A beloved European import that covers itself with little striped geranium flowers. These plants were blooming on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.
Comments
-
Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum)
Photographed May 29. 
Comments
-
American Alumroot (Heuchera americana)
Photographed May 29. The flowers are tiny green bells with dangling stamens. The leaves may sometimes show interesting colors, and many garden varieties have been bred for their foliage.
These plants were growing on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.
-
Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)
Photographed June 1. The three equal petals, dangling buds, and long grassy leaves distinguish this plant from anything else. It is a common garden flower, and in the city is often found as a garden escape, even though it is also native to our area. The flowers bloom in colors ranging from blue through violet to purple. In these pictures, the blue flowers were growing in the hamlet of Woodville in Scott Township; the purple ones were growing on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.
Photographed May 29. 
For a description of the species, see the Tradescantia virginiana reference page.
Comments
-
Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)
Photographed May 29. Also known as Carolina Allspice. Not listed in the Check List of the Vascular Flora of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania or in the Additions to that list, but the USDA PLANTS Database records Calycanthus floridus in Allegheny, Armstrong, Westmoreland, and Fayette Counties. This bush was growing at the edge of the woods on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run. There is nothing else around here like it; when it is in bloom, the large maroon flowers are unmistakable.
Gray (revised by Fernald) describes the genus and the species:
CALYCANTHUS L. Carolina Allspice. Calyx of many sepals united below into a fleshy inversely conical cup (with some leaf-like bractlets growing from it); the lobes lanceolate, mostly colored like the petals, which are similar, in many rows, thickish and inserted on the top of the closed calyx-tube. Stamens numerous, inserted just within the petals, short; some of the inner ones sterile (destitute of anthers). Pistils several or many, inclosed in the calyx-tube, inserted on its base and inner face. — Aromatic shrubs of e. N. Am. and e. Asia, with brownish-maroon flowers terminating leafy shoots. (Name composed of the Greek calyx, a cup or calyx, and anthos, flower.) Butneria Duham.
C. floridus L. (flowering). — Leaves oval, soft-downy underneath; flowers when crushed yielding strong fragrance suggesting strawberries. (Butneria Kearney) — Rich woods, Fla. to Miss., n. to Va. and W.Va. Apr.-Aug. — Cult. northw.
Comments
-
Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Photographed May 29. Little red-and-yellow bells with bundles of stamens for clappers. There is nothing else remotely like this flower in our wild flora, except for the cultivated European Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) that occasionally escapes from gardens in the city, whose flowers are blue, purple, pink, or white, but never red and yellow.
This plant was blooming at the edge of the woods on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.
The name “columbine” comes from the form of the flowers, which—if you have the right kind of imagination—look like a conference of pigeons all facing one another.
For a description of the species, see the Aquilegia canadensis reference page.
