Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Chicory (Cichorium intybus)

    Cichorium-intybus-2009-10-01-01-b

    The distinctive sky-blue flowers make Chicory unmistakable. Varieties of Chicory are used as salad greens and as a coffee substitute or additive. It grows along roadsides, and seems especially happy in a crack in the asphalt at the edge of a parking lot. This plant grew beside an alley in the South Side flats.

    Gray describes the genus and the single species in our area:

    CICHÓRIUM [Tourn.] L. SUCCORY or CHICORY

    Heads several-flowered. Involucre double, herbaceous, the inner of 8-10, the outer of 5 short and spreading bracts. Achenes striate; pappus of numerous small chaffy scales, forming a short crown. Branching perennials, with deep roots; the sessile heads 2 or 3 together, axillary and terminal, or solitary on short thickened branches. Flowers bright blue, varying to purple or pink (rarely white), showy. (Altered from the Arabian name of the plant.)

    1. C. INTYBUS L. (COMMON C., BLUE SAILORS.) Stem-leaves oblong or lanceolate, partly clasping, the lowest runicate, those of the rigid flowering branches minute. (Including var. divaricatum of Am. auth., probably not of DC.) Roadsides and fields, Nfd. to Minn., and southw. July-Oct. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)

    Centaurea-maculosa-2009-09-25-01-b

    A close relative of the garden Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus), this is a European import found especially along railroad tracks; this one was by a disused siding in Oakmont. The color is variable from purple through white.

    From Gray’s Manual: C. MACULOSA Lam. Pubescent or glabrate, with ascending rather wiry branches; involucre ovoid-cainpanulate, in fruit becoming open-campanulate; the outer and middle ovate bracts with rather firm points and with 5-7 pairs of cilia at the dark tip; innermost bracts elongate, entire or lacerate; corollas whitish, rose-pink, or purplish, the marginal falsely radiate. Waste places, roadsides, etc., N. E. to N. J.
    (Adv. from Eu.)

  • Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)

    Campanula-rapunculoides-2009-10-02-01

    A European garden flower escaped from cultivation, often in yards of older homes where it had originally been planted. This plant grew at the edge of a sidewalk in Beechview in the shadow of a tall hedge.

    From Gray’s Manual: C. RAPUNCULOIDES L. Stems slender, 6-10 dm. high, smoothish, or finely pubescent above; lower leaves long-petioled, cordate-ovate ; the upper ovate-lanceolate, short-petioled to sessile, irregularly serrate-dentate, hispidulous beneath; flowers nodding, single in the axils of bracts, forming racemes; calyx and capsule scabrous-puberulent; corolla campanulate, 2-3 cm. long; capsule opening by pores at base. Roadsides, thickets, etc., e. Que. to Ont., 0., and s. N. Y. July, Aug. (Introd. from Eurasia.) Var. UCRANICA (Bess.) C. Koch. Smoother; the calyx and capsule essentially glabrous. Similar situations, Que. and N. E. (Introd. from Russia.)

    Although Gray says it blooms in July and August, this plant was part of a colony happily blooming in early October.

  • Calico Aster (Aster lateriflorus)

    Aster-lateriflorus-2009-10-02-01

    Now Symphyotrichum lateriflorum. Calico Asters are quite variable. “Consists of many races,” say Britton & Brown of this species, “differing in leaf-form, inflorescence and pubescence.” In other words, asters thumb their noses at the notion of a “species.” Some Calico Asters have their flowers so densely packed that you can’t see the leaves, as with this example from an overgrown bank in Beechview. Compare it to this other Calico Aster, from one block away in the same neighborhood.

    From Gray’s Manual: A. lateriflorus (L.) Britton. More or less pubescent, much branched ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, tapering or pointed at each end, sharply serrate in the middle; bracts of the involucre linear, acute or rather obtuse, imbricated in 3-4 rows. (A. diffusus Ait.) Thickets, fields, etc., very common from N. S. to Ont., and southw. Aug.-Oct. Extensively variable ; leaves larger than in either of the two preceding ; the involucre intermediate between them, as to the form of the bracts. Rays mostly short, white or pale bluish-purple.

  • Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)

    Loniecra-japonica-2009-10-02-01

    Originally a cultivated Asian import, but now as much a part of the American landscape as the dandelion, this weedy vine covers hillsides and infiltrates hedges throughout the city. It is remarkable for bearing two different colors of flower on the same stem. Children know that a drop of pure, sweet nectar may be carefully extracted from the base of the flower.

    From Gray’s Manual: L. JAPONICA Thunb. (JAPANESE H.) Pubescent; leaves ovate or oblong, thickish, entire, short-petioled; peduncles rather short; bracts leaf-like, conspicuous; corolla white, pink, or yellow, the slender pubescent tube 2.5 cm. long; berries black. Escaped from cultivation and established in woods and thickets, Ct. to Fla. May-July. (Introd. from Asia.)

    This was from the 1908 edition. The 1889 edition does not include Lonicera japonica, suggesting that it was not yet a common escape.

    Although Gray says it blooms May through July, Japanese Honeysuckle will bloom sporadically throughout the year, and in Pittsburgh has a strong second season in the fall. This vine was blooming in a hedge in Beechview in early October.