Three-Seeded Mercury (Acalypha
rhomboidea). In the fall this unassuming
little weed can take on some surprisingly beautiful
and varied autumn colors in the bronze range. The
triple seeds are also distinctive; there are a couple
of other Three-Seeded Mercurys that may occur here,
but this is the one you are likely to see. It grows
everywhere in the city, although normally we don’t
notice it much.
Green Poinsettia (Euphorbia dentata).
There doesn’t seem to be much point to a green
Poinsettia, but this one is not entirely green: it
adds the subtly decorative touch of whitish markings
on the upper leaves, no doubt to provide a more
prominent target for insect pollinators. It may not be
quite the spectacle that the Christmas Poinsettia is,
but it’s a handsome plant if we view it with an
indulgent eye.
Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata).
A relative of the Christmas Poinsettia and
Snow-on-the-Mountain, this plant easily fools us into
thinking it has regular five-petaled flowers like a
pink or a buttercup. Structurally, however, the
apparent petals are actually bracts that surround a
cluster of tiny flowers. Doubtless there is a moral
lesson to be learned here, but we have not learned it
yet.
Euphorbia maculata
Snow-on-the-Mountain
(Euphorbia marginata). A native of the
Midwest, but so often cultivated in the East that it
has become an established weed, especially in old city
lots and along railroad tracks. The showy part of this
plant, as with its relative the poinsettia, is the
leaf. Only a close view reveals the comparatively
insignificant flowers. This colony grew along a
residential street in Beechview. It makes an
attractive cut flower, but the stems have a milky sap
that may be irritating to the skin.