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NEWSLETTER OF THE NC NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY Native Plant News SPRING 2021 Julie Higgie, editor Vol. 19, Issue 1 INSIDE: Up Close and Personal! P2 Society News Reid Chapter puts heart into special garden P5 New Chapter! By Amy Mackintosh P6 CHLOROFIENDS SPRING IS ALWAYS a special P9 Seed Library season in the Margaret Reid Wild Flower Garden, a 1.5- acre woodland P11 Habitats! garden on the west side of Raleigh. The garden is protected by a conser- P12 B.W. Wells vation easement, and cared for in part by volunteers from the Margaret P16 Member Reid Chapter of the North Carolina Spotlight Native Plant Society. Spring 2020 Trout Lily was particularly glorious, and the shelter-in-place orders during that season gave us the opportunity to spend more time in the garden ob- MISSION serving some of the lesser-known plants, learning and making new STATEMENT: discoveries. Our mission is to The garden’s native woodland plants flower in long progression be- promote the en- tween February and June with three waves of blooming. The spring joyment and con- ephemerals – Trout Lilies (Erythronium sp.), Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), Rue-Anemone servation of (Thalictrum thalictroides), Toadshade (Trillium cuneatum) and more – North Carolina’s start off the season in late winter. The reproductive strategy of these native plants and small plants on the deciduous forest floor is to complete most of their their habitats life cycle before the trees leaf out when the sun reaches ground level and pollinators can find them. The earliest usually start emerging in through educa- early February depending on weather; with 2020’s warm winter we tion, protection, spied the first Trout Lily bud near the end of January, with more spe- cultivation and cies emerging as February and March progressed. advocacy. The first wave of blooms usually segues in mid-April to the mid-spring ncwildflower.org “peak wave” of native Azaleas (Rhododentron per- iclymenoides and others), Wild Geranium (Cont. on P3) PRESIDENT’S REPORT Board of Directors Steve Kroeger, President I HOPE EVERYONE is doing well, as our unprecedented times Open, VP seem to be on hold for an unknown Theresa Morr, Secretary period. New Chapter! Diane Laslie, Treasurer The Society welcomes a new chapter Katy Davis, at-large – the Central Coastal Plain Chapter, with New Bern serving as the chap- Bettina Darveaux, at-large ter’s geographic center. The CCPC Steve Kroeger will focus on an area about 1- to 1.5- Carol Fox, at-large hour drive from New Bern. Our thanks go to Carol Peoples, Anna Meadows Helvie and Dale Tilson for Lauri Lawson, at-large organizing the chapter. Paula LaPoint, at-large The Pandemic and Society Meetings. Committee Chairs The Society’s challenges of getting together and meeting during the pandemic have been met, but not Terry Britton, Webmaster fulfilled, by adopting the software Zoom as an online meeting platform. Chapters have used this platform Tom Harville, Awards with much success, and our board meetings have had Jackie Trickel, phenomenal participation using Zoom. I know online Education Chair meeting is not the same of in-person chapter meet- ings, annual membership meetings and, of course Debra Murray, Grants & Scholarships hikes. However, any meeting conducted via Zoom can be attended by any member AND you do not have to Amy Tipton, purchase Zoom to participate. If you want to know Publications Chair about those meetings you need to “join” the chapter/ groups. Log on to your membership profile via https:// Jean Woods, Technical Coordinator ncwildflower.org/ select “Members Only” and edit your profile to include the groups you are interested in join- DeeDee Clarke, Membership ing. If you have questions on how to do this, please contact me at [email protected] Anne Gometz, Historian Spring Events Liz Wahls, The Spring Outing will not be held this year. We do Correspondence Secretary hope to have a Fall Outing. We are working on plans Pat Holder, for the annual membership meeting. Whatever is de- Native Plant Habitats cided, elections for board members needs to occur in June. We welcome anyone who is interested in serv- To contact Board members, chapter ing – just let us know. Experience is not necessary, chairs and committee chairs, go to; http://ncwildflower.org/about/contact but an interest in serving certainly is. Thanks! NPN SPRING 2021 2 Margaret Reid Garden (cont.) (Geranium maculatum), Crested Iris (Iris cris- where we first noticed the stolons) and eventu- tata), Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata), Ata- ally realized they were American Trout Lilies. masco Lily (Zephyranthes atamasco), Coral Looking more carefully at this patch we found Honeysuckle (Lonicera sem- stolons there also. Howev- pervirens), and Arrowwood er, the stolons in the path Viburnum (Viburnum denta- are on the other side of the tum) to name but a few. This garden, separated by a wave was also early in slight ridge. So, we still 2020, coming into bloom in have a mystery as to how the first week of April. Just they got there. Guessing as all the mid-spring flowers there are immature E. opened, the weather put on americanum in this area, the brakes, slowing down we will be keeping an eye the progression so we had a out for future flowers. lovely long “peak wave” that in turn transitioned to the The flowers of the bell- third spring bloom wave, worts or merry bells also extended by cool (Uvularia) are not particu- weather, thus stretching the larly showy, but they are sequence farther into May worth growing for foliage than usual. alone. We have at least three species in the gar- The Catawba Rhododen- den – Sessile Bellwort (U. drons (Rhododendron ca- Showy Skullcap sessilifolia), Mountain Bell- tawbiense), Mountain Laurel wort (U. puberula) and (Kalmia latifolia) and an as- Perfoliate Bellwort (U. per- sortment of white flowers – foliata). According to inter- Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), net descriptions, the first two are distinguished Fly-Poison (Amianthium musecaetoxicum), primarily by whether they have smooth stems Fringe Tree (Chionanthus virginicus), native or slightly hairy stems – a very subtle differ- Mockorange (Philadephus inordorus) among ence. But in June at least (when I started try- others – are stars of this wave, along with pale ing to identify them), U. puberula has much lavender-blue Showy Skullcap (Scutellaria ser- glossier leaves, making it easily recognizable rata) and the varied greens of ferns that fill the against U. sessilifolia’s matte finish. Perfoliate moister parts of the forest floor. Bellwort is easy to distinguish from these two; its leaves and flower stems both pass through For several years we have been noticing the leaves. U. grandiflora does too, but I strange white noodle-like growths that emerge haven’t found that species in the garden so from one of the mossy paths with both ends in haven’t had to parse out the distinguishing the ground. This spring a visitor helped figure features. The Mountain Bellwort became my out that these were probably the stolons of favorite until deer ate the one plant I found in American Trout Lily (Erythronium american- the garden. I’ll cage it if it returns next spring. um), an uncommon Trout Lily species in this area. The Reid Garden is filled with trout lilies Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) and in early spring, but the vast majority is the Eastern Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum rac- Dimpled Trout Lily (Erythronium umbilicatum). emosum) are similar to the bellworts in foliage. A few years back we had noticed a patch of The Solomon’s Seal spe- (Cont. on P4) late blooming trout lilies in one area (not cies native to North Caroli- NPN SPRING 2021 3 Margaret Reid Garden (cont.) na is divided into two varieties. In the Reid leigh and surroundings and creating habitats Garden we have the short variety, Polygona- within her garden where they would feel at tum biflorum var. biflorum. This is common in home and multiply. Wanting her garden to the Piedmont. The flowers and fruit hang continue beyond her lifetime so children could along the stem under the leaves. always see a Hepatica, in 1992 On Solomon’s Plume, the flower she donated a conservation ease- spray and berries are at the end ment to Triangle Land Conservan- of the stem. Both are lovely cy. plants for the woodland garden. Solomon’s Plume is showier, I started volunteering in the gar- both in flower, and again in fall den in the early ‘90s and have when the berries turn red and been involved with its stewardship the leaves turn yellow. The foli- since then. After Margaret Reid’s age is attractive throughout the death in 1996, and Hurricane spring and summer, decorating Fran’s devastation later that year, the ground layer in shady my parents, Robert and Julia woods. Mackintosh, founders of Wood- landers Nursery in Aiken, SC, There are so many interesting Solomon’s Plume seized this opportunity to move to plants deserving of more notice Raleigh and undertake a garden in the Reid Garden. I will end restoration project. They pur- with one of my favorites in late chased the property and for al- spring, the Showy Skullcap (Scutellaria serra- most 20 years stewarded the garden, restor- ta). Several native species of skullcap have ing Fran damage and adding their own touch- attractive lavender-blue flowers, but S. serrata es, such as a boardwalk through the flood- holds its own even when not blooming. It plain, a circular bog garden, and a small gar- forms a neat rounded clump of green serrated den pond in place of a stump hole from one of leaves about 12”-24” high with a bluish cast the huge oaks that Fran felled.