Author: Father Pitt

  • White Campion (Silene latifolia ssp. alba)

    A European immigrant that has established itself all over eastern North America. It likes cultivated or recently disturbed ground; this plant was growing in a lot in Beechview that had recently been filled in, where it was blooming in late June. It also goes by the name of Evening Lychnis, because its flowers are nocturnal, closing during the day unless the weather is dreary, as it was on the rainy day when this picture was taken.

    The taxonomy of this species is in a dreadful state. It seems that most current botanists accept the name we give above (Silene latifolia subspecies alba), but in published works we find it listed under a wide variety of names, some of them confusingly similar to the names of confusingly similar species. Older botanists place this species in the genus Lychnis, which differs from Silene in very small structural details of the flowers—so small, apparently, that botanists have now decided to disband the genus, absorbing its members into Silene. Thus in Gray this species is Lychnis alba; but Gray also records Silene latifolia as a synonym for S. vulgaris, the Bladder Campion. Other botanists record this species as Silene alba.

    We give Gray’s descriptions of both Lychnis and Silene, since his description of the one depends on the other:

    SILÈNE L. CATCHFLY. CAMPION. Calyx 5-toothed, 10-many-nerved, naked at the base. Stamens 10. Styles 3, rarely 4. Pod 1-celled, sometimes 3-celled at least at the base, opening by 3 or 6 teeth at the apex. — Flowers solitary or in cymes. Petals mostly crowned with a scale at the base of the blade. (Name from sialon, saliva, from the viscid exudation on the stems and calyx of many species. The English name Catchfly alludes to the same peculiarity.)

    LÝCHNIS [Tourn.] L. CAMPION. Styles 5, rarely 4, and pod opening by as many or twice as many teeth; otherwise nearly as in Silène. (Ancient Greek name for a scarlet or flame-colored species, from lychnos, a light or lamp.)

    Calyx-teeth not twisted; petals showy, much exserted; plant green.

    Flowers dioecious or polygamous.

    L. alba Mill. (WHITE CAMPION.) Leaves ovate to lance-oblong; flowers white or pink, fragrant, opening in the evening; calyx-teeth longer [than in L. dioeca], attenuate; capsule ovoid conical, narrow-mouthed at dehiscence. (L. vespertina Sibth.) — Waste grounds and roadsides, but less common [than L. dioeca]. (Adv. from Old World. ) — Resembles Silene noctiflora but has 5 styles.

    In his Field Book of American Wild Flowers, F. Schuyler Mathews gives us this description:

    A charming plant naturalized from the old country, with densely fine-hairy, ovate-lance-shaped leaves and stem, both dark green; the leaves opposite. The sweet-scented flowers are white, closely resembling those of Silene noctiftora; in Lychnis, however, the flower has five styles, in Silene, three. Both species open their blossoms toward evening and close them during the following morning. The white petals are deeply cleft and crowned at the base with miniature petajlike divisions. The calyx is inflated, and often stained maroon-crimson along the ribs, which are sticky-hairy; after becoming still more inflated it withers and leaves exposed the vase-shaped light brown seed-vessel, pinked at the small opening above. 1-2 feet high. In waste places and borders of fields, from Me. to N. J. and N. Y. Probably farther west. Found at Phillip’s Beach, Marblehead, Mass.

  • Field Sow Thistle (Sonchus arvensis)

    Like a punk dandelion. The leaves are shaped like dandelion leaves, but ringed with spines. The flower heads are like a slightly inebriated dandelion head, with its rays a bit ragged and unkempt. This plant grew in a corner of a front yard in Beechview, where it was blooming in early August.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    SÓNCHUS [Tourn.] L. SOW THISTLE. Heads many-flowered, becoming tumid at base. Involucre more or less imbricated. Achenes obcompressed, ribbed or striate, not beaked; pappus copious, of very white exceedingly soft and fine bristles mainly falling together. — Leafy-stemmed coarse weeds, chiefly smooth and glaucous, with corymbed or umbellate heads of yellow flowers produced in summer and autumn. (The ancient Greek name. )

    Perennial, with creeping rootstocks; flowers bright yellow, in large heads.

    S. arvénsis L. (FIELD S.) Leaves runcinate-pinnatifld, spiny-toothed, clasping by a heart-shaped base; peduncles and involucre bristly; achenes transversely wrinkled on the ribs. — Roadsides, fields, and gravelly shores, Nfd. and N. S. to N J., w. to the Rocky Mts., commonest northw. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

    One of our most beloved wild flowers, the Purple Coneflower is at the eastern edge of its native range here; but ornamental plantings have made it a common sight, and from those ornamental plantings come seeds that reinforce the wild population. These plants grew in a clearing in Scott Township, where they were blooming in late July. Up close, the vivid red-orange of the disk florets is as striking as the bright pink-purple of the rays.

    This is the Echinacea so much prized by herbalists for its supposed use against colds.

    Gray describes the genus (which he lists as Brauneria) and the species:

    BRAUNÈRIA Neck. PURPLE CONE-FLOWER. Heads many-flowered; rays mostly drooping, pistillate but sterile. Bracts of the involucre imbricated, lanceolate, spreading. Receptacle conical, the lanceolate carinate spiny-tipped chaff longer than the disk-flowers. Achenes thick, short, 4-sided; pappus a small toothed border.—Perennial herbs, with stout and nearly simple stems naked above and terminated by a single large head; leaves chiefly alternate, 3-5-nerved. Rays rather persistent; disk purplish. (Named, it is said, for Jacob Brauner, a German herbalist of the early part of the 18th century.) Echinacea Moench.

    Rays purple, rose-color, or rarely white.

    B. purpurea (DC.) Britton. Stem smooth, or in one form rough-bristly; leaves rough, often serrate; the lowest ovate, 5-nerved,veiny, long-petioled ; the others ovate-lanceolate; involucre imbricated in 3-5 rows; rays 15-20, dull purple (rarely whitish), 2.5-4.5 cm. long or more. (Echinacea Moench.) — Prairies and banks, from w. Pa. and Va. to Mich., Ia., and southw.; reported as adventive eastw. July.

  • Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense), White Form

    Part of our continuing mission is to bring you common flowers blooming in the wrong colors. (See also our white Burdockpurple Queen Anne’s Lacewhite Deptford Pink, white Bluebellslavender Bugles, and white New England Aster.) Few weeds are more common than Canada Thistle, but its flowers are supposed to be pinkish-purple. Every once in a while, however, a plant appears that grows white flowers, as this one did. It grew by the side of a street in Banksville, where it was blooming in early August.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    CIRSIUM [Tourn.] Hill. COMMON or PLUMED THISTLE. Heads many-flowered; flowers all tubular, perfect and similar, rarely imperfectly dioecious. Bracts of the ovoid or spherical involucre imbricated in many rows, tipped with a point or prickle. Receptacle thickly clothed with soft bristles or hairs. Achenes oblong, flattish, not ribbed; pappus of numerous bristles united into a ring at the base, plumose to the middle, deciduous. Herbs, mostly biennial; the sessile alternate leaves often pinnatifid, prickly. Heads usually large, terminal. Flowers reddish-purple, rarely white or yellowish; in summer. (Name from kirsos, a swelled vein, for which the Thistle was a reputed remedy.) CNICUS of many auth., not L. By some recent Am. auth. included in CARDUUS.

    Outer bracts of the appressed involucre barely prickly-pointed; heads mostly small and numerous. None of the leaves strongly decurrent.

    C. arvénse (L.) Scop. (CANADA THISTLE.) Perennial, slender, 3-9 dm. high, the rootstock extensively creeping; leaves oblong or lanceolate, smooth, or slightly woolly beneath, finally green both sides, strongly sinuate-pinnatifid, very prickly-margined, the upper sessile hut scarcely decurrent; heads imperfectly dioecious; flowers rose-purple or whitish. (Carduus Robson; Cnicus Hoffm.) Cultivated fields, pastures, and roadsides, common; a most troublesome weed, extremely difficult to eradicate. (Nat. from Eu.) Var. VEST!TUM Wimm. & Grab. Leaves permanently white-lanate beneath. Locally established. (Nat. from Eu.) Var. INTEGRIFOLIUM Wimm. & Grab. Leaves  chiefly plane and uncut, or the lowest slightly pinnatifid. — Local, Que., N. E., and N. Y. (Nat. from Eu. )

    In Wild Flowers East of the Rockies, Chester Albert Reed gives us this copious description:

    CANADA THISTLE (Cirsium arvense) (EUROPEAN) is a small flowered, perennial species that has strayed across the ocean and became a pernicious weed. Individual plants are not themselves any more of a pest than are our native thistles but they have a dangerous, latent or potential power, in that they are far more prolific than our native species, due perhaps more to the number of the flowering heads than to any physical qualities of the plant.

    The stem is rather slender, branching and grows from 1 to 3 feet in height. It grows from a perennial, creeping rootstalk that is, as farmers have discovered, very difficult to eradicate from the soil. It grows in extensive colonies and, unless strenuous efforts are made to destroy them, they very soon take possession of a field to the exclusion of almost everything else.

    The leaves, that grow alternately and closely together on the stem, are long, lance-shaped, deeply cut into sharply-prickled lobes. Numerous flower heads, about one inch across, terminate the branches. When in full bloom, the florets vary in color from rose-purple to white; the involucre is almost globular and covered with over-lapping bracts, each with a tiny, sharp, out-turned point.

    All the thistles yield an abundance of nectar and are frequented by bees and butterflies, by one of the latter so persistently that it has been named the Thistle Butterfly or Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui); in fact this butterfly usually begins its career, as a caterpillar, on the thistle and lives chiefly upon its nectar and pollen through life.

    In Wild  Flowers Every Child Should Know (1914), Frederic William Stack gives us a description that seems a bit technical for the juvenile market; but perhaps it is a mistake to underestimate the interest of children in botanical details.

    CANADA THISTLE. CREEPING, CURSED, WAY, CORN, OR HARD THISTLE

    Cirsium arvense. Thistle Family.

    The Canada Thistle has been severely condemned by farmers in this country because of its rapid spread and the extreme difficulty with which its creeping roots are eradicated from the soil. It grows in extensive colonies, and quickly monopolizes our fertile meadows and pasture lands. The slender, leafy stalk is grooved and branching at the top, and grows from one to three feet high, from a perennial creeping rootstalk. The long, lance-shaped leaf is deeply cut into very prickly lobed or coarsely toothed segments, which bristle with many prickers, as they become curled or ruffled. The colour is grayish green, and the midrib is whitish. They slightly clasp the stalk, and the lower ones are stemmed. The numerous small, purple or whitish flower heads are loosely clustered on the tips of the branches. Many tubular florets with prominent purple stamens and white pistils compose the head. The latter is set in an egg-shaped, grayish green cup, which is covered with short, weak prickers. The flowers are fragrant and pleasing, but after they mature they become anything but sightly. This species is very common in cultivated fields and pastures and along roadsides from Newfoundland to Virginia, Minnesota and Nebraska, from July to September.

  • Wingstem (Actinomeris alternifolia)

    Another look at this cheery yellow composite, this time in better lighting than before. Cloudy days are much better for botanical or architectural photography than sunny days; the details rather than the shadows of the subject stand out. This plant was one of a thriving colony at the edge of the woods in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in early August.

    Flowers. Heads in a flattish cluster; disk florets large, golden, arranged hemispherically; rays golden, drooping, rounded or slightly notched at tip, irregular in size and number, none to ten or so. (Gray says 2 to 8, but we counted 10 on one of the flower heads in this patch.)

    Leaves. Sandpapery, alternate, oblong or lanceolate (the lower ones more ovate), pointed, irregularly toothed, tapering to winged petioles.

    Stems. To 7 feet or more (more than 2 m); very rough; with four “wings” or thin membranes along stem.

    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. (Asquarrosa Nutt.; Verbesina alternifolia Britton.) — Rich soil, N. J. to Ont., Ia., Kan., and southw. Aug., Sept.