Sense of Place

Plants (& Fungi)

Notes on plants as the structure of place, rooted, seasonal, and often overlooked, along with notes on fungal friends.

  • Common Trees of the Sierra Norte, Estado de Oaxaca, Mexico

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Overview of the Sierra Norte. The Sierra Norte of Oaxaca is located about 40 miles north of Oaxaca de Juárez, in the eponymous state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The region extends across nearly 3,300 square miles, and is bordered by the regions of Papaloapam and Cañada to the North, and Valles Centrales, Sierra Sur, and Istmo…

  • Fruiting Fungi & Woody Plants in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    When we explore the Piedmont woods, our attention sometimes shifts away from the showy flowers, stately trees, and singing birds to the diminutive mushrooms around us. Many of these mushrooms have key and important associations with the woody plants that so often structure our definitions of ecosystems.  Fungi & Oaks. In the Piedmont, there are…

  • When Spring Comes Early: Shifting Bloom Times of Piedmont Ephemerals

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Spring ephemerals are woodland plants that bloom early in Spring, capturing sunlight that hits the forest floor before the trees leaf out. Some of these ephemerals, like Trout Lilies (Erythronium sp.) have colonies that are over 100 years old! We see spring ephemerals, their delicate leaves and incandescent flowers, during their epigeous or above ground…

  • Whitebark Pine Ecology

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    The Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone species in the sub-alpine forests from western Wyoming north to central British Columbia and Alberta. It can also be found at the timberline in the Cascades (think: BC down to the Sierra Nevada) and some mountains between the Cascades and the Rockies. The Whitebark Pine has been…

  • Eastern Cottonwood

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    The Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) is an uncommon tree occupying well-drained, moist soils in the Piedmont and Mountains of North Carolina, but stretching north to Canada, west to Montana, and south past Monterrey, Mexico. The Eastern Cottonwood is dioecious, with a single tree dangling catkins in green (female) or red (male), but not both, in…

  • Sugarberry Review

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Even in January, one might still find ripe red-brown drupes hanging off the sugarberry (Celtis laevigata). This uncommon tree species of the American Southeast can be found in bottomland forests or in areas with more basic soil. It’s best identified by its warty bark and leaves with a mostly smooth margin. The Lumbee people, an…

  • Maple-leaf Viburnum

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    This week’s plant feature is the Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium). The Maple-leaf Viburnum or Dockmackie, is found across eastern North America, ranging from Quebec to Texas. In the Piedmont, the Maple-leaf Viburnum is a small shade-tolerant shrub, found in bottomland and upland forests. This shrub typically grows in forests that have been growing for at…

  • Weevil Pests of North Carolina Trees

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Weevils are beetles (order Coleoptera) in a superfamily (Cuculionoidea) of beetles with long snouts that host chewing mouthparts. These species tend to be quite small – less than a quarter inch in length, and they notable as economically significant insect pests. In North Carolina, Conotrachelus nenuphar is most commonly seen in April and May, with…

  • Tree of Heaven

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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,…

  • Fringetree

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • Grapes

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • Origins of the Word “Haw”

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • Beech Drops

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • Paean to a Walnut Tree

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • American Beech

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    “[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…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: September in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: April in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: February in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    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…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: January in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsIn the depth of winter, as you walk through quiet woods, you may come across a lone thrush standing at attention, its delicately speckled throat exposed. The Hermit Thrush is a gifted songster, but its voice is mostly muted here; it saves its ethereal song for spring, when it returns to its breeding grounds in…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: October in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Birds.− October marks the beginning of food-caching — a food storage strategy developed to sustain year-round avian residents throughout the lean winter. Caching strategies vary by species: red-bellied woodpeckers might store acorns in holes high up in the cracks and cavities of trees, while American crows might simply thrust a left-over meal into the loose soil…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: August in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsIn August, early migrants—including Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, and Blackburnian Warblers—begin passing through North Carolina as they head toward the Neotropics for the winter. Most will look duller than they did in spring, having molted out of their vibrant breeding plumage and into drabber winter attire. Many insect-eating (“vermivorous”) warblers stop briefly in the Piedmont to refuel,…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: July in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsThis month, lucky birdwatchers may catch a glimpse of uncommon visitors such as Common Mergansers, Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons, and Snowy Egrets. Sandpipers also begin returning to the Piedmont. As summer deepens, the melodious songs of many birds fade, though Indigo Buntings can still be heard singing from high perches. Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: June in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsThis month, watch for sunning birds. Common backyard species—like Northern Cardinals and American Robins—may perch with feathers fluffed and bills agape, soaking in the sun. This behavior may help with molting and may also reduce ticks, lice, and other parasite loads. Fledging season continues, too. Second broods of Eastern Bluebirds often fledge in June, and…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: March in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsAs spring arrives in the Piedmont this month, we begin to see profound changes in the composition of our avifauna. Wood Ducks, Blue-winged Teal (local breeders), Double-crested Cormorants, and Ospreys become more abundant. Expect to start seeing vireos, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Purple Martins, and other swallows as well. Lucky observers may even spot a Snowy Egret,…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: December in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsBy December, fall migration has decidedly ended, and the brief celebration that follows the arrival of winter juncos, kinglets, and creepers has faded. Woods and brush can feel eerily quiet, punctuated by the sharp warning calls of Northern Cardinals and the quick flitting of sparrows. The most common sparrows that visit the Piedmont in winter—often…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: November in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsBy November, fall migration has usually ended. Wood Thrushes have disappeared, replaced by the melodic Hermit Thrush, which will remain until spring. November also marks the return of juncos and several sparrow species, including Tree, Fox, White-throated, and White-crowned Sparrows. You can also expect to see a greater diversity of ducks, especially Common Goldeneyes and…

  • GREAT EXPECTATIONS: May in the Piedmont

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    BirdsMigration season continues this month. Many of the brilliantly colored warblers are just passing through, but some migrants stop and stay to breed in North Carolina. Local breeders include Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Ovenbirds, and Prairie Warblers. May may also be your last good chance (at least for a couple of months) to catch some…

  • Invasive Plants in Winter at Mason Farm (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Non-native and invasive species are rapidly changing the face of our planet. In the United States, our most insidious invaders come from southeast Asia and Europe. These species threaten local plant diversity and the greater community structure of American habitats. When plant composition changes, it can affect all aspects of biological communities, including soil microbes,…

  • Neighborhood Nature: Backyard Bryophytes in October

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Introduction: The “Neighborhood Nature” segment of my blog is meant to reveal nature in our own neighborhoods and backyards. The natural areas near our homes may not always be pristine, but they often abound with fascinating plants, animals, and natural phenomena. Backyard Bryophytes: Bryophytes—tiny non-vascular, non-flowering plants that first adapted to terrestrial environments about 500…