Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum)

    A somewhat uncommon plant in wstern Pennsylvania, but abundant here at the side of a wooded street in Beechview, where it was blooming in mid-May. To judge by the way it grew here, it likes moist soil at the edge of the woods. The family resemblance to the more common Virginia Waterleaf is obvious, but the flowers of Appendaged Waterleaf are a middle blue or blue-violet color, and the leaves are maple-shaped.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HYDROPHYLLUM [Tourn.] L. WATERLEAF
    Calyx 5-parted, sometimes with a small appendage in each sinus, early open in the bud. Corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft; the lobes convolute in the bud: the tube furnished with 5 longitudinal linear appendages opposite the lobes, forming a nectariferous groove. Stamens and style mostly exserted; lilainents more or less bearded. Ovary bristly hairy (as is usual in the family); the placentae soon free from the walls except at the top and bottom. Capsule ripening 1-4 seeds, spherical.—Perennials, with petioled ample leaves, and wvhite or bluish-purple cymose-clustered flowers. (Name formed of hydor, water, and phyllon, leaf; of no obvious application.)

    H. appendiculatum Michx. Hairy; stem-leaves palmately 5-lobed, rounded, the lobes toothed and pointed, the lowest pinnately divided; cymes rather loosely flowered; filiform pedicels and calyx bristly-hairy. Damp woods, N. Y. and Ont. to Minn., and southw. May, June.

  • Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

    This beautiful flower takes advantage of the early days of spring, when the trees in the open woods are still mostly leafless, to get most of its growing and blooming done. By summer it’s gone. It looks a bit like a white (or sometimes pink) buttercup, and indeed it belongs to the same family. This plant was blooming in late April in the Squaw Run valley in Fox Chapel.

    Gray places this species in the genus Anemonella:

    ANEMONELLA Spach.
    Involucre compound, at the base of an umbel of flowers. Sepals 5-10, whiteand conspicuous. Petals none. Achenes 4-15, ovoid, terete, strongly 8-10-ribbed, sessile. Stigma terminal, broad and depressed. Low glabrous perennial; leaves all radical, compound. (Name a diminutive of Anemone, to which this plant has sometimes been referred.)
    A. thalictroides (L.) Spach. (RUE ANEMONE.) Stem and slender petiole of radical leaf (1-3 dm. high) rising from a cluster of thickened tuberous roots; leaves 2-3-ternately compound; leaflets roundish, somewhat 3-lobed at the end, cordate at the base, long-petiolulate, those of the 2-3-leaved 1-2-ternate involucre similar; flowers several in an umbel; sepals oval (1.2 cm. long, sometimes pinkish), not early deciduous. (Syndesmon Hoffmannsegg.; Thalictrum anemonoides Michx.) Woods, common, s. N. H. to Minn., Kan., Tenn., and n. w. Fla. Rarely the sepals, stamens or involucre are variously modified.

  • Large-Flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora)

    These odd-looking plants bloom in late April; the flowers appear while the rest of the plant seems to be still under construction. They like moist woods, especially stream valleys; this plant grew in the Squaw Run valley in Fox Chapel. Supposedly not a very common plant, although it may be locally abundant, as it was here.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    UVULARIA L. BELLWORT
    Perianth narrowly bell-shaped, lily-like, deciduous; the 6 divisions spatulate-lanceolate, acuminate, obtusely gibbous at base, with a deep honey-bearing groove within bordered on each side by a callus-like ridge. Stamens much shorter, barely adherent to their base. Capsule truncate, coriaceous, 3-lobed, loculicidal at the summit. Seeds few in each cell, obovoid, with a thin white aril. Stems terete, from a short rootstock with fleshy roots, naked or scaly at base, forking above, bearing oblong perfoliate flat and membranaceous leaves with smooth margins, and yellowish drooping flowers, in spring, solitary on terminal peduncles. (Name “from the flowers hanging like the uvula, or palate.”)

    U. grandiflora Sm. Yellowish green, not glaucous; stern naked or with a single leaf below the fork; leaves whitish-pubescent beneath, usually somewhat acuminate; perianth-segments smooth within or nearly so (2.5-4.5 cm. long); stamens exceeding the styles, obtusely tipped; capsule obtusely lobed. (U.flava Sm.) Rich woods, w. N. H. to Ga., westw. to Minn, and Kan.

  • Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum)

    This beautiful little flower grows everywhere along the street in the city. It starts blooming quite early, and by the end of April is in full flower, as these plants were in a slightly weedy patch by the street in Beechview. The whole plant is tiny, and the flowers would be inconspicuous, except that the upper leaves are various shades of purple or dark pink, setting off the pale pink flowers beautifully.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    LAMIUM L. DEAD NETTLE

    Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, about 5-nerved, with 5 nearly equal awl-pointed teeth. Corolla dilated at the throat; upper lip ovate or oblong, arched, narrowed at the base; the middle lobe of the spreading lower lip broad, notched at the apex, contracted as if stalked at the base; the lateral ones small, at the margin of the throat. Decumbent herbs, the lowest leaves small and long-petioled, the middle heart-shaped and doubly toothed, the floral subtending the whorled flower-cluster. (Name from lamos, throat, in allusion to the ringent corolla.)

    * Annuals or biennials, low; flowers small, purplish, at most 1.5 cm. long.

    L. PURPUREUM L. Leaves roundish or oblong, heart-shaped, crenate-toothed, all petioled. N. E. to N. C. Apr., May. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)

    A close-up view of the fringed petals, which grow like ice crystals on a pane of glass. A view of the whole plant is here.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MITELLA [Tourn.] L. MITERWORT, BISHOP’S CAP

    Calyx short, adherent to the base of the ovary, 6-cleft. Petals 5, slender. Stamens 5 or 10, included. Styles 2, very short. Capsule short, 2-beaked, 1-celled, with 2 parietal or rather basal several-seeded placentae, 2-valved at the
    summit. Seeds smooth and shining. Low and slender perennials, with round heart-shaped alternate slender-petioled leaves on the rootstock or runners, and naked or 2-few-leaved flowering steins. Flowers small, in a simple slender raceme or spike. Fruit soon widely dehiscent. (Diminutive of mitra, a cap, alluding to the form of the young pod.)

    1. M. diphylla L. Hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acute, somewhat 3-5-lobed, toothed, those on the many-flowered stem 2, opposite, nearly sessile, with interfoliar stipules ; flowers white, in a raceme (1.5-2 dm. long); stamens 10. Rich woods, Que. and N. E. to N. C., w. to Minn., Ia., and Mo. May.