Queen Anne’s Lace, Schenley Park, 22 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
23 July 2022
The flowers on Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota), or wild carrot, are so lacy and regular that they resemble snowflakes when viewed from above, especially in black-and-white.
Queen Anne’s Lace, black-and-white (photo by Kate St. John)
Look closely and you’ll see that the tiny flowers inside the umbel have 5 regular parts. Step back to see the pattern of 5’s replicating to the edge.
Queen Anne’s lace umbel is 5-sided (photo by Kate St. John)
Unlike winter’s 6-sided snowflakes (below) these summer “snowflakes” have only five.
Deptford pink, Butler County, 10 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
16 July 2022
Flowers are blooming, fruits are ripening and the sky has been spectacular. Here are just a few things seen outdoors this week and last.
Deptford pink’s (Dianthus armeria) small flower, at top, is worth a closer look. Native to Europe it does well in North America but is disappearing from the UK.
Enchanter’s nightshade (Circaea canadensis) was in bloom last week in Schenley Park, shown below.
Enchanter’s nightshade in bloom, Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)
Spotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata) is blooming in Butler County. This plant goes by several names including “striped wintergreen.” Here’s why it is not pipsissewa.
Spotted wintergreen, Butler County, PA, 10 July 2022
Wineberry fruits (Rubus phoenicolasius) are ripening in Frick Park. This shrub was introduced from Asia as breeding stock for Rubus cultivars in 1890 but it grows so vigorously that it’s now invasive in Pennsylvania. Unlike native raspberries, wineberries are sticky to the touch. They taste well enough when you eat them in the woods but are boring on cereal. I tried.
Wineberry, Frick Park, 14 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bottlebrush buckeye flowers were at their peak last week in Schenley Park. This closeup shows the feathery stamens.
Bottlebrush buckeye, closeup of flower, 8 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
And finally, we’ve had some spectacular sunrises in the past two weeks. A deep blue sunrise on Wed 6 July (below) and a fiery orange one on the 8th. Click here to see the fiery sunrise.
Sunrise in Pittsburgh, July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Catnip in bloom, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
2 July 2022
Seen this week at Duck Hollow, listed in photo order:
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is in bloom (at top). No cats were present but plenty of dogs walked by. The Duck Hollow trail is popular with dog-walking services.
Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is 5-6 feet tall now with a spike of yellow flowers.
Moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) is a much more delicate plant than common mullein.
Daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) cast petal-shadows on its disks as it opened in the morning sun.
Leaf miners are active now, making squiggles inside the leaves. (I don’t know the identity of the leaves pictured below.)
Teasel (Dipsacus sp.) hasn’t bloomed yet but it is getting close.
Common mullein in bloom, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Moth mullein, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Fleabane opening in morning sun, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Teasel not quite blooming yet, Duck Hollow, 28 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
I heard ravens calling in the distance while I took these pictures. Woo hoo!
Honewort at Conemaugh Trail, Indiana County, 20 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
25 June 2022
This week was pleasant, then hot, and always buggy in the woods. A few flowers were blooming and berries are ripening.
Honewort’s (Cryptotaenia canadensis) tiny flowers are blooming in both Washington and Indiana Counties. The plant at top was along the Conemaugh Trail, site of the lone and rare Swainson’s warbler which was heard but not seen. More mosquitoes than flowers.
White mulberries (Morus alba) are ripe and ready to eat.
Forget-me-not, Conemaugh Trail, 20 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Click on the image below to see a photo of the entire rock.
A rock made of sand and swamp lines, Schenley Park, 24 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John) Indian hemp in bloom, Frick Park, 23 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Click on the fruit photo below to see the branch where this mulberry came from in Frick Park.
As we walked the trail we encountered cow parsnip whose identity I had forgotten yet again. When Dianne Machesney reminded me of its name I remembered blogging about it after another Wissahickon picnic. When was that? 2013!
In the two photos above I am standing next to cow parsnip at Mingo Creek on 1 June 2013 (left) and 18 June 2022 (right).
I have aged in nine years but some things are the same. I’m still using the same binoculars and walking stick and I’m wearing the same pants and shirt, unseen under the jackets. (My hiking clothes are rugged.)
This year’s cow parsnip is shorter than the one we found nine years ago and it has gone to seed, perhaps because we came 2.5 weeks later or because climate change has advanced it.
Chicory with fly, Schenley Park, 15 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
19 June 2022
Wildflowers bloom in two spurts in southwestern Pennsylvania: Woodland wildflowers in April before leaf out, “field” flowers in July-August after the solstice.
May and June are practically flowerless except for a few non-natives blooming in Schenley Park last week. Some are invasive. They thrive because deer don’t eat them.
Serviceberry on Ellsworth Ave, 5 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
11 June 2022
Fledge watching the Pitt peregrines absorbed so much time this month that it’s a wonder I noticed anything else. Here are a few things seen in early June.
Eye-catching fruit on a garden tree on Ellsworth Ave. Mark Bowers says it’s Serviceberry.
Poison ivy blooming in Frick Park on 3 June.
A ladybug crawling on fleabane in my brother’s Charlottesville backyard, 10 June.
Smartweed blooming near the ladybug, perhaps “pinkweed” or Pennsylvania smartweed (Persicaria pensylvanicum)
Poison ivy in bloom, Frick Park, 3 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Ladybug on fleabane, Charlottesville, VA, 10 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Smartweed in bloom, Charlottesville, VA, 10 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
p.s. All three Pitt peregrines fledged as of midday on 10 June.
Japanese tree lilac, Schenley Park, 2 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
4 June 2022
This week in Schenley Park I was impressed by a cascade of white flowers drooping over the Lower Panther Hollow Trail. The individual flowers and their arrangement in panicles reminded me of lilacs.
Japanese tree lilac, Schenley Park, 2 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
The leaves are opposite on the stem, the flowers smell like privet hedge flowers, and the bark has many lenticels.
Diagnostic lenticils on stems of Japanese tree lilac, Schenley Park, 2 June 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Putting these clues together I found a match: Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata), an ornamental in the same genus as sweet-smelling common lilac (Syringa vulgaris).
Why does Japanese tree lilac smell ugly like privet instead of pretty like lilacs?
Privet, native to Asia, is probably the most common hedge in Pittsburgh. It’s blooming right now and I hate the smell, it makes me sneeze. When I took a whiff of Japanese tree lilac my reaction was “Eeew! Like privet.”
Buttercups on Laurel Mountain, 30 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
31 May 2022
Yesterday I went birding with friends on Laurel Mountain near Spruce Flats Bog. The top of the mountain is always colder than Pittsburgh so the wildflowers bloom later or are specialists for the mountain’s climate zone. Here’s what was blooming on Memorial Day.
A patch of buttercups glowed in the sun while dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius) bloomed in the shade, viewed from above and side.
Dwarf ginseng, 30 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)Dwarf ginseng, 30 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Canada may-lily (Maianthemum canadense) is a native plant just 2-6″ tall that resembles lily-of-the-valley. A tiny spider draped this one in sticky filaments.
Canada mayflower, 30 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Lycopodium or tree groundpine is another “living fossil” that does not bloom as a flower. Instead it reproduces asexually via spores from the strobilis (cone) or sexually via underground gametes. The strobilis on this one is past its prime.
Just banded: female red-winged blackbird in hand, Frick Park, 14 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
21 May 2022
Seen this week in Schenley and Frick Parks:
At top, bird bander David Yeany holds a recently banded female red-winged blackbird at Frick Park on Migratory Bird Day, 14 May 2022.
On 17 May we looked for warblers along Nine Mile Run’s boardwalk and found many black walnut flowers fallen on the railing.
Old flower from black walnut, 17 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
I would have brushed this one away until I saw an insect hiding on it. Do you see the juicy caterpillar, below? This is warbler food!
Warbler food! on an old black walnut flower, 17 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
In Schenley Park a carpenter ant examined fading pawpaw flowers that smell like rotten meat, if they smell at all. No rotting meat here. She left.
An ant leaves after exploring fading flowers on a pawpaw tree, 13 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
Mystery flower of the week was a non-native with thin basal leaves found blooming in the woods in Frick Park. How did star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum sp.), a native of southern Europe and southern Africa, get into the woods? Is it invading?
Star of Bethlehem blooming in the woods at Frick Park, 14 May 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
