The wildflowers of Pennsylvania are beautiful. They can be found throughout Pennsylvania in various habitats and seasons. All one has to be is observant and look for them as one vacations, hikes, bikes and enjoys outdoors activities. It is most important that we teach notonly ourselves, but our children about the various wildflowers so they can be saved for future generation. Depicted below are some examples of a few of our beautiful wildflowers.
Agrostemma githago L. Corn Cockle
Red or purple flowers are 1 to 1.5 inches across, with ten stamens and long pointed sepals. This densely hairy annual or biennial grows 1 to 3 feet tall. A native of Europe, it grows in grain fields and waste places, where its poisonous seeds can become mixed with grain. It is scattered throughout Pennsylvania.
June-September
Emily
Johnson
Robert F. Bahl
Silene virginica L. Fire Pink
Brilliant red flowers 1 to 1.5 inches across are in a loose cluster. Petals are narrow and cleft at the tips. Two to four pairs of stem leaves are oblong-lanceolate. This perennial plant grows 6 to 20 inches tall from a basal rosette of oblong leaves. It may be found on rocky slopes and open woods mostly in western Pennsylvania.
April-June
Orantium aquaticum L. Golden Club
Protruding from an inconspicuous spathe, the 1 to 2 inch spadix has numerous yellow flowers covering the end. Leaves are elongated and form a clump arising from rootstock deep in the mud. This plant is located in bogs, swamps and shallow water in the southwestern and eastern counties of Pennsylvania.
April-June
Robert L Morgan
Virginia A. Phelps
Asarum canadense L. var.canadense Wild Ginger
The flowers are 1.5 inches wide on a short stalk at the junction of the petioles of two flowers. They are dark-brown, cup-shaped, with three pointed, flaring sepals. There are no petals. Flowers are frequently half buried in leaf litter. The leaves range from heart to kidney-shape and are 5 to 6 inches wide on 6 to 12 inch petioles. Flowers and leaves come directly from an aromatic and pungent downy rhizome. Rhizomes were once used medicinally during childbirth and as a substitute for ginger. They are located mostly in shady, moist, rich woods throughout Pennsylvania.
April-May
Cyrpripedium calceolus L.
var. parviflorum (Salisb.) Fern
Small
Yellow Lady's Slipper
The sepals and much-twisted petals are a rich mahogany color. The lip is a clear yellow inflated sac, 0.8 to 1 inch across. Edges of the aperature are rolled inward. This slipper is only sparsely pubescent. This rare plant grows only in calcareous bogs and mossy swamps. There are a few sites in western Pennsylvania.
May-July
Virginia A. Phelps
Robert K. Grubbs
Drosera roundifoila L. Roundleaved Sundew
Tiny rounded leaves covered with glistening reddish hairs have narrow stalks from 0.25 to 0.5 inch across. The five-petaled flowers are at the top of a curving stalk, and open only in the brightest sunlight. The whole plant is usually less then 3 inches in dimeter. Like all Sundews, it is insectivorous capturing and digesting tiny insects on the leaf hairs. This plant in common in sphagnum bogs across Pennsylvania.
June-August
Cirsium pumilum (Nutt.) Spreng. Pasture Thistle
The flower heads are 2 to 3 inches across with a spreading crown of purple or white flowers in a prickly involucre. The stem is covered with fine hairs. The plant growns 1 to 3 feet tall. Pasture Thistle is our largest flowered thistle, and is very fragrant. This biennial grows in dry soil and in pastures throughout Pennsylvania.
June-September
Esther G. Allen
Virginia A. Phelps
Kalmia latifolia L. Mountain Laurel
Clusters of white or pink flowers and fluted pink buds form at the end of branches on this evergreen shrub. Flowers have ten arching stamens that insert into pits in the corolla. When an insect touches these, they spring upward and dust the insect with pollen. The leaves are 1 to 4 inches long, oblong, shiny green, and remain throughout the year. The shrub grows from 5 to 15 feet tall and often forms thickets with the Great Laurel, Rhododendron maximum L. This shrub is found throughout the state in rich woods, and is the State Flower of Pennsylvania.
May-July
Rhexia virginica L. Meadow Beauty
The bright lavender flowers with numerous yellow stamens are 1 to 1.5 inches across. Leaves are 1 to 2 inches long and oppositely attached to a four-angled stem. This low prennial herb grows 10 to 18 inches high in wet sandy soil mostly in eastern Pennsylvania.
June-September
Virginia A. Phelps
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Emily Johnson
Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Skunk Cabbage
The hooked spathe appears, sometimes through the snow, long before the leaves emerge from the ground. The thick fleshy spathe is 3 to 6 inches high with green and purple spots or streaks. Inside, the fat fleshy spadix has a symmetrical mosaic pattern of flowers. Later, groups of large basal ovate leaves unfold from 1 to 5 feet long. When bruised they have a disagreeable odor. This plant is found in swamps and wet places throughout Pennsylvania.
February-April
Hepatica nobilis P.Mill. Round-lobed Hepatica
A tuft of several white, pink or blue 0.75 inch flowers grows from the base of the plant on densely hairy stalks. The three-lobes leaves have rounded tips and are purplish-green. Young leaves have several tiny lobes and are bright green. This perennial plant grows 4 to 9 inches tall in rich moist woods throughout Pennsylvania except in the northwest corner.
March-May
Esther G. Allen