Flora Pittsburghensis

Author: Father Pitt

  • Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum)

    This beautiful little flower grows everywhere along the street in the city. It starts blooming quite early, and by the end of April is in full flower, as these plants were in a slightly weedy patch by the street in Beechview. The whole plant is tiny, and the flowers would be inconspicuous, except that the upper leaves are various shades of purple or dark pink, setting off the pale pink flowers beautifully.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    LAMIUM L. DEAD NETTLE

    Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, about 5-nerved, with 5 nearly equal awl-pointed teeth. Corolla dilated at the throat; upper lip ovate or oblong, arched, narrowed at the base; the middle lobe of the spreading lower lip broad, notched at the apex, contracted as if stalked at the base; the lateral ones small, at the margin of the throat. Decumbent herbs, the lowest leaves small and long-petioled, the middle heart-shaped and doubly toothed, the floral subtending the whorled flower-cluster. (Name from lamos, throat, in allusion to the ringent corolla.)

    * Annuals or biennials, low; flowers small, purplish, at most 1.5 cm. long.

    L. PURPUREUM L. Leaves roundish or oblong, heart-shaped, crenate-toothed, all petioled. N. E. to N. C. Apr., May. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)

    A close-up view of the fringed petals, which grow like ice crystals on a pane of glass. A view of the whole plant is here.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MITELLA [Tourn.] L. MITERWORT, BISHOP’S CAP

    Calyx short, adherent to the base of the ovary, 6-cleft. Petals 5, slender. Stamens 5 or 10, included. Styles 2, very short. Capsule short, 2-beaked, 1-celled, with 2 parietal or rather basal several-seeded placentae, 2-valved at the
    summit. Seeds smooth and shining. Low and slender perennials, with round heart-shaped alternate slender-petioled leaves on the rootstock or runners, and naked or 2-few-leaved flowering steins. Flowers small, in a simple slender raceme or spike. Fruit soon widely dehiscent. (Diminutive of mitra, a cap, alluding to the form of the young pod.)

    1. M. diphylla L. Hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acute, somewhat 3-5-lobed, toothed, those on the many-flowered stem 2, opposite, nearly sessile, with interfoliar stipules ; flowers white, in a raceme (1.5-2 dm. long); stamens 10. Rich woods, Que. and N. E. to N. C., w. to Minn., Ia., and Mo. May.

  • Virginia Bluebells, white form (Mertensia virginica)

    The sky-blue form is most common, but Bluebells come in a range of colors from white through pale lilac to pink as well as blue. The other colors are rare, but common enough that in a large patch you’ll usually find some of them. This plant grew in the Squaw Run valley in Fox Chapel, where it was blooming in late April.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MERTENSIA Roth. LUNGWORT

    Corolla longer than the deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted calyx, naked, or with 5 small glandular folds or appendages in the open throat. Anthers oblong or arrow-shaped. Style long and thread-form. Nutlets ovoid, fleshy when fresh, smooth or wrinkled, obliquely attached by a prominent internal angle ; the scar small. Smooth or soft-hairy perennial herbs, with pale and entire leaves, and handsome purplish-blue (rarely white) flowers, in loose and short panicled or corymbed raceme-like clusters, only the lower one leafy-bracted; pedicels slender. (Named for Franz Karl Mertens, a German botanist.)

    * Corolla trumpet-shaped, with spreading nearly entire limb and naked throat; filaments slender, exserted; hypogynous disk 2-lobed.

    M. virginica (L.) Link. (VIRGINIAN COWSLIP, BLUEBELLS.) Very smooth, pale, erect, 2-6 dm. high; leaves obovate, veiny, those at the root 1-1.5 dm. long, petioled; corolla trumpet-shaped, 2-2.5 cm. long, many times exceeding the calyx, light blue (pinkish in bud), rarely white; nutlets dull and roughish. Alluvial banks, N. Y. and Ont. to Neb., and southw. Apr., May.

  • Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)

    A flower that rewards close examination for its fringed petals, the fringes growing like ice crystals on a pane of glass. It likes rich woods, especially in stream valleys; this plant grew in the Squaw Run valley, where it was blooming in late April.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    MITELLA [Tourn.] L. MITERWORT, BISHOP’S CAP

    Calyx short, adherent to the base of the ovary, 6-cleft. Petals 5, slender. Stamens 5 or 10, included. Styles 2, very short. Capsule short, 2-beaked, 1-celled, with 2 parietal or rather basal several-seeded placentae, 2-valved at the
    summit. Seeds smooth and shining. Low and slender perennials, with round heart-shaped alternate slender-petioled leaves on the rootstock or runners, and naked or 2-few-leaved flowering steins. Flowers small, in a simple slender raceme or spike. Fruit soon widely dehiscent. (Diminutive of mitra, a cap, alluding to the form of the young pod.)

    1. M. diphylla L. Hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acute, somewhat 3-5-lobed, toothed, those on the many-flowered stem 2, opposite, nearly sessile, with interfoliar stipules ; flowers white, in a raceme (1.5-2 dm. long); stamens 10. Rich woods, Que. and N. E. to N. C., w. to Minn., Ia., and Mo. May.

  • Ash-Leaf Maple (Acer negundo)

    Ash-Leaf Maple, or Box Elder, is the only maple in North America with compound leaves. The dangling flowers appear in early spring just as the leaves are beginning to show themselves.

    This tree tends to take over hedges in the city, and perhaps the best way to deal with that is just to let it take over. The leaves often have three leaflets, making them easy to mistake for Poison Ivy. This tree grew at the edge of a little park in Beechview.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    ACER [Tourn.] L. MAPLE

    Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Calyx colored, 5 (rarely 4-12)-lobed or -parted. Petals either none or as many as the lobes of the calyx, equal, with short claws if any, inserted on the margin of a perigynous or hypogynous disk. Stamens 3-12. Ovary 2-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell; styles 2, long and slender, united only below, stigmatic down the inside. From the back of each carpel grows a wing, converting the fruit into two 1-seeded at length separable samaras or keys. Trees or sometimes shrubs, with opposite palmately lobed leaves, and small flowers. Pedicels not jointed. (The classical name, from the Celtic ac, hard.)

    A. Negundo L. (BOX ELDER.) Leaflets 3-6 (-9), smoothish when old, very veiny, ovate, pointed, toothed; petals none; fruit smooth, with large rather incurved wings. (Negundo aceroides Moench.) River-banks, w. N. E. to Man., south w. and westw.; extensively cultivated and frequently seeding itself eastw. Apr. A small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate drooping clusters of small greenish flowers rather earlier than the leaves.