relatives of the garden Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus), seem to be found almost exclusively along railroads. The color is variable from purple through white, but this purplish pink is by far the most common color. This plant grew along the railroad near the river on the South Side, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    CENTAUREA L. STAR THISTLE
    Heads many-flowered; flowers all tubular, the marginal often much larger (as it were radiate) and sterile. Receptacle bristly. Involucre ovoid or globose, imbricated; the bracts margined or appendaged. Achenes obovoid or oblong, compressed or 4-angled, attached obliquely at or near the base; pappus setose or partly chaffy, or none. Herbs with alternate leaves; the single heads rarely yellow. (Kentaurie, an ancient Greek plant-name, poetically associated with Chiron, the Centaur, but without wholly satisfactory explanation.)

    C. maculosa Lam. Pubescent or glabrate, with ascending rather wiry branches; involucre ovoid-cainpanulate, in fruit becoming open-campanulate; the outer and middle ovate bracts with rather firm points and with 5-7 pairs of cilia at the dark tip; innermost bracts elongate, entire or lacerate; corollas whitish, rose-pink, or purplish, the marginal falsely radiate. Waste places, roadsides, etc., N. E. to N. J. (Adv. from Eu.)

  • Cow Vetch (Vicia cracca)

    A European import cultivated for fodder, Cow Vetch tends to be found wherever livestock is nearby. The vines twine through other less decorative weeds, and the beautiful blue-purple flowers light up the edges of fields. This patch grew in a sunny meadow near Cranberry, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    VICIA [Tourn.] L. VETCH. TARE

    Calyx 5-cleft or 5-toothed, the 2 upper teeth often shorter, or the lowest longer. Wings of the corolla adhering to the middle of the keel. Stamens more or less diadelphous (9 and 1); the orifice of the tube oblique. Style filiform, hairy all round or only on the back at the apex. Pod flat, 2-valved, 2-several-seeded. Seeds globular. Cotyledons very thick, remaining under ground in germination. Herbs, mostly climbing more or less by the tendril at the end of the pinnate leaves. Stipules half-sagittate. Flowers or peduncles axillary. (The classical Latin name.)

    V. cracca L. Appressed-pubescent; leaflets 8-24, oblong-lanceolate, strongly mucronate; racemes densely many-flowered, 1-sided; flowers blue, turning purple (rarely white), 1-1.2 cm. long, reflexed; calyx-teeth shorter than the tube. Borders of thickets or in fields, Nfd. to N. J., w. to Ky., la., and Minn. June- Aug. (Eu.)

  • Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense)

    An unimposing little weed, but it delights children by producing round, flat seedpods that look like coins. This one grew in a meadow near Cranberry, where it was blooming and already seeding in the middle of June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    THLASPI [Tourn.] L. PENNY CRESS
    Pod orbicular, obovate, or obcordate, flattened contrary to the narrow partition, the midrib or keel of the boat-shaped valves extended into a wing. Seeds 2-8 in each cell. Cotyledons accumbent. Petals equal.—Low plants, with root-leaves undivided, stem-leaves arrow-shaped and clasping, and small white or purplish flowers. (Name from thlaein, to crush, from the flattened pod.)

    T. arvense L. (FIELD P. or MITHRIDATE MUSTARD.) Smooth annual; lower leaves wing-petioled, the upper sagittate-clasping; broadly winged pod 1.2 cm. in diameter, deeply notched at top; style minute. Waste places; not common, except along our northern borders, where too abundant and called “FRENCHWEED.” (Nat. from Eu.)