Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Yellow Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens pallida)

    Also called Pale Touch-Me-Not or Jewelweed. The name “Touch-Me-Not” comes from the explosive seedpods, which give no end of entertainment to children and any adults who are not beyond being entertained by natural amusements. The pods have parallel ribs connected by a thin membrane, and the membrane gets thinner and weaker as the pod ripens. At length the membrane can be ruptured by the slightest touch, and then the ribs instantly coil into springs, sending seeds flying in all directions.

    These plants are close relatives of the garden Impatiens, which have similarly explosive seedpods. All Impatiens species have thick, juicy stems, and large colonies of them will form dense, even mounds.

    We have two species of Touch-Me-Not in the area. Yellow Touch-Me-Not is more common in the north and at higher elevations; Orange or Spotted Touch-Me-Not (I. capensis) is more common in the south and at lower elevations. Pittsburgh is right where the ranges meet, so we get both, often in the same colony. The yellow species is more common here, but the orange is also very common, especially in lower areas.

    The juice from the thick stems is supposed to be a good preventative for poison ivy if rubbed on the affected parts soon after exposure.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    IMPATIENS [Rivinius] L. BALSAM, JEWELWEED. Sepals apparently only 4; the anterior one notched at the apex (probably two combined); the posterior one (appearing anterior as the flower hangs on its stalk) largest, and forming a usually spurred sac. Petals 2, 2-lobed (each a pair united). Filaments appendaged with a scale on the inner side, the б scales connivent over the stigma; anthers introrse. Pod with evanescent partitions, and a thick axis bearing several anatropous seeds; valves 6, coiling elastically and projecting the seeds in dehiscence. — Leaves in ours ovate or oval, coarsely toothed, petioled. Flowers axillary or panicled, often of two sorts, viz., the larger ones which seldom ripen seeds; and very small ones which are fertilized early in the bud, their floral envelopes never expanding but forced off by the growing pod and carried upward on its apex. (Name from the sudden bursting of the pods when touched, whence also the popular appellation.)

    I. pallida Nutt. (PALE TOUCH-ME-NOT.) F’lowers pale-yellow, sparingly dotted with brownish-red; sac dilated and very obtuse, broader than long, tipped with a short incurved spur. (I. aurea Muhl. ?) — Moist shady places and along rills, in rich soil, n. Me. and w. N. E., westw. and southw. July-Sept. — Larger and greener than the next [I. capensis], with larger flowers. A form with unspotted flowers occurs.

  • Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea)

    An introduced ornamental that has become quite weedy, especially in the city of Pittsburgh, where it covers banks and winds through vacant lots with gay abandon. These vines grew on a fence in Beechview, where they were blooming at the beginning of September.

    Flowers. Large and showy; trumpet-shaped, like an old phonograph horn; five-parted, with white center and contrasting darker markings radiating from the center. They come in several colors, from the deepest velvety purple to bright pink. They close by midday, or later if the weather is chilly or dark.

    Leaves. Heart-shaped, or on vigorous and high-growing vines sometimes three-lobed, like a grape leaf; smooth above, lightly rough-hairy below; strongly veined.

    Stem. Hairy; bright green; long and climbing; climbs by wrapping itself around any support, often bundling with other stems from the same plant, forming a dense mound; can climb to 9 feet (3 m) or so in one season.

    Gray describes the genus and the species, which he places in the Euipomoea or Ipomoea-proper section of the genus:

    IPOMOÈA L. MORNING GLORY. Calyx not bracteate at base, but the outer sepals commonly larger. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form to nearly campanulate; the limb entire or slightly lobed. Capsule globular, 4-6 (by abortion fewer)-seeded, 2-4-valved. (Nаmе, according to Linnaeus, from ips, a Bindweed, and homoios, like; but ips is a worm.)

    § 2. EUIPOMOÈA Gray. Corolla funnel-form or nearly campanulate, contorted in the bud; stamens and style not exserted

    Lobes of stigma and cells 3, sepals long and narrow, attenuate upward, mostly hirsute below; corolla purple, blue, or white. (MORNING GLORY.)

    I. purpurea (L.) Roth. (COMMON M.) Annual; stems retrorsely hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acuminate, entire; peduncles long, umbellately 3-5-flowered; calyx bristly-hairy below; corolla funnel-form, 4.5-7 cm. long, purple, varying to white. — Escaped in cultivated grounds. (Introd. from Trop. Am.)

  • Thin-Leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba)

    Very similar to its cousin the Black-Eyed Susan (R. hirta), but note the branching habit and the smaller flower heads with shorter, rounder rays. These plants grew in a sunny meadow in Sewickley Heights, where they were blooming in late August.

    Flowers. Heads with large, conical or hemispherical brown disk; about 8 short, elliptical golden rays.

    Leaves. Rough; upper sessile, with shallow teeth, ovate, pointed; lower often with 3 irregular lobes.

    Stem. Rough-hairy, purple; frequently branching; about 3 feet (1 m) high.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    RUDBÉCKIA L. CONE-FLOWER. Heads many-flowered, radiate; the rays neutral. Bracts of the involucre leaf-like, in about 2 rows, spreading. Receptacle conical or column ir ; the short chaff concave, not rigid. Achenes 4-angled (in our species), smooth, not margined, flat at the top, with no pappus, or a minute crown-like border. — Chiefly perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and showy terminal heads; the rays generally long, yellow, often darker at base. (Named in honor of the Professors Rudbeck, father and son, predecessors of Linnaeus at Upsal.)

    Achenes annular; chaff persisting in age.

    Disk hemispherical to ellipsoid-ovoid in fruit, dark purple or brown.

    Lower leaves 3-lobed or parted.

    R. triloba L. Hairy, biennial, much branched, 0.5-1.6 m. high; branches slender and spreading; upper leaves ovate-lanceolate, sparingly toothed; lower 3-lobed, tapering at base, ooarsely serrate (those from the base pinnately parted or undivided); rays 8-10, oval or oblong; chaff of the black-purple depressed-globular disk smooth, awned. — Rich soil, N. J. to Minn., Kan., and southw.; escaped from cultivation further northeastw. July, Aug. — Heads small, but numerous and showy.

  • Field Milkwort (Polygala sanguinea)

    In a meadow full of grasses and wild flowers, this little gem is easily mistaken for a clover and passed by. A closer look reveals that the resemblance is merely superficial: the structure of the individual flowers is quite different, and the leaves are simple and linear. The flowers are deep pink or purple, fading to creamy greenish as they age, making the whole head delightfully artistic. These plants grew in a sunny meadow in Sewickley Heights, where they were blooming in late August.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    POLYGALA [Tourn.] L. MILKWORT. Flower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 8 (the uppermost and the 2 lowest) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner (called wings) are much larger and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogynous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube, the middle (lower) one keel-shaped and often crested on the back. Stamens 6 or 8; their filaments united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less with the petals, free above; anthers 1-celled. Ovary 2-celled, with an anatropous ovule pendulous in each cell; style prolonged and curved; stigma various. Fruit a small loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the apex, much flattened contrary to the very narrow partition. Seeds carunculate. Embryo large, straight, with flat and broad cotyledons, in scanty albumen. — Bitter plants (low herbs in temperate regions), with simple entire often dotted leaves, and no stipules. (An old name composed of polys, much, and gala, milk, applied by Dioscorides to some low shrub reputed to increase lactation.)

    Annuals, with all the leaves alternate; flowers in terminal spikes, heads, or racemes, chiefly purple or rose-color, in summer; none subterranean.

    Keel minutely or inconspicuously crested; the true petals not longer but mostly shorter than the wings; seed pear-shaped.

    P. sanguínea L. Stem sparingly branched above, leafy to the top; leaves oblong-linear; heads globular, at length oblong, very dense (8-10 mm. thick), bright red-purple (rarely paler or even white); pedicels scarcely any; wings broadly ovate, closely sessile, longer than the pod; the 2-parted caruncle almost equaling the seed. (P. viridescens L.) — Sandy and moist ground; common, N. E., westw. and southw.

    –

    In his Wild Flowers East of the Rockies (1910), Chester Albert Reed gives us this description:

    FIELD or PURPLE MILKWORT (Polygala sanguinea) is a sturdy little pink-headed plant that grows in fields or meadows or along roadsides, often in company with Hop Clover; it is a strange fact that the flower heads of these very different species should be shaped so nearly alike. The slender, erect, wiry stems are very leafy and slightly branched at the top. A single round or cylindrical flowerhead terminates each branch, and others may be on slender peduncles from the angles of the upper leaves.

    The flowers, proper, are concealed beneath the large, broad, scale-like, crimson-pink sepals that tightly overlap each other and form the head; these scalelike sepals correspond to the wings on the Fringed Polygala, the true petals and minutely crested keel being shorter and not visible from the outside. The small, stiff, acutely-pointed leaves are densely alternated on the stem up to the flower head. The plant grows from 6 to 12 inches high, and abounds throughout the U. S.

  • Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata)

    A relative of the Christmas Poinsettia and Snow-on-the-Mountain, this plant easily fools us into thinking it has regular five-petaled flowers like a pink or a buttercup. Structurally, however, the apparent petals are actually bracts that surround a cluster of tiny flowers. Doubtless there is a moral lesson to be learned here, but we have not learned it yet. These plants grew in a sunny meadow in Sewickley Heights, where they were blooming in late August.

    Flowers. Numerous; tiny and insignificant, but surrounded by five showy white regular bracts that look like petals; in irregular flattish umbels.

    Leaves. Oblong-linear; blunt; entire; smooth; lower leaves more elliptical; alternate, but whorled at the base of the umbel of flowers.

    Stem. Smooth; purplish; unbranched up to the whorl of leaves at the base of the umbel; about 3 feet (1 m) high.

    The genus Euphorbia is enormous, so Gray helpfully divides it into sections. Here he describes the genus, the section, and the species:

    EUPHÓRBIA L. SPURGE. Flowers monoecious, included in a cup-shaped 4-6-lobed involucre (flower of older authors) resembling a calyx or corolla, and usually bearing large thick glands (with or without petal-like margins) at its sinuses. Sterile flowers numerous and lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a little bract, and consisting merely ol a single stamen Jointed on a pedicel like the filament; anther-cells globular, separate. Fertile flower solitary in the middle of the involucre, soon protruded on a long pedicel, consisting of a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary with no calyx (or a mere vestige). Styles 3, each 2-cleft; the stigmas therefore 6. Pod separating into three 1-seeded carpels, which split, plastically into 2 valves. Seed often caruncled (ours only in §§ 5 and 6). — Plants (ours essentially herbaceous) with a milky acrid juice. Peduncles terminal, often umbellate-clustered; in the first section mostly appearing lateral, but not really axillary. (Named for Euphorbus, physician to King Juba.)

    § 4. TITHYMALÓPSIS (Klotzsch &. Garcke) Boiss. Only the uppermost leaves whorled or opposite; erect perennials, with entire leaves equal at base; stipules none; involucres mostly 5-lobed, in the forks of the branches and terminal¡ inflorescence umbelliform.

    E. corollàta L. (FLOWERING S.) Glabrous or sometimes sparingly hairy, 4-10 dm. high; root deep; stem usually simple for more than half its length; leaves ovate, lanceolate, or linear, entire, obtuse; umbel 5(3-7)-forked, and the forks again 2-3(or rarely 5)-forked; involucres long-peduncled, with showy white appendages (appearing like petals), the lobes minute and incurved; pod slender-pediceled, smooth; seeds thick, 2 mm. long or more, ash-colored, slightly uneven. — Rich or sandy soil, N. Y. to Fla., w. to Minn, and La.; also locally naturalized in N. E. July-Oct.