Sense of Place

Tag: Plants

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

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    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…

  •  Öskjuhlíð, Iceland

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    We woke up and took a taxi to Öskjuhlíð with a driver named Viktor. We walked the waters edge, stepped on a sandy beach, climbed rocks to photograph Campions. We explored the edge of a runway, catching sight of a Whimbrel and Meadow Pipits. We turned around, tracing our steps along with shore and walking…

  • Whitebark Pine Ecology

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    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
    in

    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…

  • Maple-leaf Viburnum

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    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…

  • Grapes

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    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
    in

    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…

  • American Beech

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    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    “[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
    in ,

    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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    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in ,

    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…