Flora Pittsburghensis

This is one of those flowers that reward a close look. The flowers are like tiny marigolds, and indeed they’re sometimes called bur-marigolds. The seeds, long and narrow like marigold seeds, have hooks that stick in animal fur or people’s clothes. These grew at the edge of a yard in Beechview.

From Gray’s Manual of Botany: B. bipinnata L. (SPANISH NEEDLES.) Smooth annual, branched; leaves 1-3-pinnately parted, petioled; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, mostly wedge-shaped at the base; heads small, on slender peduncles; outer involucre of linear bracts equaling the short pale yellow rays; achenes 4-grooved, nearly smooth, 3-4-awned, very unequal. Damp soil, R. I., westw. and southw.; occasional on ballast northw.

Now Symphyotrichum pilosum. Covered with white flowers, this aster looks as though it might have been touched with hoarfrost; it also blooms well past the first frost, giving us at least two possible derivations of its common name. Also called Heath Aster. It blooms everywhere in Pittsburgh; these were found by a fence in Beechview.

Asters are hard even for botanists to sort out. Gray and Britton & Brown give this as Aster ericoides var. pilosus; Britton & Brown note that “This species apparently hybridizes with A. paniculatus Lam. where the two grow together.”

Here is Gray’s complete listing for A. ericoides: A. ericoides L. Smooth, 3-9 dm. high; the simple branchlets or peduncles racemose along the upper side of the wand-like spreading branches; lowest leaves oblong-spatulate, sometimes toothed ; the others linear-lanceolate or linear-awl-shaped; heads 6 mm. high or less; involucre hemispheric or campanulate; bracts often nearly equal, with attentuate or awl-shaped green tips. Dry open places, N. E. to Ont. , Minn., and southw. Aug.-Oct.

Var. villosus T. & G. Similar, but the stem and generally the narrow leaves villous-hirsute. (Var. pilosus Porter.) Same range.

Var. pringlei Gray. A low slender northern form, with few erect branches and rather small scattered mostly solitary heads. (A. Pringlei Britton.) Me. to Ont., s. to Mass, and Wisc.

Var. platyphyllus T. & G. Stout; stem and branches densely white-villous ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, mostly pubescent ; heads as in the typical form, but larger. O. to Mich., Ill., and southw.

These tall sunflowers like the edge of the woods, especially if there is water nearby; these grew on a hill overlooking a pond in a small park not far from Harmar. They were blooming in late August.

From Gray’s Manual of Botany: H. strumosus L. Stein 1-2 in. high, very smooth below, often glaucous; leaves ovate-lanceolate, taperoing gradually to a point, or the lower ovate and acute, abruptly contracted into short margined petioles, rough above, whitish and naked or minutely downy underneath; bracts broadly lanceolate, with spreading tips, ciliate, equaling the disk; rays 9-15. River-banks and low copses, N. B. to Ont., Minn., and southw. Var. MOLLIS T. & G. Leaves downy underneath, often subcordate ; bracts looser and more attenuate. (Var. macrophyllus Britton.) N. B. and Pa. to Ont. and La.

A more contemplative sort of goldenrod. Its showier cousins brighten fields and meadows, but the Wreath or Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod is happiest in an open woodland, thriving in deeper shade than almost any other other fall flower. Its arched stems of golden flowers have a restrained elegance that seems appropriate to the dim religious light of the woods. This plant grew beside a forest path near West Newton.

From Gray’s Manual of Botany: S. caesia L. Smooth; at length much branched and diffuse; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, sessile; heads in very short clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled on the branches. Deciduous woods, s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and southw. Aug.-Oct.