As we have mentioned before, this species is in an oddly expansive mood lately. A decade or two ago it was uncommon, but now it is all over city sidewalks and yards. It is a perfect miniature of the common garden Forget-Me-Not—a beautiful flower close up, though likely to be missed on account of its diminutive size. These plants were blooming in Beechview in late May.
For a fuller description, see the Myosotis laxa reference page.
A common weed that can be spectacularly beautiful in large masses. It infests lawns, but never grows very tall, blooms prettily, and smells like mint when you mow it.
For a longer description, see the Glechoma hederacea reference page.
Poison Hemlock grows very tall very fast. It bears innumerable compound umbels of flowers like Queen Anne’s Lace, but the plants are much larger (and of course much more poisonous), usually with a whitish bloom on the stalks. It was almost certainly introduced into this country intentionally, which tells us more about our ancestors than we wanted to know.
These plants were growing in South Side Park, where they were photographed May 30.
For a fuller description, see the Conium maculatum reference page.
Alsike clover is not nearly as common as Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) or White Clover (Trifolium repens). It does look rather like a cross between the two; Linnaeus thought it was, which is why it is saddled with the species name hybridum. The bicolored flower heads make this a very decorative plant. This patch was blooming May 30 in South Side Park.
For a more detailed description, see the Trifolium hybridum reference page.
Just up the hill from a large patch of Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) in Beechview, we found two plants of Virginia Waterleaf (H. virginianum). Although old Pa Pitt has visited that patch of Appendaged Waterleaf annually for years, he has never seen Virginia Waterleaf there before, though he has run into it elsewhere more than once. It is an odd coincidence. Below, we see the divided leaves that distinguish H. virginianum from its relatives in these parts.
For a fuller description, see the Hydrophyllum virginianum reference page.
