Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • 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.

  • Ground Cherry (Physalis pubescens)

    Ground cherries grow almost wherever there is ground. We have two species in the area; both produce edible fruit inside their little Japanese lanterns, although it’s not usually much good until a week or two after it falls off the plant. (The papery lantern is toxic, so don’t eat it.) This Physalis pubescens grew in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon.

    The flowers face downward and so are easily missed, but they’re worth examining closer. The color is primrose yellow with mahogany splotches around the center. They look like little Tiffany lanpshades, almost always held wide open and facing the ground.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    PHYSALIS L. GROUND CHERRY
    Calyx 5-cleft, reticulated and enlarging after flowering, at length much inflated and inclosing the 2-celled globular (edible) berry. Corolla between wheel-shaped and funnel-form, the very short tube marked with 5 concave spots at the base; the plaited border somewhat 5-lobed or barely 5-10-toothed. Stamens 5, erect; anthers separate, opening lengthwise. Ours herbs with extra-axillary peduncles; flowering through the summer. (Name physalis, a bladder, from the inflated calyx.)

    P. pubescens L. Pubescent but not hoary; leaves thin, entire at least near the oblique but rarely cordate base; stem slender, geniculate, diffusely branched; fruiting calyx subglobose, shortly acuminate, carinately b-angled. Pa. to Va., and westw.

  • New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)

    Vernonia-noveboracensis-2009-10-03-01

    Hard to distinguish from Tall Ironweed, with which it apparently hybridizes. The height is a clue, but conditions can make Tall Ironweed as short as New York Ironweed. This specimen was found in an old cemetery in Beechview. Gray puts Pittsburgh out of the range of New York Ironweed, but most other authorities agree in placing it here. The distinction between Vernonia altissima and Vernonia noveboracensis is sketchy enough, however, that all our ironweeds may be races of the same species. In any event, the Tall Ironweed seems to be our most common.

    The vivid purple of the ironweeds makes them one of our most spectacular native flowers, and enlightened gardeners are beginning to adopt them as ornamentals.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    VERNONIA Schreb. IRONWEED
    Heads discoid, 16-many-flowered, in corymbose cymes; flowers perfect; involucre shorter than the flowers, of much imbricated bracts. Achenes cylindrical, ribbed; pappus double, the outer of minute scale-like bristles, the inner of copious capillary bristles. Perennial herbs, with leafy steins, alternate acuminate or very acute serrate leaves and mostly purple (rarely white) flowers. (Named for William Vernon, an early English botanist, who traveled in North America. )

    V. noveboracensis Willd. Rather tall (1-2 m.); leaves long-lanceolate to lance-oblong, more or less pubescent beneath, gradually narrowed but not at all acuminate toward the base; cyme open; heads mostly 30-40-flowered; involucre purplish (or in white-flowered individuals green), campanulate; the bracts ovate or lance-ovate, with loosely ascending or recurved-spreading filiform tips; pappus purple or purplish. Low ground near the coast, Mass, to Va. and Miss.; reported from Pelee I., L. Erie (Macoun).