Toadshade most commonly has dark brownish-purple flowers, but the green form is not uncommon. Here we see it blooming by Saw Mill Run in Seldom Seen. Some botanists distinguish the green form as forma viridiflorum; others just say that sometimes Trillium sessile is green and nothing can be done about it. There are also intermediate forms with brownish-green or greenish-brown flowers.
For a description of the species, see the Trillium sessile reference page.
We see daylilies everywhere, in gardens and in the wild. But we seldom see them growing out of a stone wall. These plants live between the stones of the railroad viaduct that runs along the back of the South Side, where they were photographed June 20.
For a fuller description of the species, see the Hemerocallis fulva reference page.
Arching fronds of alternate leaves hide the dainty little bells: you have to lift the stem, or crouch on the ground, to see the flowers, as we see below.
But it is worth the extra effort to reveal the flowers. They are small and green, but beautifully shaped.
These plants were growing abundantly in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township, where they were photographed May 5.
For the botanical description by Fernald, see the Polygonatum pubescens reference page.
Great White Trilliums are out along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel. All the spring flowers are a little early this year.
For a detailed description, see the Trillium grandiflorum reference page.
With the division of the Lily Family into many different families and even orders, modern botanists place Hemerocallis in the family Asphodelaceae in the order Asparagales.
This favorite garden perennial has naturalized itself quite successfully in western Pennsylvania, and huge colonies light up our roadsides in June. Countless variations have been bred for connoisseurs, but nothing matches the simple elegance of the original species. It is considered invasive by some people who worry about such things. These plants were blooming at the edge of an old German cemetery in Beechview.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
HEMEROCALLIS L. DAY LILY. Perianth funnel-form, lily-like; the short tube inclosing the ovary, the spreading limb 6-parted; the 6 stamens inserted on its throat. Anthers as in Lilium, but introrse. Filaments and style long and thread-like, declined and ascending; stigma simple. Capsule (at first rather fleshy) 3-angled, loculicidally 3-valved, with several black spherical seeds in each cell. Showy perennials, with fleshy-flbrous roots; the long and linear keeled leaves 2-ranked at the base of the tall scapes, which bear at the summit several bracted and large flowers; these collapse and decay after expanding for a single day (whence the name, from hemera, a day, and kallos, beauty.)
H. fulva L. (COMMON D.) Inner divisions (petals) of the tawny orange perianth wavy and obtuse. Roadsides, escaped from gardens. (Introd. from Eu.)
