Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

Late Goldenrod (Solidago gigantea)

Rivals Canada Goldenrod for sheer yellow spectacle, but comes out in October and into November, after the Canada Goldenrods have mostly gone to seed. Note the long rays on the individual heads, giving the whole tuft of yellow a distinctive shaggy look. These plants were blooming in mid-October under a streetcar overpass in Beechview. Gray lists this as Solidago serotina var. gigantea.

From Gray’s Manual: S. serotina Ait. Stem stout, 0.6-2.5 m. high, smooth, often glaucous; leaves quite smooth both sides, lanceolate to oblanceolate, taper-pointed, very sharply serrate, except the narrowed base, rough-ciliate; the middle ones 7-16 cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide; the ample panicle pubescent; involucre 3.5-5 mm. long, its bracts linear, subherbaceous; rays 7-14, rather long. Thickets, in rich soil, N. B. to B. C., and southw. July-Sept.

Var. gigantea (Ait.) Gray. Leaves glabrous above, slightly pubescent beneath, especially on the nerves; involucre 3.2-4 mm. long. Low ground, e. Que. to Ill., and southw.

October 13, 2009
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Also called Milfoil, “thousand-leaf,” from the finely divided leaves. A European import that has become a common wildflower all over the East. Still a popular garden flower; in recent years many colors have been bred, but the wild ones are almost always either white or pink. This plant, blooming in mid-October, grew by the side of a country road a little west of Houston, Pennsylvania.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

ACHILLEA [Vaill.] L. YARROW
Heads many-flowered, radiate; the rays few, fertile. Involucral bracts imbricated, with scarious margins. Receptacle chaffy, flattish. Achenes oblong, flattened, margined; pappus none. Perennial herbs, with small corymbose heads. (So named because its virtues are said to have been discovered by Achilles.)

A. millefolium L. (COMMON Y., MILFOIL.) Stem simple or sometimes forked above, 3-10 dm. high, arachnoid or nearly smooth; stem-leaves numerous (8-15), smooth or loosely pubescent; corymbs very compound, 6-20 cm. broad, flat-topped, the branches stiff; involucre 3-5 mm. long, its bracts all pale, or in exposed situations the uppermost becoming dark-margined; rays 5-10, white to crimson, short-oblong, 1.5-2.5 mm. long. Fields and river-banks, common. (Eurasia.)

October 11, 2009
Hog Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)

A vine that twines its way through the underbrush along creeks and streams, dangling clusters of flowers in white, pink, or purple. These flowers produce seeds, but the vine also grows less showy flowers near the ground that turn into a single underground seed, like a peanut. This vine was found in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon.

Gray describes the genus (listed as Amphicarpa) and species (listed as A. monoica):

AMPHICARPA Ell. HOG PEANUT
Flowers of 2 (or 3) kinds; those of the racemes from the upper branches perfect; those near the base and on filiform creeping branches with the corolla none or rudimentary, and few free stamens, but fruitful; reduced flowers of slightly different form sometimes also on aerial racemes. Calyx about equally 4 (rarely 5)-toothed. Stamens diadelphous. Pods of the upper flowers, when formed, somewhat scimiter-shaped, stipitate, 3-4-seeded; of the lower ones commonly subterranean and fleshy, obovate or pear-shaped, ripening usually but one large seed. Low and slender perennials; the twining stems clothed with brownish hairs. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets rhombic-ovate, stipellate. Petals purplish. Bracts persistent, round, partly clasping, striate. as well as the stipules. (Name from amphi, both, and karpos, fruit, in allusion to the two kinds of pods.) FALCATA Gmel.

A. monoica (L.) Ell. Leaflets thin, 1.3-5 cm. long; racemes nodding; calyx of the upper flowers 4 mm. long; the ovary glabrous except the mostly appressed hairy margin; pod 2.5 cm. long; ovary and pod of the rudimentary flowers hairy. (Falcata comosa Am. auth.; Glycine comosa L. ?) Rich damp woodlands, common. Aug., Sept.

October 10, 2009
Poke (Phytolacca americana)

The inky black berries of Poke, probably poisonous but beautiful nonetheless. This is the only member of its family in our area, but it’s certainly common enough. Gray lists it as Phytolacca decandra.

Gray describes the family, genus, and species.

PHYTOLACCACEAE (POKEWEED FAMILY)

Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect flowers, having the general characters of Chenopodiaceae, but usually a several-celled ovary composed of as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit.

PHYTOLACCA [Tourn.] L. POKEWEED

Calyx of 6 rounded and petal-like sepals. Stamens 5-30. Ovary of 5-12 carpels united in a ring, with as many short separate styles, in fruit forming a depressed-globose 5-12-celled berry, with a single vertical seed in each cell. Embryo curved in a ring around the albumen. Tall and stout perennial herbs, with large petioled leaves, and terminal racemes which become lateral and opposite the leaves. (Name compounded of phyton, plant, and the French lac, lake, in allusion to the crimson coloring matter which the berries yield.)

1. P. decandra L. (COMMON POKE or SCOKE, GARGET, PIGEON BERRY.) A smooth plant, with a rather unpleasant odor, and a very large poisonous root (often 1-1.5 dm. in diameter) sending up stout stalks at length 2-3 m. high; calyx white; stamens and styles 10; ovary green; berries in long racemes, dark-purple, ripe in autumn. Low grounds and rich soil, s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and south w. July-Sept.

October 9, 2009
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)

Somewhat uncommon here, but found on some wooded hillsides; these plants grew near the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel. They bloom around the first of May, just when the trilliums and Virginia Bluebells are at their peak.

From Gray’s Manual:

TIARELLA L. FALSE MITERWORT
Calyx bell-shaped, 5-parted. Petals 5, with claws. Stamens long and slender. Styles 2. Capsule membranaceous, 2-valved; the valves unequal. Seeds few, at the base of each parietal placenta, globular, smooth. Perennials ; flowers white. (Name a diminutive from tiara, a tiara, or turban, from the form of the pistil, which is like that of Mitella, to which the name of Miterwort properly belongs.)

1. T. cordifolia L. Leaves from the rootstock or summer runners, heart-shaped, sharply lobed and toothed, sparsely hairy above, downy beneath; stem (1-4 dm. high) leafless or rarely with 1 or 2 leaves ; raceme simple ; petals oblong, often subserrate. Rich rocky woods, N. S. and N. B. to Minn., Ind., and southw. in the mts. Apr.-June.

October 8, 2009