Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • White Avens (Geum canadense)

    This unassuming little member of the rose family likes to grow at the edge of the woods; this plant was growing along a trail in Scott Township, where it was blooming in the early July. The white flowers bear more than a passing resemblance to the flowers of blackberries or strawberries.

    Gray describes the genus and the species, which he puts in the Eugeum or Geum-proper division of the genus:

    GEUM L. AVENS

    Calyx bell-shaped or flattish, deeply 5-cleft, usually with 5 small bractlets at the sinuses. Petals 5. Stamens many. Achenes numerous, heaped on a conical or cylindrical dry receptacle, the long persistent styles forming hairy or naked and straight or jointed tails. Seed erect; radicle inferior. Perennial herbs, with pinnate or lyrate leaves. (A plant name used by Pliny.)

    EUGEUM T. & G.  Styles jointed and bent near the middle, the upper part deciduous and mostly hairy, the lower naked and hooked, becoming elongated; head of fruit sessile in the calyx, calyx-lobes reflexed.

    Petals white or pale greenish-yellow, small, spatulate or oblong; stipules small.

    Receptacle of the fruit densely hairy.

    G. canadense Jacq. Stem (0.6-1.1 m. high) and petioles sparingly hairy; leaves soft-pubescent beneath or glabrate, the basal of 3-5 leaflets or undivided, those of the stern mostly 3-divided or -lobed, rather sharply toothed; stipules ovate-oblong, 1-1.5 cm. long, subentire; petals white. (G. album J. F. Gmel.) Borders of woods, etc., widely distributed.

  • Heal-All (Prunella vulgaris)

    Heal-All, or Self-Heal, is everywhere; it tolerates a good deal of mowing, and seems to be indifferent to sun or shade, so it can establish itself in urban lawns as easily as at the edge of the woods. The color of the flowers is variable from deep purple to white, including bicolors; here we see almost the complete range, all from plants growing in one shady lawn in Mount Lebanon, where they were blooming in early July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    PRUNÉLLA L. SELF-HEAL. Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, somewhat 10-nerved, naked in the throat, closed in fruit; upper lip broad, truncate. Corolla ascending, slightly contracted at the throat and dilated at the lower side just beneath it, 2-lipped; upper lip erect, arched, entire; the lower reflexed-spreading, 3-cleft, its lateral lobes oblong, the middle one rounded, concave, denticulate. Filaments 2-toothed at the apex, the lower tooth bearing the anther; anthers approximate in pairs, their cells diverging. — Low perennials, with nearly simple stems, and 3-flowered clusters of flowers sessile in the axils of round and bract-like membranaceous floral leaves, imbricated in a close spike or head. (Name said to be from the German Bräune, a disease of the throat, for which this plant was a reputed remedy. Often written Brunella, which was a pre-Linnean form.)

    P. vulgàris L. (HEAL-ALL, CARPENTER-WEED.) Leaves ovate-oblong, entire or toothed, petioled, hairy or smoothish; corolla violet or flesh-color, rarely white, not twice the length of the purplish calyx. — Woods and fields, Nfd. to Fla., westw. across the continent. June-Sept. (Eu.)

    Var. laciniata L Some upper leaves tending to be pinnatifld. (P. laciniata L.) — Said to be introd. near Washington, D. C. (Adv. from Eu.)

  • Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

    One of our most beloved wild flowers, the Purple Coneflower is at the eastern edge of its native range here; but ornamental plantings have made it a common sight, and from those ornamental plantings come seeds that reinforce the wild population. These plants grew in a clearing in Scott Township, where they were blooming in early July. Up close, the vivid red-orange of the disk florets is as striking as the bright pink-purple of the rays.

    This is the Echinacea so much prized by herbalists for its supposed use against colds.

    Gray describes the genus (which he lists as Brauneria) and the species:

    BRAUNÈRIA Neck. PURPLE CONE-FLOWER. Heads many-flowered; rays mostly drooping, pistillate but sterile. Bracts of the involucre imbricated, lanceolate, spreading. Receptacle conical, the lanceolate carinate spiny-tipped chaff longer than the disk-flowers. Achenes thick, short, 4-sided; pappus a small toothed border.—Perennial herbs, with stout and nearly simple stems naked above and terminated by a single large head; leaves chiefly alternate, 3-5-nerved. Rays rather persistent; disk purplish. (Named, it is said, for Jacob Brauner, a German herbalist of the early part of the 18th century.) Echinacea Moench.

    Rays purple, rose-color, or rarely white.

    B. purpurea (DC.) Britton. Stem smooth, or in one form rough-bristly; leaves rough, often serrate; the lowest ovate, 5-nerved, veiny, long-petioled ; the others ovate-lanceolate; involucre imbricated in 3-5 rows; rays 15-20, dull purple (rarely whitish), 2.5-4.5 cm. long or more. (Echinacea Moench.) — Prairies and banks, from w. Pa. and Va. to Mich., Ia., and southw.; reported as adventive eastw. July.

  • Pittsburgh Palm (Ailanthus altissima)

    Obviously this is not known as “Pittsburgh Palm” in other cities, but here the name is common. Elsewhere it is known as Tree of Heaven, Chinese Sumac, Stinking Sumac, Stink Tree, Ghetto Palm, and—because of its aggressive invasiveness—Tree from Hell. It grows everywhere, whether you like it or not; it can pop up in the chimney of an old house or in the crack of a sidewalk.

    Nevertheless, it came to this country as a prized ornamental tree, and the female trees (the species is dioecious, meaning that the male and female flowers are on separate plants) are striking in midsummer when they are topped with tufts of red seeds.

    This tree was growing beside the bicycle ramp to the Herr’s Island Railroad Bridge, which conveniently allowed us to photograph the top of it.

    Gray describes the genus and the species, which he calls A. glandulosa (there are more than a dozen botanical synonyms for this plant):

    AILÁNTHUS Desf. TREE OF HEAVEN. Flowers polygamous. Calyx regular, 5-parted, the lobes imbricated. Petals 5, infolded-valvate. Stamens in staminate flowers 10, in perfect flowers 2-3, in pistillate flowers none. Disk lobed. Ovary 2-5-parted, becoming in fruit 1-5 narrowly oblong membranaceous samaras (1-seeded in the middle). — Handsome trees of rapid growth. Leaves odd-pinnate. Flowers small, green or yellowish, in ample terminal panicles, especially the staminate of unpleasant odor. (Name said to be from a vernacular Moluccan designation, meaning tree of heaven, in allusion to the height in the native habitat.)

    A. glandulosa Desf. Leaves 3-6 dm. long, 11-23-foliolate; leaflets ovate, acuminate, entire or sparingly toothed toward the base. — Extensively cultivated as a shade tree, freely spreading by suckers, and locally self-sown. (Introd. from Asia.)

  • Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum)

    Big bushes with large, leathery evergreen leaves and ball-like clusters of white or pinkish flowers, these ancestors of garden Rhododendrons are unmistakable. The only thing that resembles them at all is the Mountain Laurel, whose leaves and flowers are much smaller.

    The flowers are white, often blushed with pink, especially when they are young. The upper petal is marked with greenish-yellow spots.

    Rhododendron can grow in deep shade, although it seems to bloom more prolifically in the sun. These were growing in the woods along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel, where they were blooming at the end of June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species, which he places in the Eurhododendron or Rhododendron-proper section of the genus.

    RHODODÉNDRON L. Calyx mostly small or minute. Stamens sometimes as few as the corolla-lobes, more commonly twice as many, usually declined; anther-cells opening by a round terminal pore. Capsule 5-celled, 5-valved, many-seeded. Seeds scale-like.— Shrubs or small trees, of diverse habit and character, with chiefly alternate entire leaves, and large and showy flowers in umbeled clusters from terminal buds. (Rhododendron, rose-tree; the ancient name.)

    EURHODODÉNDRON DC. Leaves coriaceous and persistent; stamens (commonly 10) and style rarely exserted, somewhat declined, or sometimes equally spreading.

    R. máximum L. (GREAT LAUREL.) Shrub or tree, 2-10 m. high; leaves 0.8-2 dm. long, very thick, elliptical-oblong, or lance-oblong, acute, narrowed toward the base, very smooth, with somewhat revolute margins; pedicels viscid, corolla bell-shaped, 3.5-5 cm. broad, pale rose-color or nearly white, greenish in the throat on the upper side, and spotted with yellow or reddish. — Damp deep woods, rare from N. S., Me., and Que. to Ont. and O., but very common through the Alleghenies from N. Y. to Ga. June, July.