Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum)

    The Dogwoods we know best are the “flowering” varieties—which actually have inconspicuous little green flowers surrounded by a showy involucre of white or pink. (Cornus florida is native to our area; Cornus kousa is often planted as an ornamental.) But this very attractive shrub or small tree forgoes the spectacular false petals and makes its show by clustering its little white flowers together.

    This tree was one of many growing along a little country lane through the woods near Cranberry, where it was blooming at the end of May.

    It is very difficult to tell the difference between this species and Narrow-Leaved Dogwood, C. obliqua, which many botanists regard as a variety of C. amomum. So Gray, who lists C. obliqua as C. purpusi, but says that it “appears to be an inconstant form rather than a distinct species.” As always, if our identification is wrong here, any help is appreciated.

    Here is Gray’s description:

    CÓRNUS [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.)

    С amòmum Mill. (SILKY C., KINNIKINNIK.) Shrub, 1-3 m. nigh; branches purplish; the branchlets, stalks, and lower surface of the ovate or elliptical pointed leaves silky-downy (often rusty), pale and dull, not microscopically papillose; cymes flat, close; calyx-teeth lanceolate; fruit pale blue. (С serieea L.) — Wet places, Nfd. to N. D., s. to Fla. and La. June. — C. Purpusi Koehne, with slightly narrower leaves microscopically papillose but not rusty-pubescent beneath, appears to be an inconstant form rather than a distinct species.

  • Purple-Flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus)

    The beautiful flowers of this plant vie with wild roses (Rosa spp.) for spectacle, and indeed it is often planted as an ornamental. In the wild, it prefers a semi-shaded hillside; these were growing on a hill above the Allegheny River Boulevard near Verona, where they were blooming in late May. The leaves are more or less maple-shaped. The raspberry-like fruit, alas, is no good for eating.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    RÙBUS [Tourn.] L. BRAMBLE. Calyx 6 (3-7)-parted, without bractlets. Petals 5, deciduous. Stamens numerous. Achenes usually many, collected on a spongy or succulent receptacle, becoming small drupes; styles nearly terminal. — Perennial herbs, or somewhat shrubby plants, with white (rarely reddish) flowers, and usually edible fruit. (The Roman name, kindred with ruber, red.)

    ANAPLÓBATUS Focke. Unarmed shrubs; leaves simple, 5-6-lobed or angled; flowers large and showy; fruit large, hemispherical, red. Rubacer Rydb.

    R. odoràtus L. (PURPLE FLOWERING R.) Shrubby, 1-1.6 m. high; branches, stalks, and calyx bristly with glandular-clammy hairs; leaves 3-5-lobed, the lobes pointed and minutely toothed, the middle one prolonged; peduncles many-flowered; flowers showy (3-6 cm. broad); calyx-lobes tipped with a long narrow appendage; petals rounded, purple rose-color: fruit scarcely edible. — N. S. to Ga., w. to Mich.

  • Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina)

    The fleshy soft, hairy leaves delight children and any adult not too far gone to take pleasure in simple tactile sensations. The purple flowers make a gorgeous contrast to the whitish hairs of the leaves and stems, but appear only for a relatively short time. This is a garden favorite that seeds itself liberally: once you plant Lamb’s Ears, you have them forever, and they pop up in unexpected places. They can often be found in the city as an escape; these plants were growing on a bank in Beechview, where they were blooming in the middle of May.

    Gray describes the genus Stachys; in his time, this particular species had not established itself in the wild enough for him to take notice of it.

    STÂCHYS [Tourn.] L. HEDGE NETTLE. Corolla not dilated at the throat; upper lip erect or rather spreading, often arched, entire or nearly so; the lower usually longer and spreading, 3-lobed, with the middle lobe largest and nearly entire. Stamens 4, ascending under the upper lip (often reflexed on the throat after flowering); anthers approximate in pairs. Nutlets obtuse, not truncate. — Whorls 2-many-flowered, approximate in a terminal raceme or spike (whence the name, from stachys, a spike).

    Although Gray does not describe the species S. byzantina, no description is really necessary. No other Stachys in our area has anything like the silver-haired foliage of this plant; it is nearly impossible to misidentify.

  • Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)

    A native plant that is perhaps even more common in gardens than in the wild; the purple to blue flowers with three equal petals and the linear, almost grasslike leaves are distinctive. The closest common relatives in our area, the Dayflowers, have three unequal petals and much shorter leaves. Like Dayflowers, these bloom in the morning and disappear by the middle of the afternoon. This plant was part of a colony growing beside a railroad in Oakmont, where it was blooming in late May.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    TRADESCÁNTIA [Rupp.] L. SPIDERWORT. Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Stamens all fertile; filaments bearded. Capsule 2-4-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded — Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbeled clusters, axillary and terminal, produced through the summer; floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First of England.)

    T. virginiàna L. Green; leaves flat, linear or lance-linear, the upper moге or less pubescent; bracts loaf-like, elongated, usually ascending; pedicels and sepals villous, the latter about 1.6 cm. long; petals rich purplish-blue, 1.6-2 cm. long — Alluvial soil, Ct. to Pa. and S. C.: also introd. northw.

  • Venus’ Looking-Glass (Triodanis perfoliata)

    A cheerful and distinctive member of the Bellflower family that likes poor soil: this was one of a colony growing out of the gravel by a railroad in Oakmont. Nothing else in our area has the combination of a columnar single stalk with clasping leaves and upward-facing violet-blue flowers. More commonly known in botanical literature under the genus Specularia, which is also called Legousia or Legouzia.

    Gray describes the genus (which he calls Specularia) and the species:

    SPECULARIA [Heist.] Fabrlcius. VENUS’S LOOKING-GLASS.

    Calyx 5 (or 3-4)-lobed. Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, separate; the membranaceous hairy filaments shorter than the anthers. Stigmas 3. Capsule prismatic or slender-cylindric, 3-celled, opening by 3 small lateral valves. — Low annuals, with axillary blue or purplish flowers, in American species dimorphous, the earlier small and cleistogamous. (Name from Speculum Veneris, the early name of the common European species.) Legouzia Durand.

    S perfoliata (L.) A. DC. Somewhat hairy, 1-9 dm. high; leaves roundish or ovate, clasping by the heart-shaped base, toothed; flowers sessile, solitary or 2-3 together in the axils, only the upper or later ones having a conspicuous and expanding corolla; capsule ellipsoid, short, straight, opening rather below the middle; seeds lenticular. (Legouzia Britton.) —Sterile open ground, s. Me, to Ont., westw. and southw.

    —

    In Wild Flowers Worth Knowing, Neltje Blanchan gives us this description:

    Venus’ Looking-glass; Clasping Bellflower

    Specularia perfoliata (Legouzia perfoliata)

    Flowers—Violet blue, from 1/2 to 3/4 in. across; solitary or 2 or 3 together, seated, in axils of upper leaves. Calyx lobes varying from 3 to 5 in earlier and later flowers, acute, rigid; corolla a 5-spoked wheel; 5 stamens; 1 pistil with 3 stigmas. Stem: 6 in. to 2 ft. long, hairy, densely leafy, slender, weak.

    Leaves: Round, clasped about stem by heart-shaped base.

    Preferred Habitat—Sterile waste places, dry woods.

    Flowering Season—May—September.

    Distribution—From British Columbia, Oregon, and Mexico, east to Atlantic Ocean.

    At the top of a gradually lengthened and apparently overburdened leafy stalk, weakly leaning upon surrounding vegetation, a few perfect blossoms spread their violet wheels, while below them are insignificant earlier flowers, which, although they have never opened, nor reared their heads above the hollows of the little shell-like leaves where they lie secluded, have, nevertheless, been producing seed without imported pollen while their showy sisters slept. But the later blooms, by attracting insects, set cross-fertilized seed to counteract any evil tendencies that might weaken the species if it depended upon self-fertilization only. When the European Venus’ Looking-glass used to be cultivated in gardens here, our grandmothers tell us it was altogether too prolific, crowding out of existence its less fruitful, but more lovely, neighbors.