Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Smaller Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis laxa)

    Myosotis-laxa-2009-10-05-01

    Normally found near streams, but this plant was happy by a city sidewalk in Beechview, on the shady north side of a house near the exit of a drainpipe. Here we see it much enlarged; for a sense of scale, note the chain-link fence in the background.

    Although Gray’s ambiguous note “(Eu.)” might seem to mean that the species comes from Europe, it seems rather to be a native species that also occurs in Europe.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MYOSOTIS [Rupp.] L. SCORPION-GRASS. FORGET-ME-NOT
    Corolla-tube about the length of the 6-toothed or 5-cleft calyx, the throat with 5 small and blunt arching appendages opposite the rounded lobes; the latter convolute in the bud! Stamens included, on very short filaments. Nutlets compressed. Low and mostly soft-hairy herbs, with entire leaves, those of the stem sessile, and with small flowers in naked racemes, which are entirely bractless, or occasionally with small leaves next the base, prolonged and straightened in fruit. (Name composed of myos, mouse, and os, ear, from the short and soft leaves in some species.)

    M. laxa Lehm. Perennial from filiform subterranean shoots; stems very slender, decumbent; pubescence all appressed; leaves lanceolate-oblong or somewhat spatulate; calyx-lobes as long as the tube; limb of corolla rarely 5 mm. broad, paler blue. In water and wet ground, Nfd. to Ont., and southw. May-Aug. (Eu.)

  • Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

    Lobularia-maritima-01

    A popular bedding plant that liberally seeds itself. When seeds get washed downhill, they lodge in sidewalk cracks, where they’re quite happy to grow and bloom all summer and well into fall, producing more seeds to lodge in sidewalk cracks, and making the garden Alyssum one of our more common urban weeds. This plant grew where the sidewalk met a stone retaining wall in Beechview.

    From Gray’s Manual:

    LOBULARIA Desv. SWEET ALYSSUM

    Pod small, orbicular, with only one or two wingless seeds in a cell; valves nerveless, somewhat convex, the margin flattened. Petals white, entire. Cotyledons accumbent. Hairs of the stem and leaves 2-pointed, appressed, attached in the middle. (Latin lobulus, a little lobe, probably referring to the 2-lobed hairs. )

    1. L. MARITIMA (L.) Desv. Slightly hoary; leaves linear; flowers small, honey-scented. (Alyssum Lam.; Koniga R. Br.) Often cultivated, and occasionally spontaneous. (Introd. from Eu.)

  • Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)

    Hibiscus-syriacus-2009-10-05-01

    A common garden shrub that has become something of a pest, invading hedges especially, from which it is very difficult to extricate. Perhaps the best solution is to let the Roses of Sharon take over the hedge: they make a good, dense hedge themselves, and they have these beautiful flowers. In Pittsburgh they happily bloom well into October if the weather cooperates. This bush grew beside an alley in Beechview.

    From Gray’s Manual: H. SYRIACUS L. (SHRUBBY ALTHAEA of gardens.) Tall shrub, smooth; leaves rhombic- or wedge-ovate, pointed, cut-toothed or lobed; corolla usually rose-color. Established in thickets and by roadsides, N. J., Pa., and southw. July-Sept. (Introd. from Asia.)

  • Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

    Helianthus-annuus-2009-10-03-01

    The common Sunflower is often seen along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but also in urban lots. Originally a native of the Midwest, it springs up happily enough in Pittsburgh wherever anyone has been feeding sunflower seeds to the birds. If it grows tall enough, late in the season it produces many smaller flowers in the leaf axils, as here. This plant was blooming in early October on a hillside by one of Beechview’s many public stairways.

    From Gray’s Manual: 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.

  • Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata)

    Phlox-paniculata-2009-10-03-01

    Although it is a native plant in our area, Garden Phlox is more likely to be a garden escape. This plant grew in an overgrown cemetery in Beechview, where its ancestors were probably planted decades ago. It blooms in colors in the white to purple range.

    From Gray’s Manual: P. paniculata L. Stem stout, 0.5-1.5 m. high, smooth, or puberulent or villous above; leaves oblong-lanceolate and ovate-lanceolate, pointed, large, tapering or rounded, the upper often heart-shaped at the base; panicle ample, pyramidal-corymbed; calyx smooth or glandular-hispid, the teeth awn-pointed; corolla pink-purple varying to white. (Including P. acuminata Pursh, P. glandulosa Shuttlw., and P. amplifolia Britton.) Open woods, Pa. to Ill., Kan., and southw.; escaped from cultivation northw. July-Sept. Highly variable in outline of leaf, pubescence of leaves, stems, calyx, and corolla, but without concomitant characters.