Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Rose Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

    Also called Swamp Milkweed because of its preference for damp areas, but this is an adaptable plant, and this little colony was growing in a patch of sunlight along a hillside woodland path in Scott Township. It is sometimes cultivated in gardens for its showy rose-colored flowers, which grow up on top where you can see them, rather than half-hidden like the flowers of Common Milkweed. The plant was blooming in early July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    ASCLEPIAS [Tourn.] L. MILKWEED. SILKWEED
    Calyx persistent; divisions small, reflexed. Corolla deeply 5-parted; divisions valvate in bud, deciduous. Crown of 5 hooded bodies seated on the tube of stamens, each containing an incurved horn. Stamens 5, inserted on the base of the corolla; filaments united into a tube which incloses the pistil; anthers adherent to the stigma, each with 2 vertical cells, tipped with a membranaeeons appendage, each cell containing a flattened pear-shaped and waxy pollen-mass; the two contiguous pollen-masses of adjacent anthers, forming pairs which hang by a slender prolongation of their summits from 5 cloven glands tbat grow on the angles of the stigma (extricated from the cells by insects, and directing copious pollen-tubes into the point where the stigma joins the apex of the style). Ovaries 2, tapering into very short styles; the large depressed 5-angled fleshy stigmatic disk common to the two. Follicles 2, one of them often abortive, soft, ovoid or lanceolate. Seeds anatropous, flat, margined, bearing a tuft of long silky hairs (coma) at the hilum, downwardly imbricated all over the large placenta, which separates from the suture at maturity. Embryo large, with broad foliaceous cotyledons in thin albumen. —Perennial herbs; peduncles terminal or lateral and between the usually opposite petioles, bearing simple many-flowered umbels, in summer. (The Greek name of Aesculapius, to whom the genus is dedicated.)

    A. incarnata L. (SWAMP M.) Smooth or nearly so ; the stem 5-10 dm. high, very leafy, with two downy lines above and on the branches of the peduncles; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, or pointed, obtuse, obscurely heart-shaped or narrowed at base; flowers rose-purple (rarely whitish); hoods scarcely equaling the slender needle-pointed horn. —Swamps, N. B., westw. and south w. July, Aug.

  • Deptford Pink, White Form (Dianthus armeria)

    Apparently quite rare, since floras do not mention a white form, but abundant in this tiny meadow near Cranberry, where it was blooming in early July. Some chatter on the internet suggests that white Deptford Pinks turn up here and there once in a while, and other pinks often vary in color in the range from purple through white. The pink stamens are a nice decorative touch.

    UPDATE: Although none of the printed floras we consulted mentioned a white form, the Web-based Flora of North America (under Dianthus armeria subspecies armeria) does: “petals reddish with white dots (rarely all white).”

    A picture of the usual pink form is here.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    DIANTHUS L. PINK, CARNATION. Calyx cylindrical, nerved or striate, 5-toothed, subtended by 2 or more imbricated bractlets. Stamens 10. Styles 2. Pod 1-celled, 4-valved at the apex. Seeds flattish on the back; embryo scarcely curved. —Ornamental plants, of well-known aspect and value in cultivation. (Name from Dios, of Jupiter, and anthos, flower, i.e. Jove’s own flower.)

    D. ARMERIA L. (DEPTFORD P.) Annual; flowers clustered; bractlets of the calyx and bracts lance-awl-form, herbaceous, downy, as long as the tube; leaves linear, hairy; petals small, rose-color with white dots, crenate. Fields, etc., Mass, to Va., w. to s. Ont., Mich., and Ia. July. (Adv. from Eu.)

  • Common Mallow (Malva neglecta)

    Also known as Cheeses, because the seedpods look like tiny wheels of cheese. This little mallow grows in yards and vacant lots all over the city. Its flowers are small, but up close are obviously similar to Rose of Sharon, Hollyhock, and other members of the Mallow family. This plant grew along a back alley in Beechview, where it was blooming in late June.

    Gray lists this species as M. rotundifolia:

    MALVA [Tourn.] L. MALLOW

    Calyx with a 3-leaved involucel at the base, like an outer calyx. Petals obcordate. Styles numerous, stigmatic down the inner side. Fruit depressed, separating at maturity into as many 1-seeded and indehiscent round kidney-shaped blunt carpels as there are styles. Radicle pointing downward. (An old Latin name, from the Greek name, malache, having allusion to the emollient leaves.)

    * Flowers fascicled in the axils.

    M. ROTUNDIFOLIA L. (COMMON M., CHEESES.) Stems procumbent from a deep biennial root; leaves round-heart-shaped, on very long petioles, crenate, obscurely lobed; petals twice the length of the calyx, whitish; carpels pubescent, even. —Waysides and cultivated grounds, common. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)

    UPDATE: Since writing this article, we have found Orange Hawkweed growing in Highland Park, so we know now that it is found in the city of Pittsburgh.

    Also called “Devil’s Paintbrush,” on the principle that attributes anything striking or bright in nature to satanic forces. Gray gives another name, Grim the Collier, that refers to a traditional character who gets the best of the devil in folk tales, putting our subject on the side of good rather than evil.

    This would be an ordinary dandelion-like weed, except  that the flowers are bright orange, making it one of our showiest wild flowers. It seldom or never comes as far south as the city of Pittsburgh itself, but begins to be seen in the northern fringes of our area, and becomes quite common farther north in Pennsylvania. This plant grew at a roadside rest stop in Crawford County, where it was blooming in late June.

    This species is often placed in the genus Pilosella, but there seems to be much uncertainty. The imperfectly omniscient Wikipedia leads us on a merry chase: Hieracium aurantiacum redirects to Pilosella aurantiaca, but Pilosella redirects to Hieracium.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HIERACIUM [Tourn.] L. HAWKWEED
    Heads 12-many-flowered. Involucre more or less imbricated. Achenes short, oblong or columnar, striate, not beaked; pappus a single row of tawny and fragile capillary rough bristles. —Hispid or hirsute and often glandular perennials, with entire or toothed leaves, and single or panicled heads of mostly yellow flowers; summer and early autumn. (Name from hierax, a hawk.)

    * Flowers orange-red.

    H. aurantiacum L. (ORANGE H., DEVIL’S PAINT-BRUSH, GRIM THE COLLIER.) Long-hirsute; leaves oblanceolate, 6-15 cm. long, green on both sides; a stolons numerous, slender; scape 2-6 dm. high, usually 1-2-bracted; heads about 2 cm. broad. Fields, etc., e. Que. to Ont. and Pa., locally too abundant. June, July. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Enchanter’s Nightshade (Circaea lutetiana)

    A woodland plant with inconspicuous two-petaled flowers whose odd shape deserves a closer look, perhaps with a glass. This plant grew in a small, shady clearing in the woods in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

    Enchanter’s Nightshade has a longstanding reputation as a sorcerer’s plant, and indeed it may have been brought from Europe for that purpose. Modern magic-supply houses often sell the seeds.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    CIRCAEA [Tourn.] L. ENCHANTER’S NIGHTSHADE
    Calyx-tube slightly prolonged, the end filled by a cup-shaped disk, deciduous; lobes 2, reflexed. Fruit indehiscent, small and bur-like, bristly with hooked hairs, 1-2-celled; cells 1-seeded. —Low perennials, with opposite leaves on slender petioles, and small whitish flowers in racemes, produced in summer. (Named for Circe, the enchantress.)

    C. lutetiana L. Tall (3-9 dm. high); leaves ovate, tending to ovate-oblong, mostly rounded at the base, of rather firm texture, slightly toothed; 7 bracts none; hairs of the roundish pyriform 2-celled fruit bristle-like (rarely wanting). Common in dry open woods, N. S. to Ont., and southw. (Eu.)