Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria)

    These little flowers were brought over as cottage-garden staples, but they liked it here well enough to adopt it as their new home. They’re not unusual, but still just uncommon enough that running across one in a vacant lot is an unexpected delight. They seem to prefer poor soil, and up on Presque Isle can be found in great numbers just behind the dunes. This one was blooming beside a sidewalk in Beechview in early June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    DIANTHUS L. PINK, CARNATION
    Calyx cylindrical, nerved or striate, 5-toothed, subtended by 2 or more imbricated bractlets. Stamens 10. Styles 2. Pod 1-celled, 4-valved at the apex. Seeds flattish on the back; embryo scarcely curved. —Ornamental plants, of well-known aspect and value in cultivation. (Name from Dios, of Jupiter, and anthos, flower, i.e. Jove’s own flower.)

    D. ARMERIA L. (DEPTFORD P.) Annual; flowers clustered; bractlets of the calyx and bracts lance-awl-form, herbaceous, downy, as long as the tube; leaves linear, hairy; petals small, rose-color with white dots, crenate. Fields, etc., Mass, to Va., w. to s. Ont., Mich., and Ia. July. (Adv. from Eu.)

  • Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

    Also known as Dogtooth Violet or Adder’s Tongue, this very attractive plant is as remarkable for its mottled leaves as for its yellow flowers. It likes wooded stream valleys where the soil is very rich and moist. This one was blooming in late April in the Squaw Run valley, Fox Chapel.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    ERYTHRONIUM L. DOG’S-TOOTH VIOLET

    Perianth lily-like, of 6 lanceolate recurved or spreading divisions, deciduous, the 3 inner usually with a callous tooth on each side of the base, and a groove in the middle. Filaments 6, awl-shaped; anthers oblong-linear. Style elongated. Capsule obovoid, contracted at base, 3-valved, loculicidal. Seeds rather numerous. Nearly stemless herbs, with two smooth and shining flat leaves tapering into petioles and sheathing the base of the commonly one-flowered scape, rising from a deep solid scaly bulb. Flowers rather large, nodding, in spring. (The Greek name for the purple-flowered European species, from erythros, red. )

    E. americanum Ker. (YELLOW ADDER’S-TONGUE). Scape 1.5-2 dm. high; leaves elliptical-lanceolate, pale green, mottled with purplish and whitish and often minutely dotted; perianth light yellow, often spotted near the base (2-4 cm. long); style club-shaped; stigmas united. Rich ground, N. B. to Fla. , w. to Out. and Ark.

  • Charlock (Brassica arvensis)

    Now known as Sinapis arvensis; also formerly called Brassica kaber. A common weed along roadsides and in fields. The larger flowers easily distinguish it from the other wlid mustards.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    BRASSICA [Tourn.] L. MUSTARD. TURNIP
    Annuals or biennials, with yellow flowers. Lower leaves mostly lyrate, incised, or pinnatifid. (The Latin name of the Cabbage.)

    B. ARVENSIS (L.) Ktze. (CHARLOCK.) Knotty pods fully one third occupied by a stout 2-cdged beak; upper leaves rhombic, scarcely petioled, merely toothed; fruiting pedicels short, thick; pods smooth or rarely bristly. 4 cm. long. (B. Sinapistrum Boiss.; Sinapis arvensis L.) Noxious weed in grainfields, etc. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria)

    These stately, slender perennials have lately become favorites in the garden trade. In the wild, they grow white or yellow flowers, the white ones (var. albiflorum, according to Gray) being more common in Pittsburgh. Gardeners have bred a number of attractive pastels. The plants like to grow in a clear spot at the edge of the woods, as they did here on a hillside in Mount Lebanon, where they were blooming at the end of May.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    VERBASCUM [Tourn.] L. MULLEIN

    Calyx 5-parted. Corolla 5-lobed, open or concave; the lobes broad and rounded, a little unequal. Style flattened at the apex. Capsule globular, many- seeded. Tall and usually woolly biennial herbs ; the leaves of the stem sessile, often decurrent. Flowers in large terminal spikes or racemes, ephemeral, in summer. (The ancient Latin name, altered from Barbascum.)

    V. BLATTARIA L. (MOTH M.) Green and smoothish, or somewhat glandular-pubescent above, slender; lower leaves petioled, oblong, doubly serrate, sometimes lyre-shaped, the upper partly clasping; raceme loose, the pedicels longer than the fruit; filaments all bearded with violet wool. Roadsides and waste places, w. Me. to Ont., and southw., local. Corolla either yellow, or (in var. ALBIFLORUM Ktze.) white with a tinge of purple. (Nat. from Eu.)

    In Wild Flowers Worth Knowing, the Moth Mullein is described thus:

    Moth Mullein

    Verbascum Blattaria

    Flowers–Yellow, or frequently white, 5-parted, about 1 in. broad, marked with brown; borne on spreading pedicles in a long, loose raceme; all the filaments with violet hairs; 1 protruding pistil. Stem: Erect, slender, simple, about 2 ft. high, sometimes less, or much taller. Leaves: Seldom present at flowering time; oblong to ovate, toothed, mostly sessile, smooth.

    Preferred Habitat–Dry, open waste land; roadsides, fields.

    Flowering Season–June-November.

    Distribution–Naturalized from Europe and Asia, more or less common throughout the United States and Canada.

    “Of beautiful weeds quite a long list might be made without including any of the so-called wild flowers,” says John Burroughs. “A favorite of mine is the little Moth Mullein that blooms along the highway, and about the fields, and maybe upon the edge of the lawn.” Even in winter, when the slender stem, set with round brown seed-vessels, rises above the snow, the plant is pleasing to the human eye, as it is to that of hungry birds.

  • Goldmoss (Sedum sarmentosum)

    Also known as Stringy Stonecrop or Wild Stonecrop (a name it shares with  Sedum ternatum), this little succulent really likes city yards where the soil is a bit dry. But it can seed itself anywhere and grows very fast: this plant grew up in a nursery pot with a Korean lilac, and by the end of May was covered with starry yellow flowers. Often planted as a groundcover; it can be invasive, but its shallow roots make it very easy to yank out if you don’t like it.

    This species was introduced from Asia after Gray’s time as a rock-garden specialty, but apparently Pittsburgh is very much to its liking. It does not appear in Gray’s Manual.