Flora Pittsburghensis

Category: Caryophyllaceae

  • Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera)

    A chickweed with ambitions to be known as a wild flower rather than a mere weed. To that end it grows in the woods (rather than in your lawn) and produces flowers many times the size of the ones on the tiny chickweeds that grow in yards and gardens. Although spring is its primary blooming season, it can bloom again from later growth, often with smaller flowers than in the spring. This plant was one of a small colony growing along a woodland trail in Scott, where it was blooming in early July.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    STELLÀRIA L. CHICKWEED. STARWORT. Sepals 4-5. Petals (white) 4-5, deeply 2-cleft, sometimes none. Stamens 8, 10, or fewer. Styles 3, rarely 4 or 5, opposite as many sepals. Pod ovoid, 1-celled, opening by twice as many valves as there are styles, several-manyseeded. Seeds naked.—Flowers solitary or cymose, terminal or appearing lateral by the prolongation of the stem from the upper axils. (Name from stella, a star, in allusion to the star-shaped flowers.) Alsine L. in part, not Wahlenb.

    S. púbera Michx. (GREAT С.) Root perennial; leaves elliptic-oblong, ciliolate, 1.5-5 cm. long, sessile or the lowest somewhat petiolate; petals longer than the calyx; stamens 10. (Alsine Britton.) — Shaded rocks, N. J. and Pa. to Ind. and southw. May. — The petals are cleft sometimes half their length, sometimes nearly to the base. Late shoots produce much larger leaves and often reduced flowers.

  • Deptford Pink, White Form (Dianthus armeria)

    Apparently quite rare, since floras do not mention a white form, but abundant in this tiny meadow near Cranberry, where it was blooming in early July. Some chatter on the internet suggests that white Deptford Pinks turn up here and there once in a while, and other pinks often vary in color in the range from purple through white. The pink stamens are a nice decorative touch.

    UPDATE: Although none of the printed floras we consulted mentioned a white form, the Web-based Flora of North America (under Dianthus armeria subspecies armeria) does: “petals reddish with white dots (rarely all white).”

    A picture of the usual pink form is here.

    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.)

  • Mouse-Ear Chickweed (Cerastium fontanum)

    A pretty little flower when we magnify it like this, Chickweed is one of those low lawn-dwellers that suburban homeowners abhor. If your lawn simply must be made up of uniform blades of grass snipped to a precisely even height, then chickweed is your enemy. Otherwise, it does little harm, and cheers us up with starry little flowers that reward a close look, giving us an incentive to get better acquainted with the natural world of our own front yards. This patch grew in a side yard in Beechview, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

    Gray describes the genus and the species, which he lists as C. vulgatum:

    CERASTIUM L. MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED
    Sepals 5, rarely 4. Petals as many, 2-lobed or -cleft, rarely entire, often wanting in some of the flowers. Stamens 10 or fewer. Styles mostly 5, rarely 4 or 3, opposite the sepals. Pod 1-celled, usually elongated, -often 1 Curved, membranaceous, opening at the summit by twice as many teeth as there were styles, many-seeded. Seeds rough. (Name from Keras, a horn, alluding the shape of the pod.)

    C. vulgatum L. (COMMON M.) Stems clammy-hairy, spreading (1.5-4 dm. long); leaves chiefly oblong (varying to spatulate and ovate-lanceolate); upper bracts nearly herbaceous; flowers at first clustered; sepals 4-6 mm. long, obtusish; pedicels longer, the fruiting ones much longer than the -calyx. (C. viscosum of the Linnean herbarium; C. triviale Link.) Fields, dooryards, etc.; common. May-July. (Nat. from Eu.)

  • Long-Leaved Starwort (Stellaria longifolia)

    Also called Long-Leaved Stitchwort, this is a remarkably delicate little plant whose ethereally insubstantial stems and leaves make it seem as though the starry little flowers are floating in the air. It likes an overgrown meadow; this one was growing among clovers and cinquefoils in a meadow near Cranberry, where it was blooming in the middle of June.

    A good description from Mathews’ Field  Book of North American Wild Flowers:

    A tall very slender species with many branches, the stem with rough angles, and the light green leaves small and lance-shaped. The tiny flowers like white stars, with five white petals so deeply cleft that they appear as ten, sepals nearly equalling the petals in length. 10-20 inches high. In wet grassy places everywhere.

    Gray describes the genus and the species:

    STELLARIA L. CHICKWEED. STARWORT
    Sepals 4-5. Petals (white) 4-5, deeply 2-cleft, sometimes none. Stamens 8, 10, or fewer. Styles 3, rarely 4 or 5, opposite as many sepals. Pod ovoid, 1-celled, opening by twice as many valves as there are styles, several-many-seeded. Seeds naked. Flowers solitary or cymose, terminal or appearing lateral by the prolongation of the stem from the upper axils. (Name from stella, a star, in allusion to the star-shaped flowers.) ALSINE. in part, not Wahlenb.

    S. longifolia Muhl. Stem erect, weak, often with rough angles (2-5 dm. high); leaves linear, acutish at both ends, spreading; cymes scaly-bracted, at length lateral, peduncled, many-flowered, the slender pedicels spreading or deflexed; fruit pale straw-colored; seeds smooth. (Alsine Britton.)—Grassy places, Nfd. to Md., and westw. June, July. (Eu.)


  • 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.)