7 September 2025
Some crops in Pittsburgh’s parks are feeling our average drought greater than others. Right here’s how a couple of of them have responded to the shortage of rain.
Orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is a local annual that grows in damp areas equivalent to creek beds and ditches. The flower pictured at prime has its roots within the creek mattress of Phipps Run in Schenley Park the place a stand of orange jewelweed seemed wholesome till the top of August. By the twenty eighth this flower was shriveled and its leaves have been turning yellow on the edges.
I do know this as a result of I took a photograph of a close-by flower on 23 August (oval-shaped photograph beneath). Six days earlier than my photograph it had rained 0.64 inches and the creek was flowing. By 28 August (photograph at prime) there had no rain for 11 days and the creek was dry.
By 31 August, there was nonetheless no rain and all of the jewelweed seemed pitiful.
Schenley Park’s false sunflowers (Heliopsis helianthoides) usually look wholesome into early fall, though they’re at all times stricken by aphids. This 12 months the blooms look crushed up. Have the aphids sucked out all their juices?
Otherplants are
Late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) is a local perennial that’s not so choosy about moisture so it’s flourishing in Schenley proper now. It additionally does properly as a result of deer don’t eat it. Late boneset accommodates pyrrolizidine alkaloids.
Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), native to Eurasia and Africa, can develop in both dry or moist areas. This one managed to search out sufficient water to set fruit. Wikipedia says its fruit is 84.1% water.
deertongue has sturdy thick leaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichanthelium_clandestinum
I used to assume three-seeded mercury (Acalypha rhomboidea) was non-native as a result of was so good at invading my backyard. As a substitute it’s native and versatile and is flourishing proper now at Schenley.
Some crops are dealing with drought by fortunately taking root on the mudflat on the mouth of 9 Mile Run at Duck Hole. The native plant sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) and the tropical South American plant purpletop vervain (Verbena bonariensis) set down roots alongside the Monongahela River after a flood deposited them there. They’re are doing fantastic proper now but when there’s one other flood they’ll be swept away.
There’s no rain within the forecast so we’ll see extra plant reactions to drought within the week to return.
