Wherever people feed birds, sunflowers are likely to sprout up. The big seeds easily wash downhill in a heavy rain and catch in the first crevice; this plant grew from a broad crack in the sidewalk in Beechview, where it was blooming in late June.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

HELIANTHUS L. SUNFLOWER
Heads many-flowered; rays several or many, neutral. Involucre imbricated, herbaceous or foliaceous. Receptacle flat or convex; the persistent chaff embracing the 4-sided and laterally compressed smooth achenes, which are neither winged nor margined. Pappus very deciduous, of 2 thin chaffy scales on the principal angles, and sometimes 2 or more small intermediate scales. Coarse and stout herbs, with solitary or corymbed heads, and yellow rays; flowering toward autumn. (Named from helios, the sun, and anthos, a flower.)

H. annuus L. (COMMON SUNFLOWER.) Tall, rough; leaves triple-ribbed ovate or the lower cordate, serrate; involucral bracts broadly ovate to oblong, long-pointed, ciliate; disk usually 2.5 cm. broad or more. Rich soil, Minn, to Tex., and westw.; long cultivated, and occasionally found in waste grounds eastw.

These beautiful flowers, close relatives of the garden Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus), seem to be found almost exclusively along railroads. The color is variable from purple through white, but this purplish pink is by far the most common color. This plant grew along the railroad near the river on the South Side, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

CENTAUREA L. STAR THISTLE
Heads many-flowered; flowers all tubular, the marginal often much larger (as it were radiate) and sterile. Receptacle bristly. Involucre ovoid or globose, imbricated; the bracts margined or appendaged. Achenes obovoid or oblong, compressed or 4-angled, attached obliquely at or near the base; pappus setose or partly chaffy, or none. Herbs with alternate leaves; the single heads rarely yellow. (Kentaurie, an ancient Greek plant-name, poetically associated with Chiron, the Centaur, but without wholly satisfactory explanation.)

C. maculosa Lam. Pubescent or glabrate, with ascending rather wiry branches; involucre ovoid-cainpanulate, in fruit becoming open-campanulate; the outer and middle ovate bracts with rather firm points and with 5-7 pairs of cilia at the dark tip; innermost bracts elongate, entire or lacerate; corollas whitish, rose-pink, or purplish, the marginal falsely radiate. Waste places, roadsides, etc., N. E. to N. J. (Adv. from Eu.)

Few floral sights are more spectacular than a meadow filled with Ironweed, whose vivid purple can never be adequately captured in a photograph. This meadow was blooming in early September along a tributary of the Pine Creek near Wexford.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

VERNONIA Schreb. IRONWEED
Heads discoid, 16-many-flowered, in corymbose cymes; flowers perfect; involucre shorter than the flowers, of much imbricated bracts. Achenes cylindrical, ribbed; pappus double, the outer of minute scale-like bristles, the inner of copious capillary bristles. Perennial herbs, with leafy steins, alternate acuminate or very acute serrate leaves and mostly purple (rarely white) flowers. (Named for William Vernon, an early English botanist, who traveled in North America. )

V. noveboracensis Willd. Rather tall (1-2 m.); leaves long-lanceolate to lance-oblong, more or less pubescent beneath, gradually narrowed but not at all acuminate toward the base; cyme open; heads mostly 30-40-flowered; involucre purplish (or in white-flowered individuals green), campanulate; the bracts ovate or lance-ovate, with loosely ascending or recurved-spreading filiform tips; pappus purple or purplish. Low ground near the coast, Mass, to Va. and Miss.; reported from Pelee I., L. Erie (Macoun).

Nasty prickly weeds that they are, the Sow Thistles have a certain architectural elegance. The buds are shaped like a fine glass vase, and the clasping leaves are a particulary attractive dark green. Sow Thistles are edible, apparently, if you catch them young or don’t mind sticking sharp things in your mouth. This one was blooming beside a telephone pole in Beechview in early November.

Gray describes the genus and the species:

SONCHUS [Tourn.] L. SOW THISTLE.
Heads many-flowered, becoming tumid at base. Involucre more or less imbricated. Achenes obcompressed, ribbed or striate, not beake; 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.)

S. OLERACEUS L. (COMMON S.) Stem-leaves runcinate-pinnatifid, rarely undivided, slightly toothed with soft spiny teeth, clasping by a heart-shaped base, the auricles acute; involucre downy when young; achenes striate, also wrinkled transversely. Waste places, chiefly in manured soil and around dwellings. (Nat. from Eu.)