Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)
Like a larger version of the Celandine, this bright yellow poppy blooms at the same time, but is easily distinguished by its larger flowers with overlapping petals and bright orange stamens. This plant was blooming in early May along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
STYLOPHORUM Nutt. CELANDINE POPPY. Sepals 2, hairy. Petals 4. Style distinct, columnar; stigma 2-4-lobed. Pods bristly, 2-4-valved to the base. Seeds conspicuously crested. — Perennial low herbs, with stems naked below and oppositely 2-leaved, or sometimes 1-3-leaved, and umbellately 1-few-flowered at the summit; the flower-buds and the pods nodding. Leaves pinnately parted or divided. Juice yellow. (From stylos, style, and pherein, to bear, one of the distinctive characters.)
S. diphyllum (Michx.) Nutt. Leaves pale beneath, smoothish, deeply pinnatifid into бог 7 oblong sinuate-lobed divisions, and the root-leaves often with a pair of small distinct leaflets; peduncles equaling the petioles; flower deep yellow (5 cm. broad); stigmas 3 or 4; pod ovoid. —Damp woods, w. Pa. to Wisc., ” Mo.,” and Tenn. May. —Foliage and flower resembling Celandine.
Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)
A European native that has made itself quite at home here, Star of Bethlehem can often be found in weedy patches of low grass. Until it blooms, its narrow leaves are hard to distinguish from the grass around them. The six-pointed white flowers are unmistakable, with six yellow-tipped stamens whose flattened “filaments” seem to form a miniature duplicate flower inside the larger one. This plant was blooming in late May beside a gas-station parking lot in Brookline.
Although most traditional references place the Star of Bethlehem in the lily family Liliaceae, modern botanists separate it into the asparagus family Asparagaceae.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
ORNITHÓGALUM [Tourn.] L. STAR OF BETHLEHEM. Perianth of 6 (white) spreading 3-7-nerved divisions. Filaments 6, flattened-awl-shaped. Style 3-sided; stigma 3-angled. Capsule roundish-angular, with few dark and roundish seeds in each cell, loculicidal. — Scape and linear channeled leaves from a coated bulb. Flowers corymbed, bracted; pedicels not jointed. (A whimsical name from ornis, a bird, and gala, milk.)
O. umbellàtum L. Scape 1-2.5 dm. high; flowers 5-8, on long and spreading pedicels; perianth-divisions green in the middle on the outside. — Escaped from gardens. (Introd. from Eu.)
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
This tree is ubiquitous in southwestern Pennsylvania, so it may come as some surprise to Pittsburghers that we live at the northern end of a native range that is actually very small, mostly in the Appalachians and foothills. It has been much planted elsewhere, however, and may easily naturalize itself. It is in many ways an ideal urban tree: it grows fast, tolerates city conditions with no complaints, and has showy clusters of white pea flowers after most of the other flowering trees have stopped blooming. It does, however, have one serious flaw. Mature specimens are brittle, and can easily drop large branches in storms, crushing cars or bringing down power lines. When your power goes out in a thunderstorm, there’s a very good chance you have a Black Locust to blame.
The dangling chains of white pea-shaped flowers are unique among our native trees. Leaves are pinnately compound, with smooth-edged elliptical leaflets. The leaves often turn yellow and begin to drop in August, long before any other trees are even thinking about autumn. Mature trees have rough and shaggy bark, and often show scars of broken branches.
Gray describes the genus and the species (which he spells “Pseudo-Acacia”):
ROBÍNIA L. LOCUST. Calyx short, 5-toothed, slightly 2-lipped. Standard large and rounded, turned back, scarcely longer than the wings and keel. Stamens diadelphous. Pod linear, flat, several-seeded, at length 2-valved. — Trees or shrubs, often with spines for stipules. Leaves odd-pinnate, the ovate or oblong leaflets stipellate. Flowers showy, in hanging axillary racemes. (Named for John Robin, herbalist to Henry IV. of France, and his son Vespasian Robin, who first cultivated the Locust-tree in Europe.)
R. Pseùdo-Acàcia L. (common L., False Acacia.) Branches glabrous or glabrate; racemes slender, loose; flowers white, fragrant; pod smooth.— Along the mts., Pa. to Ga., and in the Ozark Mts. of Mo., Ark., and Okla.; commonly cultivated as an ornamental tree, and for its valuable timber, and naturalized in many places. May, June.
Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon)
A European plant often cultivated here as a ground cover, but increasingly escaping into the wild. This plant was growing deep in the woods in Fox Chapel, on a hillside overlooking the Squaw Run, far from any cultivated planting. It is also commonly placed in the genus Lamiastrum, or “False Lamium.” So it is classified in the USDA PLANTS database, which records it as found in the wild in Pennsylvania. This particular plant, which shows the variegated leaves often found in cultivated varieties, was blooming in early May.
Gray describes the genus Lamium thus:
LAMIUM L. DEAD NETTLE. Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, about 5-nerved, with 5 nearly equal awl-pointed teeth. Corolla dilated at the throat; upper lip ovate or oblong, arched, narrowed at the base; the middle lobe of the spreading lower lip broad, notched at the apex, contracted as if stalked at the base; the lateral ones small, at the margin of the throat. Decumbent herbs, the lowest leaves small and long-petioled, the middle heart-shaped and doubly toothed, the floral subtending the whorled flower-cluster. (Name from lamos, throat, in allusion to the ringent corolla.)
This species is not described in the standard American botanical references, so we borrow a very thorough description from English Botany by James Sowerby.
LAMIUM GALEOBDOLON. Crantz.
Galeobdolon luteum, Ends. Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 787. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv. ed. ii. p. 650. Galeopsis Galeobdolon, Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 810.
Perennial. Rootstock tufted or very shortly creeping. Barren shoots very long, trailing or arching, at length rooting. Flowering stems not rooting at the base, erect or ascending. Leaves stalked, ovate or deltoid-ovate, subcordate, slightly acuminate, acute, doubly or irregularly crenate-serrate. Verticillasters remote from each other. Lower bracts similar to the leaves, but narrower, and with shorter stalks; upper ones generally lanceolate, with a wedge-shaped base, more rarely similar to the lower ones. Calyx puberulent or sparingly bristly-hairy; teeth deltoid, abruptly acuminated into triangular points, sparingly ciliated or glabrous, and subspinous at the apex, spreading, not half the length of the tube; tube slightly curved and oblique at the mouth. Corolla tube rather longer than the calyx, with a conspicuous very oblique ring of hairs within, slightly curved upwards, without a projecting sac near the base on the lower side, suddenly enlarged towards the apex; upper hp greatly vaulted, obtuse, sparingly hairy; lower lip with the lateral lobes ovate-acuminate, the middle lobe a little larger, oblong, acuminated into a lanceolate point.
In woods and on hedge-banks, particularly on chalk and limestone formations. Local, but not uncommon in the south of England; rare in the north, where it extends north to Lancashire and Yorkshire. It has occurred in Scotland, but is scarcely deserving to be considered even as a naturalised plant. Rare, and very local in Ireland, where it is nearly confined to the east of the island.
England, [Scotland,] Ireland. Perennial. Spring, early Summer.
Rootstock many-headed, emitting numerous wiry radical fibres and producing flowering and barren stems, the latter in autumn attaining the length of 1 or 2 feet, and growing much in the same way as those of Vinca major. Flowering stems 9 inches to 2 feet high, more or less flexuous towards the base. Lamina of the leaves 1 to 2½ inches long. Verticillasters 6 to 10 flowered. Bracts 1½ to 3 inches long, the upper ones sometimes very narrow. Calyx yellowish-green. Corolla ¾ to 1 inch long, yellow, the lower lip bright yellow, with reddish-brown s pots and streaks; upper lip considerably more than half the length of the corolla; tube very short. Anthers destitute of the hairs which occur in all the other British species. Nucules generally abortive: at least I have never been able to find them mature. Plant light green, more or less thickly pubescent with rather stiff hairs, those on the stem deflexed.
The British plant has the upper bracts usually narrow, and is the Galeobdolon montanum of Reichenbach. Occasionally, however, I have seen the bracts all broad and similar to the leaves (G. luteum, Reich.), but the two forms certainly do not deserve to be called even varieties.
Yellow Archangel.
French, Lamier jaune. German, Goldnessel.
Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Little green bells dangle from arching stalks, almost invisible unless you look for them. The name “Solomon’s Seal” comes from the six-pointed scar left on the root by the withered stem; the species name “biflorum” refers to the plant’s habit of growing flowers in pairs. This plant was growing along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel,where it was blooming in early May.
Until flower buds appear, this plant and False Solomon’s Seal (Maianthemum racemosum) are hard to tell apart. Both have traditionally been placed in the lily family Liliaceae, but modern botanists have separated the Asparagus family Asparagaceae, taking the Solomon’s Seals with it.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
POLYGÓNATUM [Tourn.] Hill. SOLOMON’S SEAL. Perianth cylindrical, 6-lobed at the summit; the 6 stamens inserted on or above the middle of the tube, included; anthers introrse. Ovary 3-celled, with 2-в ovules in each cell; style slender, deciduous by a joint; stigma obtuse or capitate, obscurely 3-lobed. Berry globular, black or blue; the cells 1-2-seeded. — Perennial herbs, with simple stems from creeping knotted rootetocks, naked below, above bearing nearly sessile or half-clasping nerved leaves, and axillary nodding greenish flowers; pedicels jointed near the flower. (Name from poly-, many, and gony, knee, alluding to the numerous joints of the rootstock.)
P. biflòrum (Walt) Ell. (SMALL S.) Glabrous, except the ovate-oblong or lance-oblong nearly sessile leaves, which are commonly minutely pubescent as well as pale or glaucous underneath; stem slender (3-9 dm. high); peduncles 1-3- but mostly 2-flowered; perianth 10-12 mm. long; filaments papillose-roughened, inserted toward the summit of the perianth. (? P. boreale Greene; P. cuneatum Greene; Salomonta biflora Farwell.) — Wooded hillsides, N. B. to Fla., w. to Ont., e. Kan., and Tex.
Celandine (Chelidonium majus)
Not related to the Lesser Celandine, this greater Celandine is a member of the poppy family that likes to grow at the edge of the woods. These plants were growing by one of the tufa bridges in Schenley Park, where they were blooming in the middle of May.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
CHELIDONIUM [Tourn.] L. CELANDINE. Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens 16-24. Style almost none; stigma 2-lobed. Pod linear-cylindric, smooth, 2-valved, the valves opening from the bottom upward. Seeds crested. —Biennial herb with brittle stems, saffron-colored acrid juice, pinnately divided or 2-pinnatifid and toothed or cut leaves, and small yellow flowers in a pedunculate umbel; buds nodding. (Ancient Greek name, from chelidon, the swallow, because its flowers appear with the swallows.)
С majus L.— Rich damp soil about towns, centr. Me. to Ont., and southw., common from s. Me. to Pa. May-Aug. (Nat. from Eu.)
Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa)
A relative of the Toothworts (which most botanists now also place in the genus Cardamine), this pretty little flower seems to like damp locations. This one was growing in a damp open woods in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in early May. The round leaves (changing to long and narrow as they go up the stem) distinguish this from other common species of Cardamine in our area.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
CARDÂMINE [Tourn.] L. BITTER CRESS. Pod linear, flattened, usually opening elastically from the base; the valves nerveless and veinless, or nearly so; placentae and partition thick. Seeds in a single row in each cell, wingless; the funiculus slender. Cotyledons aecumbent, flattened, equal or nearly so, petiolate.— Mostly glabrous perennials, leafy-stemmed, growing along watercourses and in wet places. Flowers white or purple. (A Greek name, used by Dioscorides for some cress, from its cordial or cardiacal qualities.)
Simple-leaved perennials with tuberous base.
С. bulbosa (Srhreb.) BSP. (SPRING CRESS.) Stems upright from a tuberous base and slender rootstock bearing small tubers, simple, or rarely forking, glabrous, in anthesis 1-1.5 dm. high; root-leaves oblong to cordate-ovate, stem-leaves 5-8, scattered, the lower ovate or oblong and somewhat petioled, the upper sessile, almost lanceolate, all often toothed; sepals greenish, with white margin; petals white, 7-12 mm. long; pods linear-lanceolate, pointed with a slender style tipped by a conspicuous stigma; seeds oval. (C. rhomboidea DC.) — Wet meadows and springs, e. Mass. to Minn., and southw. May, .June.
Early Meadow Rue (Thalictrum dioicum)
Long stamens dangle and wave in the breeze, identifying this this as a male plant. As the species name implies, this species has dioecious flowers (from Greek meaning “two houses”): that is, it bears male and female flowers on separate plants. The female flowers are little upright greenish clusters, but the male flowers are more common and more charming. In spite of the common name, Early Meadow Rue seems to prefer woods to meadows; this one was growing on a rocky hillside in the Squaw Run valley in Fox Chapel, where it was blooming at the beginning of May.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
THALÍCTRUM [Tourn.] L. MEADOW RUE. Sepals 4-5, petal-like or greenish, usually caducous. Petals none. Achenes 4-15, grooved or ribbed, or else inflated. Stigma unilateral. Seed suspended. — Perennials, with alternate 2-3-ternately compound leaves, the divisions and the leaflets stalked; petioles dilated at base. Flowers in corymbs or panicles, often polygamous or dioecious. (A Greek name of an unknown plant, mentioned by Dioscorides.)
Flowers dioecious or polygamous.
Achenes sessile or subsessile, thin-walled, the ribs often connected by transverse reticulations; leaves 3-4-ternate.
Filaments capillary, soon drooping; petioles of the stem-leaves well developed; vernal.
T. dioicum L. (EARLY M.) Smooth and pale or glaucous, 3-6 dm. high; leaves (2-3) all with general petioles; leaflets thin, light green, drooping, suborbicular, 3-7-lobed; flowers dioecious; sepals purplish or greenish white. — Rocky woods, etc., centr. Me., westw. and southw., common. Apr., May.
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Ferdinand Schuyler Mathews gives us this description in his Field Book of American Wild Flowers:
“A beautiful but not showy, slender meadow rue with the staminate and pistillate flowers on separate plants. The bluish olive green leaves lustreless, compound, and thinly spreading; the drooping staminate flowers with generally four small green sepals, and long stamens tipped with terracotta, and finally madder purple. The pistillate flowers inconspicuously pale green. An airy and graceful species, common in thin woodlands. 1-2 feet high. Me., south to Ala., and west to Mo., S. Dak., and Kan.
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Ellen Miller and Margaret Christine Whiting give us this fuller description in Wild Flowers of the North-Eastern States (1895):
“Found in rocky woods and hillsides during April and May.
“The branching leafy stalk grows from 1 to 2 feet high; smooth, round, and fine of fibre though strong; in color, green.
“The leaf is 3 or 4 times divided, terminating in groups of 3 leaflets on short slender stems; the leaflets are small, rounding, slightly heart-shaped at the base, and their margins are notched in rounded scallops; the texture is exceptionally fine and thin, the surface smooth; the color, a fine cool green.
“The flower is small and composed of 3 or 4 or 5 little, petal-like, pale green calyx-parts. Different plants bear the pistils and stamens; the flowers of the former are inconspicuous and sparse in comparison with those of the stamen-bearing plant: from these the many stamens, pale green faintly touched with tawny at the tips, droop on slender threads like little tassels. The flowers grow in loose clusters, on branching stems that spring from the leaf-joints.
“The Early Meadow Rue is unobtrusive in color and form, but most graceful in gesture, and fine in the texture and finish of all its parts; the leafage has a fern-like delicacy, and the flower tassels of the stamen-bearing plant are airily poised.”
Golden Ragwort (Senecio aureus)
Golden Ragworts are attractive flowers, a bit like a yellow aster, that bloom in the middle spring, just after the tulips in your garden. The heart-shaped basal leaves and the pinnately lobed (rather fern-like) stem leaves are distinctive. They like a somewhat shady location; these were blooming in early May near a stream in Scott Township.
Gray (with help from J. M. Greenman) describes the genus and the species:
SENECIO [Tourn.] L. GROUNDSEL. RAGWORT. SQUAW-WEED. Revised By J. M. Greenman. Heads many-flowered; rays pistillate or none; involucre cylindrical to bell-shaped, simple or with a few bractlets at the base, the bracts erect-connivent. Receptacle flat, naked. Pappus of numerous very soft and capillary bristles.— Ours herbs, with alternate leaves and solitary or eorymbed heads. Flowers chiefly yellow. (Name from senex, an old man, alluding to the hoariness of many species, or to the white hairs of the pappus.)
S. aureus L. (GOLDEN R. ) Stems erect from rather slender rootstocks, 3-8 dm. high, at first often lightly floccose-tomentose, soon glabrate; lower leaves long-petioled, ovate-rotund to slightly oblong, 1.5-8 cm. long, two thirds as broad, crenate-dentate; stem-leaves lyrate to laciniate-pinnatifid; the uppermost sessile, amplexicaul, often bract-like; inflorescence cymose-corymbose; heads radiate; rays yellow; achenes glabrous. — In wet meadows, moist thickets, and swamps, Nfd., s. to Va., w. to Wisc., Mo., and Ark. May-Aug.
Miterwort (Mitella diphylla)
A very close view of the delicately fringed flowers. This plant grew in the Squaw Run valley, where it was blooming in early May. A general view of the entire plant is here.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
MITELLA [Tourn.] L. MITERWORT, BISHOP’S CAP. Calyx short, adherent to the base of the ovary, 6-cleft. Petals 5, slender. Stamens 5 or 10, included. Styles 2, very short. Capsule short, 2-beaked, 1-celled, with 2 parietal or rather basal several-seeded placentae, 2-valved at the summit. Seeds smooth and shining. Low and slender perennials, with round heart-shaped alternate slender-petioled leaves on the rootstock or runners, and naked or 2-few-leaved flowering steins. Flowers small, in a simple slender raceme or spike. Fruit soon widely dehiscent. (Diminutive of mitra, a cap, alluding to the form of the young pod.)
M. diphylla L. Hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acute, somewhat 3-5-lobed, toothed, those on the many-flowered stem 2, opposite, nearly sessile, with interfoliar stipules; flowers white, in a raceme (1.5-2 dm. long); stamens 10. Rich woods, Que. and N. E. to N. C., w. to Minn., Ia., and Mo. May.
Wake-Robin, Pink Form (Trillium erectum)
The ordinary color of this flower is deep mahogany red, but in the Squaw Run valley the flowers are almost always white. Occasionally a pink one shows up, as this one did, which was blooming at the beginning of May.
The odor is described in the Flora of North America as “like a wet dog,” which is unmistakable, and accounts for another common name, Stinking Willie. It’s not a flower to sniff with delight.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TRÍLLIUM L. WAKE ROBIN. BIRTHROOT. Sepals 3, lanceolate, spreading, herbaceous, persistent. Petals 3, larger, withering in age. Stamens б; anthers linear, on short filaments, adnate. Styles awl-shaped or slender, spreading or recurved above, persistent, stigmatic down the inner side. Seeds ovate, horizontal, several in each cell. — Low perennial herbs, with a stout and simple stem rising from a short and praemorse tuber-like rootstock, bearing at the summit a whorl of 3 ample, commonly broadly ovate, more or less ribbed but netted-veined leaves, and a terminal large flower; in spring. (Name from tree, three; all the parts being in threes.) — Monstrosities are not rare with the calyx and sometimes petals changed to leaves, or the parts of the flower increased in number.
Ovary and fruit 6-angled and more or less winged.
Flower pediceled; connective narrow, not produced; leaves subsessile.
Anthers at anthesis exceeding the stigmas.
T. eréctum L. Leaves very broadly rhombic, shortly acuminate; peduncle (2—8 cm. long) usually more or less inclined or declínate; petals ovate to lanceolate (18-36 mm. long), brown-purple or often white or greenish or pinkish; stamens exceeding the stout distinct spreading or recurved stigmas; ovary purple; fruit ovoid, 2.5 cm. long, reddish. — Rich woods, e. Que. to Ont., southw. to Pa. and in the mts, to N. C. — Flowers ill-scented.
Striped Cream Violet (Viola striata)
Misidentifying violets is easy; we have done it here more than once. There are several similar white violets in our area, but this species should be easy to identify if we look for a combination of three things: bearded side petals (see the enlargement above), leafy flower stems (in some other species the flowers rise directly from the base with no leaves on the flower stems), and roundish toothed leaves (see the picture below; the leaves of Canada Violet, for example, are more elongated).
Gray (with help from his successors) describes the genus and the species:
VtOLA [Tourn.] L. VIOLET. HEART’S-EASE. Revised By E. Brainerd. Petals somewhat unequal, the lower one spurred at the base. Stamens closely surrounding the ovary, often slightly cohering with each other; the two lower bearing spurs which project into the spur of the corolla. Besides these conspicuous blossoms, which appear in spring, others are produced later, on shorter peduncles or on runners, often concealed under the leaves; these never open nor develop petals, but are fertilized in the bud and are far more fruitful than the ordinary blossoms. —The closely allied species of the same section, when growing together, often hybridize with each other, producing forms that are confusing to the student not familiar with the specific types. The hybrids commonly display characters more or less intermediate between those of the parents, and show marked vegetative vigor but greatly impaired fertility. (The ancient Latin name of the genus.)
Plants with leafy stems.
Style not capitate, slender; length of spur at least twice its width; stipules fringed-toothed, somewhat herbaceous.
Tip of the style bent downward, slightly pubescent near the summit; lateral petals bearded; spur less than 8 mm long.
Petals white or cream-colored.
V. striata Ait. Usually 16-30 cm. high when in flower, often in late summer 6 dm. high, glabrous or nearly so; leaves heart-shaped, finely crenate-serrate, often acute; stipules large, oblong-lanceolate; spur rather thick, shorter than the petals; sepals ciliate, narrow, attenuate; capsules ovoid, glabrous, 4-6 mm. long; seeds light brown. — Low or shady ground, Ct. to Minn., and southw.
Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla)
Flora Pittsburghensis makes an important original contribution to the botanical literature. Brunnera macrophylla is recorded as naturalized in Ohio and New York, but not in Pennsylvania. We have found it, however, deep in the woods in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon, some distance from any cultivated planting.
Siberian Bugloss looks very much like a species of Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis spp.), but is easily distinguished by its large heart-shaped leaves (thus the specific name macrophylla, which means “large-leaved”). These plants grew in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon, where they were blooming at the beginning of May.
Gray does not describe this species, but the quick description above should make identification straightforward.
Crabapple (Malus coronaria)
Before the leaves are fully formed on most of the other trees, crabapple blossoms light up the woods all over western Pennsylvania. The crown of stamens and the blunt-toothed leaves are distinctive. These trees were blooming in Schenley Park in late April.
Gray places the genus Malus as a section in the larger genus Pyrus, but most modern botanists treat Malus separately. Gray’s description:
PYRUS [Tourn.] L. Calyx-like receptacle urn-shaped, bearing б sepals. Petals roundish or obovate. Stamens numerous. Styles 2-5. Fruit a large fleshy pome, or smaller and berry-like, the 2-6 cells imbedded in the flesh, papery or cartilaginous, mostly 2-seeded. —Trees or shrubs, with showy flowers in corymbed or umbellike cymes. (The classical name of the Pear-tree.) A large genus, often subdivided, but with sections less strongly or constantly marked than our few species would suggest.
MALUS (Hill) S. F. Gray. (APPLE.) Leaves simple; orifice of concave receptacle open; flesh of large subglobular fruit copious, free from sclerotic cells. Malus [Tourn.] Hill.
Leaves and usually the outer surface of the calyx-lobes glabrate.
Calyx-lobes persistent in fruit.
P. coronaria L. (AMERICAN CRAB.) Tree, somewhat armed, 6-10 m. high; leaves ovate or elliptic, usually rounded or even cordate at the base; those of the sterile shoots somewhat triangular-ovate and lobed, sharply serrate; petals broadly obovate, white or nearly so; pome greenish-yellow, hard and sour, 2-2.6 cm. in diameter, depressed-globose. (Malus Mill.) — Thickets and open woods, N. J. to Ont., Kan., and southw.
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
A saxifrage that loves the sides of rocky hills in the woods, especially in a stream valley; these were blooming in late April in a deep hollow in Schenley Park, just above a burbling brook, where it took a bit of acrobatics on the rocks to get near enough to photograph them.
Some forms of this species grow leaves with deep red markings along the veins, and those forms have been developed into cultivated varieties with even more pronounced red markings. All the plants in this hollow in Schenley Park had the red markings on their leaves; the plants along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel do not.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TIARELLA L. FALSE MITERWORT. Calyx bell-shaped, 5-parted. Petals 5, with claws. Stamens long and slender. Styles 2. Capsule membranaceous, 2-valved; the valves unequal. Seeds few, at the base of each parietal placenta, globular, smooth. Perennials ; flowers white. (Name a diminutive from tiara, a tiara, or turban, from the form of the pistil, which is like that of Mitella, to which the name of Miterwort properly belongs.)
T. cordifolia L. Leaves from the rootstock or summer runners, heart-shaped, sharply lobed and toothed, sparsely hairy above, downy beneath; stem (1-4 dm. high) leafless or rarely with 1 or 2 leaves; raceme simple; petals oblong, often subserrate. Rich rocky woods, N. S. and N. B. to Minn., Ind., and southw. in the mts. Apr.-June.
Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)
A European import, uncommon except in a few areas where it has established enormous carpets that cover acres. The flowers have eight or so very glossy petals, so glossy that they cause blank white highlights in digital photographs. The heart-shaped leaves and dense, carpet-like habit easily distinguish this species from other buttercups. These plants were blooming in the Squaw Run valley in Fox Chapel in late April. The scene below explains why the Celandine is a favorite subject of English poets and painters.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
RANÚNCULUS [Tourn.] L. CROWFOOT. BUTTERCUP. Annuals or perennials; stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, yellow, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often more than 5. Stamens occasionally few.) — (A Latin name for a little frog; applied by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where frogs abound.)
§ 1. FICÀRIA Boiss. Roots tuberous-thickened; sepals 3; petals about 8, yellow, with a free scale over the honey gland.
R. ficària L. (LESSER CELANDINE.) Glabrous and somewhat succulent; leaves basal on long stoutish petioles, ovate, rounded, deeply cordate, subcrenate; flowers scapose, 2 cm. in diameter. (Ficaria Karst.) — Wet places, occasional; Mass. to D. C. Apr., May. (Introd. from Eurasia.)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
There is only one member of the genus Sanguinaria, and here it is. These cheery little flowers pop up at about the same time as the Coltsfoots; this patch was blooming in early April beside a back road in Fox Chapel. The flowers open before the leaves are fully unfurled, so each flower stem is elegantly wrapped in a shell-like green leaf. The English and Latin names both come from the fact that the root is full of red juice.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
SANGUINARIA [Dill.] L. BLOODROOT. Sepals 2. Petals 8-12, spatulate-oblong. Stamens about 24. Style short; stigma 2-grooved. Pod ellipsoid or fusiform, turgid, 1-celled, 2-valved. Seeds with a large crest. — Low perennial; its thick prostrate rootstocks (surcharged with red-orange acrid juice) sending up in earliest spring a palmate-lobed leaf and 1-flowered scape. Flower white, handsome, the bud erect, the petals not crumpled. (Name from the color of the juice.)
S. canadensis L. — Open rich woods; common. Apr., May.
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
One of our earliest spring flowers, Coltsfoot bursts through the leaf litter in March and soon covers woodsy roadside banks with sunny yellow flowers. These flowers were blooming at the end of March beside the lower parking area at Bird Park in Mount Lebanon.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TUSSILÀGO [Tourn.] L. COLTSFOOT. Head many-flowered; ray-flowers in several rows, narrowly ligulate, pistillate, fertile; disk-flowers with undivided style, sterile. Involucre nearly simple. Receptacle flat. Achenes slender-cylindric or prismatic; pappus copious, soft, and capillary. — Low perennial, with horizontal creeping rootstocks, sending up scaly scapes in early spring, bearing a single head, and producing rounded heart-shaped angled or toothed leaves later in the season, woolly when young. Flowers yellow. (Name from tussis, a cough, for which the plant is a reputed remedy.)
T. farfara L. — Wet places and along brooks, e. Que. to Pa., O.,and Minn. (Nat. from Eu.)
Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica)
These intensely blue flowers are so tiny that we often overlook them in our lawns, but they are one of the first cheerful signs of spring. They are alien invaders, and perhaps they have caused untold damage to our environment; but it’s hard to be angry at a plant that’s both tiny and beautiful. This plant was one of a patch growing in a lawn in Beechview, where it was blooming at the end of March.
The flowers of the Persian Speedwell have yellow centers, fading to white veined with blue, the blue predominating toward the outer edges of the petals, and giving the overall impression of a blue flower from a short distance. The leaves are roundish, sessile near the top of thestem and on short petioles below, gently toothed, somewhat hairy. The plant seldom exceeds the height of a few inches, and can often pass unmolested under a lawnmower blade.
This description will have to do, since Gray and his contemporaries did not describe the plant. Between their time and ours it has spread to every state in the union except Hawaii and North Dakota.
Flower-of-an-Hour (Hibiscus trionum)
Beautiful little Hibiscus flowers that last only a short time once they open (thus the common name). This plant came to the New World as a garden favorite, but has made itself at home in the most inhospitable places: this plant grew through the gravel at the edge of a gravel parking lot near Cranberry, where it was blooming at the end of September.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
HIBÍSCUS L. ROSE MALLOW. Calyx involucellate at the base by a row of numerous bractlets, 5-cleft. Column of stamens long, bearing anthers for much of its length. Styles united, stigmas 5, capitate. Fruit a 5-celled loculicidal pod. Seeds several or many in each cell. — Herbs or shrubs, usually with large and showy flowers. (An old Greek and Latin name of unknown meaning.)
H. triònum L. (FLOWER-OF-AN-HOUR.) A low rather hairy annual; upper leaves 3-parted, with lanceolate divisions, the middle one much the longest; fruiting calyx inflated, membranaceous, 5-winged, with numerous dark ciliate nerves; corolla sulphur-yellow, with a blackish eye, ephemeral.—Cultivated and waste ground, rather local. (Nat, from Eu.)
Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
A charming flower, often cultivated. It likes a moist and somewhat shady location; these plants were blooming in Bird Park in Mount Lebanon at the beginning of September.
The genus Conoclinium was formerly included in Eupatorium, but was separated when Eupatorium was forced to sell off its superfluous species at fire-sale prices.
It is very difficult for a cheap digital camera to capture the delicate blue color of these flowers. The noticeable difference in color between the two pictures is mostly a figment of the camera’s imagination.
Gray describes the genus Eupatorium, the section Conoclinium (now regarded as a separate genus), and the species:
EUPATÒRIUM [Tourn.] L. THOROUGHWORT. Heads discoid, 3-many-flowered; flowers perfect. Involucre cylindrical or bell-shaped, of more than 4 bracts. Receptacle flat or conical, naked. Corolla 6-toothed. Achenes 6-angled; pappus a single row of slender capillary barely roughish bristles. —Erect perennial herbs, often sprinkled with hitter resinous dots, with generally corymbose heads of white, bluish, or purple blossoms, appearing near the close of summer. (Dedicated to Eupator Mithridates, who is said to have used a species of the genus in medicine.)
CONOCLÍNIUM (DC.) Baker. Receptacle conical; involucral bracts nearly equal, somewhat imbricated.
E. coelestìnum L. (MIST-FLOWER.) Somewhat pubescent, 0.5-1 m. high; leaves opposite, petiolate, triangular-ovate and slightly heart-shaped, coarsely and bluntly toothed; heads many-fiowered, in compact cymes; flowers blue or violet. — Rich soil, N. J. to Mich., Kan., and southw.
Horse Balm (Collinsonia canadensis)
A big, sloppy mint that likes to grow in the deep woods, with huge leaves (by mint-family standards) and panicles of bizarre yellowish flowers with long projecting stamens. The flowers look like little dragons, and well repay a close look, perhaps with a glass. Only a few of the flowers are open at any one time; the rest are either still in bud or shriveling on the stem, adding to the general appearance of slovenliness. The scent is like cheap artificial lemon perfume. The flowers above were blooming in Scott Township at the end of August; the ones below in the woods near Normalville in the middle of August.
Gray describes the genus (which has only one species in our area) and the species.
COLLINSÒNIA L. HORSE BALM. Calyx ovoid, enlarged and declined in fruit, 2-lipped; upper lip truncate and flattened, 3-toothed, the lower 2-cleft. Corolla elongated, expanded at the throat, somewhat 2-lipped, the tube with a bearded ring within; the 4 upper lobes nearly equal, but the lower much larger and longer, pendent, toothed or lacerate-fringed. Stamens 2 (sometimes 4, the upper pair shorter), much exserted, diverging; anther-cells divergent. — Strong-scented perennials, with large ovate leaves, and yellowish flowers on slender pedicels. (Named in honor of Peter Collinson, early English botanist.)
С. canadensis L. (RICH-WEED, STONE-ROOT.) Nearly smooth, 5-10 dm. high; leaves serrate, pointed, petioled, 1-2 dm. long; panicle loose; corolla 1.5 cm. long, lemon-scented; stamens 2.—Rich moist woods, w. Que. to Wise., s. to Fla. and Mo. July-Sept.
Wild Basil (Satureja vulgaris)
A hairy and aromatic little mint that likes open woods, and is not above popping up in a shaded lawn, as this one did near Normalville. It’s a close relative of Summer and Winter Savory. The flowers are a delightfully pure shade of pink, hard to reproduce exactly in a photograph.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
SATURÈJA [Tourn.] L. SAVORY, CALAMINT. Calyx tubular to bell-shaped, 10-13-nerved, naked or hairy in the throat. Corolla with a straight tube and an inflated throat, distinctly 2-lipped; the upper lip erect, flattish, entire or notched; the lower spreading, 3-parted, the middle lobe usually largest. Stamens 4, somewhat ascending. — Herbs or shrubs, with mostly purplish or whitish flowers produced all summer; inflorescence various. (The ancient Latin name.) Including Clinopodium L., Calamintha Lam.
Flowers in sessile dense many-flowered clusters, and involucrate with conspicuous setaceous-subulate bracts; calyx nearly naked in the throat.
6. S. vulgàris (L.) Fritsch. (basil.) Hairy, erect, 2-6 dm. high; leaves ovate, petioled, nearly entire; flowers lavender to pink, in globular clusters; hairy bracts as long as the calyx. (Clinopodium L.; Calamintha Clinopodium Benth.) —Woods, thickets, and alluvial banks, Nfd. to Va., О., Ind., and Man. (Eurasia.)
Giant Bur-Reed (Sparganium eurycarpum)
According to the most recent genetic research, bur-reeds are most closely allied to cattails, and they grow in similar conditions. Botanists now place them in the cattail family Typhaceae, but until recently they were usually given their own family, Sparganiaciae. The burs are rather fierce-looking but decorative in an odd way. This clump was growing at the edge of a pond near Normalville, where it was showing off its burs in the middle of August.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
Spargànium [Tourn.] L. BUR-REED. Heads scattered along the upper part of the simple or sparingly branched leafy stem, the bracts caducous or the lower persisting and leaf-like. — Perennials with fibrous roots and creeping horizontal rootstocks. Flowering through the summer. The fertile heads becoming bur-like from the divergent beaks, bat the pistils at maturity falling away separately. (Name ancient, probably from sparganon, a band, in allusion to the ribbon-like leaves.)
Fertile flowers closely sessile: fruit brondly obovoid.
S. eurycárpum Kngelm. Stems stout, erect (8-13 dm. high); leaves mostly flat and merely keeled; pistil attenuate into a short style bearing 1 or 2 elongated stigmas; fruit heads 2-6 or more. 2-3 cm. in diameter; fruit angled, often 2-seeded, 7-8 mm. long when mature, with a broad and depressed or retuse summit abruptly tipped in the center. — Borders of ponds, lakes, and rivers, N. S. and Me., southw., and westw. to the Pacific, chiefly at low altitude.
