Now classified under the genus Eutrochium by many botanists; we keep the older classification here for the convenience of Internet searchers.
There are two common species of Joe-Pye-Weed in our area; the easiest way to identify them is by the leaves, which in this species usually grow in whorls of four, and in E. fistulosum in whorls of six. (Of course, this distinction is not always reliable, but it works most of the time.) Both are spectacular and dignified flowers, which are finally finding their rightful place in perennial gardens as well as our roadsides and meadows. The dusty old-rose color of the flowers is unique, and the straight stems with their perfectly arranged whorls of leaves are some of nature’s most elegant constructions. This plant was one of a patch growing in a wet depression in Schenley Park, along with a larger population of E. fistulosum.
Britton describes the genus and the species:
EUPATORIUM L. Erect, perennial herbs, with opposite or verticillate, or sometimes alternate, often punctate leaves, and in our species cymose-paniculate discoid heads of white, blue or purple flowers. Involucre oblong, ovoid, campanulate, or hemispheric, the bracts imbricated in 2-severaI series. Receptacle naked. Corolla regular, its tube slender, its limb 5-lobed or 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse and entire at the base, appendiculate at the apex. Style-branches elongated, flattened, or thickened above, stigmatic at the base. Achenes 5-angled, truncate. Pappus of numerous capillary usually scabrous bristles arranged in I row. [Named for Mithridates Eupator, i.e., of a noble father.] About 475 species, mostly of warm or tropical regions.
Eupatorium purpureum L. JOE PYE or TRUMPET WEED. (I. F. f. 3615.) Glabrous or sparingly pubescent, 1-3 cm. high. Stem green or purple, usually smooth; leaves thin, verticillate in 3’s-6’s, ovate, oval, or ovate-lanceolate, petioled, acuminate, serrate, sometimes incised, 1-3 dm. long, 3-7 cm. wide; heads numerous; involucre cylindric, its bracts pink, oblong, obtuse, imbricated in 4 or 5 series, the outer shorter; flowers pink or purple, occasionally white. In moist soil. N. B. to Man., Fla. and Tex. Aug.-Sept.
Also known as False Dragonhead, referring to its resemblance to a snapdragon. The name “Obedient Plant” describes a property that fascinates children, and any adults who are not too jaded to admit to being fascinated. If you push one of the individual flowers to the left or right, it will stay in that position. You can arrange all the flowers artistically on the stem, and they will stay right where you put them. You might almost think the plant had been specially bred by lazy florists. This plant was part of a large patch blooming in late July in a wet depression in Schenley Park.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
PHYSOSTEGIA Benth. FALSE DRAGON HEAD. Calyx obscurely 10-nerved, short-tubular or bell-shaped, more or less enlarged and slightly inflated in fruit. Corolla funnel-form, with a much inflated throat, 2-lipped; upper lip erect, nearly entire; the lower 3-parted, spreading, small, its middle lobe larger, broad and rounded, notched. — Smooth perennials, with upright wand-like stems, and sessile lanceolate or oblong mostly serrate leaves. Flowers large and showy, rose or flesh-color variegated with purple, opposite, crowded in simple or panicled terminal leafless spikes. (Name from physa, a bladder, and stege, a covering, in allusion to the calyx, which is at length somewhat inflated.)
• Stem conspicuously leafy up to the inflorescence.
P. virginiàna (L.) Benth. Stem 0.6-1.3 m. high, terminated by asimple virgate spike or several panicled spikes ; leaves thickish, mostly sharply serrate; calyx tubular-campanulate, its teeth half the length of the tube, acuminate, at length acerosetipped; corolla 1.8-2.3 cm. long. — Wet grounds, from w. Que. westw. and southw.; frequently escaped from cultivation in e. N. E. June-Sept.
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In her Guide to the Wild Flowers (1899), Alice Lounsberry gives us this description:
Flowers: growing closely in a dense spike on axillary flower-stalks. Calyx ; bell-shaped, of five-toothed sepals. Corolla: funnel-form; inflated; two-lipped, the upper lip arched and broad; the lower one of three spreading lobes, the centre lobe pale and dotted with a deep colour. Stamens: four; in pairs. Pistil: one; style two-lobed. Leaves: opposite; lanceolate; serrated. Stem: square; one to four feet high; slightly branched.
When a little fish comes to the surface of the water and opens his mouth his expression is not unlike that of these flowers. They have, however, none of the darting, evasive tendencies of the fish. The flower is most docile. Strangely enough, it appears to be without any elasticity, and will remain in exactly the position in which it is placed for an indefinite time. From this characteristic the plant quite carries off the palm of obedience among the flowers.
You could look at spearmint as an invasive wed, but it gives us so much in return for the space it takes that it’s a hard weed to resent. Spearmint spreads mainly by runners, forming large, dense patches. Its scent and flavor are recognizable at once. It blooms with pleasant spikes of little white flowers that were attracting little green flies when this picture was taken. This plant was part of a large patch blooming in late July in Beechview.
Flowers. In terminal spikes; white with pink lines especially on upper lip; in whorls of a dozen or more; stamens twice the length of the corolla.
Leaves. Sessile; ovate-lanceolate, deeply veined, looking wrinkled; toothed, about 2 and a half or 3 times as long as broad.
Stems. Square, about 3 feet tall, wiry, often branching near the flower spike. Long underground or at-surface stems from which upright stems rise at rooting joints.
The whole plant is, of course, strongly aromatic, and its aroma and flavor are its most identifiable characteristics.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
MENTHA [Tourn.] L. MINT. Calyx Ьеll-shaped or tubular, the 5 teeth equal or nearly so. Corolla with a short included tube, the upper lobe slightly broader, entire or notched. Stamens 4, equal, erect, distant. — Odorous perennial herbs ; the small flowers mostly in close clusters, forming axillary capitate whorls, sometimes approximated in interrupted spikes, produced in summer, of two sorts as to the fertility of the stamens in most species. Corolla pale purple or whitish. Species mostly adventive or naturalized from Europe, with many hybrids. (Minthe of Theophrastus, from a Nymph of that name, fabled to have been changed Into Mint by Proserpine.)
Spikes narrow and leafless, densely crowded; leaves sessile or nearly so.
Spikes not canescent.
M. spicata L. (SPEARMINT.) Nearly smooth; leaves oblong-or ovate-lanceolate, unequally serrate, sometimes short-petioled; bracts linear-lanceolate and subulate, conspicuous. (M. viridis L.) — Wet places, common. (Nat. from Eu.)
Tick-trefoils are mild annoyances to hikers and walkers, but this one is such a beautiful flower that we can easily forgive it. Like all the other tick-trefoils, it has transformed the ordinary legume of the pea family into a fabulously efficient instrument of dispersal. The pod is divided into individual segments that separate easily, and each of them is coated with sticky adhesive hairs. As you pass by the plant, several of those segments stick to your clothes and ride off with you, at least until you notice them. It may be quite a distance: since the seedpods are sticky rather than prickly, you tend not to notice them until you see them.
Other tick-trefoils have pretty but inconspicuous little flowers; this one, however, has larger flowers in a dense and showy raceme. This plant was growing in a hillside clearing in Scott Township, where it was blooming in late July.
Flowers. Pink-purple, in dense branching raceme; the standard slightly paler.
Leaves. Dense on the stem; three leaflets arranged pinnately; lanceolate, entire; rough, especially beneath; on short petioles.
Stem. Somewhat sparse hairs; tough and inflexible.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
DESMÒDIUM Desv. TICK TREFOIL.
Calyx usually 2-lipped. Standard obovate; wings adherent to the straight or straightish and usually truncate keel, by means of a little transverse appendage on each side of the latter. Stamens diadelphous, 9 and 1, or monadelphous below. Pod flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, separating into flat reticulated joints (mostly roughened with minute hooked hairs). — Perennial herbs, with pinnately 3-foliolate (rarely 1-foliolate) leaves, gtipellate. Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes, often panicled, and 2 or 8 from each bract, purple ol purplish, often turning green in withering. Stipules and bracts scale-like, often striate. (Name from desmos, a bond or chain, from the connected jointe of the pods.) Meibomia Adans.
§ 3. Pod slightly if at all stalked in the calyx; racemes panicled.
Stipules small and inconspicuous, mostly deciduous; pods of few rounitsl or obliquely oval or sometimes roundish-rhomboidal joints 3-6 mm. long.
Stems erect; bracts before flowering conspicuous; racemes densely flowered.
16. D. canadénse (L.) DC. Stem hairy, 6-15 dm. high; leaflets oblonq-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, with numerous straigbtish veins, much longer than the petiole, 3.7-7.5 сш. long; flowers showy, larger than in any of our other species, 8-12 mm. long. (Meibomia Ktze.) — Open woods and banks of streams, N.B. to N.C., L. Winnipeg, Kan., and Okla.
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In How to Know the Wild Flowers (1920), Mrs. Dana gives us this description:
TICK-TREFOIL.
Desmodium Canadense. Pulse Family.
Stem.—Hairy; three to six feet high. Leaves.—Divided into three somewhat oblong leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous; dull purplish-pink; growing in densely flowered racemes. Pod.—Flat ; deeply lobed on the lower margin; from one to three inches long; roughened with minute hooked hairs by means of which it adheres to animals and clothing.
Great masses of color are made by these flowers in the bogs and rich woods of midsummer. They are effective when seen in the distance, but rather disappointing on closer examination, and will hardly bear gathering or transportation. They are by far the largest and most showy of the genus….
Many of us who do not know these plants by name have uttered various imprecations against their roughened pods. Thoreau writes: ” Though you were running for your life, they would have time to catch and cling to your clothes….These almost invisible nets, as it were, are spread for us, and whole coveys of desmodium and bidens seeds steal transportation out of us. I have found myself often covered, as it were, with an imbricated coat of the brown desmodium seeds or a bristling chevaux-de-frise of beggar-ticks, and had to spend a quarter of an hour or more picking them off in some convenient spot; and so they get just what they wanted—deposited in another place.”
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In her Nature’s Garden (1900), Neltje Blanchan meditates on the ability of such plants as this to disperse themselves far and wide, and gives us the fascinating details of this species’ pollination:
Canadian or Showy Tick-trefoil
(Meibomia Canadensis) Pea family (Desmodium Canadense of Gray)
Flowers—Pinkish or bluish purple, butterfly-shaped, about 1/2-in. long, borne in dense, terminal, elongated racemes. Stem: Erect, hairy, leafy, 2 to 8 ft. high. Leaves: Compounded of 3 oblong leaflets, the central one largest; upper leaves nearly seated on stem; bracts, conspicuous before flowering, early falling off. Fruit: A flat pod, about 1 in. long, jointed, and covered with minute hooked bristles, the lower edge of pod scalloped; almost seated in calyx. Preferred Habitat—Thickets, woods, river banks, bogs. Flowering Season—July—September. Distribution—New Brunswick to Northwest Territory, south to North Carolina, westward to Indian Territory and Dakota.
As one travels hundreds or even thousands of miles in a comfortable railway carriage and sees the same flowers growing throughout the length and breadth of the area, one cannot but wonder how ever the plants manage to make the journey. We know some creep along the ground, or under it, a tortoise pace, but a winning one; that some send their offspring flying away from home, like dandelions and thistles; and many others with wings and darts are blown by the wind. Berries have their seeds dropped afar by birds. Aquatic plants and those that grow beside running water travel by river and flood. European species reach our shores among the ballast. Darwin raised over sixty wild plants from seed carried in a pellet of mud taken from the leg of a partridge. So on and so on. The imagination delights to picture these floral vagabonds, each with its own clever method of getting a fresh start in the world. But by none of these methods just mentioned do the tick-trefoils spread abroad. Theirs is indeed a by hook or by crook system. The scalloped, jointed pod, where the seeds lie concealed, has minute crooked bristles, which catch in the clothing of man or beast, so that every herd of sheep, every dog, every man, woman, or child who passes through a patch of trefoils gives them a lift. After a walk through the woods and lanes of late summer and autumn, one’s clothes reveal scores of tramps that have stolen a ride in the hope of being picked off and dropped amid better conditions in which to rear a family.
Only the largest bees can easily “explode” the showy ticktrefoil. A humblebee alights upon a flower, thrusts his head under the base of the standard petal, and forces apart the wing petnls with his legs, in order to dislodge them from the standard, his motion causes the keel, also connected with the standard, to snap down violently, thus releasing the column within and sending upward an explosion of pollen on the under surface of the bee. Here we see the wing petals acting as triggers to discharge the flower. Depress them and up flies the fertilizing dust—once. The little gun will not “go off” twice. No nectar rewards the visitor, which usually is a pollen-collecting bee. The highly intelligent and important humblebee has tne advantage over his smaller kin in being able to discharge the pollen from both large and smaller flowers.
A more delicate sort of sunflower. This one was growing at the edge of a hillside clearing in Scott Township.
Flower Heads. The disk is smallish and golden yellow. The matching golden rays are long and narrow; there were eight of them on each of the flower heads on this plant, but (as the specific name implies) there are more often ten on this species.
Stem. Smooth and tough, green with a few red spots.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
HELIÁNTHUS L. Sunflower. Heads many-flowered; rays several or many, neutral. Involucre Imbricated, herbaceous or foliaceous. Receptacle flat or convex; the persistent chaff embracing the 4-sided and laterally compressed smooth achenes, which are neither winged nor margined. Pappus very deciduous, of 2 thin chafly scales on the principal angles, and sometimes 2 or more small intermediate scales. — Coarse and stout herbs, with solitary or corymbcd heads, and yellow rays; flowering toward autumn. (Named from helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower.)
§2. Perennials; receptacle convex or at length low-conical; lower leaves usually opposite.
Involucre looser, the bracts more acuminate or elongated or foliaceous.
H. decapétalus L. Stem branching, 0.5-1.5 m. high, smooth below; leaves smooth or roughish, ovate, pointed, abraptly contracted into margined petioles; bracts lanceolate-linear, elongated, loosely spreading, sometimes foliaceous, the outer longer than the disk; rays about 10 (H. scrvphulariifolius Britton?) — Copses and low banks of streams, centr. Me. and w. Que. to Minn., Mo., and southw.
Now classified under the genus Eutrochium by many botanists; we keep the older classification here for the convenience of Internet searchers.
