Category: Plants
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Tree of Heaven
The Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is a non-native, invasive tree species found throughout the United States and North Carolina. Originally introduced from Central China in the 1780s, this invasive species most often occupies woodland borders and edge communities near logged oak and loblolly pine stands locally. The Tree-of-Heaven can be identified by its large pinnately-compound leaves,…
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Fringetree
This week’s plant feature is the fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), also known as old man’s beard because of the way its pretty, white petals droop when it blooms in April. According to Donald Culross Peattie, the fringetree “contributes to the higher things of life: it is a raving beauty when in mid-spring it is loaded from…
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Grapes
This week we investigate the Piedmont’s native grapes, some of which are fruiting now. While this profile focuses on those plants that we commonly call “grapes” in English or “ᏖᎸᎳᏗ” (pronounced te-lv-la-di) in Cherokee, it’s important to know that the common Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is closely related! The most well-known local grape species is…
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Origins of the Word “Haw”
Today, the term “haw” refers specifically to the red pome (i.e., the indehiscent fruit containing multiple seeds) of the hawthorn (Crataegus species). However, the common name “hawthorn” is derived from the Old English word “haga,” meaning hedge. The common names of possumhaw (Ilex decidua), blackhaw (Viburnum rafinesquianum), rusty blackhaw (Viburnum rufidulum), and possumhaw viburnum (Viburnum…
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Beech Drops
Plant Profile.− This month’s plant profile in a parasitic plant called Beech Drops (Epifagus virginiana). Beech Drops clump around beech trees, grow about six inches high, and look dead. They look dead because they lack leaves and chlorophyll, but luckily for Beech Drops, they do not need to make their own food because they can get…
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Paean to a Walnut Tree
In a North Carolina neighborhood, constituting one small portion of a corpulent suburban empire, a young walnut tree bows to the wind. The rain pelts its leaves, but those leaves hardly quiver. The rain is not the walnut’s king. The walnut kneels like a courtier only for the wind, and when the wind decamps, the…
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American Beech
“[The] Beech is identifiable by the gleam of its wondrously smooth bark, not furrowed even by extreme old age. Here it will be free of branches for full half its height, the sturdy boughs then gracefully down-sweeping. The gray bole has a further beauty in the way it flutes out at the base into strong…
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS: September in the Piedmont
BirdsSeptember brings an early pulse of winter residents back to the Piedmont, including Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, occasional Red-breasted Nuthatches, and a suite of wrens (Winter, Sedge, and Marsh) and sparrows (Swamp and White-throated). Ruby-crowned Kinglets—tiny olive-gray birds with a bright red crown patch (usually hidden)—also return this month after spending the summer in conifer forests of…
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS: April in the Piedmont
BirdsApril launches spring migration in earnest, and the next couple of months can bring a steady stream of northbound travelers. Watch for wood-warblers (including Golden-winged, Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Bay-breasted, and Blackpoll), along with herons (such as Little Blue Herons, Black-crowned Night-Herons, and Cattle Egrets), thrushes (Veery, Gray-cheeked, and Swainson’s), and sandpipers…
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS: February in the Piedmont
BirdsIn 1936, writer and naturalist Donald Culross Peattie opined that “February is a good month in which to make friends with the birds of a great city.” In North Carolina, he may be right: winter still holds steady in February, and the bird community changes more slowly than it will later in spring. Some of…
Sense of Place 