Flora Pittsburghensis

Category: Asteraceae

  • Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

    Cirsium vulgare

    This is the big, spiny thistle that always pops up just where you don’t want a thistle. On the other hand, goldfinches love the seeds so much that it’s hard to imagine how the birds survived before Europeans introduced the plant to this continent. Architecturally, the whole plant is very elegant, and the flower heads are superbly artistic, with a tuft of pure magenta erupting from a prickly urn. This plant grew at the edge of a park in Beechview, where it was blooming in the middle of July.

    Gray lists this as Cirsium lanceolatum:

    CÍRSIUM [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 pinnatifld, 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.

    * Bracts of the involucre all tipped with spreading prickles.

    1. C. lanceolatum (L.) Hill. (COMMON or BULL THISTLE.) Leaves decurrent on the stem, forming prickly lobed wings, pinnatifid, rough and bristly above, woolly with deciduous webby hairs beneath, prickly; flowers purple. {Carduus L.;Cnicus Willd.) — Pastures and roadsides. July-Nov. (Nat. from Eu.)

    In Wild Flowers East of the Rockies (1910), Chester Albert Reed gives us a good description that turns into an apology for this elegant weed:

    COMMON or BULL THISTLE (Cirsium lanceolatum), although an introduced species has a larger range than the last (Cirsium pumilum). It is common in fields and pastures and along roadsides from Newfoundland to Ga. and west to Nebr. Its heads are only slightly smaller than those of the preceding; usually but one is found on a plant. The stout stem grows from 2 to 4 feet high. The leaves are rough and bristly above and woolly underneath.

    Although thistles may be foes to those following agricultural callings, they are staunch friends of birds and insects (except crawling ones). The plant fibres and down from the mature heads forms the principal part in the composition of nests of the Goldfinch.

    In Wild Flowers Worth Knowing, Neltje Blanchan gives us an apology for all species of thistles:

    Common or Plumed Thistle

    Cirsium

    Is land fulfilling the primal curse because it brings forth thistles? So thinks the farmer, no doubt, but not the goldfinches which daintily feed among the fluffy seeds, nor the bees, nor the “painted lady,” which may be seen in all parts of the world where thistles grow, hovering about the beautiful rose-purple flowers. In the prickly cradle of leaves, the caterpillar of this thistle butterfly weaves a web around its main food store.

    When the Danes invaded Scotland, they stole a silent night march upon the Scottish camp by marching barefoot; but a Dane inadvertently stepped on a thistle, and his sudden, sharp cry, arousing the sleeping Scots, saved them and their country; hence the Scotch emblem.

    From July to November blooms the Common, Burr, Spear, Plume, Bank, Horse, Bull, Blue, Button, Bell, or RoadsideThistle (C. lanceolatum or Carduus lanceolatus), a native of Europe and Asia, now a most thoroughly naturalized American from Newfoundland to Georgia, westward to Nebraska. Its violet flower-heads, about an inch and a half across, and as high as wide, are mostly solitary at the ends of formidable branches, up which few crawling creatures venture. But in the deep tube of each floret there is nectar secreted for the flying visitor who can properly transfer pollen from flower to flower. Such a one suffers no inconvenience from the prickles, but, on the contrary, finds a larger feast saved for him because of them. Dense, matted, wool-like hairs, that cover the bristling stems of most thistles, make climbing mighty unpleasant for ants, which ever delight in pilfering sweets. Perhaps one has the temerity to start upward.

    “Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall,”
    “If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all,”

    might be the ant’s passionate outburst to the thistle, and the thistle’s reply, instead of a Sir Walter and Queen Elizabeth couplet. Long, lance-shaped, deeply cleft, sharply pointed, and prickly dark green leaves make the ascent almost unendurable; nevertheless, the ant bravely mounts to where the bristle-pointed, overlapping scales of the deep green cup hold the luscious flowers. Now his feet becoming entangled in the cottony fibres wound about the scaly armor, and a bristling bodyguard thrusting spears at him in his struggles to escape, death happily releases him. All this tragedy to insure the thistle’s cross-fertilized seed that, seated on the autumn winds, shall be blown far and wide in quest of happy conditions for the offspring!

  • Lance-Leaved Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)


    Its native range is farther west, but Lance-Leaved Coreopsis is frequently cultivated and has established itself here. This plant was part of a small colony blooming in early July in a recently disturbed hillside clearing in Scott Township, along with a much larger colony of Coreopsis tinctoria, another Midwestern import. The four points at the end of each ray are distinctive.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    COLEOPSIS L. TICKSEED. Heads many-flowered, radiate; rays mostly 8, neutral, rarely wanting. Involucre double; each series of about 8 bracts, the outer foliaceous and somewhat spreading; the inner broader and appressed, nearly membranaceous. Receptacle flat, with membranaceous chaff deciduous with the fruit. Achenes flat, obcompressed (i.e. flattened parallel with the bracts of the involucre), often winged, not narrowed at the top, 2-toothed or 2-awned, or sometimes naked at the summit; the awns not barbed downwardly. — Herbs, generally with opposite leaves and yellow or party-colored (rarely purple) rays. Too near the last section of Bidens, but generally well distinguished as a genus. (Name from koris, a bug, and opsis, appearance; from the form of the achene.)

    §2. Style-tips abruptly cuspidate, hispid; involucres nearly equal; achenes roundish, winged, incurved, often papillose and with a callus inside at base and apex; pappus 2 small teeth or none; rays mostly yellow andpalmately lobed; perennials, with long-pedunculate heads; lower leaves petiolate.

    * Wings of achene broad, thin, spreading.

    3. С. lanceolàta L. Smooth or hairy, 3-6 din. high, tufted, branched only at the base ; leaves all entire (the lower rarely with a pair of small lateral lobes), lanceolate, the lowest oblanceolate or spatulate; outer bracts ovate-lanceolate. — Rich or damp soil, Ont. and Mich, to Va., Mo., and southw.; also cultivated on account of its showy heads, and sometimes escaping eastw. May-July.

  • Calliopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

    Also called Plains Coreopsis, and it is indeed native to the Great Plains. Its showy flowers, however, have made it welcome  in gardens everywhere, and it often escapes where it finds an environment that reminds it of home. This patch was growing in a hillside clearing in Scott Township, where the soil had recently been disturbed. It was blooming in early July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    COREOPSIS L. Tickseed

    Heads many-flowered, radiate; rays mostly 8, neutral, rarely wanting. Involucre double; each series of about 8 bracts, the outer foliaceous and somewhat spreading; the inner broader and appressed, nearly membranaceous. Receptacle flat, with membranaceous chaff deciduous with the fruit. Achenes flat, obcompressed (i.e. flattened parallel with the bracts of the involucre), often winged, not narrowed at the top, 2-toothed or 2-awned, or sometimes naked at the summit; the awns not barbed downwardly. — Herbs, generally with opposite leaves and yellow or party-colored (rarely purple) rays. Too near the last section of Bidens, but generally well distinguished as a genus. (Name from koris, a bug, and opsis, appearance; from the form of the achene.)

    §1. Style-tips truncate or nearly so; outer involucre small and short; rays rosecolor or yellow, with brown base; pappus an obscure border or none.

    С tinctoria Nutt. Annual, glabrous, often 1 m. high; leaves 1-2-pinnately divided, the lobes lanceolate to linear; achenes oblong, wingless; rays yellow, with more or less of crimson-brown. — Minn, to Tex., etc.; common in cultivation; often escaping to roadsides, etc., eastw.

  • Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)

    UPDATE: Since writing this article, we have found Orange Hawkweed growing in Highland Park, so we know now that it is found in the city of Pittsburgh.

    Also called “Devil’s Paintbrush,” on the principle that attributes anything striking or bright in nature to satanic forces. Gray gives another name, Grim the Collier, that refers to a traditional character who gets the best of the devil in folk tales, putting our subject on the side of good rather than evil.

    This would be an ordinary dandelion-like weed, except  that the flowers are bright orange, making it one of our showiest wild flowers. It seldom or never comes as far south as the city of Pittsburgh itself, but begins to be seen in the northern fringes of our area, and becomes quite common farther north in Pennsylvania. This plant grew at a roadside rest stop in Crawford County, where it was blooming in late June.

    This species is often placed in the genus Pilosella, but there seems to be much uncertainty. The imperfectly omniscient Wikipedia leads us on a merry chase: Hieracium aurantiacum redirects to Pilosella aurantiaca, but Pilosella redirects to Hieracium.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    HIERACIUM [Tourn.] L. HAWKWEED
    Heads 12-many-flowered. Involucre more or less imbricated. Achenes short, oblong or columnar, striate, not beaked; pappus a single row of tawny and fragile capillary rough bristles. —Hispid or hirsute and often glandular perennials, with entire or toothed leaves, and single or panicled heads of mostly yellow flowers; summer and early autumn. (Name from hierax, a hawk.)

    * Flowers orange-red.

    H. aurantiacum L. (ORANGE H., DEVIL’S PAINT-BRUSH, GRIM THE COLLIER.) Long-hirsute; leaves oblanceolate, 6-15 cm. long, green on both sides; a stolons numerous, slender; scape 2-6 dm. high, usually 1-2-bracted; heads about 2 cm. broad. Fields, etc., e. Que. to Ont. and Pa., locally too abundant. June, July. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

    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.