Hard copies are once again available for purchase!
Plant Northern Piedmont Natives has reprinted this popular guide. Copies are $10 each and available at Thomas Jefferson SWCD Office in Charlottesville, Piedmont Environmental Council Headquarters Office in Warrenton, and other retail outlets.
Copies are also available from Virginia Native Plant Society for $13.50 including shipping and tax.
A PDF version is available here at no charge.
Native bees feasting on Silphium perfoliatum.
Since last fall, we have been growing and installing plants native to Virginia into our landscaping. We kind of live in concrete urban crap (relatively speaking if you are a native pollinator) with invasive infested lots and woodlands, so creating a little native spot in the middle of it all is good for local pollinators and good for our souls. Pete has been really digging the cup plants and the tons of native bees constantly swarming around them. The behemoth stalks and bright yellow flowers also provide a valuable service hiding the house from the road giving its human inhabitants some much-needed privacy. Our work is beginning to pay off with very exciting results so far.
Great leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia) chillin’ on our steps. Butterflies and Moths of North America Sighting 1131918.
It seems there is a new creature every day! We have recently attracted a ruby-throated hummingbird; the first Pete has ever seen here. She seems to stop by when I do not have a camera ready. Each day she checks the Monarda didyma, but I am afraid they are running out of juice!
There is a steady stream of butterflies and moths too. As part of our effort to document who and what is using our backyard habitat, I have been reporting butterfly and moth sightings to Butterflies and Moth of North America . This useful website has extensive species information, tons of high quality photographs, and a very responsive ID interface if you have a photograph and some additional basic information on the butterfly or moth you would like to have identified. The information you provide is also collected and recorded as a record for the species. I recently did this with a new-to-me moth called a great leopard moth. It seems to be fairly common in the eastern United States, but I had not come across it before. Cool.
The Litris spicata is banging right now and a few visitors have taken great delight in its endless wild purple flowers…
 monarch butterfly |
 American painted lady |
It is so important for any backyard habitat to not only provide nectar plants for butterflies and moths, but provide host plants for their caterpillars too. These little eggs were deposited about a week ago on the Baptisia australis. Not sure what they are, but it looks like some have hatched with no sign of a caterpillar, though they are incredibly tiny at this point and it may be difficult to find them. We hope to find more caterpillars calling our backyard habitat home.
Eggs from unidentified insect on Baptisia australis are on the set of leaves third from top.
I love growing native plants and grew many more than we had room for in our tiny, but ever growing garden spaces (Pete keeps building me more, yay). So I got to thinking it would be fun to try to sell some of the plants, so we did. Pete got in the action too talking to folks about plants and showing off our beautiful cup-plant display bursting with yellow and buzzing with pollinators.
Ready to talk about native plants!
My initial goal was just to make enough to cover the cost of the soil needed to support my planting habit. The sale was an amazing success achieving much more than ever considered!
People showed up and they ARE interested in natives! There were so many great questions and learning opportunties.
It was also a great way to meet some neighbors and share a love/knowledge/passion of using native plants in our backyards.
And… it was FUN!!!
Woodland Stonecrop
Stay tuned for a 2018 fall plant sale.
It was early March and we were itching to get out of the house to get our feet moving on a trail after being sick and homebound for most of February. Fernbrook Natural Area is a great little preserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. We plan to make it a regular hiking spot.
Orchids in winter:
Puttyroot winter leaf showing distinctive parallel veins. I never can seem to catch these in flower during the growing season!
The intricate veining pattern of the downy rattlesnake-plantain leaf is more eye-catching than its small white summer flowers.
The solitary winter leaf of the cranefly orchid is purple on the reverse. Its flowers are always a delightful summer find that can be easily overlooked.
Early flowers opening on a warm slope:
The first spring beauty of 2017 just beginning to peek through the leaf litter unfurling itself before the sun.
Interesting textures:
Knobby beech that caught our eye. Look to the left of the tree in the lower photo to see raised projections in profile.
Taking a moment of quiet:
The loop trail overlooks the North Fork of the Rivanna River.
More winter foliage:
Overwintering leaves of Hexastylis growing in a rock outcrop along the Rivanna River. Perhaps this is H. minor or little heartleaf, but that is a guess based solely on habitat. Perhaps we will have to check back in the spring for new leaves and little brown jugs for more clues. I have a lot of new plants to learn here in Virginia.
Striped wintergreen popping up everywhere!
Woodpeckers flourish:
We love snags and so do the woodpeckers.
Not too far from the trailhead is this directional sign. Stop here and look all around for the giant oak snags and the tons of woodpeckers. This area is like a Wegman’s for woodpeckers!
Skunk cabbage braves the cold to peek its leathery reddish, greenish spathe and fascinating flowers through the muck in late winter. As a plant lover, I take great delight in spotting these stinky gems because I have been waiting ALL WINTER for flowers and that’s a mighty long time. These are generally the first native plants to say hello to the new year.
I recently spotted some at Choate Sanctuary, Saw Mill River Audubon located in New York. Joining friends and their three children, we embarked on a winter woodpecker hike in hopes of seeing all six species of woodpeckers inhabiting Choate. The children, who were very happy to be outside on a sunny winter day, ran wild with joy climbing trees and scrambling over rocks; burning off three days worth of energy by my best estimates. Needless to say, most of the birds steered clear of our group, so I instead found some plants to share with my friends who now have a new appreciation for skunk cabbage. Who knew?
Skunk Cabbage growing at Choate Sanctuary, Saw Mill River Audubon, NY.
Symplocarpus foetidus or skunk cabbage is common in Virginia often found in mountain bogs. The plant is widely distributed throughout eastern U.S being one of two species in its genus, Symplocarpus. The other species is in northeastern Asia.
A few qualities make this plant unique meaning it has a really neat approach to making a living in this world. First, it can tolerate flowering in the winter because of the flower’s ability to generate its own heat, melting through snow and ice. Huh? Yeah, plant physiology magic. Heat production is also likely related to pollination. Second, skunk cabbage stinks to high heaven to attract just the right pollinators like flies, beetles, or bees; hence, the species name foetidus meaning “that has an ill smell”.
Skunk cabbage growing in a northeast Indiana fen unfurling new leaves. You can see the spadix peeking out of the spathe to the left. The spadix is where all the small flowers are located.
Lastly, large bright green leaves emerge after flowering. Do not be fooled by the word cabbage into thinking this plant is good in your soup and salad lunch.These cabbage like leaves are full of a substance called calcium oxalate which is produced to deter herbivory by buggering up the mouth of the unfortunate soul nibbling its leaves. Hopefully, the skunk cabbages successful defense will keep it alive for another day and said soul will have learned a valuable lesson.
Now layer up and get out for that late-winter hike. It is good for the body, clears the mind, and fills the soul with goodness. Spring ephemerals are beginning to peek from under the leaf litter. You might get lucky and find some in flower already on that warm south aspect slope.
Want to know more? Here are my helpful references:
A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin (online)
Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains & Piedmont by Timothy P. Spira
Uemura S., et al., 1993. Heat Production and Cross Pollination of the Asian Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus renifolius (Aracea). American Journal of Botany, vol. 80, no. 6, 1993, pp. 635-640., www.jstor.org/stable/2445433 .