Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • 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.

    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 (see the picture below); 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.)]

  • Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare)

    Easily recognized by its columns of vivid blue flowers; seen most often beside railroads or along roadsides. This is certainly one of our most decorative weeds. These plants were blooming in mid-June at the edge of a parking lot in New Stanton.

    Once in a while a plant will appear with pink flowers, usually fading to blue after they have been open for a while; a picture of one such is here.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    ÈCHIUM [Tourn.] L. VIPER’S BUGLOSS. Corolla with a cylindraceous or funnel-form tube; lobes rounded, spreading. Stamens mostly exserted, unequal. Style thread-form. Nutlets roughened or wrinkled, fixed by a flat base. (A plant name used by Dioscorides from echis, a viper.)

    E. VULGARE L. (BLUE-WEED, BLUE DEVIL.) Rough-bristly biennial; stem erect, 3-9 dm. high; stem-leaves linear-lanceolate, sessile; flowers showy, in short lateral clusters, disposed in a long and narrow thyrse or in an open panicle; buds pink; corolla brilliant blue (rarely pale or roseate). Roadsides and meadows, locally abundant. June-Sept. (Nat. from Eu.)

    Mrs. Dana, in How to Know the Wild Flowers, has this to say about our subject:

    When the blueweed first came to us from across the sea it secured a foothold in Virginia. Since then it has gradually worked its way northward, lining the Hudson’s shores, overrunning many of the dry fields in its vicinity, and making itself at home in parts of New England. We should be obliged to rank it among the “pestiferous” weeds were it not that, as a rule, it only seeks to monopolize land which is not good for very much else. The pinkish buds and bright blue blossoms, with their red protruding stamens, make a valuable addition, from the aesthetic point of view, to the bunch of midsummer field-flowers in which hitherto the various shades of red and yellow have predominated.

    In Wild Flowers Worth Knowing, Neltje Blanchan adds some of the traditional lore of the plant:

    Years ago, when simple folk believed God had marked plants with some sign to indicate the special use for which each was intended, they regarded the spotted stem of the bugloss, and its seeds shaped like a serpent’s head, as certain indications that the herb would cure snake bites. Indeed, the genus takes its name from Echis, the Greek viper.

  • Ox-Eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)

    “She loves me…she loves me not…”

    This is the most universally beloved of all wild flowers, the focus of countless childhood traditions and the very image of “flower” in the popular imagination. It may be derided as a pernicious weed by agricultural and environmental authorities, but the ordinary citizen will never be persuaded to hate it. The first of the flowers above was blooming in early June at the edge of a gravel lot in Scott Township; the second was blooming in late May on a sunny bank in Mount Lebanon.

    Daisies like these were formerly kept in the genus Chrysanthemum, but have been removed by bored botanists to the genus Leucanthemum “because they are not aromatic and their leaves lack grayish-white hairs,” according to the Wikipedia article on the genus. (The genus “Leucanthemum” was apparently named by Lamarck, whose discredited theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics still haunts high-school biology classes.) Because of this new sorting of the genera, we leave Gray and give the description of the genus and species from the Flora of North America at efloras.org:

    Leucanthemum Miller, Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4. vol. 2. 1754.

    [Greek leuco-, white, and anthemon, flower]

    John L. Strother

    Perennials, (10–)40–130(–200+) cm (rhizomatous, roots usually red-tipped). Stems usually 1, erect, simple or branched, glabrous or hairy (hairs basifixed). Leaves mostly basal or basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; blades obovate to lanceolate or linear, often 1[–2+]-pinnately lobed or toothed, ultimate margins dentate or entire, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Heads usually radiate, rarely discoid, borne singly or in 2s or 3s. Involucres hemispheric or broader, 12–35+ mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 35–60+ in 3–4+ series, distinct, ovate or lance-ovate to oblanceolate, unequal, margins and apices (colorless or pale to dark brown) scarious (tips not notably dilated; abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely hairy). Receptacles convex, epaleate. Ray florets usually 13–34+, rarely 0, pistillate, fertile; corollas white (drying pinkish), laminae ovate to linear. Disc florets 120–200+, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, tubes ± cylindric (proximally swollen, becoming spongy in fruit), throats campanulate, lobes 5, deltate (without resin sacs). Cypselae ± columnar to obovoid, ribs ± 10, faces glabrous (pericarps with myxogenic cells on ribs and resin sacs between ribs; embryo sac development monosporic); pappi 0 (wall tissue of ray cypselae sometimes produced as coronas or auricles on some cypselae). x = 9.

    Species 20–40+ (3 in the flora): introduced; mostly temperate Europe (some widely cultivated and sparingly adventive).

    The three leucanthemums recognized here are weakly distinct and are sometimes included (with a dozen or more others) in a single, polymorphic Leucanthemum vulgare.

    SELECTED REFERENCE

    Vogt, R. 1991. Die Gattung Leucanthemum (Compositae–Anthemideae) auf der Iberischen Halbinsel. Ruizia 10: 1–261.

    Leucanthemum vulgare Lamarck, Fl. Franç. 2: 137. 1779.

    Ox-eye daisy, marguerite blanche

    Chrysanthemum leucanthemum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 888. 1753; C. leucanthemum var. pinnatifidum Lecoq & Lamotte

    Perennials, 10–30(–100+) cm. Stems simple or distally branched. Basal leaves: petioles 10–30(–120) mm, expanding into obovate to spatulate blades 12–35(–50+) × 8–20(–30) mm, margins usually pinnately lobed (lobes 3–7+) and/or irregularly toothed. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile; blades oblanceolate or spatulate to lanceolate or linear, 30–80+ × 2–15+ mm, margins of mid-stem leaves usually irregularly toothed proximally and distally.Involucres 12–20+ mm diam. Phyllaries (the larger) 2–3 mm wide. Ray florets usually 13–34+, rarely 0; laminae 12–20(–35+) mm. Ray cypselae 1.5–2.5 mm, apices usually coronate or auriculate. 2n = 18, 36, 54, 72, 90.

    Flowering spring–fall. Disturbed places, meadows, seeps, clearings; 0–2000 m; introduced; Alta., B.C., Ont., Que., Sask.; Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Fla., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Mass., Mich., Mo., Mont., Nev., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Europe, widely adventive.

    Some botanists (e.g., W. J. Cody 1996) have treated Leucanthemum ircutianum de Candolle, with blades of mid and distal cauline leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate and not ± pinnate at bases, as distinct from L. vulgare.

  • Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

    A relative of snapdragons and Butter-and-Eggs, this cheery flower also bears a passing resemblance to a foxglove, whence both the common and scientific names. The name “Beardtongue” comes from the hairy stamen visible in each flower. The plant likes a sunny open field or clearing, although it will tolerate some shade; this plant was blooming in early June in a clearing in Scott Township.

    Most earlier botanical references spell the genus name Pentstemon, which may be more etymologically correct but apparently is not the way it was spelled in the original description.

    Traditionally, botanists placed snapdragons and their allies in the Snapdragon or Figwort family, Scrophulariaceae; but modern genetic research has led botanists to move them into the Plantain family, Plantaginaceae.

    Gray makes this species a variety of P. laevigatus, so we turn to Alphonso Wood for a description of the genus and the species more in line with the consensus of modern botanists:

    PENTSTEMON, L. Beard-tongue. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. Cor. elongated, often ventricous, lower lip 3-lobed, spreading. The fifth filament (tongue) sterile, bearded, longer than the rest or about as long; anth. smooth. Seeds numerous, angular, not margined. Perennial N. American, branching, paniculate. Leaves opposite, the lower petiolate, upper sessile or clasping. Flowers showy, red, violet, blue, or white, in Summer.

    Native E. of the Mississippi River, sometimes cultivated.

    Leaves undivided, serrulate. Sterile filament (tongue) bearded.

    P. digitalis N. Glabrous; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, the upper clasping; flowers many, large, corolla tube abruptly enlarged to bell-form, pale blue or purplish, 12—15″ long, throat widely open, beardless. Rich soils, Pa., W. and S.

  • Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium)

    A garden favorite that sometimes makes itself at home here, especially in the city. This plant was blooming on a bank in Beechview in early June. Feverfew is named for its supposed fever-reducing effects, though modern science has looked for those effects and failed to find them. The cheery flowers are like generous clusters of small daisies.

    Botanists often place this species in the genus Tanacetum with the Tansies, but it is most familiar under the name Chrysanthemum, which is where Gray puts it:

    CHRYSANTHEMUM [Tourn.] L. OX-EYE DAISY. Heads many-flowered; rays numerous, fertile. Scales of the broad and flat involucre imbricated, with scarious margins. Receptacle flat or convex, naked. Disk-corollas with a flattened tube. Achenes of disk and ray similar, striate. — Annual or perennial herbs, with toothed, pinnatifid, or divided leaves, and single or corymbed heads. Rays white or yellow (rarely wanting); disk yellow. (Old Greek name, Chrysanthemon, i.e. golden flower.)

    C. parthènium (L.) Bernh. (FEVERFEW.) Tall, branched, leafy; leaves bipinnately divided, the divisions ovate, cut; rays white. — Escaped from gardens, and naturalized in some places. (Introd. from Eu.)