We have added three new pictures to the page for Mentha spicata.
Photographed July 4.Here are three pictures of milkweeds that were blooming beside a road in Bethel Park. If you need to while away a few minutes, enlarge the picture (click or tap on it to get the full resolution) and see how many different kinds of insects you can find wandering among the flowers.
See the page on Asclepias syriaca for a description of the species.
The big shiny round leaves of Plantain infest many a lawn, sometimes crowding out the grass. They are edible in stews, however, which suggests a method of control: namely, to give up attempts at control and declare your Plantain-infested lawn a vegetable garden. The tiny flowers grow on a long spike shaped like a cat’s tail, with a broad ring of flowers proceeding up the spike as the bloom progresses.
More at the full article on Plantago
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Here is a beautiful Daylily growing wild in a thicket on a bank in Bethel Park. It is hard to resent a weed that looks like this. See the page on Hemerocallis fulva for a description of the species.
This is indeed the source of the original “marshmallows,” which gained their texture from the sticky substance in the roots of this plant. It is a tall and splendid wildflower, bearing many blooms at once. The leaves are toothy and often lobed like maple leaves. The deep purple stamens deposit deep purple pollen on the petals. The blooming season is long; some of these pictures were taken in Bethel Park in early July, and others in Carnegie in early October.
This is a European import, fairly rare in this area; it is not listed in the 1951 Check List of the Vascular Flora of Allegheny County. It is, however, abundant where it grows, which suggests that we may be seeing more of it as time goes on.
More at the full article on Althaea officinalis.
