14 June 2025
It was a good week for flowers and insects though some of the species are unwelcome.
In Schenley Park, three plants that do well in poor or disturbed soil were in full bloom.
- The single flowers of mouse-ear hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum) brightened the top of the tufa bridge at Bartlett.
In April a DPW backhoe scraped the north side of Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park and produced lots of disturbed soil. Soon the area was covered in plants that love this habitat including:
- Black medick or hop clover (Medicago lupulina) was brought to North America as forage for livestock and escaped into the urban wild.
- English plantain, also known as ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata), was brought from Europe to North America for its medicinal use.
On Thursday I visited Aspinwall Riverfront Park which now has two names — at least in my head. In 2021 it was renamed “Allegheny River Trail Park” but signs at the entrance did not change until fairly recently. The eBird hotspot is still called Aspinwall Riverfront Park.
The meadow by the river is filled with foxglove beardtongue, shown at top. St. Johnswort is attracting bees along the bike trail.
Speaking of insects, I saw little black and white ones running on a retaining wall behind the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Tuesday. Uh oh!
I should not have been surprised to see spotted lanternfly nymphs (Lycorma delicatula), but I was.
If you want to see a spotted lanternfly, visit one of these infested counties. Welcome to [most of] Pennsylvania.
Updated on 29 May 2025 by Cornell IPM and New York State Integrated Pest Management. Click on the map or the caption to see the latest data.
OTHER USERS BOUGHT THIS!!!
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