The Journal of the South Carolina Native Plant Society March 2014 The Asters of South Carolina In this issue Bill Stringer Asters in SC ................... 1 The milkweeds have faded, the sunflowers are waning, the grasses are blooming, when there comes a burst of blue tints on the roadside, or in the Honey Bees .................... 2 forest edges. What is it? It is the growing season’s parting shot, the asters! Just Southeasternflora .......... 14 when we think the season is over, the asters come on to bring down the curtain Azaleas in SC ............... 15 on the growing season. Asters, the star flowers, the namesake genus for a large, Lowcountry News .......... 16 diverse family of flowering plants, theAsteraceae . Once upon a time, South Carolina was blessed with 36 species in the genus Aster, beautiful plants every one. Back then, you were most likely an Aster if Joining or Renewing: you were a perennial herbaceous forb, with rhizomes, composite flowers, and numerous white to blue ray flowers. Fortunately all those species are still here, Some Critical Points but are traveling under other names now. Thanks to morphological (physical The membership management characteristics), cytological (chromosome numbers) and molecular (DNA) system is designed to enable inter- analyses done during the 80’s and 90’s, the North American Aster genus has ested people to join the Society been dismembered, and the species distributed among ten genera. The asters and to renew their membership; to of our state are now found in six genera. We can still use aster in the common enable the Society to generate mail- names as before, but go to any up-to-date flora book or website for our region, ing and e-mail lists; and to identify and you won’t find many species with the genus nameAster . There are only two member interests. This system is run surviving members of the genus Aster in all of North America, and they are not by skilled volunteers. The mem- found in our region. So in this article Aster refers to an “expired” genus name, ber information is maintained and while aster will be part of a common name. See on pg 4 updated in an Excel spreadsheet that Asters is stored safely off-line. This database information is distributed only to a small list of responsible officers. The system recognizes that not everyone has access to, or interest in, computer communication. Thus, we make available an on-line membership application and renewal feature, as well as paper forms that serve the identical purpose (www.scnps.org and click Membership). The paper forms can be downloaded and printed for use. Application and renewal forms have to find their way to the appro- priate Society officers. A paper form should be mailed (with check for Figure 1. Important parts of a typical aster flower head. Note: involucral bracts are also called phyllaries. Photo courtesy of continued next page JC Semple at http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~jcsemple/Eurybia.htm. South Carolina Native Plant Society • March 2014 1 dues) to the address supplied on the form. The on-line packet, so if your new member submits a renewal form, forms can be filled out and submitted on-line, at which he/she may not receive this packet. point you are referred to a secure Pay-pal webpage, where The dues payment must go to the desk of another vol- payments can be submitted electronically. Renewals are unteer, the Society treasurer, who maintains our money due in January of each year. accounts. If you join or renew via a paper form, your form The forms and payment must arrive at the desk of the and check should be mailed to the PO address supplied officers who maintain the membership system. Theforms on the form. Here it will be separated into member form with contact and interest information must reach the da- and payment, and those will be mailed to database man- tabase manager, who maintains the membership data in ager and the treasurer, respectively. If you join or renew an Excel spreadsheet. The database manager has volun- on-line, the data form and the payment are automatically teered for this important job. His/her role is to accurately sent to the appropriate officers for processing. enter each member’s contact and interest information If all goes well, you will be assured of receiving news- into a unique row in the Excel spreadsheet. Because we letters, event schedules, etc., dependably. If the member are becoming a large organization, and because this per- data person incorrectly interprets your hieroglyphics, son has a personal life to maintain, in addition to their you won’t get your mail, and the Society gets it back at volunteer effort, all of us owe it to this person to make our the post office with a significantbill to be paid on each individual forms as easy to work with as possible. This returned piece. If you are away from your mailing ad- means that you should always remember to check Re- dress for extended periods, and your mailbox fills up, newal on the paper form if you are a renewing member. we also get your mail back with a returned mail bill. So And you should always strive to write as legibly as pos- please make arrangements to have your mail forwarded or sible. Maybe your spouse can read your hen-scratching, otherwise picked up. but a stranger on the opposite end of the state may not If we are all careful to do our part in this process, the be able to. If you join or renew through the website, the job of the responsible officers is easier, you get your mail legibility issue is avoided. There are separate forms for in dependable fashion, and we all have more time to get new members and member renewals on the website, so out into nature and enjoy our important clients, our won- you must check to be sure you have selected the correct derful native communities. form. New members receive a new member welcome The Plight of the Honey (and other) Bees Bill Stringer, SC Native Plant Society We are seeing a surge of reporting on the plight of honey bees and native bees that serve as pollinators for many of our food crops. Most vegetable, berry and tree fruit crops depend on bees to carry out the pollination required for producing the tomatoes, blueberries and apples, etc. that we eat. What can we, as rural and urban homeowners, do to help stem this decline? The populations of these important facilitators of food crop production are plunging due to a number of causes, some identified, and some still clouded in mystery. Pest mites, fungal and bacterial diseases, and certain insecticides that are widely used to control crop pests have all been implicated. Another factor with potential to have large negative effects is the current increasing reliance by farmers on wind-pollinated crops such as corn and wheat. These plants rely on wind to spread their pollen, and thus don’t produce nectar that bees harvest for energy and honey production. Areas with a large proportion of the crop acreage devoted to these wind-pollinated crops will have a low value as bee Honeybee on white clover (Trifolium repens). habitat. But most of us are not farmers, so we don’t make decisions on which crops to grow, or which pesticide to use on millions of acres. So what can we do? A lot, it turns out. You probably have white clover in your lawn; most lawns do. Ever notice all those bees flying around the clover flowers when you are mowing? They are after the nectar and pollen 2 South Carolina Native Plant Society • March 2014 from those flowers, and are very happy to find your “weedy” white clover. Yet a significant number of home owners apply an herbicide to their lawn in a futile effort to eradicate the clover. My suggestion?: leave the clover, and supplant the pride in a uniform, dark green grass lawn with the knowledge that you are helping our great friends the pollinators. You might say, ”Well, I don’t have a vegetable garden, so why do I need bees?” It turns out that honeybees will easily fly as far as 3 miles in search of pollen and nectar. So you can help feed bees from across town. And your berry-bearing shrubs that songbirds congregate on in winter? They need bees as well. Another easy thing we can do is to not be so quick to mow our “edges” to control “unsightly” flowering plants that grow there. Managers of roadside rights-of-way can make a huge contribution by reducing the frequency of mowing roadsides. I am an ardent admirer of native sunflowers, milkweeds and other wildflowers that grow naturally on our roadsides. In Honeybee on butterfly milkweed Asclepias( tuberosa) particular, by early July, I know where every butterfly milkweed plant can be found along the roads that I frequent. If you’ve ever looked closely at a milkweed or sunflower in bloom, you’ve seen how many honeybees, native bees and butterflies are working the flowers. Yet, two to three times during a growing season, I will travel those roads, and note with sadness that the mowers were there yesterday, and all those blooms are gone. Where are those bees going to find a replacement food source for today? With luck they can find a white clovery lawn nearby? Well, maybe not. We could reduce the number of mowings, reduce the cost of right-of-way maintenance, and improve the lives of our pollinator friends.