A much-hated weed, but the flowers are pretty, and the seedheads are delightful to finches.
We also have pictures of an unusual white form of Canada Thistle.
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Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense)
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Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Photographed June 12. Sometimes mistaken for Queen Anne’s Lace, to which it is not related; Yarrow is a composite, meaning that each of those little flowers in the bunch is itself a head of multiple flowers. This plant was blooming in an open field in Schenley Park.
For a description of the species, see the Achillea millefolium reference page.
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Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum)
Photographed May 29. A common weed of lawns; it closely resembles the more spectacular Orange Hawkweed (H. aurantiacum) in everything but color. This one has many common names, some of which it shares with the orange species, including King Devil, Devil’s Paintbrush, Yellow Paintbrush, and Fox-and-Cubs. Many current botanists place both in the genus Pilosella, so that (making the adjective agree in gender) it becomes Pilosella caespitosa; but there are still arguments about that, and old Pa Pitt will stand back and let the professionals sort it out. These plants were blooming in a field near Farmington.
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Salsify (Tragopogon dubius)
Photographed May 23. Also listed as T. major, and there are various other common names, including goat’s-beard (of which the genus name “Tragopogon” is a literal translation into Greek) and oyster-flower. Two similar species of yellow Salsify grow in our area; this seems to be more common and prefers gravely waste places. The plants shown here were growing among the litter in a gravel roadside in Banksville. Fernald’s revised edition of Gray gives us a feature to look for to distinguish this species: “peduncle upwardly enlarged below the head.” The “peduncle” is the stem that carries the flower; note the way it swells toward the developing seedhead in the picture below.
The leaves are grasslike at the base of the plant, a bit broader along the stem; the flowers are followed by huge-dandelion-like seedheads nearly as big as a closed fist.
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Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus)
Photographed May 17. Philadelphia Fleabane is found in many of the same places as Common or Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), and the two can be hard to tell apart at first glance. Philadelphia Fleabane has even more rays—usually more than a hundred per flower head—giving the heads a shaggy appearance. As we see above, Philadelphia Fleabane is also more likely to show a pink tinge or occasionally a strong pink color, but that is not a reliable indicator, since many Philadelphia Fleabanes are pure white. These plants were growing in a large patch along a street in Beechview.
This common weed can tolerate some shade, so we often see large patches of it in lightly shaded overgrown areas near parking lots or roads.
For a description of the species, see the Erigeron philadelphicus reference page
In the picture above, note how the heads in bud are nodding—hanging down—before they open.
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