Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)

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    A shrub or small tree, originally imported from eastern Asia as an ornamental, and now common to the point of invasiveness in some areas. This plant was growing along a country lane near Cranberry, where it was blooming in the middle of May.

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    This species seems not to have been established in the wild in Gray’s time, though there is a native species (E. commutata) farther north. In our area, this is the only species of Eleaeagnus, so Gray’s description of the genus is enough:

    ELAEÁGNUS [Tourn.] L. Calyx cylindric-campanulate above the persistent cylindrical or globose base, the limb valvately 4-cleft, deciduous. Stamens 4, in the throat. Style linear, stigmatic on one side. Fruit drupe-like, with an ellipsoid 8-striate stone.— Leaves alternate, entire and petioled, and flowers axillary and pedicellate. (From elaia, the olive, and agnos, the Greek name of the Chaste-tree, Vitex Agnus-castus.)

  • English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

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    The beloved English Bluebell or “Wood Hyacinth” is often cultivated, and occasionally escapes. The USDA PLANTS database records it as occurring in the wild in Westmoreland County, but this one grew spontaneously in Beechview in the city of Pittsburgh, where it was blooming along a fence at the edge of a yard in the middle of May.

  • Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

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    A common tree in the forests around Pittsburgh, and also a favorite ornamental in urban and suburban yards. This tree was blooming in early May (later than usual this year) on a wooded hillside in Schenley Park.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    CÉRCIS L. REDBUD. JUDAS TREE. Calyx 6 toothed. Corolla imperfectly papilionaceous; standard smaller than tbe wings and inclosed by them in the bud; the keel petals larger and not united. Stamens 10, distinct, declined. Pod oblong, flat, many-seeded, the upper suture with a winged margin. Embryo straight.—Trees, with rounded heart-shaped simple leaves, caducous stipules, and red-purple flowers in umbel-like clusters along the branches of the last or preceding years, appearing before the leaves, acid to the taste. (The ancient name of the oriental Judas Tree.)

    C. canadensis L (REDBUD.) Leaves pointed; pods nearly sessile above the calyx.—Rich soil, N. Y. and N. J. to Fla., w. to s. Ont., e. Neb., and Tex.—A small ornamental tree, often cultivated.

  • Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)

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    One of our most magnificent spring displays, these trees have flowers that are actually heads of insignificant greenish flowers surrounded by four white bracts that look like flower petals. The wild ones are usually white or barely tinged with pink; cultivated varieties in pink and nearly red have been developed. This tree was blooming in early May on a wooded hillside in Schenley Park.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    CORNUS [Tourn.] L. CORNEL. DOGWOOD. Flowers perfect (or in some foreign species dioecious). Calyx minutely 4-toothed. Petals 4, oblong, spreading. Stamens 4; filaments slender. Style slender ; stigma terminal, flat or capitate. Drupe small, with a 2-celled and 2-seeded stone. — Leaves opposite (except in one species), entire. Flowers small, in open naked cymes, or in close heads surrounded by a corolla-like involucre. (Name from cornu, a horn; alluding to the hardness of the wood.)

    Flowers greenish or purple in a close cluster, surrounded by a showy usually 4-bracted corolla-like white or pinkish involucre; fruit bright red.

    С. florida L. (FLOWERING D.) Tree, 4-12 m. high; leaves ovate, pointed, acutish at the base; bracts of the involucre obcordate, 3-6 cm. long; fruit ovoid. — Dry woods, from s. Me. to Ont. and s. Minn., s. to Fla. and Tex. May, June, — Very showy in flower, scarcely less so in fruit.

  • Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica)

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    A noxious weed in many places, but rather uncommon here so far, especially compared to the ubiquitous Morrow’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowi). The pink flowers of this species are distinctive, although it may also produce white flowers, in which case it may be much harder to tell from Morrow’s. This bush was growing just above the lake in Schenley Park, where it was blooming in early May.

    Gray describes the genus and the species which he places in the section Xylosteon:

    LONICERA L. HONEYSUCKLE. Calyx-teeth very short. Corolla tubular or funnel-form, often gibbous at the base, irregularly or almost regularly б-lobed. Berry several-seeded. — Erect or climbing shrubs. Leaves entire. Flowers often showy and fragrant. (Named in honor of Adam Lonitzer, latinized Lonicerus, a German herbalist of the 16th century.) A large boreal genus most abundant in Asia and long popular in cultivation.

    XYLÓSTEON [Tourn.] Pers. Leaves all distinct; peduncles axillary, single, 2-flowered at the summit; the two berries sometimes united into one; calyx-teeth not persistent.

    Upright bushy shrubs.

    Bracts (2 or sometimes 4) at the base of the ovaries small, lance-oblong to linear.

    Corolla-lobes subequal.

    Peduncles long and slender (1.4-3 cm. in length).

    L. tatarica L. (TARTARIAN H.) Smooth shrub, 1.6-3 m. high ; leaves thin, glabrous, entire, cordate-oval, on short petioles ; corolla showy, white or rose-colored; the lobes subequal, widely spreading, nearly as long as the tube; berries united at the base, red or orange. — Escaped from cultivation and estab lished on rocky shores and sheltered banks, Me. to Ont., N. J., and Ky. May, June. (Introd. from Asia.)