These little flowers were brought over as cottage-garden staples, but they liked it here well enough to adopt it as their new home. They’re not unusual, but still just uncommon enough that running across one in a vacant lot is an unexpected delight. They seem to prefer poor soil, and up on Presque Isle can be found in great numbers just behind the dunes. This one was blooming in the Seldom Seen Greenway in the middle of June.
(More at the full
article.)
Not quite as large as Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera), but also worthy of attention as more than a mere weed. The neat habit, with tidily arranged opposite sessile leaves and flowers proportioned just right for the plant, would make this a good garden flower. This is a European import. It apparently was not in the area when the Check List of the Vascular Flora of Allegheny County was published in 1951, but it is here now: this patch was blooming in the middle of June near Saw Mill Run in Seldom Seen.
More at the full
article.
We have added two pictures of Japanese Honeysuckle blooming on a hillside in Banksville in the middle of June.
Easily distinguished from anything similar by the foamy appearance of the flowers, which have puffy tufts of hair on their upper lips. “Motherwort” is so named because it was used by herbalists for what have traditionally been called “female difficulties.” It blooms in the early and middle summer, and especially likes a shady spot in thick growth at the edge of the woods. This plant was part of a large stand at the edge of a dense thicket in Banksville, where it was blooming in the middle of June.
More at the full
article.
Here are some pictures from a fine stand growing along Banksville Avenue in Banksville. See the full article for a description of the species.
