Family Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family).
A garden ornamental that has made its escape into the wild, this vine has not yet become an invasive pest here, but is fairly common now in vacant lots and other unexpected places in the city. It covers itself with little white flowers (usually four-parted, but with a fair number of five-parted variants) in late summer, with occasional blooming branches up to frost. The seeds are almost as decorative as the flowers, and well reward a close look. (See more at the full article.)
Family Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family).
A close relative of Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa),
this plant has smaller round tufts of white flowers.
But its most striking feature is these berries, white
with black pupil-like spots. Doll’s Eyes is certainly
a descriptive name, but a young friend of old Pa
Pitt’s acquaintance suggested that perhaps Insane
Muppet Eyes would be even more descriptive. (The
bright magenta stem adds a certain something.) This
plant grew in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon, where it was
fruiting in late August.
Do not eat the berries. They want to kill
you. Can’t you see it in their eyes? Another name for
this plant is “White Baneberry,” and you should take
the “bane” part seriously. (See more at the full
article.)
We have added new pictures to the page for Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis scorpioides), including the pink form we see here.
Family Compositae or Asteraceae (Composite family).
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.
(See more at the full article.)
Family Compositae or Asteraceae (Composite Family).
The distinctive sky-blue flowers make Chicory unmistakable. Varieties of Chicory are used as salad greens and the roots as a coffee substitute or additive. It grows along roadsides, often in the company of Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), and seems especially happy in a crack in the asphalt at the edge of a parking lot.
(See more in the full article.)