SPRING 2013, VOLUME 14, ISSUE 2

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE SOCIETY

Native Plant to Know Virginia Spring Beauty virginica by Stephen Johnson essentially authored the first Virginia flora, Flora Virginica, in 1742. Two Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the hundred and fifty years later, the “Earth laughs in ” and few second Flora of Virginia symbolize the glorious flush of was published and spring or the way the Earth might features John Clayton’s

smile in springtime quite as well as spring beauty on its dust STEPHEN JOHNSON Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia jacket. virginica). It isn’t the earliest to Despite the plant’s simple or the most flaunting. It is often, morphology, several visible and ILLUSTRATION BY however, the most abundant and chemical variations occur, enough to gleaming of the spring ephemerals. make a model Spring beauty was once a diminutive organism for scientific studies. member of the , now the One study , having 25 congeners in showed that North America, sharing the east with throughout only two others. Morphologically eastern North simple, it has a small cluster of basal America there and a paired set of succulent, are four grass-like stem leaves. Its flowers are distinct nearly symmetric stars, with petals flavonoid races. ranging in colour from pearl white to Flavonoids are pale rose pink. It is often striped with phytochemicals darker pink starkly contrasting with responsible for aromas the bright petals; this creates a pattern and flavours as, for suggesting a discoid candy cane. This example, in floral characteristic is found in other tomato fruits. Claytonia . The west coast Race I is mid- species C. sibirica is even known as Atlantic ranging candy flower. west to Kentucky. The is named for one of the Race ll is southern first botanists in the Virginia colony, ranging to Louisiana. Dr. John Clayton. Virginia spring Race lll is northern beauty was but one of Clayton’s many ranging from Virginia contributions to the modern Linnaean to Iowa and north to classification system. Clayton also Quebec and Ontario. Continued on page 15 The Blazing Star is... NANPS BRANCHES OUT INTO SOCIAL MEDIA

The Blazing Star is published quarterly (April, August, November, February) by Social media has become increasingly important to non-profit groups for building the North American Native Plant Society awareness about environmental and social issues. The North American Native Plant (NANPS). Contact [email protected] Society is well aware that, to stay current on native plant issues today, you must be for editorial deadlines and for advertising connected to the world of social media. Currently, the organization has a presence rates. The views expressed herein are on Facebook and Twitter, and has recently opened a LinkedIn group. The those of the authors and not necessarily Wikipedia page about our organization and its activities was viewed 486 times in those of NANPS. the first 30 days after it was created. The North American Native Plant Society is dedicated to the study, conservation, Facebook cultivation and restoration of North The NANPS Facebook page serves to promote the organization and provide America’s native flora. details about NANPS events. Members are welcome to post articles on native plant Spring 2013 issues. We also promote events that are not organized by NANPS but touch on Volume 14, Issue 2 related environmental topics. People are allowed to comment and suggest things on Facebook posts; more often than not you get different viewpoints on a topic. Editor: Irene Fedun Currently, 269 people “Like” our Facebook page and each day we get a few more. Production: Bea Paterson Printed by: Guild Printing, Twitter Markham, Ontario The Twitter group is slightly different from the Facebook page in that we have to © North American Native Plant Society get the message out to our members in 140 characters or less. Twitter allows Images © the photographers and NANPS to inform members about upcoming events and conferences in short illustrators, text © the authors. updates and to provide links to the relevant websites. People choose to be a part of All rights reserved. this group by selecting to “Follow” us. When they follow us on Twitter they North American Native Plant Society, subscribe to each new update or tweet. We post links to websites that have articles formerly Canadian Wildflower Society, on native plants or to other native plant societies in North America. We can also is a registered charitable society, no. re-tweet messages to our NANPS group from like-minded organizations such as the 130720824 RR0001. New York Flora Association. The hope is that we can create a network where Donations to the society are tax- NANPS can exchange information and ideas with other North American native creditable in Canada. plant societies or associations. Currently, we have 149 tweets, we are following 339, NANPS Membership: and we have 195 followers; no doubt this will continue to grow. CAN$25/YEAR WITHIN CANADA, US$25/YEAR OUTSIDE CANADA LinkedIn Please make cheques and money Launched in 2012, the NANPS LinkedIn group is geared towards professionals orders payable to North American and people involved in the native plant industry across North America. The Native Plant Society. Mail to Box 84, LinkedIn group allows professionals to stay connected to our organization and Stn D, Etobicoke, ON M9A 4X1. native plant issues. Events and conferences such as the 2013 Pollinator Telephone: (416) 631-4438. Conservation Conference are posted on this group. Anyone who has a LinkedIn E-mail: [email protected]. account can join the group and comment on any discussion. There is even a Web: www.nanps.org. section to post job offers or requests related to native plants, horticulture and restoration. The LinkedIn group is a work in progress (currently there are 24 Board of Directors: Honorary President: James A. French members) and, like the other social media networks, it continues to grow. President: Paul LaPorte NANPS’ ultimate goal is to use various social media to spread the word about Vice-President: John Oyston native plant and ecosystem study, conservation, cultivation and restoration across Secretary: Miriam Henriques North America. Please support us by “Liking” us on Facebook and “Following” us Eileen Atkinson on Twitter. We hope with these tools to help foster change among young people Heidi Eisenhauer and for future generations. It will be a long process but it is well worth the journey Joanne Fallowfield to prevent future ecological mistakes. Greg Hagan Janice Keil Links to Social Media Alice Kong Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nativeplant Gillian Leitch Twitter: https://twitter.com/tnanps Howard Meadd Adam Mohamed LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4743266&trk=group-name Harold Smith Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Native_Plant_Society Jenn South Adam Mohamed NANPS Director

2 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 NANPS 2013 EVENTS

MAY 6th Pollinator Gardens Galore! JUNE 8th Markham Civic Centre Wildflower 7pm – 9pm Community Planting Garden Hall, Toronto Botanical Garden, 777 Lawrence 10am – noon Avenue East, Toronto. Discover the how, why and where of Markham Civic Centre, south side of building, south side of creating pollinator gardens. pond. • Cathy Kozma, Toronto Master Gardener and bee-keeper Take part in a planting of native wildflowers such as • Paul LaPorte, President of the North American Native butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and purple Plant Society coneflower (Echinacea pallida) to create a beautiful • Deb Woods, Outreach Coordinator, Scarborough Garden pollinator and butterfly garden! Experts from NANPS will and Horticultural Society (SGHS) be there to answer your native plant gardening questions. Note: The first 20 participants to register will receive a gift Other participants include staff from City of Markham of 18 native wildflowers. If you have vegetable seedings to Operations (Parks), Toronto and Region Conservation spare, please bring them. They will be donated to the Authority, Evergreen and Rouge Park. For more info, YouthLink garden in Scarborough which will be planted this contact Karen Boniface, City of Markham, 905-477-7000 spring in partnership with SGHS and the Toronto and ext. 2700. Region Conservation Authority. SEPTEMBER 21st Fall Excursion to Shining Tree Woods This event is free, but please register at A bus tour to this unique Carolinian ecosystem featuring www.trcastewardshipevents.ca. For more info, contact Randi tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera), pawpaws (Asimina Shulman at 416-661-6600 x 5765. triloba) and other unusual species. Contact [email protected].

Check the NANPS website frequently for more updates: www.nanps.org TKINSON A ILEEN E HOTOGRAPH BY P TKINSON A NANPS President Paul LaPorte (on the left) brings in the crowds ILEEN at Vaughan’s Seedy Saturday. E MAY 11th NANPS Annual Native Plant Sale

10am – 3pm HOTOGRAPH BY P Markham Civic Centre, 101 Town Centre Boulevard, N/W corner of Hwy 7 & Warden Avenue, Markham. NANPS seed cleaning and packing party! From left to right are Don’t forget to check out the woodland display garden, board members Joanne Fallowfield, Miriam Henriques, Heidi inspirational slide show and information booths in the Eisenhauer and Janice Keil. Canada Room. To volunteer contact [email protected]. Other inquiries contact [email protected]. NANPS AWARD NOMINATIONS

JUNE 1st Native Pollinators and Native Plants NANPS Garden Awards recognize and celebrate the 2pm – 4pm amazing gardens that support diverse habitat and shared Sheridan Nurseries, 4077 Highway 7, Markham accommodations for our native flora and fauna. NANPS President Paul LaPorte will present his native The NANPS Volunteer Award is given to a volunteer who plant/pollinator talk at Markham-Unionville’s Green Party makes an outstanding contribution to the fulfillment of Riding Association AGM. The afternoon will begin with a NANPS goals. native plant seedling sale. Attendees are invited to bring Deadline for submissions to these awards is July 31st. native plants to exchange. Visit www.nanps.org for more information.

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 3 The Lazy Thrill of My Shade Garden

by Paul Sakren reptans (abscess root – much more through the winter – only snow hides attractive than it sounds) and late- it from view), Adiantum pedatum For years I have wanted to tell others summer-flowering Solidago flexicaulis (maidenhair fern of the feathery about my shade garden in New (zigzag goldenrod). leaves) and royal fern (Osmunda Preston, Connecticut which is planted Planted within this tapestry of regalis). A few small specimen trees with native perennials (and a few spreaders are small groups of lemon- add structure to the garden: the native spectacular non-natives), including scented Collinsonia canadensis burning bush (Euonymus many spring ephemerals. For 20 years, (stoneroot), Hydrastis canadensis atropurpureus), prickly ash this garden has taken care of itself, (goldenseal of the deeply lobed leaves (Zanthoxylem americanum), cramp changing a little every year but always and solitary flower), Sanguinaria bark or cranberry viburnum maintaining its character and balance canadensis (short-blooming but lovely (Viburnum trilobum) and a Japanese with the least amount of work. bloodroot with its fantastic leaves), maple (Acer palmatum) which I The backbone of my shade garden Polygonatum canaliculatum (giant couldn’t resist. has become a mass of giant leopard’s Solomon’s seal), Caulophyllum A wonderful variety of volunteers bane ( pardalianches), a thalictroides (squaw root or blue spring up among these groundcovers: non-native but one of my favourites. It cohosh, obviously used for women’s biennials and perennials, and even glows with bunches of golden “daisies” health), Mertensia virginica (the shrubs and trees. I do have to weed three feet tall (one metre) for weeks hugely popular Virginia bluebells), out or transplant some of them, such on end and spreads by rhizomes at a Dodecatheon meadia (shooting star, a as wild cherry (Prunus spp.), ash quick but manageable rate. It is one of delightful pink spring bloomer), (Fraxinus spp.) and the black walnuts many groundcovers, including Ageratina altissima (the poisonous (Juglans nigra) which the squirrels Podophyllum peltatum (the umbrella- white snakeroot), Aruncus dioicus plant everywhere. Phlox paniculata leafed mayapple), the statuesque (frothy goatsbeard) and Aralia (garden or perennial phlox), Cimicifuga racemosa (black cohosh), racemosa (American spikenard). Ferns Scutellaria ovata versicolor (woodland non-indigenous lungwort cultivars add a grace of their own to the garden skullcap), columbines (Aquilegia spp. , (Pulmonaria spp.), the pretty blue- including Polystichum acrostichoides much beloved of hummingbirds), flowered Phlox divaricata (wild sweet (Christmas fern which persists Echinacea purpurea (purple William), Asarum canadense (wild ginger whose ant-pollinated burgundy flowers trail on the ground), Trillium erectum (known by many names including wake-robin or red or purple trillium), Hydrophyllum virginianum (the easy spreader, Virginia waterleaf), Tiarella cordifolia

(foamflower SAKREN PAUL with flowers just as pretty as the HOTOGRAPH BY name would P imply), Trillium erectum, Virginia bluebells, mayapples and other glorious natives in Paul Sakren’s shade garden Polemonium

4 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 coneflower), Stylophorum diphyllum (yellow-flowered celandine poppy) and Thalictrum pubescens (the aptly named tall meadow rue) need management once in a while.

Noteworthy points about this garden:

1. Most of these plants are growing under sugar maples (Acer saccharum) where it is considered difficult to grow things because of the dense summer shade and extensive spreading root system that tends to rob vital moisture and nutrients from the soil. But my plants seem comfortable with this arrangement, partly because so many of them are tough and resilient. No doubt it helps that I give them topdressings of a balanced organic fertilizer in spring and leave most of the litter from the maples on them over winter. The mulch conserves moisture, stabilizes soil temperatures and protects them from our strong, cold north winds. I don’t cut back any of the tops and dried stems until spring, which helps to keep the leaf litter from blowing away. 2. Few weeds invade this garden except at the margins where there is SAKREN PAUL more light. I mainly have to weed out the plants themselves when they set HOTOGRAPH BY seedlings or spread where I don’t want P them. But for the most part I let them Solomon’s seal stands tall in the foreground near woodland skullcap while black cohosh, spread into each other as long as they Virginia waterleaf, abscess root, wild ginger and others romp in the background. get along. This makes a wonderful woven tapestry punctuated with November. roadside, or bloodroot and trillium patches and clumps of an enormous growing by the brook where I grew up variety throughout the season. 5. I don’t water except in summers of extreme drought. I have discovered in the northwest hills of Connecticut. 3. The mat of vigorous groundcover that even marginal shady wetland The celandine poppy was a gift from a plants is so strong that it has managed plants like royal fern can survive and former president of the Rock Garden to hold in check an invading army of prosper from year to year on this site Society. For me it has become a garden Aegopodium podagraria (bishopsweed) without supplemental watering if they of history and old friends who which has weaseled its way in from the have enough shade protecting them in perennially thank me for rescuing nearby roadside entirely covered by it. summer. them and giving them a happy home. 4. I have a nine-month succession of Some of the original stands are now 6. Many of the plants in this shade gone from the roadsides along with blooming beauties, from the first, garden have a history with me. I can admittedly non-native Adonis many wonderful denizens of remember when I first discovered local hedgerows, thanks to the barbaric amurensis in February to the last of species of giant Solomon’s seal, wild the Phlox paniculata in early practices of town roadside ginger and stoneroot growing by the maintenance crews.

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 5 7. Although I have lost thousands of plants over 20 odd years (especially those that were planted in the sun and quickly became overrun by invasive weeds), this shady oasis has persisted in spite of everything—the droughts, the maples, the severest winters and hottest summers. No animals have eaten a leaf that I’ve noticed except for the voracious slug devils on the Solomon’s seal and stoneroot. No pests have ravaged the garden except for the spider mites on the Phlox paniculata in PAUL SAKREN PAUL extremely dry summers. No diseases have plagued my garden. HOTOGRAPH BY

8. Echinacea purpurea persists longer P at the edges of this shade garden – A happy clump of bloodroots (Sanguinaria canadensis) where it gets enough light, but not much sun – than it does in the open, where it gets strangled out by wonderful assortment of species. But I landscape design business, Native Sun goldenrods, aggressive grasses and was really pleasing them by allowing Natural Landscapes, focusses on the use others. It also blooms much longer them to score a symphony that of native plant species. With his wife, he (although a bit paler in colour) in this elaborates on its theme layer upon designs, installs and maintains landscape situation. My observations of other layer. It now pleases me in a way I gardens, and propagates an endless gardens tell me E. purpurea is most could never have imagined. This is variety of plants, mostly native and successful on garden edges and in what I would call good garden design! medicinal species, to use in his design meadows where it has an even work and sell locally. moisture regime (neither wet nor dry Paul Sakren became infatuated with the extremes). The slight shade on its wild plants that roots at these edges provides the grew in the optimum conditions. gardens, meadows, Original Art by People talk about low maintenance. wetland and You can’t get any lower than this. And woodlands of his Brigitte Granton it was not planned, it just happened, parents’ historic little by little. The work was done by former tobacco the plants themselves, and they have farm in Acrylic, Oil and Ink. spent their lives teaching Northwest Commission work by request. me….whenever they can get me to pay Connecticut when attention. I thought I was pleasing he was still a visit www.brigittegranton.com myself by gathering together a teenager. His GrowGrow Wild!Wild! Native plant nursery, landscaping and ecological services GIVING NATIVE PLANTS www.grow-wild.com A PLACE TO GROW Home: 705.799.2619 3784 Hwy 7, (Paul Heydon) Omemee, Ontario Cell: 416.735.7490 www.lpblt.on.ca (by appointment only) [email protected]

6 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 Bats Without Passports: Managing Cactus in the Sonoran Desert by Evan Cantor the party after discovering the Over 850 species of bats inhabit planet joy of cactus Earth in almost every habitat nectar. The imaginable save the most extreme. Pallid is Most of these species are insect-eating common in the creatures (insectivorous); we have all high plains and heard about their prodigious feasting mountains from on mosquitoes. About 150 species of southern British bats, however, are nectar-feeding Columbia to animals, meaning that they feed on the central Mexico. nectar and pollen of blossoming The Leptos, plants. Long Noses and Most of these creatures are found in Choeros follow the Old World tropics, but Central migration America hosts quite a few, both corridors along nectar-feeding (nectivorous) and fruit- the Pacific coast eating bats (frugivorous). Over 500 and inland from different plants in the New World as far as Tropics are pollinated and seed- southwestern dispersed by 50 different varieties of Mexico all the energetic bats. But only three or four way to the make it to North America “proper”. southwestern This is because very few bats United States. undertake the continental migrations The greatest familiar to so many birds. In the concentration of north, beyond the range of the these creatures, MERLIN D. TUTTLE, BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL, www.batcon.org INTERNATIONAL, CONSERVATION BAT TUTTLE, MERLIN D.

Sonoran Desert, the bat species are all as well as their © insect eaters and they survive winter nectar sources, is

by hibernating in, hopefully, warm, in the central HOTOGRAPH moist hideaways. South of the highlands of P A Mexican Long-Tongued Bat roosts with agave pollen on its face Sonoran zone, in the Yucatan and Mexico. All three Central America, most bats don’t of these species come north. But a few species make are small, little more than three inches vegetatively and harvested before the trip from as far as Jalisco in (76 millimetres) in length and weigh blossoming to maximize the sugar southwestern Mexico to Arizona, New no more than four-fifths of an ounce content in the plant fibres. In this way, Mexico, Texas and back each year. (226 grams). It is mostly females that the fermented beverage business steals Two of these visitors are a pair of do the hard work of migration. They nectar from bats, threatening them Leptonycteris species. The Lesser Long- congregate in great maternity roosts at with loss of their primary, perhaps Nosed Bat, sometimes called a Lepto, the northern edge of their ranges to only, source of nectar in those (L. yerbabuena) is an Endangered birth and raise their pups. migration corridors. North American cousin to a South Migration corridors follow the Indeed, the Lepto is an Endangered American species (L. curasoae) and is nectar sources, columnar cacti and species and is ostensibly protected in often seen in Arizona. The Mexican agave species. Agave is often confused both the United States and Mexico. Long-Nosed Bat (L. nivalis), on the with cactus and while it does Because a number of different species other hand, is usually noted along the sometimes have sharp, spiny points, it often share caves, Leptos have suffered Rio Grande in Texas. Another traveler is a succulent belonging to the lily from misguided efforts to eradicate is the Mexican Long-Tongued Bat family. Of most concern commercially vampire bats. They are also threatened (Choeronycteris mexicana), sometimes is the blue agave (Agave tequilana), by construction along the Mexico-U.S. called a Choero, who appears to from which mescal and tequila are border and generalized habitat loss. favour agaves over cacti. In an odd made. The blue agave reaches the edge Ironically, narco-trafficantes activity case of adaptation, an insectivorous of its northern range just over the may be helping these very private species, the Pallid Bat (Antrozous border into the United States. To make creatures by keeping people out of pallidous), has in recent years joined tequila, the plants are cloned large rural areas of Mexico. Continued on page 8

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 7 Continued from page 7

The nectar sources most often large numbers of indigenous, non- a taste for nectar has certain admired by human visitors to the migrating nectar feeders. In their advantages for the cactus. Sonoran Desert are the huge, northern ranges, they produce more Co-evolved with their nectar picturesque cacti found from Jalisco to flowers in an effort to attract sources, nectivorous bats all have long, Arizona. In Arizona, they hang on at pollinators. Many adjust their cylindrical snouts, designed especially the edge of their northern range. The flowering schedule accordingly, earlier for poking into the firm, deep saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), the in the south and later in the north, blossoms of columnar cacti. Unlike cardon (Pachycereus pringlei) and the and at different times than their insect-feeding cousins, nectar organ pipe (Stenocereus thurberi) have neighbouring species. They have feeders have small ears, long noses and all co-evolved with nectar-feeding evolved alongside one another, big eyes. They seek nourishment both bats. All three cacti feature hardy, pale competing for the attention of by sight and smell and have little to no white, bowl-shaped flowers that open pollinators at the northern edge of echo-location capacity. at night, producing copious amounts their habitat. While they may be The Pallid Bat, on the other hand, is of nectar and protein-rich pollen. pollinated nearly exclusively by nectar- typically insectivorous, with small eyes and huge ears for echo- location. The Pallid Bat can locate a scorpion scuttling on the ground, swoop down and pick it up for dinner. Because the Pallid is a larger bat (about five inches or 12 centimetres) and has a more rounded, furry face, it must bury its head deeper into a cactus blossom to drink nectar. In the process, it spends more time burrowing into the flower, picking up that much more pollen on its fur before visiting another flower. Researchers at University of California Santa Cruz documented that the Pallid Bat

MERLIN D. TUTTLE, BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL, www.batcon.org INTERNATIONAL, CONSERVATION BAT TUTTLE, MERLIN D. delivers up to 13 times more © pollen than the co-evolved nectar feeder, Lepto, the Lesser HOTOGRAPH

P Long-Nosed Bat. This is great for the cardon, but maybe not A Lesser Long-Nosed Bat pollinates a saguaro cactus so great for the Endangered Lepto. Almost 70 species of columnar cacti feeding bats who live year-round in What is so desirable about this inhabit Mexico. The richest diversity, the territory farther south, they must nectar that would interest the Pallid nearly 45 species, is found in the also attract birds and insects in their Bat, or any bat for that matter, to this central part of the country, where as northern range where bats are only extent? Nectar is sweet, a great source many as 12 different species co-exist in migratory visitors. of natural sugars (mainly fructose). the same cactus forest. This includes a It is thought that a quirk of Tequila producers go to great lengths range of individual cacti in the style of evolution developed the Pallid Bat’s to increase the sugar content of their saguaro, several times the height of a taste for nectar. Pallid Bats have been blue agaves, the same plant that person, to multiple clusters like the photographed catching moths at the produces the commercial sweetener, organ pipe all the way through to mouths of cardon blossoms. This agave nectar. While nobody is yet gigantic branched cactus trees. aggressive hunting style would have producing saguaro or cardon-nectar Columnar cacti are nothing if not accidentally exposed the bats to the sugar substitutes, these cacti produce industrious evolvers. In the southern taste of sweet nectar in the blossoms. gobs of nectar specifically to attract end of their ranges, columnar cacti Although the Pallid Bat remains bats. While agave is clearly a source of produce fewer flowers because of the primarily an insect feeder, developing sweet nectar, columnar cacti attract

8 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 bats with pungent, fetid-smelling a wasteland, but blossoms. But fructose is powerful that perspective fuel, even if it comes from a flower has changed. The that smells peculiar to Homo sapiens. Sonoran Desert is These blossoms apparently smell just perhaps the single fine to the bats. most biodiverse Although they have co-evolved with dryland the nectar sources, it is not always easy ecosystem on the for nectar-feeders to obtain a meal. planet and When dining, nectivorous bats hover migrating bats like hummingbirds before a blossom have helped and this behaviour makes them burn develop this array CANTOR EVAN sugar faster than any other known of succulent plant living mammals. In addition to this, life. LLUSTRATION BY female nectar-feeders migrate Of course, I thousands of kilometres and that takes Agave nectar-feeding a lot of energy. bats don’t The vast majority of Leptos and secretive nature means that key colony recognize the international boundary Choeros form enormous colonies, roosts, critical to a secure future, have between Mexico and the United States. usually in caves or mines. Private and not yet been located. Only the people of both nations can secretive creatures, they are The good news is that Mexico is make it safe for bats to travel without particularly intolerant of intrusion encouraging people to plant agaves passports. and vulnerable to humans who seek along roadsides to provide nectar them for observation or persecution. sources for migrating bats. The Evan Cantor is a musician, artist and Habitat loss looms as an ever larger governments of both Mexico and the Batman fan living in Boulder, Colorado. threat to their survival. As more open United States have recognized that He loves sipping a fine añejo in front of land becomes developed along their nectar-feeding bats are a keystone a blazing fireplace with lime in hand. He migration corridors, there is less species in the desert ecology. Once hopes that nectar-feeding bats get their nectar to fuel their travels. Their upon a time, the desert was viewed as share of the goods.

Greening Your Grounds NYC Encourages Workshop Series in Markham Native Biodiversity

Location: Markham Museum, 9350 Markham Rd. In February, New York City Council passed a law to Markham, Ontario increase native biodiversity in public landscapes. The To register: call City of Markham contact centre at law mandates that the city’s parks department adopt a 905-477-5530. policy favouring plants native to New York. Botanical CREATING BEAUTIFUL GARDENS WITH NATIVE PLANTS gardens and institutions that grow plants for Saturday, May 4 – 10am – noon educational or scientific use are exempt. You will leave this workshop with inspiration and know- Another “green” measure signed into law requires how to create your natural garden oasis. that city plantings be stormwater-tolerant so as to

CREATING RAIN GARDENS AND DRY RIVERBEDS facilitate stormwater retention and filtration. The Saturday, May 25 – 10am – noon plantings will help decrease flooding and the pollution Learn how to add interest and functionality to your garden caused by the overflow of sewage during storms which with these features. then ends up in New York Harbour. The Council noted that “…it is in the best interests of RAIN BARRELS the City, its water bodies, fisheries, wetlands, forests, Saturday, June 15 – 10am – noon and parklands to limit the use of non-native species Rain barrels offer an inexpensive source of water for and require greater biodiversity in our public spaces.” gardens. Learn to install, decorate and use them. U.S. ecologists estimate that invasive species overtake 3,000,000 acres (1,214,000 hectares) per year in that Note: Supervised activities for children ages 3 and up country at a cost of $123 billion annually. available at the workshops.

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 9 Erythronium revolutum and Heritage Breed Livestock Conservation: Two sides of the same coin? by Zoe Dalton seem. Our farm focus is For everything, there is a season. heritage Last time I wrote an article for The livestock Blazing Star, I was a director on the breeds: their NANPS board, pregnant with my preservation, second child, finishing up my PhD cultivation and and participating in a wonderful reintroduction collaborative relationship with into Walpole Island First Nation. production. Researching how First Nations and We are part of non-Aboriginal people in southern a movement Ontario could best work together aiming to towards the protection of species at maintain risk was a manifestation of my love of genetic – and concern for – native plants and diversity in ecology; it was my hope for a future of our positive human-landscape interactions agricultural in my home region and beyond. systems, far My personal environment at that from standard

time was urban. The view from my practice in ZOE DALTON bedroom window was of laneways, today’s progressively taller buildings as my eye monoculture- HOTOGRAPH BY

travelled south and, in the distance, dominated P the CN Tower. But always near to my food heart – and near to me even production geographically in the impervious systems. As all concrete jungle in which I lived – were of us native native plants. They remain a plant lovers testament to the miracle of life. know, genetic Now that life’s season has changed, I diversity is Zoe’s son Gilles discovering the joys of the natural world look from my home in rural British fundamental between our farm critters and the Columbia at a significantly different to the maintenance of life. Animals flora in which we are so interested? In view: acres of land with no houses, (livestock and wildlife) interact with fact, my favourite native plant towering trees, glimpses of the ocean and impact ecological systems. And experience on our property has glimmering in the sun’s rays and agricultural systems are, beneath it all, nothing to do with the farm animals native plants everywhere the eye a part of their surrounding ecosystem. or our farming endeavour. It is chooses to look. My aural landscape is So perhaps the season of my life has instead a hidden gem, removed from different too: whizzing cars and not changed all that much. We breed, daily life and from common view. It whirring sirens have been replaced by sell the products of and advocate for is spotted only occasionally when, on the sounds (too often nocturnal) of these heritage breed livestock that sojourns through our emerald, moss- my third child, now a nine-month old range freely on our property. And in carpeted woodlot with my children, I chubby babe, or my toddler waking in the midst of farming, we observe may happen upon a diminutive forest the night. Punctuating this nocturnal fascinating ecological relationships: lily, perfect and beautiful. Erythronium soundscape are the crows of roosters the chickens and turkeys spend a great revolutum, the pink fawn lily, is almost in the nearby coop. Roosters? Yes, deal of their summer foraging hours imperceptible, at least in my moist, indeed: Hamilcar, my husband and eating berries from the invasive non- very low-elevation forest. Tucked away occasional Blazing Star artist, and I are native blackberry (Rubus discolor) among the litter, thick moss and fallen now bona fide farmers, recognized by while the young fowl dash to take twigs, it always seems like remarkable the local tax authority and shelter beneath the alien Scotch good luck when I spot the two or recognizable by our gumboot/farm broom (Cytisus scoparius) when aerial three individuals we have on our jacket fashion statements. predators are spotted overhead. property. But perhaps life hasn’t taken as And what about the native plants? The pink fawn lily is an herbaceous much of a 180 degree turn as it might What relationships have we observed perennial. In January, its leaves are

10 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 small, delicate and mottled with white. plant (about 30 centimetres or 10 our favourites. What is it that attracts It was the mottled appearance of the inches high) can carpet the ground. and draws us to a species? Perhaps two twin basal leaves that led the naturalist Picture the woodland garden, or or three stand out for you as must- John Burroughs to name it the fawn native setting, literally covered with haves for your native plant garden. lily, its foliage reminiscent of a pair of the delicate mottled leaves and bright Why those? pricked-up fawn’s ears. pink nodding flowers, some bell- Some believe that a person will Spring sees the pink, nodding shaped, some with tepals pointing always choose a dog that matches him inflorescences of E. revolutum showing back and upwards. A lovely sight or herself in revealing ways. Perhaps off their bright beauty. But somehow indeed. there is a theme or thread that runs the modest loveliness of just the leaves As I consider my doctoral research through the lives of each of us that in the bleak, dull period of mid-winter with its focus on species at risk and leads us to favour one native plant charms me. Maybe it’s the challenge of inter-cultural relationships in need of over another. I think, in my life, the finding the few individuals here that repair or my current endeavour, thread has become obvious: the makes them so alluring. Each time we focussed as it is on livestock breeds in fragile, the rare, the almost- walk through this area of our desperate need of conservation… unrevealed, to these I am called. property, I wonder: will I be able to perhaps it is the rarity of the pink And you? I now turn the tables spot those elusive lily leaves this time? fawn lily in my own domain, and the and ask: What are your favourite E. revolutum is not considered an at- apparent fragility of these tender early native plants – and what do they risk species; in fact, although localized leaves, that so endears this particular reveal about you? in British Columbia, it is abundant in plant to me. We as native plant some areas of southern Vancouver enthusiasts each have our own Zoe Dalton lives on Salt Spring Island Island (a stone’s throw from the island motivations and underlying rationale with her human, animal and plant on which I live). In sites with the right for why native flora means so much to families. conditions, this small yet showy native us. And we all have In Remembrance: Michael Hough 1928-2013 I learned with great sadness of the passing of Michael Specializing in container grown Hough, a great natural heritage pioneer and supporter of Trees & Shrubs native to Ontario native plant landscapes, this winter. Michael was a maverick landscape architect, environmentalist, author, teacher, artist and musician. A professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Michael founded the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto. His firm, Hough, Stansbury, Woodland, Naylor, Dance, Leinster (now part of Dillon Consulting Limited), designed Ontario Place, Scarborough College, the University College Quad and Earth Sciences Courtyards at UofT and numerous pioneering applications of ecologically based landscape design. Winner of the 1991 City of Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design and the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Michael brought natural landscapes into the professional field, sharing his passion for naturalization and mentoring many. Michael changed the thinking of many a government agency, (705) 466-6290 developer and engineer. [email protected] I was greatly honoured to know Michael, a kind, www.notsohollowfarm.ca thoughtful gentleman. We at NANPS are thankful for his leadership in a world of manicured and mown landscapes. Design & Consulting services available by OALA member Karen Boniface, former NANPS Director

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 11 The Great Plains: Come for the Long – and Short – View by Cindy Reed dominating that a common cry of the plant. It’s not unusual for people visitors has been: “There’s nothing out to presume there is no other part. Come to the Great Plains in early there!” Of course, people who enjoy Townsendia exscapa is a frequent summer for the best view. Surrounded native plants and wildflowers in any example of this. Another is the plains by ankle-high, or even knee-high, bioregion know that you have to slow phlox (Phlox andicola) which, like CINDY REED CINDY HOTOGRAPH BY P green grasses stretching to a distant down to see them. Here, you’ll have to many phlox species, often forms wide horizon that meets the huge, intensely stop and look. This article will give mats of flowers that almost completely blue sky can make you positively light- you some suggestions on where to go cover the stems and leaves. headed. This experience can be and what you might find there. Blooming increases throughout downright unsettling for people who I write this article from the live in towns or cities or even headquarters of the Great Plains countryfolk unaccustomed to a 360 Native Plant Society (GPNPS) near degree view. Once you’ve embraced Hermosa, South Dakota which sits the experience though, the thrill of the nearly in the middle of the Great long view becomes addictive. Plains, not only in latitude but also in Mesmerized by the great distances longitude and altitude. Here, bloom- spread out before you on the Great time starts in April, with the very Plains, it’s easy to forget to look down early, flat-on-the-ground Cymopterus at your feet at the immense variety of montana, the low-growing Easter daisy wildflowers half-hidden there. Even (Townsendia exscapa) and the bright someone like me, who has lived on white mats of Phlox hoodii leading the these rolling hills my entire life, can way. overlook flowers I know to be None of these gems is over an inch blooming there…. until I stop walking or two in height (2½ to five and just sit down on the ground. centimetres) and the blossom itself The grasses and the distances are so may be larger than the remainder of The great expanse of the Great Plains

12 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 May, peaks in early June and then continues through summer toward golden September fireworks. By May, the wildflowers taking their turn are taller, 10 inches (25 centimetres) or more as the season goes on. Look for bright blue, bell-flowered Penstemon angustifolius, bright magenta locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii) and the dangling bells of Mertensia lanceolata earlier. Echinacea angustifolia (narrow-leaved purple coneflower), knee-high (and taller) Penstemon grandiflorus and prince’s plume (Stanleya pinnata) REED CINDY appear in June and later. (Note that many of the Plains wildflowers have HOTOGRAPH BY no universally accepted common P names. They are often referred to by Townsendia exscapa the common name for another similar species or simply by their Latin Badlands National Park in South the world. genus.) You can find the iconic Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt You are welcome to visit the GPNPS gumbo-lily, Oenothera caespitosa, National Park in North Dakota both headquarters near the Black Hills flowering over a longer period than have large areas of wide-open where we are preparing to open the most, on otherwise barren places. It is grasslands where these and other Great Plains Garden, a place where beloved not only for its large and Plains wildflowers can be found only a you can see first-hand and close-up fragile flower but also for its affinity short stroll from your parked car. The the charming plants that grow for that scourge of the Plains, the Black Hills is an island of mountains naturally “out there”. We have nearly miserably heavy clay soil called within the sea of grass that is the 360 acres (145 hectares) more than gumbo. You will recognize many Great Plains and within the Black Hills three-quarters of which have never familiar eastern genera here, with their lies another large area of grasslands. been disturbed; the only impact has Plains counterparts showing as shorter Part of that grassland is the Wind been cattle-grazing by rotation which plants with bluer or grayer leaves with Cave National Park, home to a large is the closest thing possible to having more hairs, all adaptations to drier herd of bison, many other wildlife great herds of bison galloping across, conditions and leaner soils. species and one of the largest caves in and feeding off, the grasslands. Our land is open by appointment for hiking. You can also join one of our field trips which are one-day excursions (often outside our botanic garden site) led by botanists or naturalists familiar with the area. Entrance is free to GPNPS members; we request a donation from non- members. The site is about 20 miles (32 kilometres) south of Rapid City, South Dakota on Highway 79. Visit www.gpnps.org or call 605-745-3397 to arrange your visit.

Cindy Reed is the President of the Great Plains Native Plant Society. She has a Bachelor of Science in plant science from University of Wyoming and a Masters of

HOTOGRAPH BY CINDY REED Science in biology with a focus on the P wildflowers of the Great Plains from Phlox andicola South Dakota State University.

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 13 Ask an Expert

The Blazing Star is experimenting with Heimburger, 1982, Royal Ontario 4) Multiple species will extend the life an “Ask the Expert” section. If you Museum, 495 pp. (illustrated). This span of your botanical barrier. have a native plant question you can’t outstanding reference tome can be 5) Multiple species will maximize the answer through the internet or other purchased from the ROM, fruit and seed bank for wildlife sources, please send it to us at Amazon.com and AbeBooks.com. food source. [email protected] with Ask an Expert in The latter two sources offer the title the subject line. at low prices as copies are second Some thorny/bristly shrub species to You can also mail your question to hand. research for your project are Ribes NANPS, Ask an Expert, P.O. Box 84, When you decide which species you cynosbati (prickly gooseberry), Ribes Station D, Etobicoke, ON M9A 4X1. need, check the 16 Ontario native hirtellum (wild gooseberry), Ribes We will try to find an answer for you plant nurseries listed on our NANPS lacustre (bristly black currant), and share it with our readers. website at www.nanps.org. Search Crataegus species (hawthorns), Malus

HERE IS OUR FIRST QUESTION: under Sources/Commercial Growers. coronaria (wild crabapple), Rosa I am looking for advice on what Most of them have on-line catalogues. acicularis (prickly wild rose), Rosa native thorny shrubs I could use to If you don’t see what you want, email carolina (pasture rose), Rosa setigera block off trails that I want to close them with your request. (prairie rose), Rubus (brambles) from trespassers on my rural property. In selecting your NATIVE shrub species with prickles and Zanthoxylum I do not want to use a fence or any barrier, I recommend planting as americanum (prickly ash, otherwise other unnatural constructed barrier. many different species as are known as toothache tree). What plants could I use and where appropriate to the site for several would I purchase them? Thank you. reasons: Successful research. Michael McGuire 1) Multiple species will maximize the May the forest be with you. Lakefield, Ontario visual beauty of the site, especially Jim Hodgins in the winter. GREETINGS MICHAEL: 2) Multiple species will minimize the Jim Hodgins is the former editor of If you are serious about getting a spread of plant pathogens. Wildflower magazine and an instructor handle on what native shrubs are best 3) Multiple species will maximize in biology at the University of Toronto. for various Ontario landscapes you animal and soil biota diversity, He is part of the NANPS Native Plant will have to acquire a copy of Shrubs of especially bird and insect Advisor Committee. Ontario by James Soper & Margaret populations.

Calendar of Events

June 20-22, 2013 July 17-20, 2013 July 26-28, 2013 PLANT ID WORKSHOP AT ROYAL CULLOWHEE NATIVE PLANT CONFERENCE MIDWEST NATIVE PLANT CONFERENCE BOTANICAL GARDENS: WETLAND Cullowhee, North Carolina Dayton, Ohio GRAMINOID SPECIES The 30th annual conference focuses Keynote speaker Douglas Tallamy: Hamilton, Ontario on increasing knowledge about Your Role in Building Biological RBG offers botanical identification propagating and preserving Corridors: Networks for Life workshops for conservation and native southeastern plant species in Visit mwnpsconference@ environmental professionals, the landscape. Contact midwestnativeplants.org. ecologists, horticulturists, graduate [email protected] for more students, amateur botanists and information. August 24-25, 2013 master gardeners. This workshop will AQUATIC PLANT WORKSHOP deal with grasses, sedges and rushes. July 25-26, 2013 Mohawk, Michigan http://www.rbg.ca/Page.aspx?pid=473#w FERNS AND ALLIES IDENTIFICATION Organized by the Gratiot Lake WORKSHOP AT ROYAL BOTANICAL Conservancy – contact July 11-12, 2013 GARDENS gratiotlakeconservancy.org/AquaticPla GRASS IDENTIFICATION WORKSHOP AT Hamilton, Ontario ntWrkshp2012.htm for more info. ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS http://www.rbg.ca/Page.aspx?pid=473#f Hamilton, Ontario See page 3 for NANPS Events. http://www.rbg.ca/Page.aspx?pid=473#g

14 NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 Continued from page 1 – Virginia Spring Beauty

Race lV is narrowly Midwestern mellifluously named Ceratina to 58% Virginia spring beauty corms. ranging from western Kentucky to Andrena erigeniae, a probable Virginia There are few reports of Native southeast Iowa. Another study found spring beauty specialist. By the time Americans using Virginia spring four distinct flower colour classes the tree canopy closes, spring beauty is beauty as food; only the Algonquin of difficult to find: its leaves Quebec are said to have boiled the have yellowed and it’s corms rather like potatoes. In the now sprouting numerous 1940’s, Harvard botanist Merritt cryptic capsular fruits. Lyndon Fernald referred to the corms Seeds are typical of as “fairy spuds” and suggested temperate forest herbs – harvesting from areas where the plants shiny black orbs with were abundant. Samuel Thayer, in

ELVEY attached fat bodies Forager’s Harvest, discusses harvesting K C

M (eliasomes). Eliasomes are methods and points out that the best dinner bells for ants time to find corms is when the plants ARCIE D which avidly gather seeds, are in flower. However, that is when detach the delectable the corms contain the lowest starch eliasomes and consign the content. Before or after flowering, HOTOGRAPH BY P seed to the garbage heap, when the corms are hidden, is when A mining bee (Andrena spp.) is one of several pollinators a perfect substrate for spring beauties have the highest that visits Darcie McKelvey’s Carolina spring beauties. growth. caloric content. Thayer notes that the The commonality of leaves are welcome additions to a ranging from white to deep rose. It Virginia spring beauty makes the plant salad. showed that pollinator selection easy to find by pollinators but also by If you try to grow Virginia spring favoured plants with redder flowers pathogens such as the fungus Puccinia beauty at home you just might have but that herbivores, such as slugs, mariae-wilsoniae var. mariae- some success. While it favours tended to favour plants with redder wilsoniae, another specialist of this calcareous soils, it can tolerate a soil flowers driving selection pressure spring ephemeral which can devastate range from basic to neutral to even toward plants with white flowers, populations. The fungal infestation is very low acidity as long as the maintaining the range of flower spectacular in that it colours described in the first contorts the stem paragraph here. leaves into vertical Taxonomists have also played with a orientations where suite of morphological traits. numerous tan cups Claytonia virginica var. virginica with characteristic of broad stem leaves is typically northern Puccinia are easily while C. virginica var. acutiflora with observed. We narrow stem leaves is typically hypothesize that this southern. Plants with pale yellow orientation presents GRANT DOBSON flowers belong to forma flava while the spore-generating plants with apricot to canary yellow cups to stronger wind HOTOGRAPH BY flowers found in atypically moist currents and thus aids P habitats are variety hammondiae. The spore dispersal. Carolina spring beauty () flowers of all forms and varieties are Puccinia mariae- also dynamic being initially staminate wilsoniae is autoecious meaning it structure is loam. Claytonia is not for just one day. For a few days needs no other host. A dormant spore fond of clay. So go ahead and plant afterward the flowers are pistillate. insidiously passes winter, germinating them, just don’t be surprised if a This mechanism evolved to encourage in spring to infect a new Claytonia chipmunk decides that your spring cross pollination. virginica plant. beauty is its sprightly meal. Over the course of two to three The densities of Virginia spring weeks Virginia spring beauty beauty also lead to copious herbivory. Stephen Johnson is fascinated by the completes its floral trajectory. Its Mammals ranging from chipmunks stories of the early Virginia plant unfurl, revealing a succession and field mice to black bears excavate explorers. He studied Ralph Waldo of up to 15 flowers pollinated by a and eat the corms. In southern forests Emerson in graduate school and looks plethora of native bees from the the diet of feral hogs may consist of forward to seeing the first spring beauty.

NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY SPRING 2013 15 JOIN NANPS Your donations and membership dollars help NANPS to study, conserve, cultivate and restore North America's native flora. Members receive our quarterly newsletter, The Blazing Star, and are eligible for NANPS-sponsored excursions and the Seed Exchange. NANPS is a registered charitable organization (no. 130720824 RR0001) founded in 1984. Donations to the Society are tax-creditable in Canada. Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $20 or more. _____ $10 / 1-year full-time student membership – digital version only of The Blazing Star (All other members now have the option of receiving the digital version of The Blazing Star in colour or the mailed version in B&W. Memberships are for a calendar year from Jan.1 to Dec. 31) _____ $25 / 1-year regular membership _____ $40 / 2-year regular membership _____ $60 / 3-year regular membership _____ $200 / 5-year Sustaining Membership includes a $100 tax receipt NAME: ______ADDRESS: ______PHONE: ______EMAIL: ______Do you wish to receive The Blazing Star electronically? ______Join online at www.nanps.org or complete this form and mail with cheque to NANPS, Box 84, Station D, Etobicoke, Ontario M9A 4X1. For info, call (416) 631-4438; e-mail [email protected].

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