Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

    Every botanical writer feels compelled to mention that this species is neither an artichoke nor from Jerusalem. One wonders whether anyone in the modern age has ever made that mistake. This is quite obviously a sunflower, though one more noted for its edible tuber than for its seeds. The flowers are delightful, to butterflies as well as to humans. The plant is very similar to Thin-Leaved Sunflower (H. decapetalus), but note the more robust leaves, hairy stem, and shorter bracts.

    Flowers. Heads terminal on branching stalks. Disk flowers golden; rays (about 13) golden, darkening to pale orange toward center. Bracts about as long as the disk.

    Leaves. Very rough; mid-green above, paler below; upper nearly sessile, lower on short petioles with tapering wings; mostly opposite, but upper alternate; upper nearly entire, lower with shallow teeth.

    Stem. Narrow but very strong; purple most of its length; very hairy; branching, especially toward ends.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HELIÁNTHUS 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 chafly scales on the principal angles, and sometimes 2 or more small intermediate scales. — Coarse and stout herbs, with solitary or corymbcd heads, and yellow rays; flowering toward autumn. (Named from helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower.)

    §2. Perennials; receptacle convex or at length low-conical; lower leaves usually opposite.

    Involucre looser, the bracts more acuminate or elongated or foliaceous.

    Leaves all or most of them opposite, 3-nerved.

    Leaves longer-petiolate, thinnish or soft, coarsely serrate, commonly broad; bracts loose, hirsute-ciliate.

    H. tuberosus L. (JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.) Pubescent or hirsute, 1.5-3.5 m. high; leaves ovate or subcordate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, scabrous above, minutely pubescent or cinereous beneath; bracts lanceolate, attenuate, little exceeding the disk; rays 12-20.—N. Y. to Minn., westw. and southw.; often cultivated, and introduced eastw.

    –

    In his Wild Flowers of New York (1914), Chester Albert Reed gives us some of the lore of this beautiful sunflower:

    This is an interesting native plant  often known as the Wild Sunflower. Indians and early colonists used its tuberous roots much as we use potatoes today. It was also carried abroad and cultivated extensively, particularly in Italy, where it was known as Girasole Articocco (Sunflower Artichoke), from which name it was corrupted into the Jerusalem Artichoke as we know it now. The stalk, which grows from six to twelve feet in height is very rough and the three-ribbed, toothed-edged leaves, the lower ones of which are set oppositely on the stalk, are also rough,—this roughness presumably being to discourage crawling insects from reaching the summit. The several flower heads are two or three inches across and consist of from a dozen to twenty rays about a greenish-yellow center. This species naturally grows in somewhat moist thickets but is often seen in or about old gardens where it continues to grow as a reminder of the days when it was cultivated for food.

  • Deadly Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)

    Also called Bittersweet, Scarletberry, and a large number of other names.This is not the Deadly Nightshade that was such a favorite in the Borgias’ kitchen garden; that plant was Atropa belladonna, an even more  poisonous relative. This has attractive little purple flowers and bright red berries; it’s a rank and weedy vine that runs riot in hedges and on banks. Here we see a bumblebee (Bombus beeus) coming in for a landing on a plant that grew along a fence in Beechview, where it was blooming in early August.

    SOLANUM [Tourn.] L. NIGHTSHADE. Calyx and wheel-shaped corolla 6-parted or 5-cleft (rarely 4-10-parted), the latter plaited in the bud, and valvate or inriuplicate. Stamens exserted; filaments very short; anthers converging around the style, opening at the tip by two pores or chinks. Berry usually 2-celled. Herbs, or shrubs in warm climates, the larger leaves often accompanied by a smaller lateral (rameal) one; the peduncles also mostly lateral and extra-axillary. — A vast genus, chiefly in warmer regions. (Name of unknown derivation.)

    Not prickly; anthers blunt; flowers and globose naked berries small.

    Perennial, climbing or twining.

    S. dulcamara L. (BITTERSWEET.) More or less pubescent; leaves dvate-heart-shaped, the upper haiberd-ehaped, or with 2 ear-like lobes or leaflets at base; flowers (purple or blue) in small cymes; berries ovoid, red. — Moist banks and around dwellings. June-Sept. (Nat. from Eu.)

    In Wild Flowers East of the Rockies (1910), Chester Albert Reed gives us this description:

    BITTERSWEET; NIGHTSHADE (Solanum Dulcamara) (EUROPEAN), although an immigrant, is quite common in the eastern half of our country. It chooses for its habitat, moist thickets or the edges of ponds where there are plenty of shrubs to help support it, for this species has weak stems with climbing tendencies.

    It is a species that often attracts the attention of the casual passerby because of the beauty and quaint forms of its flowers and leaves. It grows from 2 to 8 feet tall and throws out numerous, long branches that climb and sprawl over the surrounding vegetation. The dark green leaves are variable in form; some are lobed, others have small lateral leaflets and still others have another pair of still smaller leaflets on the leaf stem. The flowers hang in loose clusters on long peduncles from the axils of the leaves; they have five, reflexed, purple petals and a yellow, conical center formed by the stamens. The berries that succeed the flowers are first green, then turn yellow and ultimately a deep ruby-red. This species blooms from June until September and, like most plants with a long period of bloom, we may often find flowers and berries in all stages of color at the same time.

  • Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

    A tall and stately weed whose flowers we almost never get to see in their full glory. It’s a night-bloomer, opening at dusk and fading in the early hours of the morning. These pictures were taken shortly after sunrise at the edge of a parking lot in Beechview, where Evening Primroses were blooming in the middle of August.

    Flowers. Pale yellow; four broad petals; cross-shaped anther in the middle; borne in branching racemes.

    Leaves. Lanceolate, sessile, slightly toothed; net-veined, with center rib often reddish toward base; alternate; thick on the stem, with branches or abortive branches in axils; mostly smooth.

    Stem. Stout; somewhat sticky; woody below, with dark brownish stripes; to 6 feet or more; much branched.

    At one time this plant was placed in a genus Onagra, from which the family Onagraceae was named; but Gray and most modern botanists make that genus part of Oenothera.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    OENOTHERA L. EVENING PRIMROSE. Calyx-tube prolonged beyond the ovary, deciduous; the lobes 4, reflexed. Petals 4. Stamens 8; anthers mostly linear and versatile. Capsule 4-valved, many-seeded. Seeds naked or with an obscure membranaceous crest. — Leaves alternate or rarely all basal. Flowers yellow, white, or rose-color. (An old name of unknown origin, for a species of Epilobium.)

    § 1. ONAGRA (Adans.) Ser. Stigma-lobes linear, elongated; flower-buds upright; petals yellow; fruit subcylindrical, elongated; seeds in 2 rotos in each cell; caulescent annuals or biennials.

    O. biennis L. (COMMON E.) Rather stout, erect, 3-15 dm. high, usually simple, more or less spreading-pubescent to hirsute; leaves lanceolate to oblong or rarely ovate-lanceolate, repandly denticulate, acute or acuminate; bracts lanceolate, shorter than or scarcely exceeding the capsules; calyx-tube 2.5-3.5 cm. long; petals yellow, obovate, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; pods more or less hirsute, narrowed almost from the base, 2-3.5 cm. long. (Onagra Scop.) —Open places, common.

  • Thin-Leaved Sunflower (Helianthus decapetalus)

    The thin leaves are indeed a distinguishing feature of this plant; most sunflowers have coarse and strong leaves, but these are thin and rather weak. These plants were growing on a shady wooded hillside above a back street in Beechview.

    Flower Heads. The disk is smallish and golden yellow. The matching golden rays are long and narrow; there were ten to twelve of them on each of the flower heads on this plant, but (as the specific name implies) ten is a good average for this species. Note the long, narrow bracts, visible on the bud to the left in the photograph above.

    Leaves. Thin; rough on some plants, smooth on others; ovate, pointed; toothed; upper leaves nearly sessile; lower on winged petioles.

    Stem. Smooth and tough, green with a few red spots; about 4 feet tall.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HELIÁNTHUS 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 chafly scales on the principal angles, and sometimes 2 or more small intermediate scales. — Coarse and stout herbs, with solitary or corymbcd heads, and yellow rays; flowering toward autumn. (Named from helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower.)

    §2. Perennials; receptacle convex or at length low-conical; lower leaves usually opposite.

    Involucre looser, the bracts more acuminate or elongated or foliaceous.

    Leaves all or most of them opposite, 3-nerved.

    Leaves longer-petiolate, thinnish or sofl, coarsely serrate, commonly broad; bracts loose, hirsute-ciliate.

    H. decapétalus L. Stem branching, 0.5-1.5 m. high, smooth below; leaves smooth or roughish, ovate, pointed, abruptly contracted into margined petioles; bracts lanceolate-linear, elongated, loosely spreading, sometimes foliaceous, the outer longer than the disk; rays about 10 (H. scrophulariifolius Britton?) — Copses and low banks of streams, centr. Me. and w. Que. to Minn., Mo., and southw.

  • Ox-Eye (Heliopsis helianthoides)

    A tall, sunflower-like plant that grows at the edge of the woods; this one was growing where the woods met a parking lot at a park in Beechview.

    Flowers. Heads on long terminal stalks; disk florets numerous, golden yellow; rays about 10 to 12, linear-elliptical, golden yellow, to orange at base, with two prominent and numerous lesser parallel ribs, very slight notch at end.

    Leaves. Mostly smooth; undersides rough at edges; oval, pointed, toothed; lower leaves with nearly flat base, upper leaves more rounded; net-veined, with very strong ribs; opposite, but upper sometimes alternate; upper not quite sessile, lower on short petioles; dark green above, much lighter below.

    Stem. Smooth, strong, with whitish bloom; some stems purplish toward base; to 4 feet or more, branching.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HELIÓPSIS Pers. OX-EYE. Heads many-flowered; rays 10 or more, fertile. Involucral bracts in 2 or 8 rows, nearly equal; the outer leaf-like and somewhat spreading, the inner shorter than the disk. Receptacle conical; chaff linear. Achenes smooth, thick, 4-angular, truncate; pappus none, or a mere border. — Perennial herbs, resembling Helianthus. Heads showy, peduneled, terminal. Leaves opposite, petioled, triple-ribbed, serrate. Flowers yellow. (Name from helios, sun, and opsis, appearance, from the likeness to the Sunflower.)

    H. helianthoides (L.) Sweet. Nearly smooth, 0.3-1.5 m. high; leaves ovate-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, rather narrowly pointed, occasionally teníate; bracts with a rigid strongly nerved base; rays linear; pappus none or of 2-4 obscure teeth. (H. laevis Pers.) — Banks and copses, Ont. to Ill., and southw. Aug.