Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum)

Big bushes with large, leathery evergreen leaves and ball-like clusters of white 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 in the middle of July.

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.

August 7, 2013
Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora)

As they age (which happens very quickly), the dangling bells of these peculiar plants turn more and more upward; eventually, when they go to seed, they will be completely vertical. These plants were found deep in the woods in Frick Park in late July. A picture of a different plant in an earlier stage is here, and we repeat our remarks:

Indian Pipes are strange little plants that have no chlorophyll. They get their food by theft: they steal it from little fungi in a process called myco-heterotrophy. It was formerly believed that they were saprophytes, gaining their nutrition by breaking down decaying matter, but apparently they find it more convenient to employ fungi to do the hard work. Since they have no chlorophyll, they have no particular need for light; and they are often found deep in the woods.

Gray describes the genus and the species,which he puts in the section Eumonotropa or Monotropa proper:

MONÓTROPA L. INDIAN PIPE, PINESAP. Calyx of 2-5 lanceolate bract-like scales, deciduous. Corolla of erect spatulate or wedge-shaped scale-like petals, which are gibbous or saccate at the base, and tardily deciduous. Stamens 8 or 10; filaments awl-shaped; anthers becoming 1-celled. Style columnar; stigma disk-like, 4-5-rayed. Capsule ovoid, 8-10-grooved, 4-5-celled, loculicidal; the very thick placentae covered with innumerable minute seeds, which have a very loose coat. — Low and fleshy herbs, tawny, reddish, or white, parasitic on roots, or growing on decomposing vegetable matter; the clustered stems springing from a ball of matted fibrous rootlets, furnished with scales or bracts in place of leaves, 1-several-flowered; the summit at first nodding, in fruit erect. (Name composed of monos, one, and tropos, turn, the summit of the stem being turned to one side.)

§ 1. EUMONÓTROPA Gray. Plant inodorous, 1-flowered; calyx of 2-4 irregular scales or bracts; anthers transverse, opening equally by 2 chinks; style short and thick.

M. uniflora L. (Indian Pipe, Corpse Plant.) Smooth, waxy-white, flesh-color, or rarely deep red, turning blackish in drying. 0.6-3 dm. high; stigma naked. — Dark and rich woods, nearly throughout the continent. June-Aug. (Мех., Asia.)

August 3, 2013
Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa)

Also known as Fairy Candles for the way it lights up the deep shade of the woods, or as Black Snakeroot, or Bugbane, and more commonly placed in the genus Cimicifuga until recently. It can tolerate a very shady location, and often grows in thick woods. This plant was one of a small colony growing on a thickly wooded hillside in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in early July. Another picture of the same plant, but in a different year, is here.

Flowers. Tiny, white, in forked racemes 3 or more feet (a meter) tall, occasionally up to 9 feet (3 meters); the stamens are the most visible part.

Leaves. Large, smooth, in whorls of 3, each doubly compound leaf made of three leaflets which themselves are subdivided in three or five leaflets; the leaflets irregularly and jaggedly toothed, the terminal leaflet usually 3-lobed.

Stems. Smooth, with enlarged purplish joints where the leaves are joined; some whitish bloom on the lower part.

Gray describes the genus Cimicifuga and the species, which he places in the Macrotrys subgenus:

CIMICÍFUGA L. BUGBANE. Sepals 4 or 5, failing off soon after the flower expands. Petals, or rather transformed stamens, 1-8, small, on claws, 2-horned at the apex. Stamens as in Actaea. Pistils 1-8, forming dry dehiscent pods in fruit. — Perennials, with 2-3-ternately divided leaves, the leaflets cut-serrate, and white flowers in elongated wand-like racemes. (Name from cimex, a bug, and fugere, to drive away.)

MACRÒTRYS (Raf.) T. & G. (as Macrotys). Pistil solitary or sometimes 2-3, sessile; seeds smooth, flattened and packed horizontally in the pod in two rows, as in Actaea; stigma broad and flat.

C. racemòsa (L.) Nutt. (BLACK SNAKEROOT, BLACK COHOSH.) Stem 1-2.0 rn. high, from a thick knotted rootstock; leaves 2-3-ternately and then often quinately compound; leaflets subcuneate to subcordate at the base; racemes in fruit becoming 3-9 dm. long; pods ovoid. — Rich woods, s. N. E. to Wise, and southw.; cultivated and escaped eastw. July.

[Because modern botanists have moved this species over to the genus Actaea, we give Gray’s description of that genus as well:

ACTAÈA L. BANEBERRY, COHOSH. Sepals 4 or 6, falling off when the flower expands. Petals 4-10, small, flat, spatulate, on slender claws. Stamens numerous, with slender white filaments. Pistil single; stigma sessile, depressed, 2-lobed. Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed horizontally in 2 rows. — Perennials, with ample 2-3-ternately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (From aktea, actaea, ancient names of the Elder, transferred by Linnaeus.)]

July 24, 2013
Bee-Balm (Monarda didyma)

Also called Bergamot, Oswego-tea, and several other names.

Monarda is a fascinating example of parallel evolution: it makes a display by clustering small ray-like flowers together in one head so closely that the head is often taken for a single flower. In other words, it adopts the method of the Compositae. This particular species is bright red, which is a very attractive color to hummingbirds. It is otherwise very similar to Wild Bergamot (M. fistulosa), which is rather more common around here.

This is a native perennial, but much used as an ornamental planting, so that it is difficult to distinguish truly wild populations from garden escapes. These plants are probably truly wild; both grew in North Park, where they were blooming in the middle of July. The species is very adaptable to different light conditions: one of these plants was growing in full sun,and the other deep in the woods where a fallen tree had opened up the sky just a bit.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

MONÁRDA L. HORSE MINT. Calyx 15-nerved, usually hairy in the throat. Corolla elongated, with a slightly expanded throat; lips linear or oblong, somewhat equal, the upper erect, entire or slightly notched, the lower spreading, 3-lobed at the apex, its lateral lobes ovate and obtuse, the middle one narrower and slightly notched. Stamens elongated, ascending, inserted in the throat of the corolla. — Odorous erect herbs, with entire or toothed leaves, and large attractive flowers in a few verticels closely surrounded by bracts. (Dedicated to Nicolás Monardes, author of many tracts upon medicinal and other useful plants, especially those of the New World, in the latter half of the 16th century.)

Stamens and style exserted beyond the linear straight acute upper lip of the corolla; heads solitary and terminal or sometimes 2 or 3; leaves acutely more or less serrate; perennials.

Leaves petioled; calyx-teeth scarcely longer than the width of the tube.

Glabrous or villous.

Calyx smooth or smoothish in the throat.

M. didyma L. (Oswego Tea, Bee Balm.) Stem somewhat hairy, 2 m. or less high, acutely 4-angled; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, the floral ones and the large outer bracts tinged with red; calyx smoothlsh, nearly naked in the throat; corolla smooth or minutely pubescent, 4-5 cm. long, bright red, showy. — Moist woods, by streams, w. Que., Out., and south w. July, Aug.

July 22, 2013
Pittsburgh Pest (Galinsoga parviflora)

Obviously this is not known as Pittsburgh Pest everywhere in its nearly global range, but the name seems to be well established here. It has many other names in English, including the delightful folk etymology “Gallant Soldiers.” It comes originally from South America, where it is a popular ingredient in Colombian cuisine.

The flowers are like tiny five-rayed daisies; the plant is low and hairy,and can grow from any crack in the pavement. This one grew at the edge of a sidewalk in Greenfield, where it was blooming in the middle of July. It is very much an urban weed, ubiquitous in the city of Pittsburgh, but much rarer in the near suburbs, and unknown in all the other counties of the metropolitan area but one (Washington County).

Gray describes the genus and the species:

GALINSÒGA R. & P. Heads several-flowered, radiate; rays 4-6, small, roundish, pistillate. Involucre of 4-5 ovate thin bracts. Receptacle conical, with narrow chaff. Pappus of small oblong cut-fringed chaffy scales, sometimes wanting. — Annual herbs, with opposite triple-nerved thin leaves, and small heads; disk yellow; rays white or reddish. (Named for Dr. Mariano Martinez de Galinsoga, a Spanish botanist.)

Rays white; pappus of disk-flowers about equaling the achenes.

G. parviflòra Cav. Pubescence subappressed; leaves ovate, crenate-serrate, petioled; pappus of the disk-flowers of spatulate obtusish scales.— Roadsides and waste places, from N. E. across the continent. (Adv. from Trop. Am.) Var. Híspida PC. Pubescence more copious, not appressed; pappus-scales of the disk-flowers attenuate and bristle-tipped. — Me. to Ont., Wise., and southw. (Nat. from Trop. Am.)

July 21, 2013