Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)

    Also called Swamp Vervain, but it certainly does not require a swamp. It seems to be happy in open fields and construction sites, wherever land has been cleared and left alone for a year or so. This one was growing in a fallow field by a back road near Export, where it was blooming in the middle of July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    VERBENA [Tourn.] L. VERVAIN. Calyx 5-toothed, one of the teeth often shorter than the others. Corolla tubular, often curved, salver-form; the border somewhat unequally 5-cleft. Stamens included, the upper pair occasionally without anthers. Style slender; stigma mostly 2-lobed. — Flowers sessile, in single or often panicled spikes, bracted, produced all summer. (The Latin name for any sacred herb; derivation obscure.) — The species present numerous spontaneous hybrids.

    § 1. Anthers not appendaged; flowers small, in slender spikes.

    Spikes thicker or densely flowered; the fruits crowded, mostly overlapping one another; bracts inconspicuous, not exceeding the flowers; perennial.

    V. hastàta L. (blue V.) Tall (0.5-2 m. high); leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed, cut-serrate, petioled, the lower often lobed and sometimes halberd-shaped at base; spikes linear, erect, corymbed or panicled; flowers violet-blue (rarely pink or white). —Damp grounds, etc.

    –

    In How to Know the Wild Flowers (1909), Mrs. Dana gives us this description, along with some lore that applies more properly to the European Vervain (V. officinalis):

    BLUE VERVAIN. SIMPLER’S JOY.

    Verbena hastata. Vervain Family.

    Four to six feet high. Leaves.—Opposite; somewhat lance-shaped; the lower often lobed and sometimes halberd-shaped at base. Flowers.—Purple; small; in slender erect spikes. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.— Tubular, somewhat unequally five-cleft. Stamens.—Four; in pairs. Pistil.—One.

    Along the roadsides in midsummer we notice these slender purple spikes, the appearance of which would be vastly improved if the tiny blossoms would only consent to open simultaneously.

    In earlier times the vervain was beset with classic associations. It was claimed as the plant which Virgil and other poets mention as being used for altar-decorations and for the garlands of sacrificial beasts. It was believed to be the herba saeraof the ancients, until it was understood that the generic title Verbena was a word which was applied to branches of any description which were used in religious rites. It certainly seems, however, to have been applied to some special plant in the time of Pliny, for he writes that no plant was more honored among the Romans than the sacred Verbena. In more modern times as well the vervain has been regarded as an ” herb of grace,” and has been gathered with various ceremonies and with the invocation of a blessing, which began as follows:

    ” Hallowed be thou, Vervain,
    As thou growest on the ground,
    For in the Mount of Calvary
    There thou wast first found.”

    It was then supposed to be endued with especial virtue, and was worn on the person to avert disaster.

    The time-honored title of simpler’s joy arose from the remuneration which this popular plant brought to the “simplers”—as the gatherers of medicinal herbs were entitled.

    –

    In his Field Book of American Wild Flowers (1912), F.Schuyler Mathews seems to appreciate the aesthetic quality of this species more than Mrs. Dana does, though as an artist with a very precise notion of colors he objects to the description of the flowers as “blue”:

    One of the handsomest yet commonest members of the genus. The stem erect, stout, four-sided and grooved, roughish. The short-stemmed leaves lance-shaped or oblong lance-shaped, acutely incised with double teeth, and with a rough surface; the lower leaves are more or less three-lobed. The flower-spikes are numerous and branch upward like the arms of a candelabra; the flowers bloom from the foot of the cluster upward, a few at a time, leaving behind a long line of purpletinged calyx; the tiny blossoms are deep purple or violet—either one hue or the other. The flowers never approach blue or any hue allied to it, so the common name is misleading. Verbena hastata is a special favorite of the bumblebee, and it is also closely attended by the honeybee and the bees of the genus Halictus. The smaller butterflies are also occasional visitors, among them the white Pieris protodice. 3-7 feet high. In fields everywhere. Rare in central N. H.

  • Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

    By far our most striking Lobelia. The brilliant red of this spectacular native flower has made it a favorite in the perennial garden. In the wild, it’s most at home in damp areas with at least partial shade; here it was growing in a moist thicket in Schenley Park, where it was blooming in late July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    LOBELIA [Plumier] L. Calyx 5-cleft, with a short tube. Corolla with a straight tube split down on the (apparently) upper side, somewhat 2-lipped; the upper lip of 2 rather erect lobes, the lower lip spreading and 3-cleft. Two of the anthers in our species bearded at the top. Pod 2-celled, many-seeded, opening at the top. — Flowers axillary or chiefly in bracted racemes ; in summer and early autumn. (Dedicated to Matthias de l’Obel, an early Flemish herbalist.)

    • Flowers deep red, large; stem simple.

    L. cardinàlis L. (CARDINAL-FLOWER.) Tall (0.6-1.3 m. high), perennial by offsets, smoothish; leaves oblong-lanceolate, slightly toothed; raceme elongated, rather 1-sided, the pedicels much shorter than the leaf-like bracts; the large corolla intensely red, rarely rose-color or white. — Low grounds, s. N. B. to Ont., and southw. — Hybrids with the next species [L. siphilitica] occur.

    –

    In Our Common Wild Flowers of Spring and Autumn (1906), Alice M. Dowd gives us a bit of the lore of this favorite flower:

    THE CARDINAL-FLOWER

    ” The cardinal-flower whose heart-red bloom
    Glows like a living coal upon the green
    Of the midsummer meadows.”

    —Richard Watson Gilder.

    Not even in the brilliant leaves of the October woods is there anything to match the color of the cardinal-flower. In moist ground along the streams the vivid red of its clustered flowers appears in July and remains until October. “It comes in with the heat and goes out with the frost.”

    The smooth stems grow from two to four feet high and have dark green, lance-shaped leaves, the upper ones without any petioles. From leaf-like bracts along the upper part of the stalk the flowers grow on short pedicels in a somewhat one-sided raceme. Out of the five-cleft calyx-cup rises the red tube of the corolla. Three petals, partly united beyond the tube, form a spreading lijp on the lower side of the flower.

    A slit down to the very base of the corolla separates the two upper petals. In this slit a slender tube of united stamens rises high, and curves slightly downward at its tip, where the dark ring of anthers, bending toward the lower petals, makes it look like the extinguished torch that has kindled the flaming corolla.

    Through the tube of united anthers the stigma pushes its way, with lips tightly closed until it has grown out of reach of the stamens.

    The corolla-tube is too long for insects. Even the bumblebee finds this flower-well too deep for him to draw nectar easily. The favored guest here is the humming-bird. Like the columbine and the painted cup, the cardinal-flower wears the color that humming-birds prefer. Scarlet flowers and hummingbirds belong chiefly to America. Humming-birds are found only on the American continent and in the West Indies.

    Scarlet flowers are rare in Europe and Asia, but, with their bird-friends, they are especially abundant in the West Indies, Mexico, and tropical South America.

    The cardinal-flower is a native of North America. An English botanist, writing in 1630, mentions it, and says he had its root from France. It was sent to France from Canada by some of the early French settlers, and it is quite probable that it received its name in France from its resemblance in color to the cap and cloak of the cardinals in the Roman church. It takes kindly to cultivation, and perhaps it is destined to survive only as a garden flower when it has been lost to field and meadow.

    It is sometimes called red lobelia, for it is a true lobelia, though all of its sisters are blue. Most of the lobelias, great and small, continue to blossom through September. The most common species is called Indian tobacco. It is generally found in dry, open fields or by the roadside. It has small, light blue flowers, and large, round, inflated seed-boxes joined to the calyx.

    Its relationship to the cardinal-flower is evident in the split corolla, the tube of stamens, and the three-cleft upper lip. It is poisonous to taste and is used in medicine.

    –

    In Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know (1914), Frederic William Stack worries, as many other writers did, about the future of this marvelous beauty, which was being picked into oblivion by thoughtless flower-gatherers:

    The Cardinal Flower is one of the most striking and attractive of our showy flowers. It possesses the most gorgeous, glowing red colouring imaginable, and because of its unsurpassing vividness and brilliancy, its beauty is its undoing. It is a target for every • ruthless, clasping hand that can reach it, and for this reason it is rapidly becoming exterminated. In intensity of colouring it is the Scarlet Tanager of the wild flowers. The usually single, rather large, slightly angular, smoothish stalk is leafy and hollow, and grows from two to four and a half feet high, from perennial off-shoots. The thin, smooth, or slightly hairy leaves are oblong to lance-shaped. They are irregularly toothed, and the upper ones clasp the stalk. The colour is dark green. The numerous, deep cardinal flowers are gathered in a loose and often onesided terminal spike. The tube-like corolla, which is an inch long, is split down the upper side, and has five narrow, pointed, flaring, velvety lobes. These lobes are bent at right angles, the three central ones set together, and partly separated from the other two; which stand somewhat erect or recurved, and at right angles with the central one, and opposite each other. The five stamens are united in a tube around the style, and stand out, far beyond the throat of the flower, with a prominent, curving tip. The green calyx has five long, slender parts. Occasionally the flowers are pinkish or white. The Cardinal Flower is found in very moist situations, commonly on the banks of streams and ditches from July to September, from Florida, Texas, and Kansas, well into Canada.

    –

    Asa B Strong, in his American Flora (1851), gives us the supposed meaning of the plant in the “language of flowers”:

    CARDINAL-FLOWER. Your beauty is heightened by contrast. A beautiful flower, growing in swamps, among rushes and brambles. When first seen it elicits emotions of surprise and pleasure.

    –

  • Wild Potato Vine (Ipomoea pandurata)

    A spectacular wild morning glory closely related to the sweet potato. It grows a similar starchy root that was an important food source for American Indians. Like many other members of the family Convolvulaceae, it really loves a chain-link fence, and here we see it growing on one in Beechview, where it was blooming in late July.

    This species is somewhat unusual here compared to the far more common Bindweeds and Morning Glories. In Pennsylvania, it seems to grow south of a line drawn horizontally right across the center of the state, except that it has also been found near Erie.

    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.

    • • Stigma 2-lobed or entire; cells 2, each 2-seeded; sepals broader, imbricated; leaves cordate, acuminate.

    I. panduràta (L.) G. F. W. Mey. (WILD POTATO-VINE, MAN-OF-THE-EARTH.) Perennial, smooth or nearly so when old, trailing or sometimes twining; leaves occasionally contracted at the sides so as to be fiddle-shaped; peduncles longer than the petioles, 1-5-flowered; sepals smooth, ovate-oblong, very obtuse; corolla open-funnel-form, 4.5-8 cm. long, white, with purple in the tube. — Dry ground, Ct. to Ont., southw. and southwestw. June-Sept.— Stems long and stout, from a huge root, which often weighs 4-8 (-11) kg.

  • Greater Musk-Mallow (Malva alcea)

    A beautiful flower that grows among the weeds in vacant lots and waste areas; this one was growing a few feet from the streetcar line in Beechview, where it was blooming in late July. Flowers are either pale pink or white, and the leaves are deeply lobed. (The similar Malva moschata has much more finely divided leaves.)

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MALVA [Tourn.] L. MALLOW. Calyx with a 5-leaved involucel at the base, like an outer calyx. Petals obcordate. Styles numerous, stigmatic down the inner side. Fruit depressed, separating at maturity into as many 1-seeded and indehiscent round kidney-shaped blunt carpels as there are styles. Radicle pointing downward. (An old Latin name, from the Greek name, malache, having allusion to the emollient leaves.)

    * * Flowers only in the upper axils, somewhat racemose or paniculate.

    [Because Gray’s description of M. alcea depends on his description of M. moschata, we reprint both species here.]

    M. moschàta L. (MUSK M.) A low perennial, with mostly simple pubescence; stem-leaves 5-parted, and the divisions once or twice parted or cleft into linear lobes, faintly musky-scented; flowers rose-color or white, large, on short peduncles crowded on the stem and branches; fruit downy. — Fields and roadsides, abundant in e. Canada and n. N. E., occasional elsewhere. (Nat. from Eu.)

    M. álcea L. Similar, with short stellate pubescence; stem-leaves onlf once 5-parted or -cleft, the lobes incised; large flowers as in the last; fruit smooth; bractlets of the involucel ovate. — Escaped from gardens in N. E., Pa., and Mich. (Introd. from Eu.)

  • Wingstem (Actinomeris alternifolia)

    A tall and cheerful native flower that may be abundant in some areas and absent in others. It likes the edge of the woods, and seems to be happiest on a hillside. These plants were part of a large colony growing on a hillside, just below the edge of the woods, in Mount Lebanon, where they were blooming in late July; they were among the earliest in their patch to bloom.

    Until the flowers appear, the plants closely resemble Ironweed (Vernonia spp.), and indeed another common name for them is “Yellow Ironweed.” The stems, however, are a dead giveaway: they have prominent “wings,” meaning that they are flattened out into a thin membrane along the edge.

    The flower heads are also distinctive. The disk florets are unusually large, arranged pincushion-fashion. The drooping rays are irregular and rather sloppy; there may be only two of them, or up to eight, and they be be significantly different in size and shape.

    However, though no one of the individual flower heads may be a florist’s showpiece, their effect en masse is quite decorative, and this is a very desirable native wildflower for those who have the space to let it run riot.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    ACTINÓMERIS Nutt. Heads many-flowered; rays neutral, few or none. Involucral bracts few, herbaceous, nearly equal, soon defiexed beneath the globular disk. Receptacle small, chaffy. Achenes flat, obovate, winged or wingless, at maturity spreading in all directions; pappus of 2-3 smooth persistent awns. —Tall branching perennials, with serrate feather-veined leaves tapering to the base and mostly decurrent on the stem. Heads corymbed ; flowers chiefly yellow. (Name from aktis, a ray, and meris, a part; alluding to the irregularity of the rays.)

    A. alternifòlia (L.) DC. Stem somewhat hairy, usually winged above. 1-2 m. high ; leaves alternate or the lower opposite, oblong or ovate-lanceolate, pointed at both ends; rays 2-8, irregular. (A. squarrosa Nutt.; Verbesina alternifolia Britton.) — Rich soil, N. J. to Ont., Ia., Kan., and southw. Aug., Sept.