Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)

    Thorny canes of blackberry can make the edge of the woods nearly impenetrable, but they reward us with these pretty (though often a bit sloppy) white flowers, and then of course with sweet blackberries. This stand grew at the edge of an old German Lutheran cemetery in Beechview.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    RUBUS [Tourn.] L. BRAMBLE
    Calyx 5 (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.)

    R. allegheniensis Porter. Shrubby, 1-2 m. tall; old canes purplish, armed with stout straightish prickles; leaflets appressed-villous above, velvety beneath; branchlets, pedicels (unarmed), etc., glandular-pubescent; flowers 2.5-3.5 cm. broad, racemose, only the lower leafy-bracted; petals narrowly obovate; fruit (rarely pale) generally subcylindric, of many rather small drupelets, of good flavor. (R. mllosus Man. ed. 6, in large part, not Ait.; R. nigrobaccus Bailey.) Dry open thickets and recent clearings, N. S. to Ont. and N. C., common.

  • Horse Nettle (Solanum carolinense)

    A very prickly member of the nightshade or tomato family. It makes up a little for its thorny disposition by growing attractive white flowers with the brightest yellow stamens you can imagine. The flowers may fade to lavender as they age. This plant was blooming in early June in the plantings outside the Hilton hotel downtown in Gateway Center, where apparently the gardeners have not been adequately paid.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    SOLANUM [Tourn.] L. NIGHTSHADE
    Calyx and wheel-shaped corolla 5-parted or 5-cleft (rarely 4-10-parted), the latter plaited in the bud, and valvate or induplicate. Stamens exserted; filaments very short; anthers eonvrnjing around the style, opening at the tip by two pores or chinks. Berry usually 2-celled. Herbs, or shrubs in warm climates, the larger leaves often accompanied by a smaller lateral (rameal) one; the peduncles also mostly lateral and extra-axillary. A vast genus, chiefly in warmer regions. (Name of unknown derivation.)

    S. carolinense L. (HORSE NETTLE.) Hirsute or roughish-pubescent with 4-8-rayed hairs; prickles stout, yellowish, copious (rarely scanty); leaves oblong or ovate, obtusely sinuate-toothed or lobed or sinuate-pinnatifid; racemes simple, soon lateral; calyx-lobes acuminate; berry 1-1.5 cm. broad. Sandy soil and waste grounds, N. E. to Ont., westw. and south w.; adventive eastw.

  • Bugles (Ajuga reptans)

    The common blue form of this popular groundcover; there is also a much rarer lavender form. This one was blooming in early May at the edge of the woods in Mount Lebanon.

    Although Gray says this species is “smooth or but slightly pubescent,” this particular plant looks rather fuzzy up on the flower stalk. The similar Ajuga genevensis is supposed to be a hairier species, but it lacks the creeping stolons characteristic of Ajuga reptans, and this plant was stoloning up a storm. We therefore identify it as a slightly fuzzier-than-average Ajuga reptans.

    AJUGA L. BUGLE WEED

    Calyx 5-toothed. The large and spreading lower lip of the corolla with the middle lobe emarginate or 2-cleft. Stamens as in Teucrium, but anther- cells less confluent. (From a- privative, and xygon, Latin jugum, yoke, from the seeming absence of a yoke-fellow to the lower lip of the corolla.)

    A. reptans L. Perennial, 1-2.5 dm. high, smooth or but slightly pubescent, with copious creeping stolons; leaves obovate or spatulate, sometimes sinuate, the cauline sessile, the floral approximate, subtending several sessile blue flowers. Locally in fields, Me. and Que. to s. N. V. May-July. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Morrow’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowi)

    A tall bush (six feet or more) with flowers very much like those on Japanese Honeysuckle, both white and buff on the same bush. (Like Japanese Honeysuckle, it came from Japan.) It grows at the edge of the woods, and is particularly fond of roadsides. This bush grew at the wooded edge of a yard in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in early May.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    LONICERA L. HONEYSUCKLE

    Calyx-teeth very short. Corolla tubular or funnel-form, often gibbous at the base, irregularly or almost regularly 5-lobed. Berry several-seeded. Erect or climbing shrubs. Leaves entire. Flowers often showy and fragrant. (Named in honor of Adam Lonitzer, latinized Lonicerus, a German herbalist of the 16th century.) A large boreal genus most abundant in Asia and long popular in cultivation.

    L. morrowi Gray. Shrub, 1.5-2 m. high, soft-downy; branches spreading; leaves oblong, rounded or subcordate at base, dark green and somewhat rugose above, much paler and grayish-tomentose beneath, obtuse or barely acutish; calyx-teeth hirsute or ciliate; corolla-lobes subequal, nearly as long as the tube, widely spreading, white or cream-colored ; berries bright red. Frequently cultivated, and now locally established in e. Mass. (Introd. from Japan.)

  • Speedwell (Veronica officinalis)

    Surely these would be some of our most treasured ornamentals if they were just a little larger. Other members of the genus Veronica find honored places in our gardens, but the tiny Common Speedwells pass unnoticed under our lawn mowers. They’re worth examining closely. Magnified, as here, they turn out to be spectacular flowers. They’re found everywhere lawn grass is found; this one was blooming in Mount Lebanon at the end of April.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    VERONICA [Tourn.] L. SPEEDWELL

    The lateral lobes of the corolla or the lowest one commonly narrower than the others. Stamens 2, one each side of the upper lobe of the corolla, exserted; anther-cells confluent at the apex. Style entire; stigma single. Capsule flat- tened, obtuse or notched at the apex, 2-celled, few-many-seeded. Chiefly herbs ; flowers blue, flesh-color, or white. (Derivation doubtful; perhaps the flower of St. Veronica.)

    V. officinalis L. (COMMON S.) Pubescent; stem prostrate, rooting at base ; leaves short-petioled, obovate-elliptical or wedge-oblong, obtuse, serrate; racemes densely many-flowered; pedicels shorter than the calyx; capsule obovate- triangular, broadly notched. Dry hills and open woods, Nfd. to Ont., Mich., and southw. May-Aug. (Eurasia.)