Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)

Photographed May 29.

Also known as Carolina Allspice. Not listed in the Check List of the Vascular Flora of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania or in the Additions to that list, but the USDA PLANTS Database records Calycanthus floridus in Allegheny, Armstrong, Westmoreland, and Fayette Counties. This bush was growing at the edge of the woods on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run. There is nothing else around here like it; when it is in bloom, the large maroon flowers are unmistakable.

Gray (revised by Fernald) describes the genus and the species:

CALYCANTHUS L. Carolina Allspice. Calyx of many sepals united below into a fleshy inversely conical cup (with some leaf-like bractlets growing from it); the lobes lanceolate, mostly colored like the petals, which are similar, in many rows, thickish and inserted on the top of the closed calyx-tube. Stamens numerous, inserted just within the petals, short; some of the inner ones sterile (destitute of anthers). Pistils several or many, inclosed in the calyx-tube, inserted on its base and inner face. — Aromatic shrubs of e. N. Am. and e. Asia, with brownish-maroon flowers terminating leafy shoots. (Name composed of the Greek calyx, a cup or calyx, and anthos, flower.) Butneria Duham.

C. floridus L. (flowering). — Leaves oval, soft-downy underneath; flowers when crushed yielding strong fragrance suggesting strawberries. (Butneria Kearney) — Rich woods, Fla. to Miss., n. to Va. and W.Va. Apr.-Aug. — Cult. northw.

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June 1, 2025
Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Photographed May 29.

Little red-and-yellow bells with bundles of stamens for clappers. There is nothing else remotely like this flower in our wild flora, except for the cultivated European Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) that occasionally escapes from gardens in the city, whose flowers are blue, purple, pink, or white, but never red and yellow.

This plant was blooming at the edge of the woods on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.

The name “columbine” comes from the form of the flowers, which—if you have the right kind of imagination—look like a conference of pigeons all facing one another.

For a description of the species, see the Aquilegia canadensis reference page.

May 31, 2025
Salsify (Tragopogon dubius)

Photographed May 23.

Also listed as T. major, and there are various other common names, including goat’s-beard (of which the genus name “Tragopogon” is a literal translation into Greek) and oyster-flower. Two similar species of yellow Salsify grow in our area; this seems to be more common and prefers gravely waste places. The plants shown here were growing among the litter in a gravel roadside in Banksville. Fernald’s revised edition of Gray gives us a feature to look for to distinguish this species: “peduncle upwardly enlarged below the head.” The “peduncle” is the stem that carries the flower; note the way it swells toward the developing seedhead in the picture below.

The leaves are grasslike at the base of the plant, a bit broader along the stem; the flowers are followed by huge-dandelion-like seedheads nearly as big as a closed fist.

May 24, 2025
Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus)

Photographed May 17.

Philadelphia Fleabane is found in many of the same places as Common or Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), and the two can be hard to tell apart at first glance. Philadelphia Fleabane has even more rays—usually more than a hundred per flower head—giving the heads a shaggy appearance. As we see above, Philadelphia Fleabane is also more likely to show a pink tinge or occasionally a strong pink color, but that is not a reliable indicator, since many Philadelphia Fleabanes are pure white. These plants were growing in a large patch along a street in Beechview.

This common weed can tolerate some shade, so we often see large patches of it in lightly shaded overgrown areas near parking lots or roads.

For a description of the species, see the Erigeron philadelphicus reference page

In the picture above, note how the heads in bud are nodding—hanging down—before they open.

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May 19, 2025
Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)

Photographed May 18.

A small patch of Virginia Waterleaf in Beechview, just up the hill from the large patch of Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) we have visited almost every year.

For a description of the species, see the Hydrophyllum virginianum reference page.

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May 19, 2025